Starting a Website

Nevada: What you did was copyright infringement. You replaced the designers name with yours. If the designer finds out, you will get sued. I know, I have sued others for doing that with my work. If you go back and read the free sites rules, it states that you have to leave the designers name and link as is, unless you want to pay them a fee. Or buy the template so no one else will use it. Many of the templates on free sites are stolen as well, so make sure what the legal ramifications are and please don't advocate others doing it. Here is that sites has Terms of Use are. You really need to read them! http://www.countrymanordesigns.com/faqs.htm

I paid for that template.

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Yes. but it still requires that you not call the work your own. By changing the web design by tag, you are referring to yourself as the designer. Paying for it gives you the right to use. Unless you bought complete rights, you don't own in. They would have to RETIRE the set if you bought exclusive rights. Here is the Terms of use for that site:

What are your Terms of Use for the Graphics?

Everyone may use our graphics, provided they link back to our website.

Please do not alter the graphics. When I say do not alter the graphics, that means the graphics themselves. Of course you can put text on the buttons, headers, banners. And you can change the layout of the templates however would best suit your page. In other words, you can change the arrangement of the buttons and the graphics. Just dont alter the pictures, etc, on the graphics themselves.

We do NOT allow reselling of our graphics.

Do not claim them as your own. If you are a Web Designer, you can use our Theme Sets in creating websites for others, as long as you provide a link back to our website in a very visible manner.

These graphics may not be included in any Postcard Site, CD, or Graphics Collection.

DO NOT put these Templates on another website and call them your own either for free or for resale!

Sorry if this upsets you, but not knowing this specific designer myself, I say to be cautious and follow their rules. If in doubt, contact them and ask them.

HollidaysS that is really welcomed information. I remember years ago while mother was still alive and I had a lot of time in the house, I downloaded a program called "Note Tab Light" and a book that taught me the basics of HTML. It was fun!!! I actually created an entire diversified website. Then my host dissolved his hosting services! Now I've purchased a site from BlueHost and am in the process of understanding terms all over again. And apparently WordPress will help me do what Note Tab Light did....I think!

I do remember pulling up "source" on various sites and looking to see how they html their page. I never copied it; just learned from it; but that was very helpful.

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I am what I am! Acknowledging this is the beginning; and my growth is yet to end. http://motdaugrnds.com/farmsales ~~~~~ http://motdaugrnds.com

Added your blog to my RSS reader; looks pretty good. Thanks for sharing.

I agree Nevada, Kompozer is an excellent free wysiwyg editor for HTML; Amaya is my second chose after Kompozer. http://www.w3.org/Amaya/ (Another great free html editor).

Do any of these free WYSIWYG editors mentioned have an export to Wordpress Theme module?

For someone using Wordpress as a CMS (which is a whole other discussion), it may be easier to just be selective of the free templates on wordpress.org. And, Yes!, leave any copyright information in place. If you are careful about what you select this would not be a problem.

Paying someone $300 to create a website is actually a very low price.

But, if you like to have more specific control and you have an artistic eye you may consider the base version of Artisteer, which I believe is still only $49. It is not so much a HTML editor, as a template creator and will write the proper CSS and HTML to produce a unique Wordpress template, which you can remove all copyright marks and traces to Artisteer from, and create your own.

If you want to move up to a proper CMS, such as Joomla (my recommendation) or Drupal, the Pro version of Artisteer can do that to.

It is NOT an HTML editor, but is handy for creating templates that are used in CMS based websites.

Remember, there are three parts to creating a website:
- The design, which includes the look/feel, graphics and navigation structure
- The content
- The technical

Using a blogging platform, such as Wordpress; or a CMS such as Joomla helps smooth out the technical aspects. (Wordpress being easier, but Joomla being more powerful.)

The design requires thought and planning to get the look that you want, is front end heavy on your time, but can be low maintenance over the life of the website.

The content is where most people need to focus. The prettiest website in the world isn't worth a hill of beans, when after you get people to visit, there is nothing worth while to see. It is also the area that is easiest for the website owner to be involved in.

As a website owner, you probably have great ideas and a passion for sharing that with others. This will easily come through in the content, if the design and technical aspects are taken care of.

Good Luck!

That is the smart way to go.

Be careful with WordPress. I designed a website and after maintaining it for years turned it over to the organization because they had found someone to maintain it for free for them. The person is using WordPress. They have totally screwed up the website and are now begging me to fix it. They have not taken down my name as the webmistress so you can check it out and verify what I have said. http://nickelplatetrail.org/ The little logo at the bottom of the page is one of the banners I did for them. Shows some of my work.

I also do the this site (and the logo), but they learned to edit using html in notepad. www.egardengate.com (I have turned it totally over to them and they have done an excellent job.) Using straight html is too much work unless you are doing minor textual updates. While i'm not taking on any new web design jobs unless it is local, i am doing logos and banners. I can also do a one page set up to help with design, but don't want to be the "webmistress".

Well said. I know my prices are low. But I am also "VERY" fast. And that is for a information site with logo, etc. It does not reflect shopping cart set up. That is pricey. What I can do when they want to use paypal is do one item and then teach them how to do the replicate and modify method, then let them do that themselves.

When doing a local website, for a small hourly fee, once the site is done, I can teach them how to maintain it themselves. It is unfortunate that many think that they can just download some free or low cost program and just jump in and have it not have it turn out looking crappy. I have had many emergency calls from website owners needing me to "fix" issues.

It is good to hear of other programs. I always go look at the end result. That way, i can recommend or not recommend to my clients. Most of the programs I use are not for the average joe. Not only are they expensive, but the learning curve is very high. I use to recommend Adobe (not just because I used to work for them, but because they are still the best), but since they have gone to a subscription type set up, they are even more expensive. Photoshop, Indesign, Illustrator and GoLive are still my most used programs (other than Chrome browser).

Oh, one very important thing I have to suggest for anyone doing a website. ALWAYS, check your work with ALL of the different browsers and if you are using a pc have a mac person check with the different browsers and if you are a mac person have a pc person do the same. You will find that you may have issues you didn't realize.

Reviving this thread because it fits where I am at this time.

As mentioned above, I did purchase a site from BlueHost. I used Note Tab Light to create the entire motdaugrnds.com site the old fashioned html coding way. It is obviously not professional; but it does all function well together.

Then I created four (4) sub-domains there at my BlueHost account. I have now been trying for months to get one of these set up. I have tried several WordPress "free" themes and have discovered the terminology throws me; and I've not been as successful as I would have liked to be. You can see the inspirations.motdaugrnds.com domain that I used the Adventure theme with. (I just left it like it is now because I have become frustrated with it. I could not get the black banner to change into a less intimidating color; so moved it to the bottom. I was able to create a hyperlink taking the viewer from that sub-domain back to my primary domain and it actually works; however, I have no idea how to get that link on either of the two pages I created (a static/front page and a posting page). I was able to get a link on the static page taking the viewer to the posting page; however, I was not able to take that same link off the posting page. Thus, it looks foolish linking back to itself! At least it is up with a front page and a way to post. And the link in my primary domain will take the viewer to that wordpress sub-domain.

I am trying now to create a small store to sell about 30 items. Having had so much turmoil with the free WP themes, I am seriously giving thought to purchasing a theme specifically designed for "stores/shops". I uderstand "Woothemes" do this; so am looking at those.

Sure would appreciate some guidance here. Feeling rather discouraged!

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I am what I am! Acknowledging this is the beginning; and my growth is yet to end. http://motdaugrnds.com/farmsales ~~~~~ http://motdaugrnds.com