# Personal websites?



## IanWilkinson (Apr 23, 2010)

Hi all - im looking into building my own website, just to show my sculpts and paintjobs..
First off i would like to know what you folk out there with sites use and any tips or tricks you have.. I was going to first start off with the 'free' web builder and hosting pages you can get.. just as a starting point..
any help will be most apreciated!..


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## John P (Sep 1, 1999)

Sadly, I still hard-code everything by typing HTML into notebook, since I never could decide which web-builder to get. I'm considering getting MS Expression, which our webmistress at work uses. Still wondering if it's worth it, since I seem to be doing fine with straight coding, and I relly don't have any ideas to make my site fancy/clever enough to need a special program.

http://www.inpayne.com/


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## pugknows (May 28, 2002)

Free sites are OK but if you want a domain name of your choosing you'll need to pay a little bit. I use http://www.freehostia.com/index2.html and have about 10 sites there. I've had good luck with them and all I'm paying for is the name . Also you can get simple free page makers, I still work in HTML and just find it easier to do. Keep it simple and easy.
Rob


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## Solium (Apr 24, 2005)

Learning HTML is the way to go. So easy. HTML editors can do all kinds of hokey things that can frustrate you along the way. Also if you run into a problem with the coding you won't know how to fix it. 

I know HTML and the use of tables are "outdated" now. But it still works just fine for simple web sites. Once you learn HTML, and "Tables" you can virtually put together a website anyway you want.


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## John P (Sep 1, 1999)

Oh - my host is www.0catch.com, and I rent my domain name from godaddy.


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## Xenodyssey (Aug 27, 2008)

I'm hosted up on lunarpages and bought my domain from them as well, the hosting is $119 a year and the domain name was $20. I went with Lunar Pages since the hosting is used by work as well.

My site was built in an old (2003) version of Dreamweaver and is very simple. I've used free html editors in the past and found some of them at last quite good.

http://www.xenodyssey.com/Models.htm


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## SJF (Dec 3, 1999)

MY model kit site is being hosted for free by 110 MB Hosting. My space is limited under these terms, so I don't have pictures up of everything that I've built. I use a free hmtl program to write my webpages. 

My model kit site:

http://mcfergeson.110mb.com/

My site's host:

http://www.110mb.com/

Sean


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## iriseye (Sep 21, 2010)

Lots of good food for thought here.

Is there a thread somewhere, or a sticky that has a list of member's websites?


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## Model Man (Oct 1, 2007)

One full year out of date:
http://www.twinlitworlds.com/modelwerx/index.html

I learned to hand code html over 10yrs ago. I railed against 'automated' coding programs and even when I finally accepted Dreamweaver (just before adobe bought it) I would still go in and hand scrub all the bloat code I didn't like. Nowadays, I've just succumbed to the ease of Dreamwever's auto functions.


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## IanWilkinson (Apr 23, 2010)

Many thanks for all the info!... im not into html code.. so i will have to choose a site like the 110mb that SJF has!.. all your sites look fantastic!... one prg i did discover is 'Bluebox' it compresses standard photo's down without mutch compromise and lets you resize and crop them... so yo ucan have a few more images in the bandwidth you are allowed..


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## Parts Pit Mike (Jan 3, 2001)

The Parts Pit is produced completely on iweb that comes with the mac.


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## John P (Sep 1, 1999)

Model Man said:


> One full year out of date:
> http://www.twinlitworlds.com/modelwerx/index.html
> 
> I learned to hand code html over 10yrs ago. I railed against 'automated' coding programs and even when I finally accepted Dreamweaver (just before adobe bought it) I would still go in and hand scrub all the bloat code I didn't like. Nowadays, I've just succumbed to the ease of Dreamwever's auto functions.


Bloat code! Good phrase. Whenever I save a Word doc as HTML, I see all this crap that I can't understand. When I do my own page, it's as simple and basic as humanly possible.


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## Model Man (Oct 1, 2007)

John P said:


> Bloat code! Good phrase. Whenever I save a Word doc as HTML, I see all this crap that I can't understand. When I do my own page, it's as simple and basic as humanly possible.


If it comes to anyone using Word, grab Notepad or similar and hand code in that!

Word is the worst! DWeaver is very clean, relative to that. DW throws a bunch of metatags in you may not want, changes bold to to strong and other minor stuff, but nothing compares to Word-gibberish. 

DW saves tons of time when using things like img maps or getting into crazier code-matching stuff like that. But digging into the code later to fix a line here or there becomes difficult, but not unintelligible. MS deliberately does that to keep people out of the code, make it such nonsense as to be useless to anything but Word itself. 

I was good at html, but lost interest as CSS and Flash came along, I never learned those new ones. Still avoid css like the plague even though it may be highly beneficial to use. For simple-simple web pages, hand coding html rules. DW has some learning curve, but it's very easy once you've got a few basics, that's all you need.


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## John P (Sep 1, 1999)

Ya want simple?
A typical page from my models section:
http://www.inpayne.com/models/moo1.html

The code for page 1:



> <html>
> <head>
> <title>"Moo?"</title>
> </head>
> ...


That's IT!

Page 2 is a LITTLE denser 'cause it's a table, but the above is how I learned it - clean and simple and to the point.


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## bizzarobrian (Oct 4, 2009)

IanWilkinson said:


> Hi all - im looking into building my own website, just to show my sculpts and paintjobs..
> First off i would like to know what you folk out there with sites use and any tips or tricks you have.. I was going to first start off with the 'free' web builder and hosting pages you can get.. just as a starting point..
> any help will be most apreciated!..


Just google"Free websites" M8.


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## Solium (Apr 24, 2005)

Model Man said:


> I was good at html, but lost interest as CSS and Flash came along, I never learned those new ones. Still avoid css like the plague even though


Yeah me too. I just couldn't grasp it the way I could HTML. And Flash is becoming more a programers program instead of a designers program. Not to knock either, its just that the left side of my brain dosent work as well as the right side I guess.

Dreamweaver works just fine if you just want a head start in creating a standard HTML web page. I used it at work, but actually hand coded in the editor instead of using the WYSIWYG option.


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## Fraley1701 (Sep 3, 2003)

Last updated on Jan 21, 2002.... Mostly used Microsoft Front Page. I am surprised it still the site is still up. http://marcsclassicscifi.tripod.com/


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## IanWilkinson (Apr 23, 2010)

Ive started to construct the site with the 110mb site!.. very easy to use, as im not into the web side of things... a 'domain name'??... why is this different to the domain name that 110mb has given me?.. and also i read about the 'metatags'... errr what is this?.. also how do you make your site easy to find , say in google if you do a search??.... the one i have done is more or less invisible...lol


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## Xenodyssey (Aug 27, 2008)

Making your site easy to find can be quite a chore. Metatags are used to identify the website to search engines like Google. So for example you'd use tags like modelling, Ian Wilkinson etc.

Any source web address like www.hobbytalk.com would be a domain name. Which would be have been bought and registered at one of the domain agencies. You only need to buy one and use it if you want to "personalise" your web address. You need to "point" a bought domain to where your website is hosted, ie the ip address.


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## Solium (Apr 24, 2005)

Xenodyssey said:


> Making your site easy to find can be quite a chore. Metatags are used to identify the website to search engines like Google.


Good Metatags is a start but won't do much on their own. It is very important to have "keywords" in standard HTML text on your homepage/index page. Search engines will also note "headers" (like h1,h2,h3 etc.) Good page titles are very important too. "starwars_model_page.html" would be much better than, "model_page_01.html". 

Its also helps having relevant links to other sites too.

Finally don't "cheat". Don't put keywords in white text on a white background on your home page. Also one shouldn't put inappropriate key words in your Metatags. If your site is about plastic model kits, don't put Playboy, Disney, Justin Bieber, in your Metatags thinking it will up your search results. Your site will get a lower search result. That's why using "keywords" in the actual text of your home page is very important. Robots will try to find your Metatag keywords in the text of your site.

There are other things to help make your site search engine friendly but its been some time since Ive done that kind of stuff.


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## TAY666 (Jan 8, 2000)

My site
http://www.tylisaari.com/models/aurora.htm
Is a combination of Frontpage express and hand coding /editing.
I use FP Express, because I tend to use a lot of tables in my layout. (which means a whole bunch of levels of nested tables) 
And while I could code them all by hand, it is just easier to have a program do it.
The program is so old that it is very basic, which means it also doesn't add a ton of garbage.

I've owned my own site for quite some time now. Got tired of the limits of the free sites.
As well as their tendencies to change things up (like pop-ups, obnoxious ads, etc).
Costs me a little over $100 a year. But I have like 12 gigs of stuff on my site right now, and it just keeps climbing. With bandwidth usage of 10-15 gigs a month.
Not going to get that on any of the free sites.


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## kit-junkie (Apr 8, 2005)

I used to hand code in Dreamweaver, when I was a pro. Some of the built in features are great time savers. Now, I don't code at all. http://idesyns.com/

Frontpage is a BAD word, TAY666. A BAAAAD word.


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## TAY666 (Jan 8, 2000)

kit-junkie said:


> Frontpage is a BAD word, TAY666. A BAAAAD word.


Not Frontpage.
Frontpage express.
You know, the one that used to actually come bundled with windows way back in the mid 90's.
Not nearly as craptacular as the full version.


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