As with many things in life, creating a website, or having one created for you, can be easy or complex.
Your first step is to decide what you want your website to do for you. Are you an artist and want samples of your work displayed? Do you have product to sell? Will this site be used only by your family to show pictures and stay in touch? The uses of a website are endless, but you need to have a very clear picture of what you want. If you can't say, in one short sentence, what goal the site must meet, then you need to work on clarifying your website's objective.
There are only two ways to make a website. You can make it yourself or have someone make it for you. There are many pros and cons for each one of these options, but keep in mind that when everything is done, you want a website that looks good, meets it purpose and is easy for users to find and use.
Basically, creating the site yourself costs less, but will take many hours.
While having someone do it for you costs hundreds, or thousands, of dollars, but it's easier for you.
If you make the site yourself, you can use professional software, like Adobe GoLive (what I use) or Dreamweaver. They're both good programs, but they do take some time to learn. You will also need to know the basics of HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) to fix bugs that are always present in the coding.
I have spend days combing through hundreds of lines of HTML just to find the extra or missing character that's making a page invisible, or look fine in Mozilla, but terrible in Internet Explorer.
To learn about HTML, visit these sites.
· HTML Goodies - http://www.htmlgoodies.com
· Builder.com - http://builder.com.com/
· PageTutor.com - http://www.pagetutor.com/
· HTML Tutorials - http://www.htmltutorials.ca/
· W3 Schools - http://www.w3schools.com/html/default.asp
A site can also be created using Word, Publisher, browsers (like Mozilla and Internet Explorer) and other programs. However, while it's easy to make sites with these programs, the HTML will not be as good as it could be. This will result in pages that may look strange on different browsers, have numerous bugs and contain other problems.
Realize that no matter what software you choose, almost any site will take many hours, or weeks, to create. You will need to ask yourself these questions.
· Who will do the design and layout?
· Where will I get any graphics that I want? (See my article "Where To Find
Free Pictures, Artwork And Animation For Your Website.")
· Who will optimize large graphics so they load faster?
· Where will I register my domain name?
· Who will host my website? (See my article "How To Select A Good Website
Hosting Company.")
· Should I submit my website to search engines or pay someone to do this for me? (This really isn't necessary any more, but that's a future article.)
· Do I need to take payments on my site or have a shopping cart?
· Who will write the copy for my website?
· How soon does the website need to be up and running? It's best to assume a website will take at least a month to create.
Another thing you will want to consider is who will update your website? Will the text or photographs need to be updated? Will products need to be added or removed? Updating a website may also be time intensive. It takes me about six hours a month to update the events pages on my site. This, along with other updates, maintenance and writing these monthly articles, and I dedicate at least sixteen hours a month to my website. This doesn't include answering e-mails from people wanting advice, answers or favors.
You also need to decide if your site will have a database to store information about your users, or if the entire site will be created using a database. Hiring someone to create a database could easily add thousands of dollars to the normal cost of a website.
Almost any website can be created using simple HTML, and maybe some JavaScript. But do you want to add CSS (Cascading Style Sheets), Flash, animation or other bells and whistles? This will require more money to buy the software, and time to learn how to use it. I'm a strong believer in using mainly HTML and maybe a touch of JavaScript. Making a complex site may look great, but it will take longer for your visitors to load and can easily distract visitors from the purpose of the site. They may have so much fun playing with the floating butterflies on your site, that they will ignore your copy or the products you are trying to sell.
Now that you're totally overwhelmed, relax. If you hire a website designer, they will deal with these, and the thousand or so other issues, that you have to contend with when creating a website. Or you can make a very simple, and small site, then add to its size and complexity as your time and expertise allows.
The real key is to know what you want your site to do, then decide how best to accomplish this. Maybe you want a thirty page site, but it may be better to start with a three page site, and build up from there. Only you can make this decision.
So think things through before you start a website. The last thing you want to do is spend your valuable time and money, only to realize that the site isn't going to meet your needs and having to start all over again.
Copyright 2007 Jeff Colburn
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