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Hey KYM, I am looking to start a website, or more specifically a Blog and Gallery. However I basically have very little idea of how to go about doing so, despite my basic knowledge of webpage building.

What web domains would you recommend? I have a bit of a budget to go off and spend on this but something relatively cheap would be nice. Also if the domain comes with a website builder that would be all the better for me, though if you have a domain compatible with a webpage builder that would just as fine, as I can learn something like that rather quickly. Thank you in advance!

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I recommend http://www.hostmonster.com/

You can see what they offer with their cPanel, there are plenty of awesome tools to help you get started: cPanel Demo (alternatively, go to Demo-login towards the bottom of the page).

You can easily create a nice hybrid website thats both a blog and a gallery.

I used to have a personal site, based on the wordpress engine, with a forum a gallery and a blog all in one.

SimpleScripts 1-click install is also extremely awesome: http://www.simplescripts.com/account/main

There are plenty of other cheap hosting services u can buy that will offer almost the same package. With domain registration, everything unlimited hosting, and other fancy tools.

http://www.bluehost.com/
http://www.hostgator.com/

I have no idea about webpage building, but through tumblr you can have a blog and a seperate gallery. It's all done through themes.

There are a few courses of action possible:

• Purchase a domain name. Install Wordpress. This is the simplest, easiest and safest method.


• Purchase a domain name. Code a website from scratch. HTML and CSS are really easy languages to learn, though you may also want to know JavaScript, PHP, ASP, Perl, or Rails. (Not gonna lie, Rails is my favorite)


• Host your own website at home using Apache. I STRONGLY RECOMMEND YOU DO NOT USE THIS METHOD, AS IT OPENS UP YOUR IP ADDRESS TO THE GENERAL PUBLIC. If you do use this method, convince someone else (e.g. a University) to host it for you.

As far as hosting goes, I recommend Bluehost. It has Wordpress preinstalled, so setting up is a breeze.

Well, I recommend Wordpress, unless you want to try out Dreamweaver.

Hm, I have used Wordpress before back in High School, so I think Bluehost may be my pick for this one despite it being a dollar more expensive than the hostgator. I will wait for a few more replies before I continue though.

@MDF: I probably should have made this clear, but my goal was to make a website that I could eventually use for professional use once I get some things up and running. Tumblr doesn't seem to fit the bill that well for that.

+1 to everyone who suggested Wordpress on a service like Bluehost or Hostgator. It's really simple to set up. Most services have a 1 click Wordpress install. Bluehost also has a lot of instructional videos to walk you through the process if you need it.

The other advantage to WP aside from how safe and easy it is is that there are tons of themes to use freely for your site. If you prefer to design your own, it's reasonably easy to make your own provided some experience with HTML, CSS, and a bit of PHP, and very easy to make a tweaked version of an existing one. There's also tons of plugins that are available for you to use to add extra features and functions as the need arises.

My expert opinion echoes what has already been said here.

You don't need Dreamweaver. You don't even need to know how to code. The ingredients for a website of the type you want are already out there.

Blogger, Drupal and Wordpress are free and all have easily added modules that support blogs, image galleries and more.

All you need is a web host and the funds to pay them, many of which do most the work for you. I.E: They will give you a site root that already has cPanel installed and installing Wordpress on top of cPanel could not be easier. After that you follow simple interface tips to customize the front end

Web design and CSS skill is only necessary if you want to create your own page template design rather than deal with the pre-made templates that are available to you be default.

Programming skill in HTML, JS and PHP is only necessary if you want to create features that are not already available in existing modules. But it is handy

If you get bugs and problems or have trouble with installation, just to talk to people like me who have experience in Wordpress development