Website/Web Marketing

How to create a website from Scratch

Creating a web site is not at all as hard as most people think. You won't need any programming skills (although knowing the basics of HTML could be beneficial) and it will take you about 1 hour of actual work (for a simple project). The following article will try to explain some of the basics of creating and activating a web site on the Internet.

In order to create a fully operational web site, you must go through three main steps:

Getting a Domain Name

A domain name is the address a site has on the Internet. Domain names can end in universal (.com, .edu, .net) or country specific extensions (.us - USA, .de - Germany, .uk - United Kingdom, etc.). Domain registration is a business held by different companies, each offering their unique prices and bonuses. In order to buy a domain name (for example you want to buy the domain name www.webdesign.com) you first need to check if someone does not already use that particular domain. If it's free, take into consideration that international domains are usually pricier than country domains.

Getting a Web Host

Getting a good web host is usually harder then buying your domain name. With website hosting companies blooming all over the world, prices can differ massively. That's why you need careful planning and documentation. A good web-hosting guide can be found at www.findmyhost.com .

Designing your Site

The first step when designing a website is to choose a working space. Assuming HTML is not your strong spot, you can choose from a multitude of software products that provide visual web design, allowing you to create a site without the slightest clue about HTML code. Two products stand above the crowd: Macromedia's Dreamweaver MX and Microsoft's FrontPage. The programs are really easy to learn and use. Both have an excellent internal help system which you should consider browsing before starting work on your website. It will probably take you somewhere around an hour to learn the basics of these programs and be ready to utilize them practically.

Here are some guidelines to help you in designing your web site:
-Try to keep your site's pages (and the homepage especially) at the minimum size you can afford. No one will stay on your site if it takes them 2 minutes to load. A good size for a homepage could be somewhere between 100 and 200 kb.

- Keep your website simple. Don't overcrowd it to the point where it will make it unreadable. Organize your text in small text boxes or paragraphs in order for the page to look clean and eye-catchy.

- Make sure visitors to your site can tell at a glance what your site is about. Place a relevant picture or banner that will show the user exactly what kind of site they are browsing.

With this information at hand, you will able to create a simple web site to test your skills. Before going up to more complicated web sites, practice with simple ones first. Practice is a web designer's most useful tool.