My main website is my mainstay in all my crafting. It has evolved as I have evolved in my machine knitting online business. It's WELL worth the effort. I use MacroMedia's DreamWeaver web development software and it's wonderful!
You can learn HTML or other forms of programming, it depends not only on your computer skill levels, but also how much time would you be able to devote to that site. It does take a considerable amount of time when you start out, but if you're diligent in your updating and tweaking, you can get a full site's maintenance down to a few hours every week or so. Discipline is the key for that.
I learned HTML because my kids were encouraging me all the time.
"You can do it, Mom, you're computer savvy." I really think (although they didn't SAY it) they were tired of answering all of Mom's questions and having to fix her 'oops!'.
It's actually quite simple to learn and do. There are also programs out there called
WYSIWYGs (What You See Is What You Get) that have numerous templates, styles, themes and can get a website launched in short order. A lot of it can be simply fill-in-the-blanks. Now some of the other programming (cgi or php) are not my cup of tea. I hire someone for any of that. I have several websites I own and designed all of them. They all have a specific purpose in my online businesses.
Online courses are marvelous, as are ones at a community college. Here are some sites I pop into now and then when I need some info:
http://www.dynamicdrive.com
http://www.davesite.com/webstation/
http://www.webdiner.com
http://www.2createawebsite.com/build/html.html
http://www.pagetutor.com
http://www.htmlprimer.com
http://www.pageresource.com/html/index.html
http://www.htmlgoodies.com
~ Marge ~
