Need Site Advise

[tommy]

I'm planning on launching a site similar to Steve's in functionality in that I want to able to include an archive of articles, blog capability, pod cast capability, foums, e-commerce and the ability to have registered users complete surveys. The difference in my site is that it will be exclusivley for sales professionals.

I have no idea on where to get started. I have seen posts on various hosts/ISP's but not sure what's best for me given what I'm trying to put together.

Thanks in advance for your help and by the way if you know of site that is exclusively for sales professionals with an emphasis on PD, please pass on the URL.

Thanks.
TH

[Caveman Joe]

Heyla, Tommy.
Sites like this run on Content Management Systems. You can find a good comparison (including demonstration admin logins) at opensourcecms.com.
Personally I recommend GeekLog, as it's secure, fast and very cutting-edge. The default template looks a bit out of date, but some of the features (Remote Authentication immediately springs to mind) are very advanced.
As for hosting, I'm sure you already have a bunch of recommendations, but I've just added one to the end of this post concerning my own hosting company (affordable and good for starting off, more advanced users may want to look elsewhere).