“Dear Firgs, I love your site and would like to build one like it. Where do you suggest I start?”

This is the second most popular email that I receive, and I have to say, it’s one of the ones that I love to answer. When I started this website I had virtually no clue as to what I was doing. I had taken web development in college and I also had some computer programming under my belt from high school, but for the most part it was a new adventure for me.

So, assuming that you truly are a beginner like I was, here is my first piece of advice: Make friends with several hard core code junkies and get ready to send them gifts! I actually have four people that I turn to when I run into a problem that I can’t solve or when I get myself in over my head – which is actually quite often. Without them coming to my aid, this site would pretty much suck and I would be bald from ripping my hair out. (Lord bless Chris, Erik, Curtis, and my boyfriend. I love you guys!)

But, whatever you do, don’t rely totally on them to be your non-paid, on-call tech support. Most of the time code junkies are very happy to help you, but they also have very demanding and stressful jobs. This is why I have more than one – it keeps any of them from killing me. Keep in mind you aren’t the only one that counts on them and if you can’t afford to pay them out of pocket for their services, be sure to find some way of repaying their favors either with promotion, small gifts, or sending paying clients their way.

Next: Secure your domain and hosting. I have two websites, this one and my portfolio website. Each are hosted on separate servers that are unrelated to the companies that I purchase my domains from. The reason for this is that I am one of the fortunate ones that knows people with private servers. What can I say – I get by with a little help from my friends. But should you not be so connected, most domain companies also have hosting packages as well as Tech support. The two companies I hand my money over to are GoDaddy and DynDNS. I like them both and have had no problems with either.

Ok – so you’ve got your domain and your hosting figured out and your code junkies are waiting in the wings – now what? Get WordPress! When I started out, I had the same question until someone suggested WordPress to me. I had heard WP mentioned a lot before, but I never really knew anything about it. So I just kind of said, “OK!” and went with it. (One of the reasons I have friends is because they know they can talk me into pretty much anything.) This is a WP run website and I have to say, I love how easy it is to manage. But if you are new to WP then I would suggest starting out with these handy videos from ithemes.com. These videos are very easy to understand and will introduce you to the basics of working with WP. Think of it as looking under the hood of a car before you buy it.

Next: Choose a theme. After you install WP and things are up and running, you have your choice of decorating it with a “theme” – in other words a template. The theme I use for this site is one of the more basic ones, that I eventually stripped and made my own. This brings me to another question I often get – “Did you do all of the graphics?” Yes! Outside of company logos and a few screen-shots for blog posts, there isn’t a single graphic on this website that I did not design. This includes all headers, buttons, and a custom 404 page. That is the beauty of WordPress. No matter what theme you start out with, if you keep at it, the theme can and will become your own.

Now, the WP home site does come with a lot of themes to choose from – but if you are looking to branch out then I recommend wordpressthemesbase.com, and topwpthemes.com. I have found their theme organization to be a lot better than most. Two basic things to look for when shopping for a theme are how many columns does it have, and is it widget ready.  The number of columns can range from 2 to 4, and what you pick will be up to you. However, I highly recommend a Widget Ready template – trust me on this, it will save you a lot of time and frustration in the long run. But if you are really looking for a challenge then you can attempt to build your own theme from scratch (not recommended for beginners) with this handy tutorial from nettuts.com – and then bookmark that site if you haven’t already.

Now comes my favorite part – Get Firebug! I can not stress enough how wonderful this little FireFox add-on is! Without it, I would never be able to figure anything out. Once you have it, all you need to do is hit “Inspect” and then mouse over a section of your site (or anyone else’s) that you want to learn more about and it will show you the code and where to find it in your lines of your theme’s code. It is immensely useful and with it you will be able to teach yourself a lot and keep you from having to drive your code junkies crazy. So warm up FireFox and get this add-on!

Side Note: If you are going to mess with your code – here’s a quick tip: be sure to keep a copy of the original code in a seperate file like on Note Pad or Text Edit, that way if you mess it up, you’ll be able to put it back. There is no undo button in the Theme Editor of WP!

And speaking of Plug-Ins, WordPress actually has a lot of wonderful Plug-Ins that you can add to your website. Pretty much anything you would like to do, there is a plug-in that can help. But, before you start picking which of these will be of the most value to you – be sure to get Akismet (a spam blocker), and the All In One SEO pack (SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization – meaning it helps search engines find your site). No WP site should be without them and many people will testify to this.

Ok. There you have it. My advice on the basics of starting a website. It’s not everything you will need to know, but it should point you in the right direction and get you going! Remember, have fun with it and don’t be afraid of testing out new things – you never know what you might discover.

PS – If you have a question that you would like my advice on, be sure to shoot me an email. I can be found on gmail under the name – datchicfirgs.