need help from the amazing wordpress community

[starcat42]

I am asking for everyones help who cares to give it, i have been trying to make a couple of basic sites for Several years but i have zero programming knowledge, and ive always had to rely on other people to help me get this done.. this obviously has led to complete failure.

well now im in a situation thats do or die, and i cant rely on anyone but myself. i have begun learning wordpress and possibly some HTML as i write this, this is still scary and seems impossible for me to grasp, but im going to try because i really just have no choice. i will have tons of questions about how to set up things properly or configuring and what not.. i dont know anything about domains and Ftp’s and all that stuff so as you can see i have my work cut out for me.

but im gonna try and i will appreciate ANYONE who cares to help me.

im trying to make a sports site with various memberships and a store and stuff like that.. so i have to screw around with photoshop(another thing i have to learn) to get the pictures right and figure out how to install a theme and what not..

anyway im gonna give it 1000 percent but if any wordpress gods can lend their help i would appreciate it, and you will have my endless gratitude.

[Personal information removed per forum policy – Mod.]

any advice or help would be amazing but i have a very short amount of time to learn this in.

[f15d9f87d]

You have no knowledge whatsoever in WordPress, FTP, domain management, HTML, Photoshop, or php AND you’re wanting to run a sports website with memberships and a store (“and stuff”)?

I know there will be a lot of people who will want to say something along the lines of “Good luck!” or something similar in nature to a backpat and a tip of the hat, but for one moment, I would like to be realistic with you.

You have 0 programming knowledge and no clue as to what it is you are actually getting yourself into. I applaud the whole ‘jumping in feet first’ attitude, but you have a lot to get under your belt.

Without even the most basic of html knowledge, I wouldn’t even suggest attempting step one (domain registration). Of course, this is all if you’re planning on building it from the ground up. Now, if you’re taking the easier approach of having it done for you – the easiest thing for you to do is to write down what, exactly, to the exact point, you want your site to have and then Google it to the very last point.

“I want a membership database in WordPress.”
Google for “WordPress membership database” or “WordPress membership directory” or “WordPress membership manager”.

“I want to integrate a shop with my WordPress installation.”
Google for “WordPress ecommerce” or “WordPress shop integration” or something similar.

“I want to display pictures of…”
Google for – well, I think you get the idea.

The first step to any good plan is to actually have that plan written out (typed out) point by critical point to where you can look at that action plan and know exactly what it is you need, what it is you want and how you want it to look. Then you can move on to design.

There are literally millions of tutorials on every aspect of what you want to accomplish out there on the net.

And as to your last statement of having a very short amount of time to learn it in – you know that old adage “You get what you pay for?” The same goes for the amount of time and effort you put into a website. You get what you put in. If you expect to learn everything in a week, good luck.

[starcat42]

ive already got the domains, ive had them for years, the problem is no one is doing it for me.. the people who said they would help are taking half a year to do 1 percent.. so i just have to take matters into my own hands.. right now im working on tutorials about how to do it from scratch.. im learning how to make subdomains atm and trying to connect an FTP but something to do with name servers not connecting right..

then i can start uploading wordpress modules and learnin about them.

[starcat42]

Update for those who care ??

i have taken the first hurdle. i had issues with trying to get an FTP situation going from a 2 year old tutorial on youtube. i have 3 seperate companies hosting my stuff so it was very confusing dealing with subdomains and who owns what and hosts this and that and registers what name etc.. after 2 hours of phone calls i FINALLY got some answers, he told me to forget the FTP and taught me how to quick install wordpress.

then he taught me how to upload themes. so now the fun begins. finding a theme, uploading it and learning the pains of tweaking it

[starcat42]

ok, 24 hours later and i STILL cant figure out how to change my header.. i have replaced my image. re sized my image.. i get a blank image.. and none of the tutorials are helping because they use some ancient or brand new version of wordpress that some how has “header” written in appearances.. its not in mine. wtf?

[Ipstenu (Mika Epstein)]

This one depends on your theme.

If you’re using TwentyTen, it’s built in. If not, then it depends on the theme. You replaced your image how?

[starcat42]

this one took me a while. i did the obvious which was replace the picture.. and it didnt work. i still have no idea how.

i want to beleive it was because i had the wrong size for the particular header. im using some random sports theme.

my FIrst header sucked. it was just a generic picture. i had 2 logos i wanted on either side. so NOW i have to learn photo shop. omg.

after about 3 hours with Photoshop screwing around, watching tutorials and such i FINALLY figured it out. layers. move layers, edit canvas size, save picture as a Jpeg. then overwrite it. make sure its correct size.

im using chrome. i right click picture, inspect element. the picture its currently using is 988 x 225. so i make it that size and KABLAM.

it worked! holy crap the satisfaction is amazing. even though thats the basic of my site it feels good that im learning this from scratch. but i have a long way to go.