Article 1: Getting Started
For those of you who do not yet have a website, and are planning to build one soon, this article is for you. This information may be redundant if you already have your website published.
Building a website is almost a necessity for small businesses today. It is also a requirement for many university and secondary education programs. However, building a website today is easier than you might think.
Assuming you or your business already has something to sell or publish, your first step would be to outline a theme for your site. HTML editors such as Microsoft FrontPage allows the user to drop in web features without having to know the code. If you have a simple design in mind, this method might work for you. There are hundreds, if not thousands of MS FrontPage tutorials out there on the web.
There are also many HTML templates available for free that are available to everyone. Just type in "free HTML templates" or "free CSS templates" in your search engine of choice and you will find many web templates that cater to your needs. Some sites even offer templates for a fee. These range anywhere from $20 to over $200 and are a bit more in-depth than the free templates. This is ideal if you have an elaborate site in mind, and have a lot of varying content. A text readme file is usually available to guide you through setup.
If you do not have access to MS FrontPage, you are not out of luck. There are many great HTML editing software packages available for a fee. If you are not willing to shell out hundreds of dollars on software, search for "free html editor" in your search engine of choice. NVU is a great, free software that simplifies HTML editing.
Your other option is to have someone build a website for you. Be sure to shop around for good rates and customer reviews before you select a programmer to build your site. If you need a lot of content published regularly, it is important to find one that will be available regularly.
Once you have your page layout in mind (it is VERY important to map out your site to avoid a cluttered mess) and the tools at your disposal, you are now ready to develop content, which will be discussed in the next article.
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