vBulletin Websites - Inside Look

[GLF]

Ever wonder what a vBulletin website looks when it is first created? Once you get the software uploaded to a ftp site, and you do the install, this is what you get. www.outdoorsportsmansnet.com/forums From here, the webmaster works his magic and does the colors and builds the forums. You can purchase a skin instead of doing your own colors.

This was what Great Lakes Fisherman looked like when I first built it. I did the colors myself instead of purchasing a skin.

The home page extension(portal) is a hack that you have to install. I did this already.

Over the next few weeks, I will be building this site. You can follow along with the building of this site by checking it periodically.

So far, I have 1 hour into building the site.

Whats involved in building a site?

The first thing you need to do is to register a domain name. Having a good domain name will help your site succeed.

The next thing you need is someone to host the site.

Once you have a domain name and a host, you need software for the website. I am a vbulletin guy, so this is what I use. With vbulletin, you can lease($85) the software for a year, or you can purchase($160) the software. With leases software, you have to renew it every year, or stop using it when the lease expires. The purchased software is yours forever. With the purchased software, you get one year of support(upgrades). After the year, you can renew($30) the support for another year. Keeping your software up to date is a key to preventing being hacked.

If you have any questions about vbulletin software, registering a domain name, or whatever, just ask.

[Priority1]

I'm going to keep looking in on this. I would like to learn how to set up a Web Site. I taught myself about the computer. Six years ago I didn't know how to turn one on. There are a lot of tutorials on just about everything. My wife and I started with computers the same time, but she doesn't want to know any more than what she has to. I like to keep on learning. Thanks for posting this Mike.

[GLF]

After years of doing vbulletin websites, I have discovered most of the do's and don'ts the hard way. I started doing vbulletin 6 years ago. I have learned all I know, but reading information on the vbulletin websites. I have lost a few data bases because of errors on my parts, and had to rebuild sites. Ehhh....nobody's perfect!

One of the things I learned was to not mess with the default skin. Create a new skin, and set the default skin as the parent. You will need to create a new folder on the ftp and point the skin to the new images in the new folder. Why do this? Well....when it comes time for doing a software upgrade, usually you upload the new software package to the ftp site. If you had custom made buttons, they will be replaced with the new ones. If you replaced the buttons by mistake, you will have to replace them again.

Another advantage of not messing with the default skin, is it gives you the ability to have multiple skins and not having to do individual modifications to each skin. Thsi can be a HUGE time saver.

I created a new skin and named the default skin the parent skin. I went with a green and white colored skin that is similar to this one. I am not good with banners, and have a friend working on a banner. I also need to create new buttons that match the skin better. I still have to go through and set all of the usergroup permissions and regular forum settings. All of these things take time. You can go with default settings, but I like mine set up a certain way. It helps having another forum that I can copy the settings from.

Another really HUGE tool, is having a computer with two displays. I can have two websites opened at the same time and move things from one screen to the next, or follow what is already selected in the settings.

So how long does it take to build a website?

When I built Great Lakes Fisherman, I had over 80 hours into it. You can build one in a few hours. You can also paint a car in 30 minutes. You are going to get out of it, what you put into it. Its going to take me some time to do the buttons, unless I get my friend who is building the banner to do them for me

This is about the only change you will see this week. I am busy the rest of the week, and this weekend.

I do have a post there for ideas on what members would like to see in the forums. Feel free to make sugestions here, if you do not feel like registering there.

Keep one thing in mind when you build a new site. It is easier to put a few posts in a few forums, than to put a lot of posts in a lot of forums.