I am planning to launch a hosting related website.
I'm a webdesigner myself. I do both Photoshop, HTML, PHP and so on. So my main question is, is it worth the effort to create a non-flash website myself or is it better to just buy and use a flash template?

What sort of persons do these flash templates impress, for example?

Who would rather prefer a neat and clean design that loads fast?

If you're a designer then make your own every time.

9/10 of my clients seem to hate flash on a site unless it's for a game or multimedia presentation of some sort that they chose to click to see. Unless there's a damn good reason to use it then don't.

Ask yourself what value a piece of flash adds to a site - or a static image for that matter.

i think most of your vsiitors would prefer a clean, easy to follow fast loading site...

If the flash is used to advertise something on the site, a small static image usually does the same job, but with less loading time. I personally don't like flash myself.

to behonest if you know flash well it can have greate compression rates to help load a page quicker.

ive just made my very own first flash site as im learning about flash myself and if you create the site properly flash can actually work out very well for you.

on the other hand, knowing how to use dreamweaver proberly you can proberly make most of the effects using that tool aswell...

all down to personal preference really I would say.

as somone said above, clients dont really expect to see a flash site unless its a gaming site anyway, so its intially up to you.

I know very little about Flash, so I assume my best bet would be to make it myself.

What sort of technologies should I use? I know HTML, Javascript, PHP and so on.
But is it worth learning this XHTML, XML and CSS? And what would there be to gain by learning and using it?

CSS for sure. You can do some awesome effects with CSS. You can make some great menus that look similar to flash or javascript but are acually readable by Search Engines. Flash is bad for two reasons. Reason 1 being the fact that it cant be read by search engines and reason 2 being the fact that the business man doesnt care about flash only the 14 year old teen does. If yoru promoting ot business folks you want to avoid the teen gaming site look. Also NO SOUNDS! Nothing more annoying than surfing a site at home late at night or in the office and getting a lound sound out of my speakers!

CSS is the best thing to learn. I acually bought two books that are made by sitepoint. Goto their site and you will see them but i woudl suggest amazon..they sell cheaper in a back there. I would try not to use to much javascripting. Php, Css and HTML should run you fine. XML is a plus.

As for buying a design....NO NO NO. I will not buy from a webhosting company that purchased their design. Trust me all template monster designs look the exact same to me. When i see a template I see possible scam. I look at it as the company did not take the time to either hire a designer or design it their selves therefore if they hit some hard times they wont take the time to get out of the slump and will just shut down. thats my honest opion.

But do the benefits of using HTML only outwiegh the benefits of CSS?

Why not learn and use CSS instead of
tables for page layout purposes?
✦ Most user agents support tables, while CSS support is being slowly adopted.
✦ Tables are more forgiving when the browser window size changes—morphing their
content and wrapping to accommodate the changes accordingly. CSS positioning tends
to be exact and fairly inflexible.
✦ Tables are much easier to learn and manipulate than CSS rules.

But do the benefits of using HTML only outwiegh the benefits of CSS?

Why not learn and use CSS instead of
tables for page layout purposes?
✦ Most user agents support tables, while CSS support is being slowly adopted.
✦ Tables are more forgiving when the browser window size changes—morphing their
content and wrapping to accommodate the changes accordingly. CSS positioning tends
to be exact and fairly inflexible.
✦ Tables are much easier to learn and manipulate than CSS rules.

using tables is still ok theres nothing wrong with working with tables. they are still compatiable is most up to date browsers.

if done proberly you can still use css with tables i.e for text, images and so on. but yes css is deff the way to go.

if I was you though I would take the time to get yourself a flash 8 book. as Flash is the in thing now adays what with almost most home users having broadband and all that. Flash is slowly taking over I would say in my personal opinion.

In my opinion you'd be best using HTML & CSS.

Use the CSS for your layout, it'll make life alot easier at a later date if you want to re-design your site. The idea is to keep your layout and content seperately.

Your HMTL file should basically include the HTML headers, title etc, then use DIV's to reference to your CSS file. Put your content inside the DIV's and the CSS will tell the DIV's how you want your text displayed, i.e. what colour the text should be, what colour the background should be etc etc.

I used to use tables for all my designs as CSS hadn't sunk in with me, but I grasped it all a couple of weeks ago and I honestly have no idea how I managed without CSS.

Using CSS makes making your site comply to W3C standards much easier than using table IMO.

I'd defo stay away from flash unless you want to show a presentation or animation. I would never build a whole website in flash unless there was a very specific reason for it.

But do the benefits of using HTML only outwiegh the benefits of CSS?

Why not learn and use CSS instead of
tables for page layout purposes?
✦ Most user agents support tables, while CSS support is being slowly adopted.
✦ Tables are more forgiving when the browser window size changes—morphing their
content and wrapping to accommodate the changes accordingly. CSS positioning tends
to be exact and fairly inflexible.
✦ Tables are much easier to learn and manipulate than CSS rules.I might have bought those arguments four or five years ago, but not today. Using CSS to control your layout is as good or as bad as the programmer who programs it. But the best-coded CSS-based layout will outperform the best coded tables-based layout every time, in terms of markup efficiency, flexibility within the layout and accessibility across browsers and alternative browsing devices.

I have to say a site entirely made out of flash is just plain bad unless your a Graphic Design company then you can use it to show off. If your company/website is not of that nature, then Flash, to me, is a big no-no.

I hate flash websites. Its ok for banners and entertainment (movies/games) but not for site design.

*shrug*

I think using nothing but Flash is a bad idea, UNLESS you make one version Flash & the other HTML. Lots of people do that.

I only use Flash for banners [I have an entertainment site.] I don't even use them for menus because that would be a problem for some people.

There's nothing a potential client hates more than getting to some website only to see they have to download the latest version of flash to view it. More then you realize just click the little "x" and never go back because they either don't want to download flash or just don't feel like doing it right then. Plus huge amounts of public access and business network computers don't upgrade their flash regularly and often restrict what clients can or can't download/install (ie latest version of flash) under a default level access login.

Flash is overrated. Stick with the basics.

Make your own, im a designer and theres no way id go for a template! If you design and create it yourself its completely unquie to you and your site, it also means that your site is exactly how you want and everything has a specific place on your site!

Any combination of HTML, PHP, and CSS would be your best bet. Flash sites cause issues with search engines and can have horrible load times, not to mention the fact a lot of people (such as my computer illiterate old fart parents) are afraid to install new programs such as flash browser software because they assume everything on the internet is a virus.

If you're a web designer then i would attempt to make your own.

However that being said, I'm also a web designer and sometimes, oddly enough we would like to have a "fresh" look for our own site. So, I can relate to the idea of actually hiring another web designer to design your own site. It sounds a bit strange, however I've done this before. In fact, at this very moment I'm selling a very nice web hosting template that I had originally purchased from another designer. (my hosting venture didnt get off the ground.)

Cheers

I prefer to use eval function in MyTemplate.

Well the company I work for had used another company to do their website. Their code was horrendous. They left bits and peices from another site they originally used the 'template' for.

Since I do the web development here (we're not a webdesign/hosting company) I redesigned the site from scratch and it is soo much better. I know what my code does, its easier to add things to it or change things when needed.

So I'm against using a template unless of course you do not have any inhouse web developers.

I remember when one company approached me to do a review on the site I was working on. I agreed and what they showed me was a template type website. Typical 3 column layout. They're own company website used the exact same template. Same colours and everything. If you can get a template that is unique or somewhat customizable I guess that is not as bad.

*shrug*

:)

If your a designer why shouldnt you make up your own layout, it will just look more proffessional.