Creating our own website
 

Hi,

We are planning a year long trip around africa in our own 4X4 and would love to set up a website we can update along the way to keep family and friends up to date.

We are both complete novices IT wise. We use computers at work but that's the end of it.

I have looked at the free blogs but that wasn't really what I had in mind. Do we have to pay a website designer? Or is it really possible for someone completely clueless (and who is rushing around like a headless chicken trying to organise the trip) to put something together. We'll have a laptop but that's largely for photo management.

Any advice gratefully received (imagine you're talking to a four year old!)

Thanks

Take a look at:

- pages.google.com (point, click and drag, it's what I use)
- wordpress.com (in principle it's a blog, but you can create web pages, too and choose not to have a blog at all)

+1 for wordpress.com, it is free but I chose to register to remove the word 'wordpress' from my web address.

They have a very good help system and it is quite easy to use. I use photobucket for my photo storage as it was a lot easier, that is also free.

As beddhist said, you canuse it as pages or a blog.

I intend to try both while on the road. Have a squizz at my page below

Cheers
TS

For the easiest to setup your own webpage - Apple MobleME is the best IMHO. Needs absolutely no knowledge of WWW, HTML what so ever and web pages look good'n'tasty too for a n00bs. Also Apple-style 1-click easy way to backup your photos and stuff etc on the road. But requires a mac computer (or a PC with MacOSX) to get the full 100% elegance out of it and is a costing service.

Wordress - relatively easy if using Wordpress.com own hosting. But requires some PHP and HTML code aknowledge if starting to run Wordpress in your own server host like I do (I pay for the hosting, Wordpress itself is free). Extensive knowledge of PHP and HTML code if customizing your own templates and designs, functions etc.

Also Joomla, another decent web page/blog engine with loads of templates (your web-page's design) to choose between and to customize.

All of the services named mostly have introductions, know-how etc starting points to get a grip from and start experimenting with our own first web-page :) It takes time and nerve in the beginning, but if you get used to it, it'll go more easy.

I use Travel Journals | Travel Blogs | Travel Websites - MyTripJournal

They have a free option or a premium option which is about $90.00 per year.

One of the features that drew me to it is the fact you can select and modify hundreds of maps, then plot your trip on them as you go. My sister-in-law is a website designer and said it would take her hours and hours to try and duplicate this feature alone.

My blog is at Backroad Explorers.ca if you would like to see a sample.

Cheers.

Typepad
 

Creating a website was completely new to me and I found typepad.com's templates easy to use. It's $8.95 USD a month, but worth it in my opinion. You can try it out for a month or so for free too.
-Jeff

Templates..
 

I can set up the basics for you. You will be surpised how versatile and flexible the 'free blogs' can be.. with a tiny bit of expertise.

Updating and populating it with your info will be up to you, ofcourse.

PM me with more details of 'what you had in mind'.

Great offer
 

Hey, XTGirl's offer is a great one. Go for it. And check out their site... and this as well... the classic upside-down and backwards bolt conundrum YouTube - How to Kill an Engine . A modern classic.

Free Web Hosting
 

Hi,
Have a look at www.one.com
I use them to host my site, www.takingthelongwayhome.co.uk
They have a good deal on at the moment, one years free hosting for upto 3000mb of space, even the payment plans aren't that expensive. You don't even have to pay for your web address, usually about £6 for a .co.uk address, that is a standard charge you would normally have to stand if you wanted that kind of web address. They have a web building section which looks pretty easy to cope with tho I haven't used it myself. I use MS Publisher to build my pages and upload to one.com via FileZilla, an FTP Client (File Transfer Protocol), I find both quite easy to use and I'm by no means a web techy. I use a bit of HTML on the site but I sussed all that out through searching the web for what I imagined I wanted.
If you use MS Office at work I think you'd find Publisher easy enough to figure out, and there is plenty of assistance in the MS Office community forum.
Good luck with your site however you chose to build it.

Sitepoint do a very good book - linky here Build*Your*Own Web*Site The*Right*Way Using*HTML*&*CSS - SitePoint Books - it pretty much teaches a 4 year old how to build a website. My 12 year old had a go with it and she could understand it.

I read it in March last year not knowing what HTML or CSS was (but I've used a computer for more than 20 years), and now I work as a web designer. There are some great templates out there, but the only way you're going to get exactly what you want is to write it yourself. There's some good text editors you can use that will prompt you to use the right code. I use Dreamweaver - expensive to buy - but you can get it much much cheaper (free) from some places.

Alternatively, you can hire me to do it ;) - my rates are very reasonable.