Web design?

Question

I want to create my own forum or dating site. How do i go about doing that and how much would it cost?
Alos how do i create my own web page ?
Any good sites would help.

Answer 1

Big question. There are lot's of open source packages that allow you to create a forum type site with little work on the design end of things. The backend would still require a decent amout of work to ensure it's working properly. Do a search for Joomla!.

As for creating web pages, Dreamweaver, Microsoft Expression or Front Page are quite good and are WYSIWYG editors.

Answer 2

For forums: go to http://www.phpbb.com/ It's the standard, free, open-source forums, and there are tons of layouts available. You would need a web site hoster with database space for that. I would recommend www.1and1.com as it's the one I use. The basic package is about 40$/year.

I'd recommend getting a book for creating webpages. Sure, there are tutorials online, but they've always been a nuisance to me. Basic web development is done in a language called HTML, so I'd recommend a book on that. Try amazon, and be sure to read reviews! I have a decent book called HTML in easy steps from Barnes and Noble, but it's kind of confusing.

If you want something more in depth than that, look into PHP. It's great for user interactions. I recommend "PHP and MySQL [database access] for Dynamic Web Sites" second edition by Larry Ullman. I got it off Amazon for ~30-40$. However, it requires a knowledge of HTML.

I hope this helped!