I'd like to get an information site started, in which at some point I could ad some adsense or PPC and or affiliate links to....
You guys are clearly far out of my "beginners" league......
I've used a "websites tonight" and one or two very simple template based sites that can get you going for like a "personal" page.....But the rich look of sites that I see seem to be far advanced....
But I see a divide between those that I've tried, and where I would like to go in terms of an information site with options to ad adsense PPC or affiliate links
I see there are tons of stuff on the net, but could someone perhaps point me in a direction where the learning curve would not be great, for me to actually get such a site off the ground?
To be honest... I don't understand your question. I think I need something to wake me up... which kind of look are you looking for?
Before asking, do a search... if you don't find the answer, then ask The purpose of this forum is to help others in the community, that's why it's called Sitepoint and not Linkpoint. SP Guidelines - No fluff.
Appreciate you for your time, I appreciate it.....
I understand your question. To give you an idea of what I meant, I looked at the links under your signature(hope that is ok to you) and your "all food natural" site has space on the sides of your site's information "main menu" on left, and "subscribe to food naturally" on the right, to be able to place PPC or Adsense or affiliate links...
The templates that I have tried in the past on very basic free sites, do not seem to have those options available(left and right available space), so that I could fill the left or right side with additional info or PPC or affiliate links?..(hope that made sense)..they have areas that I can change, but not on the left or right side...see what I mean ?
the three other sites you have within your signature do not have enough space on left or right sides, they seem to crowd towards the center, which is why I like the layout of your "all food natural" site, it seems to use space wisely and leaving the left and right sides available to place links....
If the free site making templates are not working for you, you will need to find a template or create your own webpage that suits your requirements.
I'm not sure of your skill level, but there are a lot of templates around that with a bit of modification on your part would work the way you want, the only problem beingon how comfortable you would be modifying such a template.
Have you looked at using something like Wordpress? It's free and can be installed to your hosting server (your host may even provide Wordpress via the control panel). It's a blog or small CMS and there are areas where your ads can be placed... plenty of available WPress themes available as well.
1.- Use a free template and modify it to adapt to your needs
2.- contract someone to do it for you.
I would also try to find other free templates created for whatever content management system you are using. WordPress, as Nadia says, is a favourite because it has so many of them. But it is not the only one.
What CMS do you use?
Before asking, do a search... if you don't find the answer, then ask The purpose of this forum is to help others in the community, that's why it's called Sitepoint and not Linkpoint. SP Guidelines - No fluff.
You're really helping to give me an idea, which because of the tremendous
amount of info the net, I did not give me a clue where to start, I really appreciate it.......!
Question if I may.............;
I understand that as an example if I use let's say ""wordpress" (which your suggesting is easy on a beginner) that I would also need to use a CMS, in which case Drupal is a suggestion.......would that assessment be roughly accurate?
I understand "blogs" require almost daily updating, if I use "wordpress" does it afford me any other option than that of using it as a "blog"? ..the reason I ask is because I'm thinking an "information" site vs. "blog" site, because blogs require more maintenance in the way of constant updates...maybe I'm wrong?
Are "blogs" inherently a different site structure than "information sites? I don't know, maybe a blog and an information site are the same, it's just a matter of how I focus the content to be that of dialy updates(blogging) or more static information(information site)?
Drupal is NOT easy to use, at least not for someone with the skill level you're saying you have. Neither is Wordpress in its native form. If they're talking about you signing up for a Wordpress.com site and tweaking it, that is very, very easy (and very limited, but the general facility is so good that it's worth looking at anyway).
Wordpress.org is a hybrid CMS/blog system. To make it do tricks, you not only need some facility with HTML and CSS, but you need to have a kissing acquaintance with PHP. I've not worked personally with Drupal, a much more straightforward CMS, but I'm familiar with many others' experiences, and I know the problems they've experienced in making it do what they want. Both are excellent programs and support some fabulous sites, but they're not easy.
There are some very easy CMS programs out there (tradeoffs are, of course, limited display and info management capabilities as opposed to Drupal, WP, Joomla, Xoops, whatever).
Someone can give me examples to contradict what I'm saying, but in my experience the free online sitebuilders are horribly bad: they generate ugly sites both in code and design, they are SEO-unfriendly in the extreme, and Google doesn't like them.
When you ask about blogs vs. information sites, it's really a matter of how you use it. Wordpress.com gives you the option to post both static info and more flexible blog posts. I'm not sure about Movable Type-driven blogs, but I imagine they have some similar capabilities (others can tell you better than I can on MT). Blogger.com, not so much.
One thing that troubles me about your posts is your frequent mention of adsense, PPC, affiliates, and so forth, but almost nothing about content. There's nothing wrong with you building and maintaining an info site with the main purpose of making money from it, but as far as design and appeal goes, you have to always, always, always put content first. Real content, not a bunch of marketing-generated crud. There's a strong tendency among many sites to perform the same function as bad television programming--the programs are just designed to keep eyes focused on the screen until the all-important commercials come around. I have no more respect for those sites than I do the kajillion e-mails I get telling me that some general in Ripoffistan has $25 million and I can have half if I'll just let him slide it in my bank account. And from a practical sense, building a site and stuffing it with fluff just to get some ad revenue generated doesn't work for very long. By all means, focus on a strong, workable design and structure, whether it uses a CMS, blog, or static (X)HTML structure, but focus first, last, and always on your content.
Before asking, do a search... if you don't find the answer, then ask The purpose of this forum is to help others in the community, that's why it's called Sitepoint and not Linkpoint. SP Guidelines - No fluff.
the four of you have given me some fantastic information and direction. you've given me a place to start. I was missing some of the informational ground work in which I could use to find a start point. I really was lost.....you guys are great!
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