Tell me about websites

[Tristan.]

I know basically nothing about site design and hosting, so instead of questions I'll just explain my situation and hopefully people can advise on the best course of action

I'm a student and I want to get into CAD, either in engineering design, or SFX. I want to have an online portfolio that showcases stuff I've done in pictures, videos and VRML. What hosting service would be best, and I have about 6 months before I'll be using it in a proffessional sense, so what ways can I go about upping it's page ranking on google?

Things that I'm not sure about, would it be better to host pictures on the site itself, or the HTML link to photobucket pictures. On one hand presumably if I link externally I save on hosting space. But If the pictures are hosted by my site, if I was to post them here would that result in a higher page rank?

Also, what is banwidth? My laymans view is that it's the allocated space a site has on it's server, more page views of more stuff uses it. How much would I need if I only need to link the site to maybe 4 or 5 people a month, (obviously I need to be safe with it, cos it'd be just a little unproffessional to link a prospective employer to an unviewable overloaded site) initially I'll be linking it to loads of people (assuming this is good for rankings?) but it doesn't matter if its down for them.

Also, domain names. Just a quick opinion question. I'd sooner keep it simple and boring, a combination of my name or initials and 'CAD' or 'Computer Aided Design' current favorites are "THolmesComputerAidedDesign" or "THolmesCAD"

And the actual desgn itself. A little way off but if anyone has tips for features or whatever that look simple and proffessional, yet do set it apart a little then I'd like to hear them. I'm aiming for a maximum of those menus that roll down automatically when you scroll over them on the "flashy in your face-o meter"
recommended HTML coding tutorial sites would also be appreciated

[Stevie GooGs]

What hosting service would be best, and I have about 6 months before I'll be using it in a proffessional sense, so what ways can I go about upping it's page ranking on google?

Shared hosting would be best to start off with, i use www.clook.co.uk and have done for a while they are not the cheapest but good support.

Things that I'm not sure about, would it be better to host pictures on the site itself, or the HTML link to photobucket pictures. On one hand presumably if I link externally I save on hosting space. But If the pictures are hosted by my site, if I was to post them here would that result in a higher page rank?

You need to start with getting content onto your website then building related external links to your website. Create facebook fan pages, twitter pages and also try and get sites that are related to yours to link to you.

Also, what is banwidth? My laymans view is that it's the allocated space a site has on it's server, more page views of more stuff uses it. How much would I need if I only need to link the site to maybe 4 or 5 people a month, (obviously I need to be safe with it, cos it'd be just a little unproffessional to link a prospective employer to an unviewable overloaded site) initially I'll be linking it to loads of people (assuming this is good for rankings?) but it doesn't matter if its down for them.

Bandwidth is data transfer ie if you host high resolution images and they are downloaded a lot your bandwidth will increase very quickly, bandwidth is not hard drive space its the traffic your website uses.

Also, domain names. Just a quick opinion question. I'd sooner keep it simple and boring, a combination of my name or initials and 'CAD' or 'Computer Aided Design' current favorites are "THolmesComputerAidedDesign" or "THolmesCAD"

Make the domain name related to your website/company name.

And the actual desgn itself. A little way off but if anyone has tips for features or whatever that look simple and proffessional, yet do set it apart a little then I'd like to hear them. I'm aiming for a maximum of those menus that roll down automatically when you scroll over them on the "flashy in your face-o meter"
recommended HTML coding tutorial sites would also be appreciated

Depends on your html knowledge, If i was you, i would look at a CMS based website like joomla etc.
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Bike Pics! -> My Photography Website

[chrisw]

Hand-coding in HTML is not really going to give you a 'professional' looking site if you've never done it before.

The easiest way to get a good looking and well behaved website quickly is to use one of the pre-built CMS that are out there. Something like WordPress or Joomla are examples of easy to use and easy to customise systems.

You could then look at putting it in AWS. Cheap to start with but will scale out if needed.

It may sound very technical but in reality, it's not all that hard and will probably take you less time than learning how to build your own site from scratch.

[Frost]

Yes what you want is a simple to use CMS (content management system) which will allow you to upload a page template, then add and edit content. VRML is crap btw.

[The Artist]

Also, those flashy in your face menus are not cool. They are annoying and look cheap IMO.

Avoid flash apart from maybe a banner or if you are very good at flash. Bad flash looks awful

[ncrn]

If you are looking for quick and easy you can do what I've done.

One.com currently offer a free 1 year package (with a £10 url set up fee) which includes 3GB of storage and unlimited data transfer (within reason I think). This also includes your web URL which is nice.

Then use Wordpress to create the design and content of your website. The nice thing about wordpress is you can download and modify themes to get your website looking how you want, without having to know much about web design. It also contains loads of handy plugins that add cool features to your site, again without needing to know much about web design.

It can be a little daunting at first, but there is loads of guides and documentation online to help you use it. I have no idea how to code websites, I program embedded electronics usually . But I managed to use wordpress to push out a professional looking website.
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[Tristan.]

Theres another small factor. One module this term requires a website to present CAD designs on, as 15% of the mark. Thats why I'd have to use html code rather than CMS, however theres nothing to stop me redoing the whole thing looking decent using a CMS service in a couple of months when it's been marked. The mark scheme requires us to use nonsense like flash menus, and VRML (theres marks available for having a website introduction animation and 'using modern techniques such as animated gifs to hotlink" which I'm flat outrefusing to do based on principles)

To be honest given the advice of you lot I think I'll do it as two seperate things. I was trying to save myself a bit of work by just making the one site to serve two purposes but in the long run it'll just be easier to do the horrible offensive site to satisfy the coursework, then redo the whole thing and make it look decent down the line.

NCRN any chance I could have a link to what you've done using wordpress? Or anyone else to decent looking stuff done using CMS

[Tristan.]

Quick update, I've registered a domain and set up hosting with TSOhost.co.uk, who seem to get good reviews everywhere (one.com have really bad reviews but only in the respect of auto renewing at very high prices. Not an issue if your organised but I'm not)

Anyway I accidentally set up my hosting with linux as the control interface, and sent a support request asking if it's possible to switch to windows (they're advertised as different services so it's not a change I had the option to do) had an answer within literally minutes, so a from me so far

[Silver]

[huskie69]

I did the Linux/Windows mix up with 1and1 and they refused to change it for me (I wanted Linux rather than Windows). I was so pissed off I switch provider - I now use dreamhost and they're brilliant (even if they are based in Californee!).

Have you come across WIX yet? If you want a decent looking site, you can use their templates and knock up a nice looking flash site in minutes - they also have gallery templates so handy for showcasing your work. As a cheap option, you could point your domain (or a subdomain) to your wix site and use frame forwarding so visitors still see it as part of your domain rather than a wix site.
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[Drew]

[The Artist]

Linux hosting ftw

[huskie69]

Do I detect the rumblings of an OS war?!
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[Silver]

[Tristan.]

[Frost]

Linux is SOOO simple*

*When it works...

[bazza]

[Tristan.]

[huskie69]

[Tristan.]

I have literally no idea why he expects us to learn basic HTML.The worst part is that 20% of the module is the CAD modelling, 15% is the website!

It's fucking stupid. I can see the point of emphisising that being a designer isn't just about designing. You also need to have the skills to present your work. But being expected to learn html for no good reason is never going to be useful (A as a proffessional I could pay for a website, and B the tiny amount of experience I'll get will be worth nothng on a CV) It just gives an advantage to the people who have learnt html in the past, or those who have housemates/friends willing to do it for hem for a few quid.

If I can't sort anything out with the wix site it doesn't matter. tbh it'll be very usefull as a layout planner

[Frost]

I don't really see what there is to learn with HTML...
There's the basic minimal template that you'll find online.
Code to include a CSS file, code for a Div, link, table, image, text formatting... thats about it really.

CSS on the other hand is a fiddley mess