How do I make a homepage?

[Zhang]

I'm very illiterate when it comes to websites and computers, right now all I have for my site is a forum page, thats it, how do I make a homepage, and etc into a full website??

[Dean C]

Welcome to the forum Zhang :) That's a pretty vague question. You really have 3 choices:


A portal such as vbadvanced (which most people seem to go for). My personal opinion on these are they are fine as long as you customize the look of them. I find the look of them a little boring as practically half the vB forums I visit use some kind of portal with the same stock layout
A CMS with integration with vBulletin. These are far more more powerful and allow you have galleries, article systems and add lots of unique content to your website. It's a nice solution to a common problem: content management. However, if you're not web-literate a lot of these CMSs can seem daunting at times. Nevertheless I'd reccomend you look into something like Drupal or Joomla. I'll hesitantly add wordpress to that list too but it's by no means a CMS but it's certainly flexible and may fit your needs.
A bespoke solution. This is by far the best option. You can get exactly what YOU need as a webmaster. the system can be built to fit your needs, and look and function the way you want it to. Unfortunately this is also the most expensive option as you'll be paying a developer or team of developers for their time.


Hope I offered you some valuable input!

Regards,
- Dean

[Zhang]

thank you but how do I get these features onto my site? Or where do I go to access them?

[Dean C]

www.vbadvanced.com
www.joomla.com
www.drupal.com

:)

[Zhang]

Thanks but how do I upload the features I download from this site onto my website?

Like for ex

I download a mod and the folder is sitting on my desktop

how do I install it onto my site?

[Dean C]

Well the individual instructions will be different per piece of software. Normally you can find documentation and help on the websites. For example drupal has a tutorial here:

http://drupal.org/node/258

In all honesty, without sounding like I'm trying to get a bit of work out of you, you'd be better off hiring someone to install these features for you if you are computer illiterate. Then that person would perhaps be able to help guide you through what they did and give you a better understanding of how these things work. However, there's plenty of literature out there if you're willing to look for it ;)

[Zhang]

So if I pay someone to install it for me? Which of the 3 sites you listed should I go to?

and should I get other people to install other things for me as well (mods, styles, features, etc)

[Dean C]

Well it's all about you want. Someone who knows what they're doing can help you make that decision and then guide you through installing it for a fee :)

[Zhang]

Who should I talk to? I don't know anyone who's into this kind of stuff -_-

[nexialys]

Someone who knows what they're doing

i indicate here that Dean is talking about himself here... he knows everything that anybody need to know... !!!!

actually, to hire someone here, you need to post a "Paid Service Request",... in the bottom of the main page (forums)

[Zhang]

Hmmmm Dean?????