3 What is your content going to be, and how are you going to present it?

Good content is vital. Make each page theme focused and write as if you were talking to a friend. Think what it is that you are trying to achieve and work towards a most wanted response at end of page.

What do you want your visitor to do?

4 Get yourself a domain name. It looks much more professional to have your own domain name rather than use free space that comes with your service provider.

It doesn't cost much to buy a domain name and it will give you an enormous advantage. Next you will need to find a web hosting company. I can recommend http://www.internetconnection.net They charge $19.95 a month (or just under £12 a month) with a 60 day money back guarantee. I use them for several of my websites and always find them to be helpful and quick to respond to any queries I may have.

When you have made these important decisions then next step is to plan site.

Planning your site

Plan your website on paper first. First plan your pages. Start with index or home page and draw a diagram showing how pages will link from index page. Produce a simple flow chart to show how users can navigate through site. On another piece of paper draw out where you want page elements to go. This includes navigation bar, header, logo, main text area, and any other navigation such as a sub menu.

Good planning will make it a lot easier when you come to construct site on computer.

Do some research and take a look at other sites who have a similar theme to yours. Study their design and note if navigation works well or not. Does it take long to downoad? You can often learn a lot from other webdesigners.

When you are happy with your design then it's time to open up software you are going to use.

In part 2 I will discuss designing page elements of your website.