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After thinking about it for a long time, you're finally ready to build your own website. You've picked out a web domain that suits the topic or niche that you're wanting to work in, you've secured your web hosting through an Internet service provider, and you're eager to produce original, unique content for your product.
But how do you proceed with designing a website--a quality website that you will be proud of, and your visitors will be pleased with? What sort of graphics are you going to use? What colour schemes are you going to apply? What type of fonts and CSS styling will you integrate? Are you going to build the website from scratch, or are you going to use a reliable content management system (CMS)?
You thought it was going to be simple, but really, there are a lot of questions to be answered.
Before you even start writing the code for your new website, you should have some idea of the user experience you're looking to provide. Is your website going to be focused on written content, or will be it flashy, with lots of graphics, sounds, and interactive functions? Are you going to use plain .html, PHP, or other programming languages?
Often, it is useful to study other successful websites and use their "best practices" and incorporate some of the successful elements into your own website. Now, I'm not suggesting that you copy the content or design of any other website, but in truth, there are only so many unique layouts and designs on the Internet. Try and choose something that reflects what your website will represent, and apply your own unique perspectives to those ideas--like creating a pleasing color scheme.
Hiring a web designer or web design business can be a costly investment. But at the same time, how soon do you want to launch your website? Do you have a budget in mind, or are you doing this all by yourself in your own spare time?
Many CMS's have web developers that are involved in creating templates for their systems, and often they are free, and only ask for a simple return link to their homepage. There are also many templates that can be purchased from designers, or from template clubs, where many times, the templates are easily modified to suit the needs of the website owner.
There are a lot of other factors you will certainly need to consider when developing your own website, including bandwidth, shopping carts, community, downloads, sitemapping, search engine optimization, link development, backlinking, and site promotion, but you can worry about those things after you've built your dream website. Happy developing! |
