Showing posts with label web design. Show all posts
Showing posts with label web design. Show all posts

Preparing your website

Im sure you will now all be pleased to see this post. We will be discussing how to go about preparing a website today and the first place to start is with what you need and the best places to get this. Im sure that some of you here already know this information but for those that do not, this is important information.

By now you should have gathered your aims for your website, your basic layout and structure and the tools required to start work. However, there is one more step before you can start to implement! Alot of the time, beginners miss this step as they do not understand its importance which can set you back from the very beginning. There are only two requirements for setting up a website and these are

  • Domains
  • Web Hosting.

Domains:

For those who do not know, a domain name is the text that will appear in your websites url. For example if you chose your name as cutekittens with the .com domain then your website's url would appear as www.cutekittens.com.
There is alot of conversation about which domain is the best for which website. For beginners your best bet is to simply stay with the most popular and common being .com and .co.uk.
The most important aspect to note about choosing a domain name is the name itself. If your aim is to make money then you will have to pay even more attention to this detail. For beginners who wish to go into Internet Marketing, more on these detailed domain names will come later. For those who are simply wishing to create there first website, you should choose a name which relates exactly to what your website will offer. For example if your website will be on board games, you may wish to register your domain name as popularboardgames.com or boardgamesreview.com.

In order to register a domain name you have to go to a registrar. There are many on the internet, but i highly recommend NameCheap

Web Hosting:

In order for your domain name i.e. cutekittens.com to show any content you will require a web host. A web host is simply a company that hosts your files online so that your url can be directed to it and displayed. Depending on what type of website you wish to run, will depend on what type of web hosting package you require. For simple web pages you will not need any specific requirements and so any web host will do. You can use free web hosts to start out but be aware that advertisements may be shown throughout your website if you choose this option. I would recommend experimenting on your own computer before you wish to publish a website. Once you are happy with your results, you can acquire a web host and upload your files to the host via your ftp client you chose earlier.

Experimenting locally:

For simple webpages you can view these on your own computer simply by opening a web browser. Open your web browser (e.g. Internet Explorer, Mozilla firefox), Go to File > Open file. Browse to your .html page and accept. It will display your webpage just as it would if it was hosted online.

Beginners Guide to Web Design

If your reading this, then you probably came here as a beginner to web design and wish to learn. Well... you came to the right place. Lets get straight into it by making one point perfectly clear to you.. do not use frontpage or WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) tools. From my experience, people that want to start in web design automatically assume that WYSIWYG's are the way to go. Stop thinking about what you believe is correct and start reading.

There are many ways to be involved in web design, too many for a beginner to master. The first move you make must be based on your aims. By this i mean if your web design aim is to make money, then you should adopt an internet marketing approach. If your aim is to create stylish modern designed schemes then you will require more skills than the previous method. I will explain more about this later. Finally, if your web design aim is to create simple productive web pages (for simplicities sake, by this i mean web pages such as those that contain forms) then you must learn a few techniques and languages to do this.

There are many beginners guide to web design websites and blogs out there, but they do not teach you the theories or the understandings and simply direct you to sites where you can learn "this language" or "this language". For the purpose of being a beginners guide to web design, in my opinion this just creates more confusion as you start thinking, "i can't learn all these languages!" or "this will take me forever". Beginning web design is not as daunting as it needs to be if you follow this guide.

Although the importance of designing your website around your aims may not appear to be high, trust me it means everything. You will notice significant improvement if you base your website around this. Hopefully throughout this guide to web design you will grasp the theories you have been seeking for.

If your a beginner (which i presume you are) to webdesign then im sure you will want to miss all of this theory and decision stuff and crack on with the creative side. I ensure you that if you do this, then you will waste more time in the long term. The truth is, the successful websites have had many hours poured over them on the design phase. How a user establishes what action to take is based on their first opinions, and their first opinions will be decided on "if they see what they want". This is the key to your aim. Let me explain this in a little more detail... If your aim is to establish a community then you will want to draw them in by meeting their needs. Relevancy and direct information for this case are essential. Once the users are drawn in, you must convince them to stay. This has to be done by providing a service, and producing an attractive service wether through presentation or information. I will publish more on community websites at a later date.

The problem with beginners to web design is that they do not soak up the theory required to produce great results. Scanning tutorials online can be productive but without a goal you can't apply it properly. My recommendation to anyone is to gain theory on core facts. Find out what you need and take action. Simple as that. Obviously if you are a beginner and here for a guide on how to do this... of course i will give you this information.

By now i hope that you have an aim for what you want to achieve and with this in mind make a start! The only way to progress is to test. To become a good web designer it will require time, alot of reading and soaking up knowledge. This beginners guide to web design give you all the information you need, so get reading! Simple steps can lead to well ranked, profit making websites.