| 1. The first
thing you'll need is a domain name
If you're looking
into web design you may already have domain name. If not,
we have written an article on
domain registration that can help you get your domain at a
great domain registrar at a great price. We also have another
article similar to this one about
how to start a website.
2. Basic web
design tools-A few options
Microsoft Frontpage
and Macromedia Dreamweaver are the most popular and widely used
web design programs, but MS Frontpage is more popular because it
typically comes packaged with the Microsoft Office suite. If
your computer has MS Word and MS Excel then the chances are you
already have Frontpage. If you're not sure then have a look at
your programs and see if Frontpage is on your computer. If you
have Frontpage and you're not sure how to use it there are a lot
of free tutorials available online. Type "free Frontpage
tutorial" into a search engine and you will see that there are
plenty of free tutorials out there to help you. The internet is
a goldmine of free information. Use it to your advantage when
learning to build websites.
You don't have to
master Frontpage to build your own site because you don't have
to build your site from scratch. You'll only need a program like
Frontpage to edit a web template that you choose for your site.
Using free tutorials online and the Frontpage help menu you can
learn to edit web templates in a very short period of time.
If you don't have Microsoft Frontpage or
Macromedia Dreamweaver then you have a couple of options. You
can purchase Frontpage or Dreamweaver. We did some looking
around and found Softwaresurplus.com has both of these programs
for very reasonable prices. When we checked it was $90 for
Frontpage and $240 for Dreamweaver.
Another option is to use a free web builder. Most
web hosting companies supply their customers with a very basic
web builder that uses some very basic website templates. The
advantage to using one of these web builders is that they are
very simple and easy to use even if you've never even considered
building a website in the past. Our top rated web hosting
company Hostgator offers a
free web builder with their hosting plans.
3. Templates,
templates, and more templates. Templates are the quickest way
for anyone to put together a professional looking website
without hiring a web designer.
There are
thousands upon thousand of templates out there and you should be
able to easily find one for your website. We would like to
recommend a few of the best places we know of to get good web
templates.
1.
www.allwebco-templates.com
This company offers a very
nice selection of web templates. The prices start at $35 or $40
and go up to about $120. As far as templates go that is a little
expensive, but we think it's worth it.
2.
www.basictemplates.com
I know quite a few
internet professionals that buy all of their web templates from
basictemplates.com. What stands out about them is their huge
selection and excellent prices, and at only $5 per template they
have one of the best values on the web.
3.
www.templatemonster.com
TemplateMonster.com is a
very popular web template site. We've used their templates in
the past and been very happy with them.
4. Finding images
for your website
www.bigstockphoto.com
Most people like to see
images on a website, and placing a nice image or two on a
website can really pull it all together. Nice images appropriate
for your site are easy to find at bigstockphoto.com. Prices are
about $2 per image or less if you buy in bulk.
5. Photo editing
& resizing
To personalize your
template, you'll want to add your own images and resize them if
you have to. Image editing is a big industry and can take a lot
of work to master, but simple editing and resizing can be
learned quickly. There are a lot of different free and paid
image editing and resizing programs and we've highlighted a few
of the most popular ones.
1.
www.gifworks.com
Edit, resize, and download
new images with this free website.
2.
picasa.com
This free photo
editor made by Google will let you do some editing to your
images.
3.
photoshop.com
Photoshop is really the
cream of the crop for image editing and resizing. They offer a
30 day free trial so there is nothing to lose by trying it out.
6. Creating your
own logo
Hiring a professional to
create your logo may be quite expensive. You can save a lot of
money by creating your own logo with software that is used
specifically to create logos.
TheLogoCreator.com is
one that we've used and recommend. It's easy to use and it
creates professional looking logos very quickly. It costs about
$30 which is well worth it if you consider how much it would
cost to hire someone to create your logo.
We hope you found this
information useful.
All the best and good luck
in your internet endeavors,
PerfectFitHosting.com
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