How to build a website?

Going through the needs and features you are looking for i can recommend http://www.tucktail.com/tt/smart-space/ which i think encapsulates all your needs in a much easier and economical way

You need a domain, which is the name of your site, godaddy has them right now for $1.49 , .com domain with code NEWYEAR11, then each year, you need to renew the name which cost about $8 with code FAN3. Then you need to host your domain, like having a place to park your website so other can see it when you aren't online. Hostgator is the best in price to services, I use Hostgator and they have the cPanel which you could install wordpress, super great customer service who reply to my email in minutes and very knowledgeable staff. Good uptime Guarantee unlike other hosting company who say Guarantee but don't follow through like bluehost. Plus they have great promotion such as 20% off or $0.01 cent for first month offer, plus a $50 rebate, which can be found at http://poormoney.com/hostgator-50-rebate/ Using dreamwaver, you should zip the file of your site and save it on your desktop. Then go to your cPanel, to file manager, to your site with the internet button, then to your site name, upload your zip file in your site name, extract it, delete the zip file. your website should be up.

Use Ultimate Web Builder - http://www.redesigns.org/web-builder It comes with a built-in blog and forum, and lots of features including photo galleries management, SEO (search engine optimization tool), mailing list application, e-commerce/PayPal shopping cart...and lots more. You can create the images you want for the page background, etc. on PhotoShop and then enter it in the design Admin Panel and stylize your website - the Admin Panel will convert it to CSS for you - you can also add your own custom CSS coding to your website if you would like too. The website builder is very easy to use, beginner friendly and expert flexible. Comes with free tech support if you need any help too.

there are some nice menus you can choose from at http://dynamicdrive.com and with jquery you can do some pretty neat stuff for animation/Dynamic HTML. you can learn about whatever web technologies you need at http://w3schools.com get good at coding. but even better at layout and graphic design. free templates are available, plus templates you pay for. look around, just google web templates. most of the images are psd's anyway - that way you can customize. but you will probably go a lot farther (as is said on dreamweaver club forums) if you use HTML+CSS for the heavy lifting. and it will be a lot lighter on the users. there are still dialup folk out there.

Don't waste your time building up an html site, take it to the next level and build a site using a cms (content management system). This will allow you easily manage your content and keep your site up to date for years to come. You can style up your site the same way you would with any other site, so knowing html and css will be all you need. Download WordPress and get a blank theme. You can download a blank theme from here: http://www.thewordpressblog.com/theming/blank-wordpress-template-download/ If you need help theming your site, here's a great guide: http://themeshaper.com/wordpress-themes-templates-tutorial/

As an experienced webmaster I recommend BH web hosting which I’m sure it would work for you and fulfill all your requirements. They have a really great offer for hosting & I have used them for over 3 yrs now, and have never had a single problem with them. You can reach reviews about this web hosting provider and its latest DISCOUNT COUPONS at: http://www.threehosts.com/reviews/1st Only $3.95 /month (with discount coupon) ******IMPORTANT******** * This service was awarded the “Best Web Hosting OF The Year”. ***************************** Hope this helps.

The easiest way for a novice to build a web site is to start with a web template. Web Templates can be customized and you can use the layout but swap the graphics etc.... this will get you comfortable with basic HTML design and an HTML editor (like Dreamweaver). Here are some resources for free or inexpensive templates that are easy to edit and manage. Webmaster Templates - http://www.webmaster-templates.net Free Web Templates - http://www.freewebtemplates.com/ Web Design Elements - http://www.webdesign-elements.com Free Website Templates - http://www.freewebsitetemplates.com/ Free Layouts - http://www.freelayouts.com/ Free Templates Online - http://www.freetemplatesonline.com HTML website templates can significantly ease the burden of designing and creating websites by providing webmasters with a ready-made web layout, structure, basic graphics, and color scheme. The templates can generally be edited and customized with any HTML editor. The biggest advantage for webmasters using ready-made templates is the amount of time that can be saved.

Here's something you might want to take into consideration. I know html and css. I know how to manipulate images. I know a little php, perl and javascript. I know about databases. But do you think I can put the design elements together to make an attractive, appeal to the eye site? Not on your life. I can make a functional working site, because I know html and css. But make it pretty? Not gonna happen on my watch, lol. I don't have the talent, or the design eye. I've been working with html since about 1996. I accept this about myself, the lacking talent thing and live with it. If I want a hot looking site, I either have to use a template or hire someone to do it for me.

First let me say that nothing in this post is meant to be rude..... I love Adobe (been doing sites and graphic design since Photoshop 4 so think how far they've come LOL) but everyone is silly by thinking HTML and CSS make crappy websites. You just have a LOT more to learn and hey we ALL started somewhere so good for you! I started in Notepad before I ever touched a WYSIWYG. Photoshop, Dreamweaver, Flash, Wordpress, Joomla etc. are great tools but should never be used alone. Hard coding is the way to go if you want a truly professional looking (and most important WORKING) site and now with HTML 5 and CSS 3 I no longer need to go into Photoshop or Flash for a huge amount of the graphic effects client's want on sites. Coded sites load much faster because the site files are much smaller. When you learn about servers that will make a huge difference. You can design your site in Photoshop and slice it up (the site will be very graphic intense then and files size much larger then necessary) but you still need HTML and CSS (or Dreamweaver) to place the images, make the pages, etc and if you want the site to be interactive you HAVE to use code (lot's of free code out there to copy and paste but you still need to know enough to "paste it in the right place" of your HTML code whether you use Dreamweaver or not) I like to design the site in Photoshop to get a general idea of how it's going to look and then recreate it with HTML and CSS as much as I can. Like other's have said, learn PHP (if you want a forum that is the way to code one (or most used way that I know of) unless you want to buy one and just add it to the site, but also learn Javascript and Jquery. Most of the bells and whistles you see on sites are coded with Javascript/Jquery and CSS, unless it is just a FLASH site. View the source code of sites that you think are good and see what "scripting language" they use. Most use a few but all HAVE to start with HTML or the browser just won't see it as a web page so stick with it. Tons of tutorials out there these days so keep at it if you are serious and want to be taken seriously. Wordpress and Joomla (Joomla is more for building actual websites, Wordpress is basically a blog content management system geared more for those who don't know HTML or anything) are ok but like Dreamweaver you are still at the mercy of the program (and templates) unless you learn how to code and script yourself. As for how to make a great layout (without using a template) well that is all in your own design skills so for me it was just study sites I thought were great and practice practice practice and learn to take rejection well. One person's opinion does not mean the design is bad so keep at it. It seems that your goal is to be a professional so keep learning and hard coding. No one knows everything and the rules keep changing so we all can never learn enough. Go for it! Hope that helped a bit.