GrogHeads Forum

IRL (In Real Life) => Tech Talk => Topic started by: DicedT on March 13, 2016, 02:49:57 PM

Title: How to Build a Web Site?
Post by: DicedT on March 13, 2016, 02:49:57 PM
Want to create a Web site (nothing fancy, just something to display my writing portfolio). Any suggestions for software that will make this really, really easy?

Michael
Title: Re: How to Build a Web Site?
Post by: mirth on March 13, 2016, 02:58:59 PM
Wordpress is the way to go - https://wordpress.com/
Title: Re: How to Build a Web Site?
Post by: bayonetbrant on March 13, 2016, 03:12:26 PM
Quote from: mirth on March 13, 2016, 02:58:59 PM
Wordpress is the way to go - https://wordpress.com/

what he said - set up separate entries for each page of your portfolio, and there's a variety of front page options that let you showcase different articles and still give readers access to the archives.
Title: Re: How to Build a Web Site?
Post by: DicedT on March 13, 2016, 05:13:38 PM
Well, I signed up for the Wordpress Premium plan, with .com domain name and all. But how do I create a Web site rather than a blog? I'm thinking of a site that looks something like this - http://brittanyshoot.com/  with just a few menus across the top and links to my writings.

If anyone can walk me through this, I'm happy to go off-list.

Michael
Title: Re: How to Build a Web Site?
Post by: mirth on March 13, 2016, 05:18:40 PM
Don't get hung up on the blog part of it. You should be able to find a theme for whatever you want.

Wordpress started out as a blogging platform, but these days it's a full fledged Content Management System for any type/size website.
Title: Re: How to Build a Web Site?
Post by: Arctic Blast on March 13, 2016, 09:33:05 PM
You'll also need a domain space if you don't have one, from GoDaddy or whoever else.
Title: Re: How to Build a Web Site?
Post by: mirth on March 14, 2016, 07:58:31 AM
Sounds like he purchased a domain through the Wordpress plan.
Title: Re: How to Build a Web Site?
Post by: mirth on March 14, 2016, 07:59:59 AM
Michael, I checked out  http://brittanyshoot.com/

That's a very basic site. You should be able to come up with something similar without too much trouble.
Title: Re: How to Build a Web Site?
Post by: mirth on March 14, 2016, 01:41:07 PM
Also, I recommend starting with the documentation here:

https://learn.wordpress.com/

and

https://en.support.wordpress.com/


I haven't done much with sites hosted on Wordpress.com, but I have worked on a few dozen standalone WP sites in the past 8 years or so. If you find yourself in a bind, PM me and I'll give you whatever pointers I can.
Title: Re: How to Build a Web Site?
Post by: ghostryder on March 16, 2016, 07:30:15 AM
Wordpress is easy enough for beginners, and quite frankly if you want a site that can do lots of things, like be mobile friendly, do whatever videos you want to post, file sharing, and things like that there's really no easy software for that. And what can do it isn't cheap nor easy to learn. You can get some plug ins to do some things in wordpress, like I think you can embed utube now and some other vids but easy generally comes with restrictions.
Title: Re: How to Build a Web Site?
Post by: mirth on March 16, 2016, 07:41:08 AM
Wordpress is the best/easiest CMS available and it can do a lot out-of-box. There are plenty of good plugins available for free. For the average user, it shouldn't require much in the way of technical knowledge. It's come a long way in the past 7-8 years and is a full-fledged, stable platform.

Title: Re: How to Build a Web Site?
Post by: bbmike on March 16, 2016, 08:01:15 AM
And if I'm not mistaken, it even auto-updates now.
Title: Re: How to Build a Web Site?
Post by: mirth on March 16, 2016, 08:25:29 AM
Quote from: bbmike on March 16, 2016, 08:01:15 AM
And if I'm not mistaken, it even auto-updates now.

It does. Minor version and security updates anyway.