There are a number of website design programs which can help you put together an attractive website in a short period of time, provided that you have content, and a basic idea of what you want your site to look like.

The most popular one is Front Page, not terrible expensive, but it does cost money. Then there is the very popular program CoffeeCup.

The most expensive is
Dreamweaver, a very robust program, most likely too robust for most beginners. However,it has impressive capabilities, and is certainly one program you will grow into. It can be bought on its own or as part of the Adobe Creative Suite, which can handle just about any form of online media, video, audio and so on.

For free programs that will get you started right away, you can get a copy of SeaMonkey, or Netscape Communicator 4.7.

Website design programs have a number of advantages:

- WYSIWYG – (what you see is what you get) editing, little or no html or css knowledge required

- you can put together a website in very short amount of time

- easily add flash, counters, forms, buttons, menus etc with drag and drop features

- a variety of predesigned layouts built right into most

- there is a basic builder built into the cpanel of some web hosts, such as hostgator

- an online site builder just requires an internet connection, no download or program to install. You will get one of these in your Fantastico suite if you host your site with hostgator and other big and inexpensive hosting sites.

- some allow editing from one program to another. For example, your original site might have been built in your website’s sitebuilder software, but you can migrate it over, and modify and customize it at a later date in Frontpage or Dreamweaver.

One thing is for sure, everyone wants a website these days, and to have someone do your design and maintain your site can start to add up after a while, so knowing the basics of HTML is a real plus, and using simple software is a step towards this goal.

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Many people who want a website may wish to start out with a free hosting service to host their site.

Some Free Hosts

*www.bravenet.com/

*freewebs.com/

*www.50megs.com/

*www.tripod.lycos.com/

*geocities.yahoo.com/

*www.homestead.com/

Some Free Blog Hosts

*http://www.blogger.com

*http://www.wordpress.com

*http://www.typepad.com

*http://www.livejournal.com

*http://clearblogs.com/

*http://blog.com/

*http://blogster.com/

*http://www.bravenet.com/webtools/journal/

*http://www.tblog.com/

*http://bloghi.com/blog/reg

*http://www.vox.com

*http://www.xanga.com/

Some Advantages to a Free Host

- you generally you can’t break it, even if you aren’t experienced at using it

- they come with point and click layouts, changes, colors, etc

- one click publishing in most cases, so you don’t need a lot of programs to get the job done

- free – that’s a big perk if you’re just starting out

- mostly customizable via templates and such that are easy to use and install

Some Disadvantages

- the rules are decided upon by someone else, and they can remove your site at any time, so make sure you back up anything you put there

- free sites are notorious for use by spammers (sad but true)

- limitations – certain types of features, plugins, and monetizations won’t work on free hosting

- small bandwidth

- low reliabilty servers in some cases

- your great url will be part of someone else’s url

-lack of tech support on some of the sites

Never house anything you value on a free site. It could be here today and gone tomorrow.

<a href=”http://www.jdoqocy.com/2b74y1A719PTQTVYRYPRQUWZVRX” target=”_blank” onmouseover=”window.status=’http://www.adobe.com’;return true;” onmouseout=”window.status=’ ‘;return true;”><strong>Creative Suite 3.3 Master Collection. Express your ideas in print, on the web, in film and video, and on mobile devices! Order Now!</a></strong>
<img src=”http://www.tqlkg.com/9k122y7B-53PTQTVYRYPRQUWZVRX” width=”1″ height=”1″ border=”0″/>

<a href=”http://www.jdoqocy.com/k8101hz74z6MQNQSVOVMSNQTPVQ” onmouseout=”window.status=’ ‘;return true;” onmouseover=”window.status=’http://www.coffeecup.com/’;return true;” target=”_blank”>
<img src=”http://www.lduhtrp.net/ii115h48x20MQNQSVOVMSNQTPVQ” alt=”Click Here for CoffeeCup Website Design Software” border=”0″ /></a>

HTML or HyperText Markup Language, is the foundation of basic website editing, used in full site design, and used in blog posts for most platforms.

Some Basic Things You Can Do with HTML

There are many things you can do with HTML, but here are some of the more common ones. They start and end with a sideways carat, but if we showed them to you correctly,you would not be able to see the code.
change fonts

font=Verdana The font of the text will change

When you are closing the tag at the end of the change you wish to make, make sure that you close it with a / as in </ font>

-change font color

<font color=#990000> There are a number of different colors in html. The colors are assigned six digit codes.</font>

You can find a simple HTML color chart here: HTML color chart

And it links to a more detailed chart here: HTML Color chart 2

This is midnight blue-the color is #191970

This is maroon-the color code is #800000

Just remember to close the tag when you are finished with a </font> tag.

-create a list

ul> for unordered list

ol> for ordered list

li>for each line item in the list

You can create a table to organize images, your photos, for example, or create a chart on your site or posting

table> starts table

tr> starts table row

td> starts table cell

remember to end each cell /td> and each row /tr> as well as /table>

-create a text link

a href=”http://www.yourlinkhere.com”>Text links are great for moving people around your site with ease </a>

-add an image

img src=http://www.urlofyourimage.com

You can also create simple contact forms that include labels, radio buttons, and push buttons.

-quotes, and leaving white space on a page

blockquote>quoted text/blockquote>, text which is indented from the main part of the text on both sides, useful for making sure that the length of the line is not too long, so your visitors can read it easily.

These simple commands can help get you started with a good looking website. Again, just remember to start your command with < and end with >, and to close the tag, start with </ and end with >

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In out previous articles, we’ve talked about whether or not you should design your site yourself, or hire a professional company to do it.
If you are looking for a designer, here are some pricing considerations:

- custom design pricing can range from $50 to $1000 and even higher depending on size of website to be built

- the cost for a design is covering time and creative effort

- premade templates are generally priced affordably and lower cost than 100% custom designs

- more expensive isn’t always better, nor is cheaper – evaluate the work, not the price

- pricing can be more per page

- script installation will usually incur an extra charge

- if your website designer is also doing the graphic design such as logos and art work, this could mean an increase in price

- design changes can be extra if you make more than one

- a rushed job will cost more

- value and pricing are two different things. Something can be more valuable than it actually costs, for example, making sure that your site has ecommerce capability means you will be able to sell things from your site easily when the time comes.

Make sure that you already have content and some basic site design in mind in terms of number of pages and website navigation in order to keep the price of the project down and prevent any miscommunication.

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As we have discussed in our previous articles on the pros and cons of do it yourself web design, versus hiring a professional web designer, there are a number of reasons why both can be good choices depending on what phase of your internet business you are in.

If you do decide to go the route of hiring a designer, here is a list of what you should look for in a good web designer:

- recommended by others

- experience designing type of site you need/want

- portfolio to look through of actual working websites

- up to date: are they using the newest techniques?

- affiliations: are they recognized in their field or by peers in their industry

- do they have clients similar to you?

- are they available; is time going to be an issue if you are in a rush

- do they provide support after your site is done?

- what if you need an update?

- custom pricing: can they put together a package just for you, or do you have to buy a standard all in one package with parts you may not need?

- flexibilty: are they willing to work with you to acheive your concept as you visualize it

Make sure you get a wide list of clients and look at the sites, and see what common themes run through them, and if those aspects are of interest to you for the kind of site you’d like. Asking the right questions and doing your research before you hire a web designer will save you an lot of hassle in the long run.

As we discussed in our previous article on the pros and cons of designing your own website, there are several advantages to doing it yourself, mainly time, cost, and complete control.

However, there are some advantages to using a designer:

- it frees up your extra time to do other important things to run your business

- designers bring experience to the table

- they can bring a fresh set of eyes to look at what you’re doing and help you achieve your goal

- in most cases your website will get done faster than you trying to learn everything from scratch

- a professional design gives a professional first impression to visitors

- they may add creativity to your site that you hadn’t thought of already

- sometimes this is less expensive when you figure it out by cost of your time, software, and so on.

- the will need less maintenance in the long term because the site is properly set up (or should be if you do careful planning)

- can install codes and make your website more interactive (but don’t let them get too wild on javascripts, Flash and so on, which are high maintenance and break often/are not compatible with all browsers-remember that the keywords are the thing)

- they can test your website and compatibilty before putting it live and give you an evaluation of it

Many people think that they need a great deal of money in order to have a great looking website.

But with new software, some of it even free, there is a great deal you can do without having to hire someone else to do it.

Remember, though, that every single website needs to have content. You need to decide what sections you will have on the site, and have a page for every section at the very least.

Without content, there is no website.

If you decide to do your site yourself, the advantages are:

*you’re in charge of everything

*only costs you your time

*you know your vision

*putting your website together is a good time to review and proofread all of your sales material

* the sense of accomplishment you will get from it

*complete artistic freedon

* you will not dependent on someone elses work, time, effort

*you will learn a lot about design, websites, and your own business

Disadvantages

*it costs you your time that you could be using to do other things, such as promotion and product concepting

*it may have validation errors (although so do some professionally designed sites)

*you’ll have to learn how if you don’t know how already

*you may need to purchase software to help you in design, adding to the cost – there are free programs but they may not do what you want

If your budget is tight and you want to get something up quickly, then do it yourself. If you want something more professional and don’t mind the wait, then hire someone.

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