Lay My Hat

I update and change my website almost daily, an absolute must for me. Yet I use a web designer to do the tricky stuff (buttons, photos etc.) and I do the text changes using mainly Contribute although I think we are supposed to be changing to Joomla.

You're right of course, most things do get 'de skilled' eventually. But I'm not sure we're there with commercial websites just yet.

One tip I've learnt with templates is not to change them too much. I've got myself into a lot of bother trying to modify a theme to suit my preferred ideal. Much better to live with the default provided if at all possible.

Lorca raises a very good point with regards to the personal feel a DIY website can provide. And knowing your audience as Lorca obviously does is essential. I can well believe that a more friendly approach is an advantage.

I would argue however, that a professionally designed website would make it easier for you to regularly update the site rather than the reverse as you suggest. Although you have to find the right developer of course. www.bestservedcold.com and wordpress comes to mind.

CSS Stands for Cascading Style Sheets and its a way of separating the content of the website form the layout. if you have used Styles in MS Word it is very similar.

You define what a a particular type of text should look like e.g. Titles and then apply it to all Titles at once. This is very simple example but it can actually be used to define, blocks, menus and all aspects of the web site. Its quite a steep learning curve but a web designer can very quickly redesign or convert your website for a moderate price.
Jez Lister
Serviced Apartments Leeds
Serviced Apartments Manchester, Liverpool, York