How To Make A Website That Matters
Sent by Tem Balanco on July 26th 2008 source
Reaching an intended audience is the main purpose of a website. Without visitors, especially visitors interested in your site's content, your site won't be able to achieve its aim. Keeping that in mind, there are several things you need to learn to not only ease the process of building a website, but to help ensure that your site is easy for your target audience to find and navigate.
There are several free options when you are trying to learn how to make a website. Not only are their countless online tutorials on how to make a website but you can also find rows of books at your local library on this topic. No matter where you decide to get your information make sure you stay focused on the most critical part of your site which is the content and not all of the extras that can be thrown in after the fact.
Only knowing how to make a website isn't enough. You must next define a purpose for your site. Perhaps the goal is to share personal information and pictures? Or maybe it will serve as a space to tell others of your interests and hobbies or professional ventures. Either way, organize! Group together ideas, pictures, and content so that your site will be easy to view and use.
Your next step will be to find a place to host your website. You may already have some web space through your Internet provider, or you can sign up with a separate hosting service. Some are free, others require a monthly subscription fee. Many come with tools that will help you learn how to build a website of your own.
When you're finished with these items, you need to begin to assemble it. As before, a number of choices exist. You may figure out how to transcribe HTML and CSS yourself. It's not easy, but enjoyable if it interests you. A simpler choice is to utilize a WYSIWYG editor. This acronym means, "What you see is what you get", and it's a visual aid in assembling and correcting your pages, instead of needing to transcribe the HTML by yourself.
One alternative is to take advantage of the templates or tools that are associated with the hosting account. These accounts can help with colors, styles and clipart that can be manipulated by the mouse. This is helpful for those who are putting together there first website then moving to a WYSIWYG editors and then combining WYSIWYG and HTML themselves.
When learning to create a website, always keep in mind the importance of content. Adding graphics, photos, and other items to the website can draw interest, but using too many can distract viewers from the content. Utilize extras with caution, as not to distract site guests from site's information. Too many graphics will also cause slow loading times and can cause frustration from your visitors.
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Various resources are available for free to help you learn how to make a website. Numerous books and online tutorials can teach you how to build a website Decide on your website's purpose and start gathering information.