- Getting Started (cont'd)
The seven steps to designing your new website:
Plan
| Design
| Create | Check/Re-check
| Upload
| Promote
| Maintain
Creating Your Website
Alrighty, now we're into the guts of the operation.
Building the code for your page. This section will be
short and sweet. Why, you ask? Well, mainly because
what I would tell you at this point varies greatly depending on
how you've chosen to write your site code.
We can offer you a few suggestions
of how to do this. Because we recognize the need for simplicity
and speed we have full web-based software which will allow you
to create a site in very little time and no skill. You can try a
demo of our
product if you would like. Or if you wanted to try your hand
with software we recommend using Microsoft FrontPage. It is a
powerful editing tool that is so simple beginners can use it. We
also support Dreamweaver, Adobe GoLive, plus just about any
other HTML software you can come up with.
We have offer thrown in some
general pointers and tips for good page design and then ask you
to refer to the software or HTML specific sections on the left
for more detail.
One of the most important
things when it comes to your website is navigation,
navigation, navigation. Did you get that? ;) What
I mean by that is, make sure that you have a good and
consistent method of navigating your site. Most sites
use some type of a navigation bar. A navigation bar is a
series of text links or linked buttons that run across the top
or side of your site on every page. This allows a user
to easily move from place to place on your site without having
to worry about going back to your homepage every time.
If you're unsure exactly what sections your site will have or
what to call them, you don't have to create the navigation bar
first. Just leave space for it as you create your pages
and add it at the end.
Another important element that
should be included on every page of your site is a small
copyright/tech problems bar, generally at the bottom of each
page. This bar can be created in very small type, often
6 or 8 point. It should include "Copyright [your
company or individual name and year or years]". The
second line is generally "To report technical problems
with this site please contact [email address you will be using
for tech problems]" or something similar.
Disclaimer information can also be included in this bar.
You may also want to include your phone number if people are
likely to call for more information about your company or
product. I will offer one frustrating fact here:
There are companies out there who troll websites pulling phone
numbers, email address, and street addresses off of websites
for marketing databases. Some site owners purposely
exclude this information from their websites to try to prevent
such activity. But doing so also risks making it
difficult for potential customers to contact you.
Basically, all I can say is be prepared for any email address
included on your site to end up getting spammed with tons of
junk mail. Remember, the delete key is your friend. ;)
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