Do it Yourself or Having it Done? The first thing you'll need to decide is whether you want to learn to design your web site yourself or hire a web designer to do it for you. Even if you decide to hire a web designer for the initial site, you'll need to decide whether you want to learn to maintain it yourself or use your designer to do this as well.
Getting Started on Your Own.
1. A basic understanding of HTML (HyperText Markup Language), and at least the basic tags. You can buy a good beginner book such as
Better yet, there are some very good web sites covering HTML, from the basics to advanced. A good basic site is The Bare Bones Guide to HTML. You can download the complete guide to study in your own time. For an extensive list on other HTML sites, check out Mining Co. Resources at http://html.miningco.com.
There are many to choose from and most come with CDs filled with useful software. An couple of excellent beginner choices are Creating Web Pages for Dummies by Bud E. Smith and Arthur Bebak , and Dummies 101-HTML 4 (for Dummies), by Deborah S. Ray, Eric J. Ray, and Dawn Erdos .
2. A popular web browser such as Netscape 4.+ or Microsoft Internet Explorer4.+. Preferably both so you'll be able to see how your pages look on each browser.
3. At the very minimum, you'll need a word processing program such as Notepad, but much better is an HTML Editing Program such as Hot Dog, HotMetal, Homesite (which I use), Microsoft Front Page and others. Carl Davis HTML Editor Reviews has a matrix-based review of a number of HTML Editors.
Do yourself a favor though, and learn the HTML basics before using these programs. You'll be a lot better off in the long run by understanding how the markup language works.
4. You'll probably want a photoediting program and/or a good graphics program. Adobe Photoshop is the industry standard but it is very expensive so you may wish to do without until you become more experienced.
Paintshop Pro 5.0 (PSP)is an outstanding program, very user-friendly, and it has many of the features of the more expensive Photoshop. There are a number of PSP 5 tutorial sites on the Web. This webmistress uses PSP 5 almost exclusively for web graphics.
If you don't feel up to learning graphics creation right away, there are hundreds of sites on the Web that offer free graphics for use on personal pages. Please respect the usage rules that are posted on most of these pages. A good resource list of these sites can be found at the Mining Co. Web Clipart site
You may also use graphics which are royalty free and available on CD ROM. Corel Web Gallery is a good choice if you don't want to create your own graphics. It is full of all the buttons, arrows and other design elements ready for use on your web site.
5. Lastly, you'll need an FTP program (File Transfer Protocol) which is used to copy your files from your computer onto your web site into your public_html directory. Good choices are CuteFTP and WSFTP. Both are available for download from Tucows.
Hiring a Web Designer.
Although you may want to design your own personal web page, if you operate a business and are serious about promoting it on the Web, you should consider hiring a professional.
Fran Syufy works full time in web site design and consultation. Fran is the official web site designer for the Chambers in Discovery Bay, Bethel Island and Brentwood, and is our webmistress. Her clients include local businesses as well as multinational corporations, and she has won several awards for her design. She would love to help you, too, with your web site needs.
Below are some tips for getting started on doing it yourself as well as leads to web designers if you decide to have someone else work with you.
At a minimum, this is what you'll need to get started.
For inspiration on web design, visit KillerSites. This web site features state of the art web design along with invaluable tips and resources.