I don't know if ...

[1StrongBlackMan]

this is an permissable question or, if it is, the appropriate place for my question; but here I go ...

I live in a town with a 3% Black population. In the 20+ years I've lived here I've heard a consistent complaint ... that even with the Black population being so small, it lacks community ... it's fragmented ... it's cliqueish ... "Oh, I hadn't heard that the {insert name of local chapter of national organization} had their fund raiser last week ... Was it nice?"

So I have decided to address this deficit ... I want to develop a website/electronic newsletter/bloggy kind of thing that will serve as a portal to the development of a community. I have ideas for content and revenue streams; but I have no idea about how to get it up and running; nor do I have an idea as to want it will cost me.

For example: I like DU's format (though I contemplate mine needs will be far smaller as I will have far less content) ... I imagine that there are templates for building a similiar thing.

Anyone/everyone willing to point me in the right direction can contact me at: [email protected].

[Bradical79]

1. I'm developing my first website/blog right now

I'll let you know of any tips, tricks, and general advice as I go along. I'm an amateur programmer, but this is my first serious foray into web development so I'm still deciding what to build myself, and what pre-created tools I want to use.

So far I've decided to go with hostgator (at www.hostgator.com naturally) to host my website. Paying monthly, it is $7.16/month with their basic plan, though you can go as low as $3.96 a month depending on how long of a plan you want (you can pay it all up front for 1-3 year plans). I'm going monthly for 1 month as a test run. They also have an Easy SiteBuilder tool, but I haven't checked it out. I'm doing mine from scratch (at first) using php, html, and css.

When you sign up with a place like hostgator they let you choose a domain name, which costs and extra $15 fee.

[limpyhobbler]

2. maybe just sign up for one of the big free services.

Get an account on wordpress.com and stick with as many default options as possible.
Or blogger.com (which is now part of Google).

If you need more flexibility, you can sign up for independent hosting but then you will spend more time figuring out the software options and less time creating actual content.

[LenoreLoudinnnuj]

3. decided to address this deficit

this is an permissable question

[tigran777]

4. contact

nice

[1StrongBlackMan]

5. I don't understand n/t

[xsheba97]

6. Spam deleted by Warren DeMontague (MIR Team)

[ian cameron dromore]

8. Free Website systems

There are many free open source Content Management Systems out there but two notable ones would be wordpress and Joomla some website hosting companies even have automatic installers to install the content management system onto your chosen domain name. Just be careful as these free systems will need updating from time to time for security risks to be closed and stop the haters messing with your site. They all require varying levels of knowledge and if you are a complete newbie then you could go for the full autoblog systems from the likes of Wix.com (others do exisit).

Hope this helps

[patrick23]

9. Don't know where to ask...

Lately I found myself having to read more and more lengthy documentation, from a couple of pages to a few hundreds. I get them in electronic format, most of the time pdf. I usually have a first look on my computer screen but for long document, more than a couple of pages, I always feel the need to print them out because I don't feel comfortable staring at my computer screen for a too long time. I know there are devices specialized for this task but never had the chance to try one. For people who use them on a regular basis, which one would you recommend ? Is there any incompatibility, proprietary format ? I get most documents in pdf format

[LovePeace]

10. Yup.

Fully agree, thank you for the post.

[1StrongBlackMan]

12. I can only imagine what someone could have written ...

on this most controversial of topics; but, thank you, whomever alerted.

[oldcynic]

13. it's those damn Russians

I would like to hear how things have gone setting up your website, especially anything to be avoided.