Web Design for Dummies

How to create a web site

Creating a web site is an important step in promoting any kind of business. It can also help you obtain a job or simply provide a way for you to communicate with others online.
Although it can seem complicated, there are certain steps if followed which can make the process easier.

1. Plan our your site. What are the goals of your site? What do you want it to accomplish and who do you want to see it? What kinds of features will you include? Some examples are: a mailing list, a guestbook, a shopping cart, a free drawing, and a blog. It is important before you begin to have at least a general idea as well as some specifics regarding the elements you plan to include.

2. What kind of site is it? Certain kinds of sites particularly personal sites can be placed on free servers such as Geocities and Homestead, whereas business sites need their own domain name.

3. Where is the best place to host your site? This is complicated because there are many thousands of places willing to host your site for anywhere from $2.00 a month to $50.00 a month. In order to make a good decision you must answer the following questions about your site.

a. Are you planning to use java script or any kind of forms. Some web hosting servers won't allow you to do this or they limit your capacity to do this.
b. How much space do you need? Are you planning to create 2-5 pages or 100?
c. How are your web design and computer skills? Can you create these pages by yourself or will you need help? How much help?
d. How much can you afford? Do you need a more expensive service or will a cheaper one suffice?

4. What program are you going to use to create your pages? The two most popular programs for those who want to combine the ease of what you see is what you get with programming capabilities are: Microsoft Front Page and Dream Weaver. There are also some web hosting services which offer cut and paste developing options as well as text editors which require you to code HTML by hand.

5. If you are considering Front Page then you need to keep in mind a few important things: if some or all of your pages need to be printed then front page is your best choice, however, this program is not available on a Mac computer, it works only on a PC. A couple of other disadvantages include: complications with using CSS, java script and flash. These programs and features work much better with Dream Weaver. An advantage to Front page however, is its facility of use. Dream weaver