[stainer711]

I'm interested in making some websites and have some great ideas. The only thing hampering my progress is the question of whether or not making websites is decently profitable. What can i expect in terms of a profit from advertisers and affiliates in a standard website?

Also, i am completely new to creating websites and need to know about what programs and software I should familiarize myself with.

So far:

1)HTML
2)Photoshop

I'm looking for a program to aid in establishing a community with article posting, a ranking system based on differnent requirements, and other statistical information. So perhaps:

3) Drupal

[CrazeD]

If you want to code websites from the ground up, you're going to need to know at least HTML, CSS, PHP (or another server-side language) and Javascript. You may not HAVE to know a server-side language, but if you want an easy-to-use site with lots of features you'll probably need it eventually.

As for making money, it depends on what approach you take. Are you planning on getting clients and then making them a website? That can be very profitable if you find the right people. Maybe between 50 to a couple hundred bucks depending on what they want and how good you are.

There are TONS of ways to get money from websites.

[stainer711]

I was just planning on making a great site and having donations/affiliates/a few miniscule advertisements.

[CrazeD]

Oh. Well in that case, it probably won't generate much money, at least not at first. You'll have to get a lot of unique visitors to get money that way.

[stainer711]

Approximately how expensive is running a website? I thought it was somewhere in the neighborhood of 15 bucks a month for a website similar to grasscity.com in terms of community and functioning.

[NathanLedet]

Originally Posted by stainer711

Approximately how expensive is running a website? I thought it was somewhere in the neighborhood of 15 bucks a month for a website similar to grasscity.com in terms of community and functioning.

It depends on what it is you're doing. If you're running a personal web site that promotes you and you don't get thousands of visits per day (take me for instance, i have a personal web site that has my portfolio up to promote myself...not a heavy server load, not a whole lot of visitors) then yes 15 bucks a month is the most you should spend.

however, if you're running a web site that gets thousands of visitors a day, many downloads, a lot of bandwidth usage, then you're better off getting a dedicated server or building your own server which costs a lot more. One company I know of that hosts a few web sites spent ~$1500 to build his own server, and now ~$200 to keep his server inside a hosting warehouse. It just depends on your needs and your budget.

[Saxon]

Familiarize your self with dream weaver, I have built websight's in the past but I have never used paid hosting so I have never asked for donations.

[stainer711]

Wait.. So if i have thousands of people logging on per day with forums and text archives will i still need a server of some sort? I thought that basic hosting was a feature already included in the domain hosting (godaddy.com)

[NathanLedet]

Originally Posted by stainer711

Wait.. So if i have thousands of people logging on per day with forums and text archives will i still need a server of some sort? I thought that basic hosting was a feature already included in the domain hosting (godaddy.com)

*eventually* you will need your own dedicated server (which you can get from Godaddy). You do get basic hosting with godaddy..and that's just it.....basic

[jay_bo]

i was goin to make a takeway menu site with all the local takeways round my are and charge nothing for listing and 3.50 to put there menu online for a 6months, n see how it takes off but its getting round to them all. Does any1 think its a good idea?