Looking to start a website....

[Brock Burwell]

....and I'm not really sure which web hosting site is best. I've checked out GoDaddy and I know a guy who uses SquareSpace (and loves it), but I'm not really sure what would be best for me.

I saw this site (Artex Productions – Miami Video Production Services) and have fallen in love with this simplicity but sleek look. If I could completely take this site and just fill my info in, I would. Do you think this site was specifically created for them or is it a template from somewhere?

[James Manford]

Looks like a template tbh.

Give Free Website Builder | Create a Free Website | WIX a try.

[Noa Put]

He's using a wordpress template which may or may not be modified, you can find many of those at theremforest.net

[David Barnett]

Originally Posted by Brock Burwell

I saw this site (Artex Productions – Miami Video Production Services) and have fallen in love with this simplicity but sleek look. If I could completely take this site and just fill my info in, I would. Do you think this site was specifically created for them or is it a template from somewhere?

It is a Wordpress site, and that's exactly how Wordpress themes work. I'd be willing to bet its a theme they purchased, not customized code completely. Unfortunately I tried looking for the theme name in the code & didn't see it, sometimes when you pay for the theme that stuff gets omitted.

Really tho it's not that hard a build. It's a transparent content box, a plugin called Supersized will get you that fixed background image look while the rest slides, similar to this: About Benoît De Boeck - Landscape and nature photography and the slider image up top is just this: Revolution | ThemePunch.

If you really want it let me know, I'd be curious to try something like this out for a nominal fee. Pretty sure I can hack it.

[Robert Benda]

Here are the 5 favorite web hosts based on some voting done over at Lifehacker
Five Best Web Hosting Companies

Dreamhost
Hostgator
BlueHost
Linode
A Small Orange

In any case, a Wordpress based theme would make updates and changes a snap.

[John Nantz]

Originally Posted by Brock Burwell

....I saw this site (Artex Productions – Miami Video Production Services) and have fallen in love with this simplicity but sleek look. If I could completely take this site and just fill my info in, I would.

For info, his site does have a number of tracking cookies:

[Steven Davis]

I've hosted at pair.com for 10 years. Not the cheapest, but have professional support. Make me your referral!

[Noa Put]

Originally Posted by David Barnett

Unfortunately I tried looking for the theme name in the code & didn't see it, sometimes when you pay for the theme that stuff gets omitted.

If you buy such a theme the only reference to the theme's name can be found back in the original folders name (which is the theme's name) where the theme php files etc reside in, it's important you just change that name to your companies for example before you upload it to your server, if you don't want people to know what theme you used.

Originally Posted by David Barnett

If you really want it let me know, I'd be curious to try something like this out for a nominal fee. Pretty sure I can hack it.

Am I understanding this right that you are offering your paid services here to hack someones website and copy it for someone else? :) These type of websites that is referred to are like "13 in a dozen", you can find plenty of those on themeforest. I have been following new website trends on that site for a few years and everytime a certain themelayout is sold big about every author jumps on that train and develops similar looking website templates, there is lots of money to be made on these templates based on the number of sales which you can see so developers follow good selling trends.

I rather would look for something that is deviating from any current trend so your site stands out more.

[Brock Burwell]

I actually didn't know anything about themeforest before. Do they only work for Wordpress websites?

I honestly don't know a lot about even starting a site, so once I get closer to that time I will need to do a lot of research. One quick question though, I hear a lot about wordpress websites. Now, I had the impression that those were just for, like, blogs. Is that incorrect. Can you have a wordpress website without the ".wordpress.com" on it? How does that work?

That said, you are unable to see what the theme the website in my OP used? I'd love that theme, but regardless, themeforest has a lot of templates that are incredible.

[Noa Put]

There are themes for joomla, drupal etc as well, themeforest has a hugh collection of themes, wordpress is just the platform behind your site, you can download it for free and place it on your own server. I just got a cheap hosting solution at a Belgian provider and paid for my own websitename with a .be extension and installing worprerss is just a matter of placing all wordpress sourcefiles on your server and follow their 5 minute installation plan and you can allready start using it as it comes with 2 free basic themes. How to install you can find back through google, there are plenty tutorials available.

You can also use their new microlancer site where you can let freelancers do all teh work for you, you basically choose and buy a template, make sure you have a hosting platform and website name and then just contact one of these guys and they will do all the installation stuff for you, this costs only about 50 dollar (see also here: WordPress Services - Microlancer), if you want to have customizations done that can also be done there, cost will vary on what you need to have changed.

The site you are refering to the themename has been changed so as far as I know it's not possible to find out what theme he used, from the looks of it it is already an older one, the only thing you can do is browse and try out as many theme's you possibly can to pick what you like, the recent ones are very responsive and display right on about any platform (iphone, ipad etc..) You only need to look out for authors that update their themes on a regular base to assure it stays up to date whenever wordpress versions change or just to take out any bugs users report, that update log you can find back on any theme they sell, in that way you are more or less sure that your theme will work like it should, also spend a lot of time browsing through teh user comment section for a theme as you can find back how the author reacts to complaints and if they are fixed if they are bugs in the code. Also good authors have their own support forum to deal with any complaints on their themes.

[David Barnett]

Originally Posted by Noa Put

Am I understanding this right that you are offering your paid services here to hack someones website and copy it for someone else? :)

Not really:/ Wouldn't I just be purchasing the same theme that company did, then inputting differint text & content specific to the other business. Same thing that company Artex did?! Typically, the themes are built by developers (ie 16 year old high school & russian kids) who sell them for about $50 bucks. Then you can do what you want with it. So no it isn't "hacking". Secondly if you just comb thru Page Source, often you can find the theme name in there. Maybe it is very custom, not sure.

Originally Posted by Brock Burwell

I honestly don't know a lot about even starting a site, so once I get closer to that time I will need to do a lot of research. One quick question though, I hear a lot about wordpress websites. Now, I had the impression that those were just for, like, blogs. Is that incorrect. Can you have a wordpress website without the ".wordpress.com" on it? How does that work?

You can buy domain names thru Wordpress.com I believe. But typically these are made thru Wordpress.org where you download the file then up it to a host server. You can just delete out the blog feature from the page (ie posts) and build simply pages instead. The codes can really be ripped up and tweaked pretty well. Its really moved from a blg tool to a web design layout, kinda like Adobe Dreamweaver but somewhat less coding & drag & drop a bit, using themes.

[Roger Van Duyn]

I've been using Yahoo Small Business that has WordPress as an option for nearly five years now. There are quite a few free WordPress themes available to choose from. There are various plug-ins for SEO etc. available too. It's not a bad low-budget option for a DIY approach.

[Noa Put]

Originally Posted by David Barnett

Not really:/ Wouldn't I just be purchasing the same theme that company did, then inputting differint text & content specific to the other business. Same thing that company Artex did?!

Well, not at all, themeforest sells templates that everyone can use, you could buy exactly the same template Artex bought but fill it with your own content, that's legal, that's why they "only" cost 40-45 dollar, because the author/templates can sell lots of them. So you pay a very small price for a professional looking template knowing that a competitor might have the same layout. If you want something unique you modify an existing template until it looks completely different (that's also legal) or you hire a developer that builds you one from scratch that will not be replicated.

Hacking a site, even if the outcome is the same is illegal, for me this means you are stealing someone else source code to build the same template and make a profit out of it, not sure though what you understood under "hacking" but for me it sounded like this, if not then it's always best to clarify to avoid misunderstandings.

[David Barnett]

Oh, I see where the misunderstanding is, lol. "hack it" is sometimes used as a saying like "pull it off" or "do it", like "I'm gonna lay new flooring in my kitchen, I'm pretty sure I can hack it.". Or "I'm thinking of trying P90X, but not sure I can hack it". . So that's what I meant by "hack it", not computer hacking itself per se. Poor placement of wording I suppose.

[Noa Put]

Ah ok, then by all means you can hack away as you please :)