Let us take you through a brief description of each step along Yellow Brick Road of Web Design.

Domain Name Registration

Your domain name is what you type into address bar of your browser (it is your URL). It is what your visitors will be typing into their browser, so selecting an easy to type and understand domain name is important. It is your home on Internet. Make it easy to get to. Some examples of domain names include directoryone.com, google.com, and NBC.com. You know exactly where you are headed when you type those into your browser. However, with millions of domain names already registered, it may feel like all good ones are taken. But be creative and patient and right name will come along.

Web Hosting

If your web page is like a paper flyer, than your server is like bulletin board you stick it on. You will need to sign on with a web hosting service so you can store your files on their server. Your host is who makes your site available to public, not just to you. When choosing a web hosting company, you should take into account how much space you’ll need, how much bandwidth, access, and so on. There are numerous web-hosting terms that may be new and confusing for you. For example, you may come across will be “Secure Server” which you will need if you plan on doing any sort of eCommerce. Another strange term you might see is “FTP Solutions.” FTP is short for File Transfer Protocol. FTP is what is used to “upload,” or move your site from you computer to host computer “bulletin board.”

Design

Although design is not only important aspect of creating a website, good design is still vital to having a successful site. You only get one chance to make a first impression, and studies show that average person’s attention span is only about 8 seconds when looking at a site. Make those 8 seconds count by having a clean, clear, easy-to-read site that conveys information while also being aesthetically pleasing to view.

While graphics and animation are snazzy and fun, they aren’t necessary to making your website work. Sometimes simpler is better, easier on you and easier on customer. If you do choose to use advanced graphics and animation, remember that good visuals should be eye-catching but NOT distracting. Do not crowd your page with spinning vortexes and dancing bears. Utilize appropriate graphics that go with your company.

Remember: Sloppy website design does not make your product look very desirable. If your website is quality, it implies your product is quality, too.

Layout

Nothing could be further from truth. Here's why: Very few people actually read ads on FFA pages. They visit FFA pages for same reason you do--to post their own ads-- not to look at someone else's. So basically, your submission is just a dead link.

As far as increasing your site's link popularity, research has shown that submitting to FFA pages does NOT increase your "link popularity" or search engine ranking. In fact, linking to FFA pages could actually hurt your ranking, because many search engines will penalize you if they think you are trying to artificially increase your link popularity.

Also, many individuals use auto-submitters to post their ads. This means that many times a real person never actually sees your ad anyway.

In addition, there's a limit to number of ads that can be posted to an FFA page. This means that as new ads are posted, your ad drops further and further down page, until it drops off completely.