WordPress Web Design...how hard is it?

[T'Baio]

Good day, all. This is my first time in this forum. Looks nice. Familiar.

I just have kind of a simple question. I know fuck all about web design. Never done it, never tried it, literally know nothing about it.

So, I want to make a web site. WordPress has been recommended by Samuel Walters...who I hope might poke his head in here.

So, here's the question. I know nothing...is this gonna' be hard? Or is there some host or something who'll drop everything in for me, I just have to write/place my content and everything will show up exactly how I want it?

Thanks for your help.

 

[Kataaran]

If you are new to WordPress I'd recommend using WordPress.com rather than the self-hosted software from WordPress.org. You do have more freedom with the self-hosted stuff but also a lot more opportunity to balls it up.

 

[T'Baio]

Unfortunately, that's not really an option for me, as I would like my own dedicated domain name.

Say I go to BlueHost, and I have downloaded or purchased a really nice theme, can I just drop into...something?...at my web host, and it'll just go up as is? Then, I just want to write my own headings with different fonts, some news and drop in some videos. Can I do that without "programming?" Like, just sort of copy and paste links and stuff? Does this make sense?

 

[Timby]

It does make sense, and that's entirely possible with WordPress. It's evolved incredibly well from a simple blogging tool to a very, very versatile CMS. In my freelance work, I use it for my low-budget clients, because it doesn't take long at all to get a site up and running, especially if you're using an easily customizable theme. (Many recommend Atuhualpa, but setting it up can be somewhat intimidating.)

Of course, one of the beauties of WordPress is that you can add multiple themes to your installation, and switch between them at your will.

Basically, WordPress installation works thusly: You buy your domain and set up your hosting (making sure that your host allows you to set up MySQL databases, which is pretty much bog-standard nowadays). Many hosting providers such as GoDaddy offer actual front-ends, at no additional charge, to create a WordPress database. Once your database is created and your administrator login is set up, you're off to the races. From there, it's as simple or as complex as you want to make it.

 

[FalTorPan]

I'm just getting started with WordPress as a CMS, and so far I'm loving it. The only "major" thing that I've not yet figured out is a way to define one template for a pre-defined collection of pages. The WordPress template hierarchy shows how WordPress selects the appropriate template based on the URL, but nothing on that page seems to suggest how to do what I'm trying to do.

Any ideas? Thanks in advance!

 

[darkshadow0001]

Unfortunately, that's not really an option for me, as I would like my own dedicated domain name.

Say I go to BlueHost, and I have downloaded or purchased a really nice theme, can I just drop into...something?...at my web host, and it'll just go up as is? Then, I just want to write my own headings with different fonts, some news and drop in some videos. Can I do that without "programming?" Like, just sort of copy and paste links and stuff? Does this make sense?

I use Wordpress and it's really simple. If your hosting service has Wordpress as an application, all you need to do is buy a domain (if you don't have one already), install the Wordpress application, and go from there. The application will make it easy for you to develop your first Wordpress site... you can use free or paid themes. Right now for my site I just use a free theme, but if you want to keep track of your visitors you might want to find a theme that is compatible with Statcounter.

Wordpress also has a lot of widgets (add-ons) you can use to make your site better, in a since you almost don't need to know anything about how to make a website, just add on the widgets and make a few posts. However, if you want to install Adsense, you may want to purchase a theme that supports it. Google is picky when it comes to that from what I've read

If you need any more help I'll try and help you.

 

[T'Baio]

I wanna' thank everyone for their comments and suggestions and help. I have web site up, which utilizes a theme template with some minor modifications by me! Hope you like. Comments are welcome.

www.whatisameme.com

 

[darkshadow0001]

I wanna' thank everyone for their comments and suggestions and help. I have web site up, which utilizes a theme template with some minor modifications by me! Hope you like. Comments are welcome.

www.whatisameme.com

Not bad, I like it Is that a paid theme or a free one?

 

[Allyn Gibson]

I'm just getting started with WordPress as a CMS, and so far I'm loving it. The only "major" thing that I've not yet figured out is a way to define one template for a pre-defined collection of pages. The WordPress template hierarchy shows how WordPress selects the appropriate template based on the URL, but nothing on that page seems to suggest how to do what I'm trying to do.

I've been using WordPress for the last five years at least, and I've done a lot recently with custom pages. (The thing I wanted to do was this -- let's say I wrote a blog post reviewing a book. But I also want that post to appear in my page hierarchy. I created a custom page that pulls the blog post content out of the database and uses that for the Loop instead of the content that would be pulled from the page's record. I'm probably explaining this badly.)

Drop me an e-mail describing your problem (because I'm not entirely clear from this post), and I'll put my thinking cap on. allyn@allyngibson.net

 

[T'Baio]

I wanna' thank everyone for their comments and suggestions and help. I have web site up, which utilizes a theme template with some minor modifications by me! Hope you like. Comments are welcome.

www.whatisameme.com

Not bad, I like it Is that a paid theme or a free one?

It was a paid template by www.press75.com . They've been great. It was well worth the price just for all the service I've gotten. Every time I had a question on where the code was for something, or what to change the code to or how to do it, I just posted my question on their discussion boards and I got an answer within an hour, with examples of the code and how to change it.

 

[FalTorPan]

Drop me an e-mail describing your problem (because I'm not entirely clear from this post), and I'll put my thinking cap on. allyn@allyngibson.net

Thanks! I just emailed you.

 

[darkshadow0001]

I wanna' thank everyone for their comments and suggestions and help. I have web site up, which utilizes a theme template with some minor modifications by me! Hope you like. Comments are welcome.

www.whatisameme.com

Not bad, I like it Is that a paid theme or a free one?

It was a paid template by www.press75.com . They've been great. It was well worth the price just for all the service I've gotten. Every time I had a question on where the code was for something, or what to change the code to or how to do it, I just posted my question on their discussion boards and I got an answer within an hour, with examples of the code and how to change it.

I was going to say because my template I'm using for my site in my signature is free and your theme looked so much better. For my purpose I'm happy with my theme, but I may decide to purchase one in the future.

 

[Allyn Gibson]

I was going to say because my template I'm using for my site in my signature is free and your theme looked so much better. For my purpose I'm happy with my theme, but I may decide to purchase one in the future.

I used a theme from Elegant Themes for about six months last year. (Specifically, I used Cherry Truffle.) Elegant Themes is a theme club; basically, for a small fee you get access to a few dozen super-spiffy themes.

I'm currently using one of Brian Gardner's designs. Gardner was one of the first premium theme designers in the WordPress community, after getting his feet wet with a dozen free theme templates, and he was one of the early magazine-style theme developers. His themes are also a bit pricier.

 

[Kataaran]

I'm just getting started with WordPress as a CMS, and so far I'm loving it. The only "major" thing that I've not yet figured out is a way to define one template for a pre-defined collection of pages. The WordPress template hierarchy shows how WordPress selects the appropriate template based on the URL, but nothing on that page seems to suggest how to do what I'm trying to do.

Any ideas? Thanks in advance!

By pre-defined do you mean they are all sub-pages of a certain page or a set of page IDs/titles?