very frustrated and sad: artisteer vs anything else for newb

I had several sites planned and if it's not difficult, I'd like to learn. Can you suggest any tutorials? Maybe I'm just being stupid but I can't figure this out.

Or any ideas for a programmer and what something like this should cost? How long would it take them?

I'm talking about things like changing boxes around, creating or deleting columns, titling menus and pages, uploading photos, changing logo, etc.

Thank you for answering!

You may want to consider buying a pre-made theme from ThemeForest and then customizing it to fit you needs.

Agreed, one the template (theme) is setup up then it's just a matter of modifying HTML/CSS.

I started by researching what software would help with creating a site, found artisteer, then designed and wrote the site, organized photos, etc. In the meantime, I also read extensively about organic SEO, things like importance of title tag, header, etc. Domain names, hyphens, no hyphens, places page, adwords, gees...lots of stuff. Lots and lots. Backlinking pros and cons, how to analyze site, software for everything, etc.

In the course of that mess, I stumbled upon what I considered an excellent SEO tutorial and he said you needed updated content on your home page. That led me to realize that my html site would not work for SEO and I really needed WP.

So that led to an exhaustive study of various templates, features, what looked good and didn't etc.

I was also researching web hosts, good and bad, etc. Had to go through a lot uploading the html site via file zilla, which didn't work, then file manager, etc.

Just lots of stuff...throw in a little photo editing, photo shopping, graphic design questions, video creation, youtube channel creation, video creation, etc.

Probably tons of other stuff.

I also read an html tutorial and made it to page 2. Gees that stuff just makes me crazy. The first page made sense but then there was like an encyclopedia list of the various functions and html coding for those functions and that's when I decided that I would not/should not learn code.

Oh, yeah, I also watched several joomla tutorials and practiced making a baby joomla site, at which point I concluded that the WP fans had it right.

Is there any possible way to design a nice-looking WP site without coding knowledge? I mean, these widgets and menus and pages and assignments make NO sense...

I have also learned that the back end (admin) section of the various templates vary a LOT. Some that I didn't purchase look considerably simpler but I don't want to keep buying templates only to discover new problems.

I'm still trying on this template but seems like if I had a basic understanding of how widgets get put onto pages and how menus are created and how text gets put on pages, etc., then I would be doing very well...

do I need code for that stuff??! Please dear GOD say no!!!!

But seriously thank you for asking and replying. Maybe I will end up back in code tutorial but I sure hope not.

Maybe I just need to ditch this today and start again fresh tomorrow. I am very very determined to crack this nut.

Thanks to everyone for the advice to hire someone but I have thought a lot about the decision and just isn't right for me. I want to control a lot of the elements of the design. I don't want a website with a blog that changes. I want a website that gets deeper with content over time, all organized in a menu that I know how to modify, for one thing. I guess I'm pretty picky about websites because my job involves internet research and writing, so I've certainly been a consumer of many of them for a long time. I don't want a nice 10 page site, with the only new content being thrown into a messy disorganized blog with categories and tags that no one really ever delves into. I want to write an authority site in a different area with organized menus and submenus. I also want to build a few niche sites just because those seem to do well in certain respects. So I need to learn how to do this myself or it will never be right.

Also not that it really matters but I know nothing about hvac and wrote that site myself, which I am designing for a family business. I know it's long but I really don't expect anyone to read all that much, just enough to pick up the phone. My long-term goal is to build many sites, making hiring a pro not feasible. I have a plan in completely unrelated business and making numerous good sites (or at least reasonably decent looking sites) is part of that plan.

I am hear to learn and have spent a considerable amount of time and planning to spend whatever additional time is necessary to learn. I consider myself a student of web design at this point and that's what I want to learn, so please understand that I don't want to do something else. This is what I want to do.

I appreciate anyone who would give me suggestions for building my own WP site. Not a blog. I had a WP blog and I get that concept just fine. I want to build something with menus that looks good. Nothing that I saw from any web designer fit what I wanted to do. I know what I want from a website in terms of content and I want to control the design. But thanks for advice otherwise.

At the moment, I am considering something called "templateer," which is an add-on the artisteer. I don't know if it's any good, part of the problem with all templates. I guess you have to buy before you know, but that's what I plan to do until I get it right, and then can repeat the process. I am getting closer all the time and have learned an amazing amount in 2 months. Just amazing. So I intend to continue.

Other option is elegant themes. Their admin looks easy enough but who knows. I will also take a look at the theme that someone mentioned earlier in this thread (thank you).

FYI today I started a tutorial re: html and css, but still want to find a user-friendly template.

Thanks to everyone who gave suggestions to help me build my own sites. I will re-read and again check out the references. Thanks!!

That's awesome! Thank you!! I read through quite a few themes on Theme Forest, ratings, etc. Even many with good ratings had bugs that sounded concerning (e.g., can't upload photos, etc.) But I have my eye on one anyway that looks pretty good.

I also have learned to try to look at dates--of course many WP tech blog now have removed dates so that can be frustrating.

Another couple of questions--what do you think about RT for beginners? I love their themes and have heard some good things but then doing a search for them, found a few support complaints in their forum, with replies from moderators saying they gave answers, etc. Looks overall pretty good but I'm worried the admin panel will be similar to YooTheme.

Also I found (I think) a solution for my problem with this html site, wanting fresh content on the page. I *think* assuming blog (below link) was not outdated you can add an RSS feed to a WP site and I'm going to try to hire someone to do that for me, so that snippets of the blog will appear on the front page and I don't have to re-build that site on WP. Then I will just upload an Artisteer background for the WP blog and hopefully can link that somehow to the html site.'

Blog re: RSS feed for html site (could be useful to programmers if clients come and want to keep old site but add fresh content--and assuming like I said this technique isn't too dated):

http://www.corvidworks.com/articles/...on-other-pages

http://www.corvidworks.com/articles/...with-simplepie

Does anyone who has time to look think the first option would be bad for any reason? I'm not sure about the third party program download required for the second one...

Again if I can choose one of these, I am going to look into Warriors for Hire or someone to add the code. I mean, I can read and everything, but I wouldn't totally trust myself to add that stuff right now.

I'm going to start a new site (my second--yay!!) on WP. Also was reading html and css blog, and doing "assignments" in notepad at about 3:00 a.m. this morning thanks to you guys!!!!!

Thank you again!!

Tina

Thank you again!!!!! Do you mean that I can add a WP widget to an html site? I thought widgets were only for WP?? I want the snippets from the WP blog to appear on the html site...do you think the widgets will work for that?

I will check out that designer definitely!!

I am going to stick with it. I actually found a pretty good/conversational blog on topic, current and amazingly interesting.

In the old days when they had the "TRS 80" I was president of my computer club. This was somewhere around 8th grade when I knew nothing about computers. I was also in some programming contest for God knows what reason--4 person team--me and 3 guys--we totally lost but I am hoping that will give me a head start. Hopefully not too much has changed, hahaha.

Tina

Again many thanks!!