I Suggest Opensource Technologies like Drupal,Joomla and many more.
If you are a newbie then you need to start with technology that immense support in outside world .
even i was a newbie i started with drupal and joomla (php ,mysql ,ASP.NET)
Now i designed site http://www.psrpatnaik.com costed me nothing excluding
hosting charges. Offcourse it even depends on your needs and skills.

posted 4 months ago

I use Drupal for about 80% of my projects.

If you are a n00b, it will take some time for you to become a Drupal ninja. However you can set up a very basic site fairly easily by following the documentation. Be sure to install a wysiwyg editor module.

I do not know RapidWeaver but it looks like a nice and easy package. If it does what you want for now, why not use it?

Another option would be to try out Wordpress, which is the standard for blog-style sites, and much simpler (and has fewer features) than Drupal. You can even get a free site hosted on http://wordpress.com

Shameless plug: I can provide reliable and inexpensive web hosting starting at $4/mo http://netsperience-web-hosting.com

Links:

• http://drupal.org/getting-started
• http://drupal.org/cases
• http://wordpress.org/

posted 4 months ago

I'll admit, I'm a little confused by your question. Drupal is a Content Management System you install on your websites during development, not a program to design websites with.

The best advice I can give to anyone starting out in Web Design would be to take the time to learn the basics of HTML and CSS. Even if you are going to be outsourcing the development of your designs, it will greatly help you understand the capabilities and limitations your designs will have.

Start by taking a beginner class in HTML and CSS through an online resource. At the very least, check out the W3C website (in resources) to familiarize yourself with the practices and standards you will be designing for.

Best of luck!

Links:

• http://www.w3.org/
• http://cssglobe.com/post/5387/15-must-read-articles-for-css-beginners

posted 4 months ago

You need to think carefully about the types and size of website you want to get involved with.

There are some essential skills, and some optional ones. Essential ones include being able to clearly define what the client wants, and think logically about what the site must do. (Yes, I know what you're thinking, but lots of people can't do this) And also you must be able to work well with graphics, as a technically competent site which looks terrible won't get you much referral business.

As to the optional skills, unless you are restricting yourself to simple brochureware sites, you will need to decide how to handle issues like ecommerce, user permissions, content management (so the client can make their own updates) and email integration. You can obviously tackle all these by learning programming languages, but that a really hard path to take. Alternatively there are plenty of open source tools that will take you some of the way. The challenge then is integrating the tools and add-ins that you need. My preference (putting my own sales hat on here) is to use neatComponents (which, yea, is free for most cases), as it handles all the aspects which would normally require you to get involved with programming, whilst giving you complete grahpical freedom - ie you're not restricted to a set of templates.

If you clarify what sorts of sites you are thinking of making we can probably give some more specific advice.

Links:

• http://www.neatcomponents.com

posted 4 months ago