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Starting my very first website in 2015
Is the fastest way to build a website using a content management system (CMS) ? I'm not sure if I want to learn HTML the old fashioned way if using today's software can speed up the process and make the website appear more professional.
I'm primarily concerned about the pace of development and how professional, "pretty", the website looks. I think one of my college professors made his website from scratch. While I'm sure it took a lot of time and effort, the end result was that it looks like a website from 1996.
Maybe I'm looking for a better alternative. Is CMS the best way or is there something else?
Comments
It depends on your requirement. We, eezpal use both CMS and pure coded methods when developing a web site.
Learn to make WordPress themes.
I agree with your thoughts, though coding from scratch may help you when you see how you 'want to do things differently' and break the mold of templates that you're stuck with. The reason for WP's often exploited security holes is because people started making WP plugins with a similar amount of (non) experience.
So first and foremost ensure you're able to secure your CMS to the best of your ability.
Then download WAMP/LAMP/whatever and install somewhere where you can mess around with things and learn. Also get a browser extension like firebug, you can inspect elements of templates you like and see how it's done. The nice thing about client-side design is you can take and adapt other people's work as the code is there for you to see.
Do you want a dynamic (e.g. blog) or static (=never changes) page?
Dynamic page: CMS or PHP with HTML/CSS
Static page: HTML/CSS or static site generator
If you don't want to invest hundreds of hours on learning, a CMS seems like the way to go for you.
it seems you don't have a passion for coding. so stick with CMS I suggest. Wordpress is a good starting point. You can buy a very good looking theme
What's the purpose of the site? If it's all text and/or for the purpose of communicating, then the "looks like 1998" might actually be the best choice. If it's for people who like "normal" then the (so-called) professional look is the way to go. Like others have said, WordPress is not a bad choice. It can be quick and easy with almost no learning curve.
Better to use webs.com
Downside to hosted services like that is vendor lock-in.
If I needed just a website, I'd choose one of those templates. If I am going to be in the business of developing websites for own/others, I'd start learn how to code from scratch.
If you dont need any custom database queries or serverside features you can even go for Blogger, choose or code a decent template and set a custom domain
But I don't have any idea what kind of site are trying to setup
A lot of hosting providers provide tools such as rvsitebuilder that you can make a drag and drop website or from a template that is pretty simple. You can check out plain .html templates as most of them now a days are pretty simple to edit. Otherwise wordpress would be a way to go try a few free templates to get a feel for it and then get one that matches what your site is about.
try wordpress... easy and best.
"very first website"?
try using a development framework like bootstrap or use an HTML template and modify it
I would suggest a static HTML5 template for your first webpage, there are tons of free here -> html5up.net
The question you need to ask yourself is are you looking to make a website by posting relevant content or are you interested in the dynamics of the website / the way it works & the code behind it. These two points are very different things, people who usually want to make websites related to some topic / content waste a lot of energy in trying to code when they could instead focus at the quality of their content instead. My advice is; aim for one, most of the famous websites out there today that deal in some kind of content are not owned by coders!
Don't code if your end goal is a website filled with rich content, use a cms instead , they are light years ahead of what you will code in a short time but if it is coding you are after then sure , go for it.