So I'd like to create a couple of my own websites exposing the truth about Mormonism (history, etc). It would probably be similar to a Wikipedia type format.

I've never built a website before. Any suggestions for a beginner? I want sone very user friendly and relatively cheap but of course I'm open.

I want to be able to easily create links between pages. Upload pictures and images. Have footnotes. Etc.

Any suggestions for a program or things to look out for while creating or maintains a website? I probably won't sell anything but maybe have advertising to make up for the time doing this

Well the cheapest way would be to just hand code it in notepad with basic HTML5.

here are some basic commands:
for a link type this:
<li><a href="HomePage.html" style='font-size:0.6em'>Home</a>

for an image type this:
<IMG SRC="chart image.jpe" ALT="some text" WIDTH= 400 HEIGHT=200></IMG>

for a paragraph type this:
<P> bla bla bla </P>

But there are lots of good internet sites that explain more about creating web pages. You can copy and paste lots of their code and adapt it. best of luck!

I'd say to just go to any of the big web hosting sites that offer a free, user-friendly, downright easy, website-building array. You might like to try Wordpress.com, for example, which has helped zillions of people to create websites to express their passions, and can help you too.

As you are an absolute beginner I would urge you in the strongest terms not to try learning HTML codes and all of that.

You may want to do a Google search for "Wordpress Hosting."

Wordpress has many developers and lots of free templates. There is also lots of free help online.

Invest a few hours to learn your way around, and you can build a website almost entirely with what-you-see-is-what-you-get simplicity. There's almost no coding required.

Here's some more info:
https://wordpress.com/com-vs-org/

There are three basic ways that I can think of to create web pages.

1.) Use a program like Ms-Word or Excel to make what you want, and then 'Save As WebPage'. You can create hyperlinks to other pages before you save this way. You can also edit these pages manually after saving them with some web browsers that come with html tools. Simple edits such as selecting and editing text, and adding hyperlinks is easy this way, even with no coding experience. This is very simplistic and only creates basic web pages. But it is easy to do with almost no learning curve.

2.) Use a professional web design program. This method is capable of generating almost anything, with the best features. The only problem is that the learning curve is very steep and very painful. I am very good at learning new programs. But I quickly get really pissed off when there is this god-awful, mammoth program with hundreds of buttons and selectons, and all you see is a blank palette with hundreds of pages that explain how to set up your cascading style sheets using dozens of inter-related levels, and explaining it in terms that even with my degree in Engineering, I can't understand. I even have some html and visual basic coding experience. That doesn't help at all when you don't have a f'ing clue how the IDE works or how the archictecure is supposed to look to accomplish what you want to accomplish. And then nothing works when you try to learn it by either experimentation, or by gleaning what you can from the available documentation. Unless you have a degree in this specific area and a lot of manual coding experience in HTML, this is the worst way.

3.) The best way to make complex web pages is to find an internet service provider who has good WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) tools that match your needs. For a few extra dollars per month, you get simple tools that do powerful things. Click here and type in text and resize, import a picture, resize, and place it where it goes, etc... intuitive things.

Good luck.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 02/10/2017 06:28AM by azsteve.

Www.wordpress.com.

Free, easy, and you can add services if you want to, like your own personal domain name, if your site takes off and you want to enhance it.

Btw, it falls under category #3 in Azsteve's post above.

I'd also suggest blogger (owned by google).

www.blogger.com

Sites are free, it's easy to put in ads (as much or as little as you'd like) and make a little $ from them, posting is easy, storage is free and unlimited, etc.

Either wordpress or blogger would do what you need.
If you run into trouble, drop me a note here -- I do web programming for a living now :)

can you load up music to the site you create on blogger?

I have tried several different platforms & like Wix the best. They are very user friendly. Out of everything I've used it allows the most customization without any coding. It's also free.

WordPress is great, but glitches with add-on's & such can arise. If you aren't tech savvy it can be a pita to straighten out. I paid for a WP compatible template last year & then found out I had to repurchase it every year to maintain the updates & security. It worked great in the beginning but about 6 months in started having issues. YMMV though.

At one point I also tried #1 in azsteve's post above but found it may not be compatible with all browsers. That was 10-ish years ago so things may be different now.. just something to keep in mind.

hth