Webdesign

I've been dabbling in web design for a while now, in particular I currently run 3 websites. The last site I started to build was back in August last year, but that got canned as my employers kept changing their minds.
So I've been thinking, I've never actually built a site for myself, I'm thinking I'm going to do it to advertise my services (consultancy, repairs, webdesign etc)...
So what is the best way to go for this? What are the current things which make a site stand out (I'll probably use this info to redesign the other sites I look after).

Are there any particular platforms which are a mist to use at the moment? I did try building a template for wordpress, but I wasn't too happy with that (then again, shouldn't really build a wholesite on wordpress alone)

If it was me, I would learn and use Joomla

Not to judge by their home page. It took about half a minute to load for me!

Really?? Just took me about 3 seconds for it to load (FF 3.6)..

If you want flexibility and you have even a tiny bit of programming skill, try MODx. I found it a lot easier to get my head around than Joomla, Drupal or Wordpress templating. There aren't a great many "plug in and go" solutions like WP plugins, but it's very easy to customize the ones that already exist, quite simple to develop your own, and the forum is very active and helpful.
See series on "The Coding Pad" or Nettuts article by one of the MODx developers for some idea of what it's like to work with.
KP

In reply to a post by kp52:

If you want flexibility and you have even a tiny bit of programming skill, try MODx. I found it a lot easier to get my head around than Joomla, Drupal or Wordpress templating. There aren't a great many "plug in and go" solutions like WP plugins, but it's very easy to customize the ones that already exist, quite simple to develop your own, and the forum is very active and helpful.
See series on "The Coding Pad" or Nettuts article by one of the MODx developers for some idea of what it's like to work with.
KP

Looks quite nice for use with dreamweaver for doing the inital design and template - thanks

Cheers for that, just because I can, I've installed Drupal, Joomla and MODx onto my computer to have a play around with.
Once I decide what one I like best, I'll start playing around with it a lot more. One thing that jumped out at me on MODx was it straight away has a link to FAQs on designing templates

I've just managed to put a whole site layout over to MODx with no issues what-so-ever, Drupal and Joomla seem mightily overly complicated compared to this.
I think I'll get the whole site done then get it up on the web, (after a slight redesign)...

Delighted to hear it! Hope to be seeing you on the MODx forums soon.
KP

In reply to a post by metalhead41:

I've just managed to put a whole site layout over to MODx with no issues what-so-ever, Drupal and Joomla seem mightily overly complicated compared to this.
I think I'll get the whole site done then get it up on the web, (after a slight redesign)...

Just played around with modx and I like it. Seems like I can template stuff in dreamweaver and then move that into modx with ease and also have a proper cms backend - and cheaply too ..

I was planning to build my own cms, I still will at some point (just at least so it's something I know how to do), it's just that I don't have the time. Maybe if I give up work... But that wont happen, so with me possibly having to travel more, it's only fair that the people I run websites for have a bit more control over it so they don't have to rely on me.
But anyway, MODx has a few things I don't really like such as a decent blog type of interface (I know you can, but it involves playing around with a lot of different add-ons), but it's cheap and easy to use which IMO = a win.

In reply to a post by metalhead41:

I was planning to build my own cms, I still will at some point (just at least so it's something I know how to do), it's just that I don't have the time. Maybe if I give up work... But that wont happen, so with me possibly having to travel more, it's only fair that the people I run websites for have a bit more control over it so they don't have to rely on me.
But anyway, MODx has a few things I don't really like such as a decent blog type of interface (I know you can, but it involves playing around with a lot of different add-ons), but it's cheap and easy to use which IMO = a win.

We had thought the same, but with modx you can take it and make it you own version so thats all good .. But at the most - clients just usally want to update a news page or something and thats why an over bloated cms wont work for that .