What tools to use to build a first web site?

Get some free html template. Open it in Notepad or Dreamweaver and get idea how things are going. Find yourself some ebook html+css. You can run it for a month.
Then you will realize how site works and will see it is very hard to keep it updated manual, so you will get yourself some CMS like Wordpress, Joomla, sNews, Drupal...

Choose Wordpress for a start as Will said. Then download some free themes few plugins and see how here things are working. After managing and understanding wordpress you will easily see the point of using CMS. Until that you will already know html and css or at least you will know how to change and adopt things... Do not buy templates and things until you dont know what are you buying... After learning basics you will know better what are you want... You can do everything without knowing any things i mentioned but it will be better experience and you would not have to call your friends or pay for every things...

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Originally Posted by Hellas

You can do everything without knowing any things i mentioned but it will be better experience and you would not have to call your friends or pay for every things...

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Now you're talking- Thanks!

The main advantage of wordpress for content site is RSS Feeds and google love RSS Feeds ;)

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Originally Posted by sweetheater

The main advantage of wordpress for content site is RSS Feeds and google love RSS Feeds ;)

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A properly setup wordpress site still rocks for me!

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Originally Posted by Shenron

A properly setup wordpress site still rocks for me!

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Any tips for setting up properly, or what to avoid?

I am needed to get a site up now, I am looking at wordpress but I want a theme that doesn't make it look like a blog (or obvious that it is wordpress) I want the site to be a professional service site for SEO.

Anyone have tips on this? Maybe who has templates like what I am asking, maybe with the SEO addons already added.

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Originally Posted by Charles

That's up to you, depending on how much you would like to invest. In the past, I have sold Will websites for it's monthly revenue multipled by 15. So, $100/month = $100 * 15 = $1500.

So, if $x/month = $x * m = $t (m = multiple, $t = total). Fill in $x and m, to calculate $t. Alter variables accordingly. I tried to keep it simple. :p

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You're only talking about passive income for the site aren't you? The reason I ask is that I have a blog with decent PR that earns it's income from advertising and links. Part of this income is passive, but a great deal of it probably requires constant updating. Assuming a new owner is happy to continue writing posts it could be valued at over $5,000 but I can't see someone wanting to spend that much. Any thoughts?

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Originally Posted by elbandelero

You're only talking about passive income for the site aren't you? The reason I ask is that I have a blog with decent PR that earns it's income from advertising and links. Part of this income is passive, but a great deal of it probably requires constant updating. Assuming a new owner is happy to continue writing posts it could be valued at over $5,000 but I can't see someone wanting to spend that much. Any thoughts?

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Use a lower multiple than 15.

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Originally Posted by krnchx

Any tips for setting up properly, or what to avoid?

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Sure, here are a few tips:

Using the default wordpress settings:

1. Always use Friendly URL's, that is, forget these ../blablabla?p=123 URL's
2. Redirect your 12345abc.com URL's to www.12345abc.com
3. Create strong user passwords
4. Edit your auto-rss feeds to include a large list of rss agregators

Plugins:

I use (and keep updated)

1. Akismet
2. All in One SEO Pack
3. Blog Metrics
4. Easy Tube
5. Get Random Posts
6. Global Translator
7. Google XML Sitemaps
8. Sociable
9. Related Posts
10. NextGen Gallery

There are a few others I'm not using atm.

Wordpress is by far (from my own experience) the best CMS around.
You can get a load of free wordpress around the web, and by editing those you can easily make your site look different from a blog; you can remove the comments option, the "posted by" option, the archives option, etc, etc...

Editing wordpress templates is very easy, by editing those properly you can make your wordpress site look like a standard site instead of a blog.

On Shenron list I would add also next plugins for wordpress:

All in One Adsense and YPN
Wordpress Plugins - Developed by Linewbie.com | Linux and Open Source Blog

Contact Form 7
Contact Form 7 1.9 � iDeasilo

Karailievs Sitemap
Karailiev’s sitemap | Яйо

SEO Friendly Images
http://www.prelovac.com/vladimir/wor...riendly-images

Yet Another Related Posts Plugin
Yet Another Related Posts Plugin for WordPress

and depends by site

SyntaxHighlighter Plus
Release: [Wordpress Plugin] SyntaxHighlighter Plus | Beyond Coding

Wordpress Download Monitor
WordPress › Wordpress Download Monitor WordPress Plugins