Using website templates

[Andrea]

Hi,

I want to start a website that sells various ebooks, whether it is directly or as an affiliate.

However, I have no experience of html and would be starting from scratch. I was wondering if it would be better to get a website template instead of trying to do my own website layout?

I would like the ebooks to be showcased on a white background with a colourful border surrounding the pages. Is it possible for a beginner to do this?
What do you suggest?

I look forward to hearing from you.

Regards

Andrea

[Iwrite]

I actually found my interest in using html developed when I started using an 'off the peg' website. It had a handy drop down that told me the very basic html. After a while, I knew that. Then I got a bigger site and started to use more html. My biggest success to date was changing the colours on the template using something I found on the web to tell me what the code was. I started to realise that if I looked at 'view source' on my own website I would see what was happening html wise on the 'off the peg' stuff, and that I could change things to suit me. Now I have started looking more seriously at html and thinking more in terms of what I would like to do and if I can use html for it.

Personally, I doubt I would have managed without the 'off the peg stuff.' I treat it as a learning ground. If you use the editor they provide then thei html for what you do has to show on the website, and you can print it off to see what made what happen where. However, someone replied to me the other day that to do certain things I would need something like 'Dreamweaver.'

I have never used anything except the program my ex husband helped design and works on for mac. I guess though I can't put the name on here. That seems to design the whole site for you very easily. My son made a website for me at the age of 12 using it.

I am finding it is trial, error, and curiosity to see how to do it, and a lot of web searches on html.......

Iwrite

[specter]

Hi Andrea,

In my opinion,if you're starting from the scratch,than it could be better for you to try to make your own layout,a simple table for example,on wich to create your variations:working well with tables you can obtain extraordinary results,better than you think;
I started my first web site four years ago in this way and it ran very fine,simple to update and to mantain.

Working with templates, from other hand,ensures excellent,professional results in terms of look,but on the contrary,requires imaging and HTML editing skills;so,it is not easy if you're not friendly with the Photoshop for example, or sometimes, with Flash programming.

You know yourself and your skills;the choice is your.

Specter

[Andrea]

Hi,

Thank you for replying to my message. I have decided to start learning some html and to go on from there.

Regards

Andrea

[jdancing]

There are some great templates out there, but you need to know some HTML and CSS to tweak and customize them to make them work and look the way you want.

The good news is that HTML is fairly basic stuff, it's not like trying to learn VB, PHP, ASP....

[txbakers]

I actually bought a template from cool home pages.com just because I liked the basic layout and images.

You wouldn't recognize it as compared to the original template as all the images, colors, fonts, final layout, etc. are all different.

But it gave me a creative head start instead of dreaming up something from scratch all the time.