LF: Website Advice - Worpress? Wikia?

[Cueman]

Many years ago, I started an online database of old Japanese wheels.

Originally it was a page incorporated into my personal blog, but then someone at Road & Track picked it up, and I got excited enough about it to move it to it's on domain name.

http://kyushashoes.com

I did that and then basically walked away from the site... Meanwhile, the amount of attention it gets continues to grow.

Recently someone if asked if they could purchase it from me so that it could continue to develop and grow.

Since I feel like the site is my creation alone, and what anyone would be willing to pay hardly seems worth the hassle of making the site change hands... I'm going to hang on to it.

However... I have been somewhat re-energized now and would like to involve some interested individuals all over the globe in the project and for the first time, actually try and grow the site.

Now, I know very little of php or other web based languages. HTML and CSS ok. I hacked together a very simple wordpress theme and am using a gallery plugin called NextGen.

The problems are...

1. all data associated with each wheel is basically a manually entered HTML based comment attached to an image. I couldn't expect anyone else contributing to be able to add information if it has to be carefully formatted in HTML.

2. as it is formatted now, I haven't been able to figure out anyway to make the data searchable. There are currently more than 500 wheels on the site, and in the last year and a bit that it has sat unattended, I have received enough submissions to bump that number to well over 1000. Searching seems important. If there is an easy way for me to search and limit be fields like age, style, size, PCD that would be perfect...

But I don't have the ability or want to find the ability to write something myself.

Anyone have suggestions? Know a wordpress based theme or plug in that might work well? A Wikia based website? Other?

[A790]

Honestly, using WordPress theme with WooCommerce and treating the wheels as ecommerce items would be a pretty easy way to accomplish everything you're looking to do. WooCommerce is also free for the most part

[Cueman]

cool. I hadn't considered that. Seems worth playing with if I can still and present a gigantic gallery look.

[A790]

Originally posted by Cueman
cool. I hadn't considered that. Seems worth playing with if I can still and present a gigantic gallery look.

You can incorporate WooCommerce into your site like any other element. A lot of themes will have what you're looking for pre-configured.

We use WooCommerce a lot and it is very capable of doing what you're looking for.

Also consider making a custom post-type for each wheel. Set a featured image, set any special variables you want to consider (wheel size, diameter, offset, whatever). Then you can query these post types and the data however you want.

That's effectively what WooCommerce will do when creating each wheel as a product item.

[Wrath]

For this type of Page I wholly recommend squarespace (Its seems to be all about the visiuals)

You could knock out a beautiful page in a few hours - full basic e-commerce and would look great

http://www.squarespace.com/commerce

Now not sure what you are willing to pay - as 30 bucks a month for eternity might be a lot if you are not actually selling anything

[ExtraSlow]

Thought I would add onto this threw instead of starting a new one. Looking to build a site, and confused by the offerings.
Have had a local guy quote me five grand for it. Not really in my budget, so looking at the do it yourself options. I have the domain, and I have a buddy who will host it, just need to write the content.
Have looked at WordPress, squarespace and others, but not sure I understand the packages. Why do I need to pay them monthly forever if I just need a tool once potentially?

No e-commerce planned. Just need it to scale to mobile nicely.

Something similar to https://nlfisher.com although a bit simpler.

I am a total newb in this world. Help!

[AndyL]

Just talk to a790 - he'll set you up

[Cueman]

Originally posted by ExtraSlow
Thought I would add onto this threw instead of starting a new one. Looking to build a site, and confused by the offerings.
Have had a local guy quote me five grand for it. Not really in my budget, so looking at the do it yourself options. I have the domain, and I have a buddy who will host it, just need to write the content.
Have looked at WordPress, squarespace and others, but not sure I understand the packages. Why do I need to pay them monthly forever if I just need a tool once potentially?

No e-commerce planned. Just need it to scale to mobile nicely.

Something similar to https://nlfisher.com although a bit simpler.

I am a total newb in this world. Help!

Wordpress is all I've ever used... but if I didn't have some ability to modify code, I would never have been satisfied with it.

However, if you are not that picky, there are a TONNE of themes out there, and one of them is bound to provide something close to what you are looking for.

Wordpress itself has no monthly fees, or set up costs associated with it. You can pay for some themes and add-ons... but I've never done it.

[A790]

Originally posted by Cueman


Wordpress is all I've ever used... but if I didn't have some ability to modify code, I would never have been satisfied with it.

However, if you are not that picky, there are a TONNE of themes out there, and one of them is bound to provide something close to what you are looking for.

Wordpress itself has no monthly fees, or set up costs associated with it. You can pay for some themes and add-ons... but I've never done it.

As an aside, ExtraSlow, if you decide to use WordPress hit me up. I've purchased over 250 themes from various sources (ThemeForest, Elegant Themes, Array, etc.) and would be happy to hook you up

[EK69]

wix is another place you could check out, it doesnt let you really edit any website code, but basically is a "what you see is what you get" style website creator with tools to create different things.

if you are looking to be able to edit the code yourself, add things in the code, etc, then wix doesnt fit your needs.

just thought i'd throw that out there in case it does work out for you though

[Cueman]

I ended up sticking with wordpress and going with the popular "Photo Gallery" plugin, which is searchable and offers easier editing and descriptions.

Probably not the ultimate solution, but it was a pretty easy conversion.

http://kyushashoes.com

I also found the "customizr" theme, and like it a lot so far. Haven't had to do any hacking/code mods to get things the way I want.

[blindsight]

.

[A790]

Originally posted by blindsight
Take a serious look at X theme from Themeco for WordPress.
http://theme.co/x/

X is a great theme (I use it a lot), but the theme he's using seems to do the job

[Cueman]

I've used X before and agree that it's pretty good. In this case, they didn't have any built in feature to show authors and author profiles.

On my site, where other people are contributing, I didn't want there to be any confusion about my ability (or inability) to differentiate between "their" and "there".

This feature could have been hacked in fairly easily... but fixing thinks like that after every update is annoying as hell.

[CompletelyNumb]

X is great. But like cueman, I heavily modify my themes and code to my liking. Thank goodness for child themes.

ExtraSlow, you get it figured out?

[ExtraSlow]

Thanks for the shout-out. I may have a problem using my buddy's server for hosting. So now I'm looking at other hosting options.

Just need a place to load up wordpress and get going. I have my email and stuff handled through google apps for business.

Hosting reviews are brutal. Anyone have a decent host to deal with that isn't crazy expensive? Don't expect large volumes of data to be transferred, but low latency would be nice. I expect most traffic from Alberta.

[ExtraSlow]

Actually, looks like reviewsignal is a decent way to find folks with satisfied customers. Better than those spammy review sites anyway.

[AndyL]

Seriously you should have just talked to a790... Design setup hosting maintenance... And sure as heck not 5k upfront...

[CompletelyNumb]

If you're wanting to do it on your own and not get a Beyonder to set it up, check out Siteground. They're great for wordpress hosting. Managed, they'll do the major updates for you. Fast. Cheap too.

[ExtraSlow]

Well, I got a blog up and running with wordpress. I'm mostly using that as a chance to teach myself the tools before I put the new company website up in about a week.
Just need to find a theme I like for the company site, or learn more about customizing themes.