So I want to make a website
 

And I am not sure where I should go to do so. I desire to make a basic site with a registered domain name but don't feel like coding a site so I was thinking I would use one of the gui "build your site here" kind of places. I really don't anticipate the site to be heavily traveled and it will consist primarily of photography.

So the question(s): any recommendations and/or experiences and/or advice?

the phillybhatesme site is wordpress.
it was really ------- simple.
pay a hosting company for the domain name and install the wordpress plugin (iirc)

My wife uses Wix.com for her small business. She likes it.

I've also heard good things about Wix.

seconded wordpress. so many plugins to do whatever you want. just change the graphics and layout a little and voila, dynamic managed content.

Thanks for the input so far guys, I think WIX is much more like what I am looking for. Blogs are not for this guy.

i don't have a blog.
but i do have a website that uses wordpress

Oh ok, I went to their page and the absolute first thing I saw was the word blog and it punched my brain in that special spot that made me x the window before anything could actually register.

So if there is more to it than blogger tools and whatnot I'll have to give it another look.

look at my website. i use the most basic theme.
there are countless themes available for wordpress. it doesn't have to look like a blog.
and it doesn't have to look as shitty as my site.

http://www.phillybhatesme.com/

edited to add - back end is really easy to work with. no code knowledge unless you want advanced features. if you do...i'm sure there is tons of info online as i had no previous knowledge on building websites prior to my shitty site.
and if i were the change the theme, it might look somewhat decent.
before you do any "coding," pick a theme.

I'm reading up on it, trying to find the size of bw per month because my page/site will primarily consist of photos. I would think that would chew through bw pretty quickly even if I only get a few hits a month.

Any opinions on godaddy?

they initially supported sopa.
that's all i got

photos you say? there are a bunch of gallery site templates ("Gallery" is one) that do that well. there are also plugins for wordpress and other CMS.

what's nice about wordpress is that it turns your page edits into WYSIWYG style entries. kind of like posting on this forum.

and you can turn off comments and make it look less "bloggy". www.mattandjenn2010.com is my wedding website that I created using it. sure it's got some custom stuff but just enough to make it simple looking.

I switched all my domains from godaddy to namecheap because godaddy is fugly lame.

i have a gallery too. screenshot of gallery

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1333199487

screenshot of the back end. super easy to use.

Attachment 240026

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1333199487

Speaking of which, I got a nice malware warning when I visited it (Opera browser).

Was it recently compromised? WordPress is notorious in the IT world for security holes.

I'm by no means a website expert, but I have 4 that I'm in the process of working on. Having little to no experience with what I was doing, I've been progressing slowly when time allows.

For my domains, I use lunarpages. My gf's father owns the security management they use, so he had recommended them to me. I've had zero issues with everything from billing to servers down. Once you have one domain registered through them, its just an additional $20 a year for the rest (not sure if all companies do this or not).

For creating the website I'm using Joomla. Like Wordpress, but a little more technical and lots more room to grow (from what I've seen). Joomla is a free open source system that gives you the tools to make a basic website for free. There's tons of add ons for free, as well as ones you pay for or donate to have.

Well thanks for the additional info guys, I'm going to dig into the new material you've presented to me right meow.

I think I am 100% with name cheap, 100% without wordpress, and am thinking heavily on squarespace. Thanks again guys for the inputzzzzz

You can always just send me a check and receive a website in exchange ;)

I could but I could do it myself over the next week or so and be kinda satisfied and spend much less. I don't want to throw money into this and find out it's going to go nowhere...like my car :facepalm: