Website and Wordpress Blog

ammonite

Hello, I have my own domain name. I want to have a website on there which I am currently editing in Dreamweaver (from a template) and also want to have a wordpress blog on there.

I have no idea how to intregrate the two, other than providing a link to the blog on the website. Ideally I want to the blog posts to form the main home page, but want links to other bits of the website around the side.

Any advice at all?? Totally out of my depth here!

victor2

If you already have or can get Wordpress on the webserver, do the whole site in that for a seemless link. Wordpress can have static pages as well as blogs, you can even build an entire "blog free" site with it should you want to. All you need to find is a template that suits your needs.
Dreamweaver is great and gives you total control, but Wordpress takes away many of the issues regarding things like browser compatibility.

ammonite

I have no idea how to get Wordpress on the webserver. Can I make the blog sit on the domain name and scrap the 'static' website? If so, how?

victor2

Some hosting companies have automated installation scripts on their control panel, which may include Wordpress. Failing that you can get it from here. I'd leave your site as it is for now, but try Wordpress in a new folder within your hosting space. If you've never used it before, look at some of the associated forums for help.

tod123

ammonite wrote: »

I have no idea how to get Wordpress on the webserver. Can I make the blog sit on the domain name and scrap the 'static' website? If so, how?

with my hosting you have a choice in the plex control panel. Its just 3 clicks to get it up and running

You can either install WP as an extension to the root ,

example.co.uk/blog

Or as the root itself , so it would just open as the front page on (and it will delete all existing content that is hosted)

example.co.uk

I would find a wordpress website template you like , install wordpress via the control panel , then upload the template and go from there.

ammonite

thanks for your replies. I think you can do that in my hosting (123-reg)but only on a Linux system - I have the windows package.

I will carry on trying! Thanks for your help

wonka

For something professional, don't bother with a combination of a static HTML and a blog. Wordpress can be used to publish both web pages AND a blog in one site.

And you can use Dreamweaver too.

First thing to do is get Wordpress installed - are you sure your web host supports PHP & MySQL? If your web host doesn't do automatic installations of web apps, download Wordpress, unzip, then FTP all the files up to your site. You will also need to do some configuration, but there are good easy to follow instructions on the wordpress website, or tutorials through google.

Once you have wordpress installed, you can create a theme using Dreamweaver, ensuring that it follows a typical CMS structure containing a header, footer, sidebar and content. Once you have the theme structure, you will then slice it up to hook into wordpress, but you will need PHP knowledge for this - or pay someone to do it for you.

Have fun!

pinkteapot

ammonite wrote: »

thanks for your replies. I think you can do that in my hosting (123-reg)but only on a Linux system - I have the windows package.

I will carry on trying! Thanks for your help

Hi ammonite. I'm also in the process of setting up a website with a blog and have hosting with 123-reg. I opted for Linux hosting rather than Windows because of the Wordpress support on Linux. Might be worth contacting 123-reg to see if you can change your hosting from Windows to Linux?

Their hosting costs are the same regardless of the system used and it makes no impact on what you do in terms of editing the site locally on your PC. It's just the format for their storage of the site, effectively.

The only benefit of being on Windows hosting is the support for Microsoft technologies - SQL and ASP.NET. Do you need these for your site?

p.s. Thanks for the very well timed thread as it's my first time doing this as well. I've only ever set up basic HTML sites before. This thread has been very useful!

To Wonka - I use Microsoft Expression Web rather than Dreamweaver. I don't have PHP knowledge. I take it it's simplest to scrap using Expression Web and just use Wordpress and one of the existing themes available for the site? I haven't downloaded the Wordpress software yet so I've no idea what it's like for designing/editing a site in... As for the OP, my site will have a blog page but it's not primarily a blog site.

wonka

pinkteapot wrote: »

To Wonka - I use Microsoft Expression Web rather than Dreamweaver. I don't have PHP knowledge. I take it it's simplest to scrap using Expression Web and just use Wordpress and one of the existing themes available for the site? I haven't downloaded the Wordpress software yet so I've no idea what it's like for designing/editing a site in... As for the OP, my site will have a blog page but it's not primarily a blog site.

Wordpress is an absolute dream for creating a website, very easy to use. There are hundreds if not thousands of free themes you can use for a wordpress site. A lot are geared towards blogs, but I'm sure you will find a theme to suit your needs. Check out the theme gallery.

Or you can pay someone to create a custom theme for you if you don't like what's available. I can do this - PM if interested.

pinkteapot

Thanks wonka - I'll be in touch if I have trouble finding a suitable theme. The main issue is colours - I have already defined a colour palette for the site and created a site logo off of this. So I'm fixed down to the hex code on what background colour we want. Reading around though, it looks like Wordpress themes should be editable in this regard as you have access to the CSS files for them. Is that correct?

To OP - with apologies for the slight thread hijack at this point!

meongroup

If you are new to wordpress then a small investment in one of the guides to using the software would save a lot of time. Wordpress for Dummies would be a start. It has some ommissions, but probably has enough to get your site established. There are two WP versions, the one you require can be downloaded from Wordpress.org. But please read their very clear instructions first. Dont worry about the theme, you can change it as often as you like when the website is in place.