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hello dnn community,

this is my first post of many i hope.

recently i bought a copy of mr site takeaway to enable me to build my first web site, i put it in the draw for the moment as i didnt have a reason to build a site.

recently me and a friend decided that we wish to put on some club nights in our area and obviously a website would be needed for promotions and to build a following community.

i was about to pull out the mr site takeaway and get started feeling sure that this was a dead cert from what i had read, BUT after reading a recent edition of micro mart and a review of DNN it seemed mr site takeaway really was only a starting point and a hosted site using DNN could provide real professional results.

the problem is that i have never built a website before, (im sure this must have been posted before but i couldnt find it)

from what i have read i am going to need a host and a domain name which must be a windows server to use DNN cms, does that sound correct?

i suppose im looking for total begginer advice, links, FAQ's but im finding navigating the DNN home site difficult and not finding anything to help begginers, i see that on the support page there is a professional demo, is professional different to standard DNN.

during my investigation i have also stumbled across joomla and drupla, are these places for begginers rather than DNN?

i am slightly more bi est towards dnn because i have written instructions on how to set it up with a host in the micro mart mentioned so this should eliminate  some heart ache.

the site i want to construct: a nice looking site with a media player/ live radio stream, forums, contact form, photo gallery, ticket sales, blogg

so i guess what im asking in a nut shell is:

1. is dnn right for a first time web builder but  with plenty of computer experience

2. which host is best with DNN, is there a host that will install dnn for me

3. is there a dnn faq or online demo or so sample sites i could look at

4. were is the list of modules that dnn has access to

i hate being the noob but everyone has to start somewhere right? please put me right in anyhing i have said above and bombard with information links and samples!

:0)
 

My two pence as well...

I used DNN to build my first website (see address in my signature) as well Andy so it's definitely easy enough for beginners. I initially had my site hosted on a Web Host who just provided the space and I had to do all the installing myself. As Sebastian has pointed out and as you may see from your magazine, this isn't too difficult so long as you have the proper access.

After this, I actually moved to one of the more specialist Web Hosts who provide a specific DNN service. When you get your account with them, you just pick the version of DNN you want to install and they have scripts that do this automatically for you in minutes (no uploading or installing on your part)! I found the host I now use on the home page of DotNetNuke as they had an ad banner there.

Something else that's helped me recently is I became a member at a very good site called dnnCreative.com which is very much geared up to helping people begin and improve their DNN skills. They have articles and over 400 videos you can watch. This is almost certainly not the only learning resource out there and I'm not advocating it over any others, it's just the first one that I found and have joined and it's defintitely helping me.

I wish you luck.. Be determined beause it's definitely a huge Application Platform to learn, but the more you  put in, the better the results you'll get out!