Building a Website

Free Online Guide to Building your Website
from Start to Finish

Step 2
Building a Website

Well, there are a few ways you could go about building a website. If you have had some experience with building websites and you already understand the methods of building a website then you could probably put your site together with out many problems. For those of you who have some experience building websites and are going to put one together yourself I will have some resources and tools further down the page for you. However, for those of you who have never had any experience building a website this step could be quite overwhelming. But, it doesn't have to be. I will explain building a website for the inexperience web builder and the more experienced now:

For the New Web Designer

• Site Builder - I highly recommend these. Web site builders are online tools which anyone can use to build a professional looking web site and have it hosted as well. No software to buy, no code to learn, all you need is to be a little bit knowledgeable on the computer and you're all set. These Site Builders come with 100's of templates to choose from that can be changed easily to meet your needs. You can also get packages that include catalogs, shopping carts, link pages, multiple business email accounts. They are so easy to use that in about 10 minutes you could have your first Web Page well on its way. For both the New Web Designers and more experienced Web Designers I highly recommend using a Site Builder.
  

  
  Here are some highly recommended Site Builders:
  

  • Site Build It - Site Build It! is the all-in-one site-building, site-hosting, and site-marketing system of software tools that delivers success. They handle all the technology and complexity for you. Everything... from brainstorming to domain name to hosting, from graphic design to Search Engine submission and optimization, from traffic building and analysis to e-zine publishing. All the tools, all in one place, all for one price, and all tied together into a straightforward, integrated, step-by-step process that works.
    
    
  • GoDaddy.com - Offering a $3.99 Domain Sale. The #1 fastest growing and #1 Overall Best registrar. Plus, GoDaddy.com has a WebSite Builder. So, you can get it all at one spot!!!
    
    
  • WebsiteWizard - Build a page. Build a site. Build a business. This is an all-in-one ecommerce package of tools that takes care of everything for you, from domain name registration, graphic design and web hosting, to search engine submission, traffic analysis and ezine publishing. And, it has an easy and effective Site Builder!!
    
    
  • Homestead Website Building - Your Complete Website Building & Hosting Solution. Homestead gives you everything you need: easy-to-use software, personal domains & matching e-mail accounts, reliable hosting - even e-commerce for those selling online.
    
    
  • Website Builder - Website Builder is a highly advanced, yet user friendly online web design engine, that lets almost anyone create and handle web sites quickly, efficiently at a great price!
    
    

  For the More Experienced Web Designer

• If you have some experience at Web Design and you are considering designing your own Web Site you will need some kind of Web Editor. A Web Editor is a program that you use to create Web pages. It can be something as simple as the text editor that came with your computer or it can be something that creates the page right in front of you as you point and click. I have used Dreamweaver as a Web Editor for the past 5 years and I absolutely love it!!

Recommended Web Editors:

• Macromedia Dreamweaver MX 2004 - Dreamweaver MX 2004 is the professional choice for building web sites and applications. It provides a powerful combination of visual layout tools, application development features, and code editing support, enabling developers and designers at every skill level to create visually appealing, standards-based sites and applications quickly.
  
  
• Microsoft FrontPage 2003 [CD] - FrontPage 2003 provides the features, flexibility, and functionality to help you build better Web sites. It includes the professional design, authoring, data, and publishing tools needed to create dynamic and sophisticated Web sites.

For those of you who have Web Design experience and know how to use a Web Editor, but aren't too savvy with Graphic Design you should consider working with templates. A Website template is a pre-made web design for your website. You use a template along with your preferred Web Editor. If you are using a website template you can have your website done in minutes. You can purchase these for as little as a couple of dollars or as much a couple hundred dollars.

Recommended Templates:

• Template Monster - Website templates, flash templates, web templates and other products from Template Monster are ready-made web design products that can be used as a basis for fast and high-quality web design. All web templates, website templates, flash templates are completely customizable and ready for immediate download.
  
  
• Design Galaxy - DesignGalaxy.net offers unique and professional pre-made Website templates, Flash templates, Powerpoint presentation templates, Corporate identity and logo designs. All products offered at DesignGalaxy fulfil the highest quality standards, are user-friendly and easy to customize.
  
  
• Boxed Art.com - Web Templates from BoxedArt - Features website templates, flash templates, logo templates, templates, flash intros, full flash sites and more. They offer unlimited Template downloads for one membership price.