Creating A Website
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When we started this website we had no formal website design training and there were a few bumps in the road along the way, however we persevered and progressed to what we have today.
There are many things to consider when designing or deciding what kind of website to build. The task of building a website can become overwhelming at times but, given the time, can also be very rewarding. This article is not intended to teach you how to build a website but to direct you to the best places to find that help. In building our own website, we took the opportunity to scour the web for the best information on creating a website. Some content was worthwhile however we found a lot that was poorly written and/or hard to understand. While our intention is not to discourage anyone from achieving their dream of having their own website, we will be very candid in what we present here. After all, we believe that anything worth doing at all, is worth doing right.
If you want anything more than just a single page, be prepared to spend some time putting in a lot of work. It takes time not only to formulate what you want to say, but to code the page properly so that it looks right across a variety of browsers and resolutions. Graphics take time to create and you want to make sure they are sized and compressed properly to optimize page loading times. You don't want a page that takes more than a few seconds to load or your audience will go somewhere else.
If you've watched the top banner of our page, you've probably seen the ad for the website, 2 Create A Website. Lisa has invested an unimaginable amount of time in her websites both in the quantity of the content as well as the quality of the content. Everything she presents is in easy to understand terms and instructions followed by examples and videos. Rather than rehash what is already all over the web, our intention is to direct you to what we believe is the best set of web pages with useful content. With that said, let's get started.PLANNING
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Is the site being constructed to support an existing business or is the site a business all to its own? Do you want to use the site to make money? How are you going to make money? Through advertising? Selling a product? Is your site going to need eCommerce? How much time and effort are you willing to put into the site? Are you willing to constantly add content to the site? These are only a very few of the questions that need to be answered.
Multiple page websites take hundreds if not thousands of hours or more to create depending on the level and type of information contained in the site. Watch out for the get rich quick schemes and scams. We recommend visiting 2 Plan A Website. There is a wealth of information on this site and best of all, the information is FREE.CREATING
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We also recommend purchasing 2 reference books. One of the books is geared toward Adobe Dreamweaver which we use here on this site. That book is Dreamweaver, The Missing Manual. If you use Dreamweaver, you will want the appropriate version whether it be CS3, CS5 or any others. The other book is The CSS Anthology, 101 Essential Tips, Tricks & Hacks by Rachel Andrew. CSS makes things much easier as it allows you to use consistent formatting in your pages saving time when writing the html code. Both of these books can be found online for a reasonable price.
2 Create A Website will show you different ways to create a website, including methods which are extremely inexpensive as you do not need a program such as Adobe Dreamweaver or Microsoft Expression, though they do help make things easier once learned. In fact, a web page can be created using nothing more than notepad. On this site, you will also find information on driving traffic to your site, as well as good advice for making money on your site. This site also has information on web hosting including some that include software to build your site online....AND SO MUCH MORE
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By now, some of you must be wondering, "What Is The Catch?" There is no catch. When we were looking to build a website for our company, we started researching different sites. We found Lisa's and have used them ever since. We are not affiliated with Lisa or her sites other than the fact that we believe them to be the best there is and this is what we want for our readers. The best there is! Before we started writing this page, we asked Lisa for permission as this page is dedicated to her continuous hard work. Here is the email:
On Tue, Feb 1, 2011 at 9:12 PM, User Friendly PC wrote:
Hi Lisa,
Periodically and more often recently, I get people contacting me asking me to create a website for them. When I explain that I don't offer this service, they ask how hard it would be for them to do it themselves or for recommendations. Often these calls come from my website. There is so much information out there without rehashing it on my website and there is so much to it, that it really is a subject all of its own. I would like to write a page for my website that provides links to your sites. (at least 2planawebsite, 2createawebsite and website babble) I truly believe that if anyone takes the time to go through and study the information on your sites, that they can create their own. These are awesome sites. I don't expect or require anything in return as you deserve all of the credit but I like to ask permission before starting on the page. If permission is granted, I will provide you to a link to it before it goes live so that you may check it for changes and further approval.
Respectfully,
User Friendly PC
userfriendlypc.net
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On Tue, Feb 4, 2011 at 10:21 AM, Lisa wrote:
Thanks so much for asking. Yes, you are free to link to my sites and I am truly grateful for the generosity. Good luck with your site!
Before we go, we want to thank Lisa for the time she spends helping other people and the work she does. There is also one more site that I want to share with everyone. That site is Website Babble. This site, (also the work of Lisa), is a forum giving everyone a chance to talk with others about creating websites and everything that goes with it. It is a great support group and gives us a chance to get some real issues solved that we sometimes run into, as well as helping our peers in this huge world of the web.
Thank you Lisa for the help you have given every one of us out there. We know how time consuming it is and appreciate all of your hard work!
