How to setup a website as a non-tech person?

[Frostfang]

Greetings

A couple of friends just started an organization that is aimed at helping out school learners, as such it was decided that we'll need a website. This website will need to have registration and login features, will need to have information storage which might be in a form of videos, and online chatting.

I've agreed to undertake this task of building a website. I have been doing online searches and have come to learn a few things:

• I'll need a CMS platform
  WordPress seems to be the popular choice, from what I get it comes with a lot of plugins, before I go with it do you guys here agree or is there a better platform?
  
  
• Domain and website hosting
  On purchasing a domain I saw different prices for *.com/*.org/*.co.za domain extensions, are there advantages and disadvantages on choosing one of these over the other, other than others being cheaper?
  On hosting what should I consider when looking at the available options?
  
  
• Building the website
  My question here is more about when and where should I start building the website. Should I download and install WordPress and build the site on my computer or should I first purchase the domain and hosting then only after that use the WordPress app installer over the hosting server? I'm still a bit fuzzy over this bit here.

A step-by-step breakthrough of the whole process of going about this would be much appreciated. Also what use are front end frameworks such as Foundation, BootStrap, etc will I need to use those?
Will knowing a bit of web development languages help me? If so which should I go for?

Thanks in advance.

 

[naeem]

Wordpress + a good theme should be more then enough.

For videos, consider using Youtube - you can easily embed a Youtube vid onto WordPress and less strain on your hosting service.

online chatting, not sure about that, but i'm sure there are 3rd party services that could offer this.


That said, if you're looking at learning (online learning?) - look at Moodle? https://moodle.org/

 

[Idiosyncratic]

Greetings

A couple of friends just started an organization that is aimed at helping out school learners, as such it was decided that we'll need a website. This website will need to have registration and login features, will need to have information storage which might be in a form of videos, and online chatting.

I've agreed to undertake this task of building a website. I have been doing online searches and have come to learn a few things:

• I'll need a CMS platform
  WordPress seems to be the popular choice, from what I get it comes with a lot of plugins, before I go with it do you guys here agree or is there a better platform?
  
  
• Domain and website hosting
  On purchasing a domain I saw different prices for *.com/*.org/*.co.za domain extensions, are there advantages and disadvantages on choosing one of these over the other, other than others being cheaper?
  On hosting what should I consider when looking at the available options?
  
  
• Building the website
  My question here is more about when and where should I start building the website. Should I download and install WordPress and build the site on my computer or should I first purchase the domain and hosting then only after that use the WordPress app installer over the hosting server? I'm still a bit fuzzy over this bit here.

A step-by-step breakthrough of the whole process of going about this would be much appreciated. Also what use are front end frameworks such as Foundation, BootStrap, etc will I need to use those?
Will knowing a bit of web development languages help me? If so which should I go for?

Thanks in advance.

Why are you considering doing it yourself if it is for an organization? Just asking, because front-end frameworks like BootStrap are no joke to work with if you have little HTML/CSS knowledge. WP is the best CMS at the moment for what you're looking to do - if you really want to do it yourself, get hosting and a domain first as "migrating" the site from you PC isn't easy for a beginner.

 

[Idiosyncratic]

.co.za domains are the best if your target market is South Africa.
.com is better if your organization is targeting the intl market.
I'd recommend you go with a 1Gb hosting package, although if you won't be placing a lot of pages/plugins on the site, then 300-500mb should be enough.

 

[Creag]

If you are planning on handling personal information in your website, you may need to think about how you safeguard this when the POPI Act is effective.

 

[Frostfang]

Why are you considering doing it yourself if it is for an organization? Just asking, because front-end frameworks like BootStrap are no joke to work with if you have little HTML/CSS knowledge. WP is the best CMS at the moment for what you're looking to do - if you really want to do it yourself, get hosting and a domain first as "migrating" the site from you PC isn't easy for a beginner.

I saw some impressive videos on the front-end frameworks but for now I'll just focus on WP only. Thanks for clarifying that last bit I'll try and find the domain and a hosting package before I start.

 

[Frostfang]

If you are planning on handling personal information in your website, you may need to think about how you safeguard this when the POPI Act is effective.

I haven't even thought of this yet, what's the best way of ensuring the safety of the information we'll gather?

 

[Morgisto]

I have been following a guy called Tyler Moore . He does vids on YouTube and I believe the best .Website www.tyler.com has a program created by him called Tessaract. Do yourself a favour and take look at it.

Regards

Morgs