Technically speaking, the proper order of things is to have your design at least mostly planned before locating your hosting company, but most of us don’t follow the proper order of things. I, for one, like to crash through ideas as they come to me and then spend copious time backing up and doing things the way they should have been done to begin with. Whether or not you join me in that nasty habit, here are some suggestions that might help you with your site design. As I continue to flesh out this site, I’ll be coming back to this topic regularly with what I hope will be helpful tips on the nitty-gritty of web design.
My all-time favorite commercial software with which to build a site is Dreamweaver, but that will costs you hundreds of dollars (not to mention a decent learning curve), so lets back away from the credit card, because that kind of thing isn’t really necessary anymore.
My favorite and 100% free way to build a website is with WordPress (many WordPress tips to come in the future). This site, for instance, is built with WordPress (never mind that it looks like a diseased camel dressed for a fancy tea party by a four-year-old girl–that’s my style!). Almost all hosting companies offer easy installation of the WordPress software, and then you can tweak it from there. There really isn’t anything you can’t do with WordPress if you have a bit of knowledge. Even without the knowledge, there is a huge community of developers who actually put out free templates and plugins for you to use. With enough Googling, you can find a free template that looks just about any way you can imagine you would want a site to look. You can even add shopping carts that connect to your Paypal account, turning this simple platform into an ecommerce solution.
But taking full advantage of WordPress requires a knowledge of HTML, CSS and, to a lesser extent, PHP. So what if you don’t have any such knowledge? Well, you could either learn what you need to know (there are tons of free tutorials online), or you could go a different direction, to a ready-made site-builder.
Most website hosts, in addition to offering installations of WordPress and other popular platforms, also offer site designing software as part of their hosting package. Sometimes, like at American Hosting and GoDaddy.com, you have to pay additional for the program, but at others it is completely free (remember that “free” doesn’t necessarily mean “good,” but neither does a price tag).
Although the design software at many hosting companies is barely worth the “free” price, it may still be something to check out if you are very low on the design know-how portion of hosting your own website. If you know absolutely nothing about site design and don’t intend to either learn or to pay for a professional design, you should probably start, at least, with the good shared hosting companies that offer free site-builders (see my review of best shared hosts).
If you don’t like WordPress or the site-builders that come with your hosting, there are some budget options out there besides shelling out the money for Dreamweaver (which, as I said, has a learning curve).
One place you can check out is Dream Templates. WARNING: I have never used them. What I like about them from the outside, however, is that they are reasonably priced at $59.95 for unlimited downloads. They have a money-back guarantee and a customer service area (that doesn’t mean they are helpful, but at least they have something there). And maybe the best part is that you can browse through their collection of sites, giving them a good look, before deciding whether to sign up or not. That way, you don’t spend the money only to find that they have nothing you want. That’s hard to imagine anyway, though, because they are fat with options and all the sites I saw looked very professionally done. You can check them out by clicking on the banner below:
Outside of the above advice, you can start limbering up your wallet to hire a professional designer for hundreds or thousands of dollars. Here’s the deal, though. If you are doing this site for yourself, don’t you want to know how to make it work? If is a corporate site, that is one thing. You can afford to hire developers and have them at your beck and call. But if you are putting up a site for you or for you and your friends, it is far better to put the time and effort into learning how to build the site yourself, whether you use WordPress or a site-builder from your host. Only then will you really have control over your site and the flexibility to change as you need to change.
Don’t lock yourself into a design that can only be adjusted through an act of congress combined with an emptying of your wallet. HTML and CSS are easy to learn and even easier to employ within the cozy confines of free WordPress software. And if you get stuck? There are plenty of free forums on the web where you can ask questions.
My advice to begin my series on site design? Take ownership, take control. That’s going to be an integral part of your site’s success.
