I think this was discussed quite recently but did a search and could'nt find anything.
I want to set up a website for educational purposes and at least initially have it open to all. Later I may want to restrict users for commercial reasons.
Where do I start??
I think I have three options;build my own, use a website building software, get someone else to do it for me.
I think the 3rd option is out at the moment due to cost but would be interested to hear from what I know are quite a large amount fo IT specialists on here.
My IT skills are reasonable although from my other post on here, not very extensive!!

IME building a website is easy, building one that is/looks good is not easy! I'd try to find a way to get someone else to build it for a not too large cost.

a good start would be to look at a system called wordpress, quite easy to use then it allows you to update the site as and when. You can restrict users easily afterwards.

Alternatively, (time for the shameless plug) I'm a trained graphic designer with over 10 years web experience, if you would like to have a chat, about advice or help doing it, get in touch. Email should be in my profile.

midori
wordpress was where I was going to start as already use their blog
would be interested in a chat, will email you
cheers

learning how to build your own, at first seems quite simple, but it will snowball into something quite complicated and time consuming.

The best advice i can give you is to stick to what you are good at and find a way to outsource the other stuff. Whether that is paying someone, getting a mate to do it, or using an off-the-shelf solution such as wordpress.

WordPress is a good option, the setup is pretty simple, but make sure you keeep it up to date as it can be a magnet for wannabe hackers.

when you say keep it up to date, what do you mean?

There are regular updates to the underlying code that powers wordpress, in much the same way as there are windows updates. Some of it is just new features but there are also a lot of security fixes.

Because the wordpress code is publically available, anyone with the right level of knowledge can download it, read through it and find vunerabilities in the code which they can use to de-face your website, steal passwords etc.
It's then jsut a matter of doing a search for sites with 'powered by wordpress' in them or something similar, try and figure out what version they are running and hack it accordingly.

If you ever consider paying for a professionally designed and built site http://www.mixd.co.uk – lots of educational/healthcare experience 😉