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Looking for any recommendations for places online that design custom site layouts? Willing to pay for it but I want something reliable, something fairly quick (nothing that takes months to create), big pluses for people that accept payment via paypal and take into account what i would like the final product to look like visually

ideas?

Mav said:

Looking for any recommendations for places online that design custom site layouts? Willing to pay for it but I want something reliable, something fairly quick (nothing that takes months to create), big pluses for people that accept payment via paypal and take into account what i would like the final product to look like visually

ideas?

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How much are you looking to pay? Tom Brazelton is a web designer.

Well, nothing expensive.. Maybe (maybe) $100? I mean it doesn't have to be a fully functional website, it could be a really impressive wordpress theme or somethin ya know, just something professional and snazzy looking.

Back when I had a website (www.philskickasswebsite.com) I used Frontpage to build it. It was really easy to use and I was able to make it look just about exactly how I wanted it to look. Perhaps you can legally purchase that from a local retail store or something

Oh I can build a page, I know enough HTML to create the code in notepad and such with a little work.

I just don't have a creative bone in my body. Dabbling in some photoshoping of pictures is one thing, creating a visually attractive web design is another.

TWiT and Revision3 have been advertising Squarespace alot on their stuff. Supposed to be a really easy realtime site builder. don't know if it would help you though as its part of their hosting service.

-- Thu Aug 20, 2009 9:01 am --

ooh wow, just looked at their pricing, their fairly high for hosting, maybe you should ignore what I said.

What is the purpose for the site? Biz, blog, photos, news, or something else?

I do fairly amature design, in that I don't really know a lot of Java, Javascript, Flash, PHP, etc - just your average HTML/CSS and how a lot of interface theory. I can pick apart some of it and understand what I'm looking at, but writing from scratch is not my strong suit at all. I recently just started playing with Word Press and it's fairly easy to set up and a lot of interesting themes that are flexible and powerful. Thesis is a very strong, easy to use WP theme.

Mav said:

Oh I can build a page, I know enough HTML to create the code in notepad and such with a little work.

I just don't have a creative bone in my body. Dabbling in some photoshoping of pictures is one thing, creating a visually attractive web design is another.

Click to expand...

HTML is sooo 1995, you old dinosaur. CSS is where the party's at. I hear Dreamweaver CS3 kicks ass.

elph said:

What is the purpose for the site? Biz, blog, photos, news, or something else?

I do fairly amature design, in that I don't really know a lot of Java, Javascript, Flash, PHP, etc - just your average HTML/CSS and how a lot of interface theory. I can pick apart some of it and understand what I'm looking at, but writing from scratch is not my strong suit at all. I recently just started playing with Word Press and it's fairly easy to set up and a lot of interesting themes that are flexible and powerful. Thesis is a very strong, easy to use WP theme.

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News / reviews, everything nerd related. Basically my take on /. but from a fanboy perspective. I want the page to be functional to the point I can at least embed stuff in the html for photos, flash video, etc. Don't need a forum, I'll point any readers (lol yea..right..) here for a forum but something sleek looking.

Check out some of the Wordpress themes. They are free and you can customize them yourself to make it what you want. If you want it a bit more professional they have a list there of commercial theme creators.

http://www.angelfire.com
http://www.tripod.com

I hear they're awesome and have their own built in website design!

Mav said:

elph said:

What is the purpose for the site? Biz, blog, photos, news, or something else?

I do fairly amature design, in that I don't really know a lot of Java, Javascript, Flash, PHP, etc - just your average HTML/CSS and how a lot of interface theory. I can pick apart some of it and understand what I'm looking at, but writing from scratch is not my strong suit at all. I recently just started playing with Word Press and it's fairly easy to set up and a lot of interesting themes that are flexible and powerful. Thesis is a very strong, easy to use WP theme.

Click to expand...

News / reviews, everything nerd related. Basically my take on /. but from a fanboy perspective. I want the page to be functional to the point I can at least embed stuff in the html for photos, flash video, etc. Don't need a forum, I'll point any readers (lol yea..right..) here for a forum but something sleek looking.

Click to expand...

So, something, bloggy (did I just use 'blog' as an adjective?), but flexible. Main content will be text based, not selling anything.

Seriously, it sounds like your best bet is to just throw up Word Press and play around with some themes. That's basically what I've been doing to get my feet wet, and it's pretty damn simple. The theme I mentioned is a 'pay for' ($87) theme, but it's very powerful.

You can find tons of free themes for WordPress (as the link already listed will show ya and just simply google "wordpress themes free").

Here are some other pay to get themes.
http://diythemes.com/thesis/
http://www.elegantthemes.com/

http://welovewp.com/ (Not so much a theme site, but shows what can be done in WordPress with the right amount of time, thought, and knowledge.)

Yea I really dont want to do wordpress... its so cookie cutter. ALL the themes look alike. box here, box there, text here.

I want something, unique. Thats a good way to put it, something unique that matches the overall goal and theme idea I have for the site.

Well, in that case, I suggest...

http://www.psd2html.com/

You're going to spend more then $100 or a lot of time learning and doing yourself. Here's the next best thing. Draw up your design in Photoshop, exactly how you want it, and they'll do all the XHTML for it.

There's a reason WordPress is so popular right now. It's quick, easy, you can get very creative, and most of all, it's a breeze to maintain and update a site with little knowhow.

elph said:

Well, in that case, I suggest...

http://www.psd2html.com/

You're going to spend more then $100 or a lot of time learning and doing yourself. Here's the next best thing. Draw up your design in Photoshop, exactly how you want it, and they'll do all the XHTML for it.

There's a reason WordPress is so popular right now. It's quick, easy, you can get very creative, and most of all, it's a breeze to maintain and update a site with little knowhow.

Click to expand...

Except..thats the opposite of what I need..

I can do the code. HTML is simple enough and the parts I don't know I can google and incorporate with trial and error.

My problem is I'm not nearly graphically capable enough to design the actual visual look of the site. I have a general idea of what I would like but no where near the l33t PS skillz to pull it off.

Joomla is actually pretty easy to learn. Its what my site and this site are built from. It doesn't have a wysiwyg modifier, which is my only real complaint, but that aside its pretty solid. Its really easy to update your page and change themese, and there are thousands of themes to pick from.