website creation - for non web programmers?

Question

I thought I would find decent questions and answers for this, but none really caught my eye...

I am a C++ developer and I own a few domains. I'd like to start off with simple web sites for each with a minimum of time and fuss and minimum learning. I have too many projects going and don't have the time to learn how to build websites.

One is for a company that currently has only a single product with custom development as well. I hacked together some really bad html with paypal links on it. It is just one simple product. I want to add uservoice to it and maybe some other stuff like FAQ, forums, etc. Right now I just link to a google group I created.

Another is a startup in development phase, but we want to provide simple content like whitepapers and press releases and a section for investors. - mostly an "about us" type of thing. We will also be providing details about our product.

Then there is a blog site - currently using godaddy's quickblogcast. Not a bad start but I suspect I want to move to something else.

The question is - is there a framework that I can use that will make decent, if not outstanding, sites? Again, I have my hands full with three projects in addition to my day job and don't have time to learn web programming. I also don;t want to just pay a web person and then be out in the cold for upgrades, changes, etc. I have been burned before. I am happy with a web-based app or a desktop app that builds html or whatever and then I can ftp it up to the hosting servers.

To summarize: - simple to get started - low time to get a web page going - ability to integrate with a few hand-done pages - pay pal integration - uservoice integration - ability to put under my svn would be nice too

EDIT

Thanks to the responders. I understand now why my original searches failed. I was not searching for "CMS". I'll go back and do that. I would expect that this is a many-times-duplicate...

EDIT: I am considering using Wordpress and Drupal - one for each of the sites. I did one Drupal site quickly just so I could qualify for one of the Microsoft programs for discounted dev tools - anyway - it was a quick and dirty homepage and I am still on the learning curve. I look forward to playing with it. So far it has been ok. I am not sure about doing a taste-test between the two - might be a waste of time where I could just become that much better at Drupal faster than spending time on wordpress...

Will keep updated.

EDIT:

Selecting the Drupal answer by slim for now. That is what I am going with. Don't have time to check them all out. Wordpress sounds like a good option too, but such limited time...

Results: I have tried wordpress and drupal so far. Wordpress is great for blogging or for a site that you want to run ads from, but I disagree that it is ready for a corporate site, unless you want to spend lots of time making your own theme, etc. But if you spend that time, why not work with drupal?

Drupal was a little intimidating at first - but after spending about 4 hours reading the overview and step-by-step guide online was a HUGE step. I got a simple site up and running easily after that. Trying to make a website just by going to the admin panel without reading anything is a waste of time. You really need to read the docs. The site is great.

start here:

http://drupal.org/getting-started

I'd suggest drupal to anyone. It has amazing capabilities, lots of support and lots of users.

Just doing blogging? Wordpress is really great for that.

So now I've got two sites running with a lot of the functionality I wanted - and they look good.

ONE MORE EDIT

Well, I have switched back to wordpress after buying a theme and then getting help from web developers. I guess either one will work - it is just a matter of getting comfortable witht he basics, using the right tools and trying things out.

Answer 1

I would take a look at using WordPress or some other blog engine. These are easy to customize and configure to do more than just blogs.

Since you have a technical background, you should be able to bend it to your will.

Answer 2

What you're looking for is a CMS. There are many to choose from. Drupal is popular.

There is some continuity between blog engine and CMS: a sophisticated blog system approaches the functionality of a simple CMS.

Answer 3

To add to slim's response, here's the list of CMS system from wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_content_management_systems

My blogger friends seem to be big fans of Wordpress, as well.

Answer 4

There are quite a few sites that will provide "free" or nearly free site templates that are actually quite well done. Usually the only requirement is a reference to the original creator.

Free CSS

One Soft

Answer 5

You have a lot of options for this. One, at least, is to install Wordpress (or get a hosted Wordress installation for your domains). This gives you a simple way to put up a blog and some static pages, while letting you customise it more later. There are a lot of similar content management and blogging platforms you could use.

An alternative is to start coding HTML by hand, and gradually introduce some code in PHP or some other language, so you can avoid repeating yourself. You can still do a lot with very little (of your own) code.

Answer 6

Not sure about pay pal integration, user voice integration and SVN, but I highly recommend you take a look at Google Apps. It's free to set up a site if you already own a domain name, but $10 to set up a new site and purchase a new domain name. There's loads of nice things that fall under this site like your own custom GMail, Calendar, Docs etc. and you can add up to 200 users for free.

But to your need, the site also provides you your own Google Sites which is a managed page hosting system. The process for supplying content ranges from beginner where you basically use their web based editor to add content, up to basically sort of uploading your own content and linking to it. You can pick from a wide variety of themes and colour patterns which save you a lot of time when setting up. You can pretty much do anything with HTML, JavaScript, Images etc. but another nice bonus is the ability to embed Google Gadgets which are snazzy Ajax/HTML components for all sorts of things like calendars etc. Granted, some of these are a bit goofy (although there was that nice bikini picture of the day gadget....), but there are some really good ones as well which are highly customizable. Needless to say, there is built in search so you will not have to worry about that.

The other nice aspect is that you can create an [unlimited ?] number of sites. Say your domain was tim.com, you can host www.tim.com, java.tim.com, trivia.tim.com etc.

So it will start you off in your own domain, allowing you the option of starting with some basic HTML but giving you the freedom to get more sophisticated as you learn more stuff.

As far as pay pal, voice and SVN, I would not be surprised if you could finagle all those in somehow. Obviously pay pal is the market leader, but Google CheckOut is most certainly supported, so it is another option. Also, Google Chat can be embedded in your site if that addresses your voice requirements.

This is a decent How To site for Google Sites.

BTW, I do not work for Google or own any stock. I am just enthusiastic.....

Answer 7

Just wanted to add that a major plus of the Drupal CMS is the ability to multi-site off of a single code-base, even with different domains (as long as they are hosted on the same server). This means you can have shared modules, and code, and only have to maintain 1 set of core modules/themes.

Answer 8

Like many other answers to your question I'd recommend you get a LAMP (Linux+Apache+MySQL+PHP) host and then install something like Wordpress or Drupal. Alternatively you can have a hosted CMS such as at Wordpress.com.

But to put a slightly different spin on things - I've helped various friends set up sites using Microsoft Office Live Small Business (www.OfficeLive.com)). Particularly if other people need to maintain the site, it's really easy to get started, no hosting fees, no technical knowledge required for basic type of site. I've been surprised how complex sites created with this tool are - since you can paste in Javascript it's easy to integrate with apps like Google/Live Calendar/Maps.

Answer 9

If You

• care for time
• need really pretty themes
• need some static pages + blog + simple categories + a couple of other not-so-sophisticated feature, ...I'd say go Wordpress

If You

• are ready for longer learning time
• expect the site to mirror a structure of quite complex products/documents/...
• need a flexible solution that will make a site easy to extend ... go Drupal.

Anyway, you can have a look at CMS features comparison at CMS Matrix.