Stay realistic to your skills. Ease of access is the most important thing. If you don’t have a certain piece of information easily visible, make sure that getting to that information is very logical. Generally the simpler the design, the fewer the pages, the better. One of the key areas to the website planning stage is developing a clear vision for your website. What purpose will it serve? Is it to advertise and generate leads for your professional services, run an eCommerce site, automate bookings online? Remember to be clear on your first page. If a visitor isn’t able to distinguish clearly and within seconds of visiting your website, what your business is about, you need to simplify it. Visitors should immediately know who you are and what you offer or you risk losing potential customers who may navigate off your page from frustration over not being able to figure it out.
When you think, “Internet,” what is the first thing that comes to your mind? E-commerce? Music? News? Socializing? Blogging? Those are all good places to start. You could create a website that’s dedicated to your favorite band, and have a chat area where people can talk about it. You can build a page for your family, but be careful about things like this. The internet is full of unsavory characters and information you put up about your family could end up being used against you. Consider adding password protection to your personal family website. If you’re a news junkie, or want something less filtered than traditional media, build a website and get publicly available feeds from news providers such as Reuters, BBC, AP, and others. Build your own customized news aggregator (what used to go by the quaint name of “newspaper”), then see and show all the news that’s fit to digitize. If you’re creative at writing then you can start a blog where you can write about anything you want and attract monthly readers!
Pros: website design software simplifies the process of building sites by letting you drag-and-drop images, text, buttons, movies, and anything else you can think of, usually without ever having to dig into HTML. Many web design applications will even let you create sites specifically for your smartphone or pad. If you are building a basic, personal website, this is really a great way to go. Cons: there is a learning curve, and though you don’t have to dig into HTML, it’s not totally geek-free. If you are in a hurry, this might not be the best solution. Perhaps the biggest con, though, is that if you are not a graphic designer, you could end up with a page that hurts the eyes. To mollify this somewhat, there are a number of free templates in the applications, and on the internet, but be aware of your limitations—if you have any!
Pros: website design software simplifies the process of building sites by letting you drag-and-drop images, text, buttons, movies, and anything else you can think of, usually without ever having to dig into HTML. Many web design applications will even let you create sites specifically for your smartphone or pad. If you are building a basic, personal website, this is really a great way to go. Cons: there is a learning curve, and though you don’t have to dig into HTML, it’s not totally geek-free. If you are in a hurry, this might not be the best solution. Perhaps the biggest con, though, is that if you are not a graphic designer, you could end up with a page that hurts the eyes. To mollify this somewhat, there are a number of free templates in the applications, and on the internet, but be aware of your limitations—if you have any!
Pros: Very easy to use, quick to get started with one click install, and lots of options for the beginner (with enough depth for more experienced users). Cons: Some themes are limiting, and not all are free. You don’t need to learn how to code to use WordPress. Make sure to learn how to use the main features of your WordPress website before considering outsourcing as an option. This way, you will always be in control of your online presence, even if you do decide to outsource.
Pros: Very easy to use, quick to get started with one click install, and lots of options for the beginner (with enough depth for more experienced users). Cons: Some themes are limiting, and not all are free. You don’t need to learn how to code to use WordPress. Make sure to learn how to use the main features of your WordPress website before considering outsourcing as an option. This way, you will always be in control of your online presence, even if you do decide to outsource.
CSS, which stands for “Cascading Style Sheets”. CSS gives more flexibility for styling the HTML, and makes it much easier to make basic changes—fonts, headers, color schemes—in one place, and have those changes ripple through the site. XHTML is a web language set by W3C’s standards. Almost identical to HTML, it follows a stricter set of rules for marking up information. What this means, for the most part, is minor changes to the way you write code. Look into HTML5. It’s the fifth revision of the core HTML standard, and will eventually subsume the current version of HTML (HTML4), and XHTML as well. Learn a client-side scripting language, such as JavaScript. This will increase your ability to add interactive elements to your site, such as charts, maps, etc. Learn a server-side scripting language. PHP, ASP with JavaScript or VB Script or Python can be used to change the way web pages appear to different people, and lets you edit or create forums. They can also help store information about people who visit your site, like their username, settings, and even temporary “shopping carts” for commercial sites. AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML) is a technique of using a browser sided language and a server sided language to make the page get new information from the server without refreshing the page, often greatly reducing user wait time and vastly improving the user’s experience but increasing bandwidth usage. For a website that will see a lot of traffic, or an eCommerce site, this is an excellent solution.
CSS, which stands for “Cascading Style Sheets”. CSS gives more flexibility for styling the HTML, and makes it much easier to make basic changes—fonts, headers, color schemes—in one place, and have those changes ripple through the site. XHTML is a web language set by W3C’s standards. Almost identical to HTML, it follows a stricter set of rules for marking up information. What this means, for the most part, is minor changes to the way you write code. Look into HTML5. It’s the fifth revision of the core HTML standard, and will eventually subsume the current version of HTML (HTML4), and XHTML as well. Learn a client-side scripting language, such as JavaScript. This will increase your ability to add interactive elements to your site, such as charts, maps, etc. Learn a server-side scripting language. PHP, ASP with JavaScript or VB Script or Python can be used to change the way web pages appear to different people, and lets you edit or create forums. They can also help store information about people who visit your site, like their username, settings, and even temporary “shopping carts” for commercial sites. AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML) is a technique of using a browser sided language and a server sided language to make the page get new information from the server without refreshing the page, often greatly reducing user wait time and vastly improving the user’s experience but increasing bandwidth usage. For a website that will see a lot of traffic, or an eCommerce site, this is an excellent solution.
Look to Network Solutions, GoDaddy, or Register. com are good in the US and uk2. net if you’re in the UK to research and find the ideal domain name for your website. Wordpress also includes a feature whereby you can use a name that’s tagged with their site, for example, mywebsite. wordpress. com. But if the name you choose is also available as a . com, they will notify you when you sign up. You can purchase domain names if they have been “parked” or are for sale online through business sales sites. It’s a good idea to get legal and financial advice before purchasing an expensive domain name.
Keep a list of things you notice that seem difficult or non-intuitive for the user.
Note that there are ways to host your own website for free.
If the goal is just to add a stream of income, you can also sell other people’s products through affiliate programs, letting you earn money without investing in product or worrying about shipping.
Sprinkle the keywords you’ve chosen throughout your text, but not insofar as it hurts the quality of your content. Creating pages that are optimized for the search engines will help you get your site found which is really more important than design. What good is a site that no one sees?
Sprinkle the keywords you’ve chosen throughout your text, but not insofar as it hurts the quality of your content. Creating pages that are optimized for the search engines will help you get your site found which is really more important than design. What good is a site that no one sees?
Sprinkle the keywords you’ve chosen throughout your text, but not insofar as it hurts the quality of your content. Creating pages that are optimized for the search engines will help you get your site found which is really more important than design. What good is a site that no one sees?
Submit your site to major search engines. There are sites that will do this for you, or you can do it yourself. Tell your friends. Tweet about it—constantly! Add it to your Facebook status updates, post pictures of it on Flickr, add it to your LinkedIn account—anywhere and everywhere is the key here. The more people coming to your site, the better. Use an e-mail address with your domain. Visit other websites that complement (not compete with) yours, and offer to exchange links or guest blog/write. Post constructively on blogs and forums, and put your URL in your signature. Use article marketing. Creating SEO-optimized articles and posting them to other sites is a sometimes a useful way to create back-links to your website. This might help you to boost your website’s search engine ranking but always keep abreast of search engine updates that often impact SEO strategies and can render them less helpful or even downgrade your site’s ranking.
Submit your site to major search engines. There are sites that will do this for you, or you can do it yourself. Tell your friends. Tweet about it—constantly! Add it to your Facebook status updates, post pictures of it on Flickr, add it to your LinkedIn account—anywhere and everywhere is the key here. The more people coming to your site, the better. Use an e-mail address with your domain. Visit other websites that complement (not compete with) yours, and offer to exchange links or guest blog/write. Post constructively on blogs and forums, and put your URL in your signature. Use article marketing. Creating SEO-optimized articles and posting them to other sites is a sometimes a useful way to create back-links to your website. This might help you to boost your website’s search engine ranking but always keep abreast of search engine updates that often impact SEO strategies and can render them less helpful or even downgrade your site’s ranking.
Take constructive comments seriously. Other band members, fans, and friends may all have easier navigation ideas. Think about your target market or audience: their needs, their frustrations, their circumstances. As much as possible, seek to make their lives easier or more informed.
