Needed: affordable website designer

Belfrybat · #1 06/04/11, 05:44 PM

I'm going to cross-post on the Barter Board, but wondered if anyone here is a website designer and could re-do my website in such a way I could continue the updates myself using either Web Expressions, Serif WebPlus, or another low-priced program? The site is www.solitariesofdekoven.org. Figured if I'm going to spend $$ on getting it up to snuff, I'd like to support a fellow homesteader. At this point, it is in such a mess that I can't get it downloaded onto FrontPage or WebPlus correctly. Am really afraid of crashing the site (been there, done that). Either reply through PM or send me an e-mail through the website with "HT" in the subject line. Thanks.

Nevada · #2 06/04/11, 11:18 PM

As far as being concerned for your web content, just Login to your FTP account and backload the entire site to a directory on your hard dive. That's a very simple operation.

Alternatively, you can save individual pages & images to your computer. If you can't FTP then post back so someone here can give you instructions on saving individual pages.

As far as designing a page, look for an acceptable template, then customize it with your images. Many are free, but you might look at this page for affordable templates ($2.95) with a religious theme.

http://www.countrymanordesigns.com/religious_templates1.htm

What are your hosting arrangements?

Belfrybat · #3 06/05/11, 07:57 AM

Thanks for the link on the templates. I'll look it over and see if I see something I like. Hosting company is vener.net (which I think is now fasturl.com). I know there are cheaper ones out there, but I've been with them for over 12 years and they provide the shopping cart as part of the deal, so I plan on sticking with them.

I've been using FrontPage, and when I try to backup the web, it doesn't capture it right. Is that the same thing as FTP? The same happened with Serif WebPlus. I think the problem is these were first done in Dreamweaver which does some really crazy things. I might be time to start afresh.

If I were closer to a large city, I'd take a course on web design. I put up the original pages in 1998, and it was fairly easy, but the technology has outstripped my ability to learn it easily on my own.

Nevada · #4 06/05/11, 09:40 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Belfrybat

I've been using FrontPage, and when I try to backup the web, it doesn't capture it right. Is that the same thing as FTP?

FTP will work a lot better for backing up than FrontPage. FTP software looks & works similar to Windows Explorer, since your web space will look a lot like a hard drive or diskette in a graphical file manager. You will just copy your web content as if you were copying from a diskette to your hard drive.

There is free FTP software. FTP Commander is free, popular, and simple to use.

http://download.cnet.com/FTP-Commander/3000-2160_4-10025993.html
Your host should be able to help you with the connection settings if you need it, but you should be able to use the same information that you use to connect with FrontPage.

Belfrybat · #5 06/05/11, 01:40 PM

Well, that was fun!

I managed to crash the website in downloading the files. But thankfully reversing the process fixed it back. But this is just too much excitement for me. Hopefully I can find an affordable "web person" to do the major revisions for me whilst I get some training in all this. I found a tutorial on about.com that I've signed up for.