The Internet gives us a two-way portal to
world. Unfortunately, most of us only use Internet in one direction (i.e. receiving information). Many people never take advantage of full potential Internet gives - some don't even know what they are missing. Yet, we can never maximize usefulness of Internet until we take advantage of both sides of spectrum and join vast network of people who supply information as well.Creating a website is an easy and inexpensive way to tell world what is important to you. You might be surprised how many people will be interested in your opinions, job, family, or maybe even your recent backyard barbeque.
When I first began creating web pages, I created a website for our family (www.naudusfamily.com). It started out as a simple site to just tell what our family has been doing recently. None of us expected anything from it. I was so surprised when hundreds of visitors flocked to our site and our friends sent us emails telling us how much they enjoyed and appreciated it. Even such a simple site has been so rewarding.
In this course, we will discover how you can easily create your own site at little or no expense. Some very useful programs exist that make web development a simple task. No skill is needed. Experience is not required. Learning HTML is unnecessary. Simply point, click, drag and drop, let program write all HTML for you, and you're on road to creating a great site!
Let's Start From Very Beginning...
A very important first step is to decide what your site is going to be about. Who is your audience going to be? Is your website for everybody, or for specific people? What are they interested in? Be specific. Write it down. Once you are able to formulate your thoughts clearly on paper, you are ready to proceed onto next step.
Next, think about specific pages you want on your site. Write down everything you think of. Finally, take everything you have written and organize it into a site map. Making a site map will help you visually plan navigation of your site. Avoid putting too many links on home page. If number of links exceeds 10, group them under several broad links. For example, if your site is about music, instead of having links for Mozart, Beethoven, Bach, etc. on home page, you would have one link named "composers."
Remember, taking some time to plan before you begin can save you a lot of trouble in future. Planning will also give your site a feeling of continuity, visitors can easily find what they are looking for, and as a result they will want to come back.
Web Page Editors
A web page editor (sometimes referred to as a "web editor" or simply "editor") is an invaluable tool that will assist you in making web pages. Requiring no knowledge of HTML, some editors have a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) interface in which all you need to do is drag and drop items, and it writes all HTML for you. However, some people think that to be really good at web development you need to be able to code in straight HTML. Furthermore, they declare that using a web page editor is "cheating." But very opposite is true. By using an editor you can design impressive web pages without even knowing HTML.
