How to Create A Community Website
What software and hosting do I need to start an online community site where people can post articles or music?
I’d like to start an online site like ezinearticles or other article posting site. What host and/or what software’s are required? I’d like to start an online site for musicians to post their songs and blogs. What hosts do you recommend and what software or program for these?
To clarify – I want to open a large site 1 – offering members a free webpage and the ability to submit many articles each, photos, and comments, etc., like ezinearticles.com or those others. Also, for another site, 2 – I’d like to open a music site, where music artists can upload their own songs, videos and info, blogs, etc. sell music maybe, promote, add photos, and so on.
I’d like for each site to have all the modern features – is this a joomla site, I’m wondering? (Post nuke wouldn’t work for this, I’m told and not a wiki either, but I’d like to use an open source or a cheap, but reliable way to do this.)
Usually a host or server must be pretty large, depending upon the numbers. Upgrades are, of course, inevitable though. Will I need a server of my own? Will I be able just to pay the host, get a software program and download one, like joomla or what?
Does Joomla?
Does anyone know of any program, platform, or hosting place where I can go to start sites likes this?
Expert Answer: It is not your fault you got confused. Web hosting is one of the most important part of your web presence and can mean the success and failure for your business.
Common Mistakes
Majority of people always think that creating their own website online is hard to do. Most of them have a feeling of desperation while some are being hopeful in finding possibly the best website building solution. Some select Joomla while others use WordPress.
Clarification
Remember that before you can publish any website online, you need to have your own domain name and web host. You domain name serves as your site’s unique identity over tons of websites out there to enable your site visitors to locate your website. On the other hand your web host handles the visibility of your website online thus it is important to find a web host that is reliable and meet your web hosting requirements. You can register your domain name at any accredited best domain registrar such as Godaddy and Namecheap. In terms of web hosting providers, there are a lot of best cheap web hosting companies out there, but be sure to have a web host that has cpanel and auto-installer support.
Novices and non-programmers shouldn’t worry in creating website online. There are lots of free solutions online to make your life a little bit easier. If you want to build an online store, you can use free shopping cart solutions such as Zencart, Cubecart, OSCommerce, Magento and Wordress. If you want to create a community site, you can use forum softwares such as PHPBB and vBulletin. If you want to create a blog or any personal and business type of websites, you can use content management systems(cms) such as Joomla, Drupal and WordPress. You can use their available themes, plugins, extensions and modules to be integrated in your site. This provide you with minimal coding or no coding options at all at the same time giving you total control of your site. The great news is these solutions can be easily installed in your server using one-click installer like Fantastico and QuickInstall that can be found in your cPanel.
Wordress or Joomla? Actually both of them are great cms but in terms of usability WordPress is the best to use. So who says creating website is that difficult? Here are some Wordress templates that you can use:
1. Wowway -a unique and highly interactive WordPress theme with 3 preset skins
2. Incidental- the theme provides a very flexible, drag drop tool to manage your gallery.
3. Camp– easy-to-customize and fully featured eCommerce WordPress Theme
4. K-BOOM -one of the powerful Music & Events WordPress Theme, it is meant to serve for Music Projects, Events, Portfolio or just for Blogging
5. Elegantia– a premium WordPress theme for Restaurants & Cafes
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