Creating a website.

Creating a Web Site

If you are here you are probably wondering what is a web design company doing telling people to design their own site. Well we are not your typical web design company. If you wish to design your own site we are not going to talk you out of it. We feel that if we are nice enough to give you advice on how to get started you will contact us when you are ready to take that site to the next level.

When you start on a website you should have a logo, a name, some content and maybe even a web host. Some hosting companies provide you with an online site designer software or templates. You can of course start learning HTML, PHP, ASP, Photoshop (or another graphics program), etc. If your time rich and money poor this is one of your options. Do it yourself.

Do it yourself - learning resources

Learn everything you can. Start by finding sites you like, "view source" copy and rework the code. Buy a book on HTML, XHTML and CSS (cascading style sheets) or find online tutorials. Go to www.w3.org this is the resource for web standards. Keep doing it.

Do it yourself - less time, some money

Find a decent free web template or spend a few bucks for a nice one. This can save a lot of money in setup but you will still have to configure everything yourself. So read up on HTML and keep trying.

Have a web designer do it

Guess what? Lots of web designers use templates. We get resumes sent to me with links to "sites" the developers have designed they are all templates I have seen before...some still have the template code in them. It's crazy. Find a web designer who knows what they are doing, 6+ years experience. 6 years ago there were no templates, tools, nothing. Web developers used Notepad to hand-code websites. For example: We started using Bradbury Software HomeSite at version 0.1. That software had been bought by Allaire which was bought by Macromedia that just merged with Adobe. You want someone with experience and the knowledge to make your site load fast, look the same in all browsers, etc. You also want to stay away from newbie web designers that use high tech software the try and substitute for experience and knowledge.

Get some steak with that sizzle!

Basically, your website design is the sizzle, you need to get some steak in there. Thats the database back-end, programming to display, search the data and the copy. This is what makes your site functional. The design is not more important than the message, service or product. So if you are ready to schedule a meeting to set up your website use one of the links on this site.