Well, it's good to know HTML and other programming lingoes because if you ever want to edit something specifically... you can. The Golden Eye site I made 8 years ago, I did all by hand. Just a notepad and what I learned from Page tutor. It took forever! I now use dreamweiver and CuteFTP with 99% of my websites. Dreamweiver is a great website editor tool, very easy to use. You can split between code and design, or go all design and use their built in tools to create what you want. It's expensive if you buy it straight up, but if you're crafty enough you can find a crack and serial for it. Dreamweiver is definitely a time saver when it comes to editing websites. But it's good to know some code to get you around difficult spots. PHP is a must too if you deal with that, and databases.
And yes it's a great idea to start from a template you like and work from there. That'll save you time and money with the design element. I use a graphics designer to design my custom sites. If you're going the shopping cart route, buy a pre-made shopping cart and if you want, have someone work with the graphics for you and you edit the final touches like products and what not.
Buy a good shopping cart... Have a graphics designer make your site look nice... Then you take over with everything else... That's where I'm at with my brothers site. I'm still tweaking the design, it's almost there.
|