Looking to rebuild my site, what do you suggest?

[Ralphiej]

I created my site as a prototype in May just so I could start building links and traffic before I launched the real site. Last time I checked i was ranked around 1,500,000 on Alexa without spending any money so it's doing better than I planned. However, before I really roll up my sleeves and commit to making the site a great success, I want to change and add a lot more so I can maximize it's potential. I used the wesite builder that was provided by 1&1 hosting. It was fairly easy to build but basic in that it does not support Adsense or RSS feeds.

Now I'm looking for a webbuilding program or software that I can use to rebuild the site. When I first built my site I just woke up one day and told myself I was going to build a website and I did but I didn't know anything about HTML (and I've only learned a little since). I'd like to learn HTML and plan on doing so in the near future but I don't want to spend an enormous amount of time rebuilding my site. Getting Adsense and other feeds are what I'm really missing out on. I'm looking into Dreamweaver along with other programs but I want to know what you all think.
Thanks
POTENTIAL 2 SUCCESS - Home

[DarkSociologist]

Hi Ralphiej,

I generally make my websites by hand just using photoshop and notepad, but I've been doing that for the past 8ish years.

For someone starting out and with as much content as you have, you might want to look into a content management system. A good free one is PHPNuke.

It allows you to easily edit and manage your content. You can change the design of the website without having to re-create every single page, and there are many free designs already created by others for you to use.

Hope this helps

[alexyeo]

Both Dreamweaver or FrontPage is good. I am using DW to build my own site. But they are pretty expensive.

Just some recommendation, if you are just starting out, maybe you want to try NVU.

It's a free WYSIWYG site builder, pretty similar to DW and FrontPage but of course with less features. But it's free anyway.

If you knows nuts about website design, it's best to use a templates rather than wasting your time "design and build" your own site. This will really take up a lot of your time and the outcome may not be what you wanted.

[Tayrak]

I use notepad as well, and Fireworks, but my site isn't heavy into graphics. Fireworks is great though. Dreamweaver I never caught on to and the old issue, never got the new one, adds a lot of extra stuff to your code.
You'll want to learn CSS at any rate. Two sites I used for this are: W3Schools Online Web Tutorials everthing there is free and it has tuitorials and a neat section for trying stuff out, it also has Html and XHTML.

Second one I used a lot is: HTMLSource: HTML Tutorials another real good one.
It's not as hard as it seems at first. Really if I can learn it, anyone can

[Ralphiej]

Great stuff! Thanks . I'm going to start buiding as soon as possible.

[mellom]

It all depends on how far you want to take it. If you don't know HTML you probably want to start with a service like Blogger. Blogger will allow you make things as simple or complex as you like. By that I mean you don't have to know any HTML to get a site up, but if you want and when you're ready, you're free to customize the HTML however you like (that's what I do with my site).

Now if you really want to be hard-core, check out Visual Studio and ASP.NET But of course, you don't know HTML yet so take it slow.

Good luck.

[codefreeze]

I think the CMS route is a good one. I'm not sure about PostNuke though. I used it for two of my sites two years ago. It's good but I think overly complex and difficult to customize (depends what you want to do though.)

Having had a look at your site what is it you feel you need to add? You could easily add AdSense by cutting and pasting a HTML snippet from Google (I'm not totally sure about the site builder you used though).

Failing that it looks like you could create a pretty decent site with Wordpress. You have quite a few categories of articles on your site and wordpress can handle that with ease. Also Wordpress allows you to add static pages relatively easily - it was not so easy in the version of postNuke I used. Also, RSS feeds are done automatically for you - so you wouldn't need to worry about that.

So you should definitely try out Wordpress - there are some really nice themes you could use. Also, you could perhaps customize it a little at a time via HTML/CSS, without having to create the whole site from scratch in HTML.

Hope that helps,
Tony

[Ralphiej]

For the most part I'm satisfied with the way the site is organized and looks. But in order to maximize the income that may be generated by traffic, I think Adsense needs to be added. I have adds now but only the affiliate adds are relevant to my content. The PPC adds are randomly placed by Bidvertiser.

I'd also like to build a strong foundation of returning visitors and RSS feeds will make it easier for them to return. I know enough about HTML to change a size or color on a script that I've cut and pasted onto my site. But thats about it. What I'm finding out is that most WYSIWYG websitebuilders, like to one I used, only support simple scripts. Meaning Adsense won't work.

I've heard good things about Wordpress. I'm going to start taking some of the online HTML tutorials that Tayrak suggested soon. Thanks for taking a look at the site.

[Ralphiej]

So I've done some research on the best way to rebuild my site and I've decided on Wordpress (no surprise to most of you i bet). But before I go into this project there are a few things I hope you all can help me with.

1.I'm satisfied with the hosting company that I am with. Can I build a site with Wordpress and still host with them?

2.Most Wordpress layouts that I've seen have that blog layout look. My site is not really a blog site but i sometimes treat it like one. Does Wordpress offer layouts that look more like regular article posting websites?

3.Adsense and Wordpress, whats up with that?

I've enjoyed a spike in traffic thanks to those kind people who bookmarked an article of mine on Stumbleupon and that same article making the del.icio.us most popular tagged list . The request I've been getting is about RSS feeds which my prototype site does not have. I want to start rebuilding quickly so I can catch this wave of new visitors. Can you help me out?

[Ilya]

Originally Posted by Ralphiej

But before I go into this project there are a few things I hope you all can help me with.

Fire away.

1. Sure, Wordpress comes as a downloadable package that you can place on your hoster's server. Your hoster has to provide php and mysql. They will have to create a separate wordpress mysql database and provide you with the name and password. Other than that, you are golden.

2. You're the boss. The wordpress themes are highly customizable and you can make them look whatever you like. However you'll need to find the theme that is at least remotely close to the look you'd like to have. Otherwise you are in for some heavy modifications. And in any case you'll need some understanding of css, php and html to make any adjustments.

3. Everything is golden as you can see on steve's blog and anywhere on the net. There are even Adsense ready themes that make integration easier.

[Ralphiej]

Thanx Ilya. I didn't want to go into this blindfolded.