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Help needed building a Web Site (1 Viewer)

Reader

Well-known member
I have always wanted to have my own web site but to be honest I haven't a clue how to go about it. I haven't any mates that know how to do it either so that is a no no as well.

Now that I have started doing DSLR photography it would be good if I can start having both my digiscoping and DSLR images placed in a web site so giving direct comparisons between the two disciplines. I also have a few European trip Reports, together with photos, that I would like to place there as well. In fact there are a lot of things I would like to do with a web site once I had one up and running.

I have an excellent looking program by Serif called WebPlus 8 that has quite a few templates on starting your own web site designs. Unfortunately I don't know how to use it.

I would love it if someone local to Coventry could spare the time and come and sit with me at my house and help show me how to use this programme. On top of that I would need advice on getting it onto the Internet. If anyone could it would mean that in the end I would have one designed and on the net. I can assure you also that BF would get its banner on there somehow, something else I would have to be shown what to do.

So, is there anyone out there that could help me please.

John
 
Bish said:
You could always create your own blog free at www.blogger.com/start

I may do it this way but still haven't decided yet :h?:

Regards Bish. :t:

I have thought about using blogger.com but my only problem is that I also want to add trip reports, site directions and possibly a blog style page as well as two separate areas of photos, Digiscoping and DSLR photography. I don't want to mix and match the photos but to have separate galleries for each discipline. I don't think I could do this with that site.

For instance I am going to Spain on Dec 26th and Lesbos next May and I would have loved to have completed trip reports, together with photos, of both those destinations.

There are so many things I would like to do but I don't think a blogging site would have the flexibility to allow me to do them.

John
 
If you go the blogger route you could set up different blogs for your trip reports. For eg go to my blog and I have alink to my list of birds for the year which is a different address altogether.
 
If you get anyhwere with this John I would be most interested. I have delved into the ways and means of setting up a DIY website and usually end up banging my head against the wall. I do know one or two people who have done it (nothing to do with bird or photography related topics) and I must say the results look very amateurish; they even admit it, and the general consensus of people much more tech-savvy then me is that you really need professional help and that costs money (quite a lot of money for something professional, especially if you are a commercial organisation selling something).

I started a blog about 18 months ago but it was for a specific purpose - I am heavily involved in the politics to preserve and protect a very special birding locality in the Algarve, Lagoa dos Salgados or "Pera Marsh" as many people know it. A lot of visiting birders were keen to know what was going on and I initially produced a two-sided A4 sheet with a synopsis of what was happening and the names, addresses and wesbsites of all parties involved with a view to encouraging people to write to the RSPB, SPEA (their Portuguese equivalent), local planning authority, etc. I decided a better method was to ask the hundreds of visiting birders I meet each year if they were on the "net" and, if they were I gave them my card with my blog address. It worked and it got passed on to many more people.

However, I am now frustrated with the blog because, like you, I want to (literally) "branch out". A blog has a linear structure, like a diary, and there is no simple way of putting in lateral branches to different sections as you want to do.

I will be interested to see how this thread develops and hope to see replies from people who have "done it".

Colin

http://www.algarvebirder.blogspot.com/
 
Pluvius said:
If you go the blogger route you could set up different blogs for your trip reports. For eg go to my blog and I have alink to my list of birds for the year which is a different address altogether.

Very nice, professional blog - well done. I know that it must take you a lot of time to keep this up to date.

Colin
 
Hi Reader you can always use Freewebs but they limit you to 100 Photos. I use it for my site which can be seen below.
Cheers
 
Some of the hosting companies offer good fairly low cost website building software, including a range of templates - the one I've used in the past is www.1and1.co.uk

I've started to teach myself Dreamweaver, which is why (coupled with the lack of decent pics!) my site is currently so c**p and one dimensional at present. One day I'll get time to develop it further.
 
whomes said:
Some of the hosting companies offer good fairly low cost website building software, including a range of templates - the one I've used in the past is www.1and1.co.uk

I've started to teach myself Dreamweaver, which is why (coupled with the lack of decent pics!) my site is currently so c**p and one dimensional at present. One day I'll get time to develop it further.

Hmm, hope you don't take this the wrong way whomes but this is exactly waht I meant in a previous post above about these DIY websites looking very amateurish. I actually wouldn't even consider this to be a "website", it is just a static page.

No offense,

Colin
 
Thanks Swamphen. I do sometimes struggle with what to say next and then usually something turns up. For example re my latest post about ringed godwits. I have wanted to write about them for nearly three weeks but it was only yesterday that I actually got some shots of birds with rings on!!
 
Swamp Hen said:
Hmm, hope you don't take this the wrong way whomes but this is exactly waht I meant in a previous post above about these DIY websites looking very amateurish. I actually wouldn't even consider this to be a "website", it is just a static page.

No offense,

Colin

No offence taken, I agree completely.

But, with an investment of time which I haven't yet made, Dreamweaver gives me a fantastic degree of flexibility to build a site which I'll one day be proud of.

If you're really proud about what you produce, don't make your site public until you've got it right.

If you don't give a **** what others think, do what I've done!
 
whomes said:
No offence taken, I agree completely.

But, with an investment of time which I haven't yet made, Dreamweaver gives me a fantastic degree of flexibility to build a site which I'll one day be proud of.

If you're really proud about what you produce, don't make your site public until you've got it right.

If you don't give a **** what others think, do what I've done!

Thanks for that (Phew, thought I might have done a doo doo, but since you used the term c**p I waded in).

Have you looked at any alternatives?

I would personally love to have a "slick" website onto which I could post my photos, plus anything else which comes to mind. But, I don't want to start something which is not "V. Good" and then have to begin again; I would like something which is long term and which I could develop and improve.

Might just have to open my wallet!

Colin
 
I have over 300 links to sites which should give a reasonable idea of what works and what doesnt. Some are awful and others are very slick. I think some of the tweaked pbase sites are pretty good.
 
Swamp Hen said:
I don't want to start something which is not "V. Good" and then have to begin again; I would like something which is long term and which I could develop and improve.

Colin

I quite agree with this statement, I built my first one a couple of years ago using MS frontpage, (no previous experience, just had to learn as I went along) got it all finished, looked at it for a couple of days and then rebuilt the whole thing cos it was rubbish. I've now got the one below and don't really like that either, am in the middle of changing some of it at the moment but may just scrap the whole thing and start yet again.
 
Hi there John,

What about checking evening courses at a local college?

I looked into this myself once and found it was very cheap and ran for just twelve weeks. One night a week.

Might be an option?

Cheers,
Andrew.
 
If you do a bit of googling you will find loads of stuff on website building, there is even a bit of software called Nvu that you can download for free which helps with doing the coding, that's what I used to do mine and most ISPs have a certain amount of free hosting, might as well use it, this is what I came up with but to be honest I lost interest after a while and never bought it up to date or even finished it for that matter.
http://thanet-photos.mysite.wanadoo-members.co.uk/

Mick
 
Hi guys

My problem is I probably want a bit more from mine as I am not just a photographer but a birder as well. In fact for years I was a twitcher and next year will possibly be chasing rare birds again. Because of this I don't just want a photographic album but pages that deal with trip reports, sites visited with information about them plus various other things that a birder might find informative.

When it comes down to photographs I want to split the galleries into digiscoping and DSLR photos. I don't want to mix the photos.

Within these galleries I don't just want to post photos but to have them catergorised such as Waders, Thrushes, Wildfowl etc. If I could I will then do folders within those catergories for each individual species and post all the good photos I have of those species. If I could do that it would be great.

For instance if I was looking for a photo of a wader I could go to the waders section, click into it then look for another folder, say Little Stint, click into that and look at the photos of a Little Stint. The only other choice would whether to look at the DSLR side or the Digiscoping side but I suppose a comment could be made in both the Digiscoping and DSLR folder that there are also photos in the other gallery of this bird as well.

Does all that make sense to you.

I have a heck of a lot of photos to put on a website. Not only of birds but of Moths, Butterflies, animals etc so I would need something that could contain a lot of photos.

Am I aiming too high?

John
 
Last edited:
Swamp Hen said:
I started a blog about 18 months ago but it was for a specific purpose - I am heavily involved in the politics to preserve and protect a very special birding locality in the Algarve, Lagoa dos Salgados or "Pera Marsh" as many people know it. A lot of visiting birders were keen to know what was going on and I initially produced a two-sided A4 sheet with a synopsis of what was happening and the names, addresses and wesbsites of all parties involved with a view to encouraging people to write to the RSPB, SPEA (their Portuguese equivalent), local planning authority, etc. I decided a better method was to ask the hundreds of visiting birders I meet each year if they were on the "net" and, if they were I gave them my card with my blog address. It worked and it got passed on to many more people.

Colin

Hi Colin

I know these marshes well having first visited them in 1995 then again in 1999. I was staying in apartments in vale de parra and the apartment garden overlooked these marshes. It was a superb area to visit and I got my first brilliant views of R N Nightjar there in May 1999.

Having said that even then it was obvious that this area was a prime area for development. I hope the area escapes all this and is kept the way I remember it.

John
 
Hi John,
Together with my girlfriend we had similar problems when started doing wildlife photography. We decided to invest some funds into a web-site of our own - a simple one, but having an admin-panel which allows you to upload the images independently (very important!).

Before starting developing a web-site it is always helpful to go through the literature for some basic rules and principles. Now we have many more ideas how to improve our site, but it will take some time, step by step...:)

Good luck!
Boris
 
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