Well, let's say first of all I do need a website..just as I find a reason to need photo stuff I want. As for me, I had a simple site built on templates and using basic HTML did rollovers, links from images, varied the template pages a bit and that.  So, that is my expertise in site building.

I want a site but do not like using the limits of template based sites and at the same time do not feel ready to jump into building one from scratch.  I do have Dreamweaver 2004..that is it but have not really used the program yet..big plans which did not come to fruition.

What does a guy like me do to get a decent site at a an affordable price? Price means fairly low.
I will have to make a decsion to go the template route or learn the stuff fully and the last option takes more time than I really have to spare.

Are there some affordable places to do a good website which allow enough control to make it really mine and not a copy of another?

Any advice will be greatly appreciated.  This is now a need more than a want. : )     TomDart.

Attached Link: http://www.travellinggoats.org

I only recently learned some HTML (two online classes) and built a basic site from scratch on Yahoo...it wasn't as hard as I expected, but I didn't do anything exceptionally difficult.  I built the site as my class project for the first class, and keep meaning to go and jazz it up a bit after I took the second class and learned a bit about CSS...but haven't done it yet.    I'm finding that images (which was my whole purpose for doing it) load really slowly, and that can mess up your viewers if you aren't careful.  And keeping it to one or two images a page is also boring and slow...But I was surprised that it wasn't harder to learn and do, on the other hand writing all that code is deadly boring, and it's so darn picky.  I don't know Dreamweaver, I'm debating about whether to take that class next or continue my explorations into digital image manipulations.  So after all that meandering, I guess I don't really have any advice for you other than it can be done, and depends on how complicated you want your site to be.  The online classes are only twice a week, and can be done on your own time if you're interested in going that route...if you want to look at my site and laugh at my efforts you can go to www.travellinggoats.org.

Tom, what kind of website do you need? What suits you best? Can you give an example?

I'd suggest one of the following 2,

Inkscape - http://www.inkscape.org/

or

Open Office -  http://www.openoffice.org/

Good luck TomDart , Or you could try CoffeCup Software http://www.coffeecup.com/

http://jalbum.net/

Templates - but a little more stylish in terms of gallery layout and the program automatically writes the code for you including your photos.  Check my website's gallery page for the BananAlbum skin for the program - all completely free - i could pay $30 to get a licence and thus not have the logo showing.  You can find some pretty decent "all in one" systems which allow you to sell stuff via the gallery as well.

I am wanting a site essentially as an image gallery and with some areas given to text illustrated with images.  I do want a clean and upscale appearance.  There is a possibility of selling prints also but that is mostly wishful thinking.   I would include a tut or two and things of that sort as things develop.    Yes, this is a very general definition but the purpose is mostly display.  There will be no forum, blog or similar.

Spend a few weeks learning the basics of html and basic css and you'll feel the freedom of knowing why something happens.
Dreamweaver makes things far too complicated for simple setups. Not because its engineers are bad, but because they have to take into account an incredible the chaos of options and possibilities that people can imagine.
You don't have to know everything, only what you need.

www.w3schools.com is the best.
And it's free.

Tanchelyn, thanks for the input and the website. That place seems to have it all in a row and appears an excellent resource I am certain others may also find valuable.

Now, to learn it all again? Good idea but when is the problem.  I will have to see how that works out but since I do like to learn the temptation is great and results could be quite rewarding.

As for my previous site, I built all the text and rollovers and links and the basic stuff. I did not build the page layouts.  That basic HTML is easy enough and I have a pretty good editor for that which will color code the syntax according to my liking.

I thank everyone who has responded.  I have looked at the sites mentioned and downloaded a trial from one.  It is a matter of templates available and the suitability to my personal eye and desires.

Hopefully, sometime before long I will be able to add a website addys to those of others here at 'rosity.   Thanks again.        Tom.