Finding Software to make your website work for you.

GoDaddy, Lunarpages... doesn't really matter WHO you're dealing with, odds are, they've got a list of programs available to you that would make any programmer envious. PhPBB, simplemachines forum, Xango, Moodle... you name it, and it's out there at any web developer's disposal... at least, with the main hosts out there.

So how can you make it work for you? Research, and lots of it. A week spent learning what Joomla can do for you will save you YEARS in programming. A day's research on forum products (the most user-friendly, in my opinion) will put together a site that one person could never do on their own.

These tools are available to you, and I recommend using them, as I have, because along with it comes teams of developers who will help you with any problem you encounter. Communities come together on these boards to solve your problems and get your site back up and running. It's probably not as dependable as some of the pay sites' customer service, but if you give them a chance, you'll soon see what these open source products have to offer, and I'm sure you'll be impressed.

On a similar note, I was impressed with the one-click installation options on both of my webhosts, GoDaddy and Lunarpages. Each of them have a tool (for GoDaddy, it's GoDaddy Hosting Connection, for Lunarpages, Fantastico) that make adding software easier than signing up for the account.

It goes something like this: Oh, you wanted simplemachines forum? Ok. What do you want your password to be? Come back in a few minutes to the directory you wanted it to be under, and you can start labeling everything....

and bam. I've got my own forum up and running (yes, lol, I put up TWO different forums, one of which is a glorious wasteland... come to think of it, the second isn't doing so fabulous, either).

Even better, once your website is up and running, you can have access to their scripts as well, for mail forms PERL scripts, and more.

Following Alice down the rabbit hole

How did I get here? Alice showed me the way, or more specifically, AshBo. Whateverlife.com has created a huge following of people jumping on the bandwagon hoping for riches, or (in my case) a way to pay my car note so I can rest a little easier at night.

Whateverlife.com was created by Ashbo, and if you haven't heard about her yet, she's all over the place, one article in particular can be found here:
http://www.doshdosh.com/case-study-of-teenage-millionaire-ashley-qualls/

Who am I? Well, in this case, I'll define it by what I am NOT. I'm not the kid in high school who was hacking into the school computers to change his grades. I'm not the guy you read about who was an internet prodigy before there was internet. I'm a regular guy using the tools out there to make a website that other people would want to use.

I have never taken a single programming course. I've never sat through the html book. I never learned css or javascript. I pick up as I go, using snippets of what other people have put together to make it work for me. My websites are all made using dreamweaver. My images are all manipulated using adobe fireworks. My codes are nabbed from everywhere.

Why am I telling you this? Simple, because you can do it too! I encourage anyone following this blog to take a look around. I want to leave detailed instructions on how to make it work for you, as well.


If you ever have any questions, I'll be checking comments here, or you can join our forum at myspacespiceshop.com/community