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What website templates (HTML, CSS & Graphics only) would you guys recommend for building a blog/profilo for a sole programmer like me?
I don't do web design myself so I don't have anything to showcase in terms of pictures but I want a place where I can present my projects, my knowledge and skills and have a personal page of my own. The trouble is that what I found so far fits more to website designers or generic comapnies.

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7 Answers

up vote -1 down vote

I am not sure if my answer help you in the right manner or not but I think there are a lot of Website Templates on this link and you will find your required link also.

Joomla Template

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up vote 0 down vote

I use blogger.com for my blog. You can choose a template that is closest to what you want and then edit the HTML and CSS directly to make it more personal. I didn't know much about CSS before I started, but after a few hours just messing around with what they give you, I feel much more familiar with it. Wordpress seems more fully featured, but charges you an arm and a leg to do the same thing.

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up vote 0 down vote

I would strongly encourage you to try Joomla. You really can do many things with it without even touching the code. Though I should warn you that despite the fact that you don't have to touch code, it's still not a two-click wizard which will design your site for you. Having much flexibility and adaptivity also means it's complex. Joomla has a very active community and so getting help is not too difficult. Most people who use Joomla are people like you, who want to control a sophisticated site without having to write a line of html.

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3  
Joomla is beyond overkill for a personal site. – b. e. hollenbeck Nov 18 '10 at 17:08
For all the things you can do and considering how straightforward it is to setup, I wouldn't say so. Besides this way, rather than have to learn a new thing everytime he wants to update his site, he learns Joomla once and he's set. – Neil Nov 18 '10 at 17:26
up vote 2 down vote

For actual templates you can't beat http://www.oswd.org. They have free templates but also premium templates you can pay for.

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up vote 1 down vote

I would say that you are most likely not going to find what you are looking for. The sad reality is that the majority of html/css template sites out there are for webdesigners. Furthermore, most templates you find will have been created with Adobe Dreamweaver and you will end up discovering that there is a LOT of extra markup placed in the templates that you do not need.

So, your best bet as a programmer would be to download one of those messy templates, dissect it and understand what you can. Then, teach yourself the rest of the CSS you are still having trouble with and write the markup yourself.

I know that this is most likely more time consuming than what you desire but it really is what will lead to the result that you are looking for.

My last suggestion would be go to a blog site you want to emulate and look at that site's markup with a tool like firebug. It will clarify further the way certain sites employ css.

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up vote 10 down vote

http://wordpress.com/

I'm sure a lot of people will disagree with me, but WP provides free hosting, a really easy to use content management system, page statistics, etc. It is definitely designed in a blog-style presentation system, but with a bit of adaptation you can easily turn it into what you'd like it to be.

Since you don't do web design yourself, I'd honestly avoid trying to go down the roll your own path. A decent CMS is going to save you hours of headaches and issues and help you more effectively display your talents without having to learn a new paradigm.

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+1 to this. WordPress.com already has some decent plugins that you might need. I'd go with building your portfolio on a WP.com blog rather than making or hosting your own WP.org blog if you don't want to learn HTML/CSS/JS. – Terence Ponce Nov 18 '10 at 16:42
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I would really prefer to implement my own blog. It's absurd that a programmer won;t showcase his own work by creating something as an example. – the_drow Nov 18 '10 at 17:48
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@the_drow: You're reinventing the wheel, and according to your question, you're going to do it poorly due to your lack of experience. I'm paid to do web development and I still use WP for my blog. It's not a pride thing, it's a "this is simple and easy and doesn't make me do any more work than I have to" thing. – EricBoersma Nov 18 '10 at 18:53
I am not inexperienced. I've been programming for 11 years now, I just know what I am good at and what I am not. I can create a really nice blog with django in about 2 hours of work so I wouldn't mind doing it if it allows me to say "yes I can program". – the_drow Nov 19 '10 at 1:21
up vote 2 down vote

Your best bet, if you don't want to invest the time that it would take to learn HTML and CSS, is to pay someone a small fee to create a site. For a plain site with only HTML, CSS, and graphics, you should be able to come out around $100, or even less; for freelance web designer or developer, this is small potatoes.

Alternately, you could set up a Wordpress site on a LAMP-stack server and look through the many themes available for it (or another blog/CMS platform, if you don't like WordPress).

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Beat me by 20 seconds! – EricBoersma Nov 18 '10 at 16:18
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It isn't a race, EricBoersma. (neener neener) – syrion Nov 18 '10 at 16:27
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If someone offers to code you a custom personal site for $100, you're going to regret it, eventually. – b. e. hollenbeck Nov 18 '10 at 17:09
I know HTML and CSS. I am just not good enough or creative enough graphically to create visually satisfying GUI. I just don't have that kind of sense. – the_drow Nov 18 '10 at 17:46
b.e. hollenbeck, for plain HTML and CSS that doesn't seem unreasonable... provided there's a set time limit on it (say, five hours of work) with a rate agreed above that. – syrion Nov 18 '10 at 18:43

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