Building a new website can be fun, frustrating, hard work. The process starts with an idea, then moves on to a design and finally the coding - whether it's by hand or using a WYSIWYG editor.

Here are some tips you might find useful when moving to the design stage of your website (I'm not trying to patronise the experienced designers here, just giving some ideas to the newer designers).

1. Look at websites you enjoy visiting / reading. Try and work out what it is about them you like. Is it the layout? the content? the ease of use?

When you're starting to design a website use the sites you like as inspiration (nothing in design is completely new).

2. If your site is going to be content heavy with a lot of text, look at other sites that deal with lots of text.

Look at newspaper websites such as http://www.nytimes.com/ in the USA or http://www.guardian.co.uk/ in the UK.

Text on screen can be difficult to read, so try not to have columns of text with more than 10 - 12 words. If you look at your daily newspaper you'll get an idea of how text is best positioned on a page - remember most people are more used to reading text off a piece of paper than off a computer screen.

3. Use white space.

I don't mean have a website with one word or image per page, but look at how white space is used on some of the best designed and popular websites http://www.apple.com/ is a great example.

The gaps between images can help promote a stylish design as much as the images themselves.

4. Don't overload your pages with flashing images / animated gifs / brightly coloured text, if you have a lot to say, then say it over several pages. Too much movement on one page distracts viewers, one image with text can attract attention far more than 5 animated gifs.

5. Stick to one colour scheme and font theme throughout your site.

If you use too many fonts your site will look disjointed, and the same with colours. Think of your favourite magazine, look at how every page follows the same pattern of layout, colours and fonts.


I'm sorry if these points are obvious to everyone here, but looking at some of the sites that are here to be reviewed I feel that a lot of new designers, who have no experience with any kind of design, might find them useful.

So, only five tips from me...does anyone have any more?

__________________
Best Served Cold - UK web design
101 Best Websites - design, css and flash showcase site

Graf,
Thanks so much for this post. Being a newbie to web design I found it very informative. We were already applying some of the suggestions, however it was great to have validation of what we're currently trying on our site.

We have also found that recruiting a few people from our target audience to view pages that we're designing for feedback before we go "live" to be very helpful. Sometimes the questions they ask or comments they make are invaluable. Working so closely with products everyday, we tend to think some things are obvious when they aren't to an outsider.

I would like to add two things to you post
Never Make Your Customers Have To Think.
If I come to your web site it is because I need your web site to fill a need. I either need to find some information or purchase a product. Now days it seems the web designers are more interested in showing the world what they can do than to build a web site that will make money. We have flash websites set up with a TV commercial you have to watch before you can enter the site. Then we play ?try and figure out how to go to the next page.? Your site should be layed out so it is easy to find the information your customer needs.

Gone in 3 seconds!
Your home page has a couple of seconds to give a good impression.

If someone scans your home page, it should be clear what your web site is about. The navigation should also be clear and obvious. Your visitors should be able to tell quickly what pages are on your site and where they can find the products they're looking for. Your pages should load quickly

__________________
Custom Website Design | Search Engine Optimization | Web Design Templates

I actually wrote a small article for webpronews:
http://www.webpronews.com/archives/012601.html
Keeping your website simple.

I still stand by the notion that sometimes there is just to much clutter on pages to make them attractive. Simple clean designs hold my attention much longer than blinking icons.

__________________
http://www.usalug.org
USA Linux Users Group
usalug.org is an online forum for Linux users.

Great post, Graf1771!

Adding my suggestion, which is kind of a continuation of Janeth's 5-second rule --

Watch out for the size of your graphic images. Just because they look small, it doesn't mean they are.

I've seen lots of people who think that they can resize their images by simple setting the image size to 50x50, when the original image is actually 600x600 and 90k! That's just not how it works.

Resizing your image means shrinking the actual size of the overall image. This means changing the actual dimensions (height and width) and the dpi (dots per inch) and the "weight" of download size of the image (file size in "k").

There are plenty of programs out there that can help with this. For example, GifBot is a free online tool that can help resize larger images into smaller ones.

Too many large images will drive your visitors away (and too long a download time) faster than you can possibly imagine! That's one of the first things that every beginner should be careful of when designing websites.

Just my 2-cents.
S

__________________
Syren Song Designs ~ http://www.syrensongdesigns.com/
Real Websites for Real People
.

Always, always, always, check your Spelling and Grammar!

Too many times, I've been totally turned off to a website because of spelling and grammatical errors. There's no need for them. You've got plenty of time to check for and correct them before going live with your website.

This is particularly important for a professional website of any kind. Nothing erodes the credibility of a website like spelling mistakes. And if you make grammatical errors, it just looks like some know-nothing kid put up the page for you. Not good in the eyes of your prospective customers and clients!

If you're not sure about the correct spelling of a word, most word processors have spell checkers. Use 'em! If you're not certain about whether you're using proper grammar, then have someone else check the page for you. You can't trust a spell-checker to catch all your mistakes and a real person can help catch some things a spell-checker can easily miss.

HTH!
S

__________________
Syren Song Designs ~ http://www.syrensongdesigns.com/
Real Websites for Real People
.

Thanks everyone for the comments.

I'm pleased (and quite surprised) that this post generated the response that it's got...

I hope that many people found it useful!

__________________
Best Served Cold - UK web design
101 Best Websites - design, css and flash showcase site

My personal pet peeve it attractive sites, with good content that have illogical layout and obscure navigation titles that their visitors won't understand half of.

Maybe it sounds rude, but many people forget when designing a site that their potential visitors don't know what they know. It is part of our human nature. We know what the page titled "Our Natural Advantage" is about... it doesn't even occur to us that "Jo Bloggs" doesn't.

To illustrate my point: I recently re-designed a site that was originally converted from a printed publication. One page in the booklet was titled "Our Natural Advantage", and dealt with the natural wonders and "feel" of Pemberton, the place the booklet was about. The original designers had simply used the book and content "as is" and made it into a web site.

While the original title worked fine in a printed brochure where you see the relevant pictures at the same time as you read the title, on a web site navigation it became vague and meaningless. The same was true for the overall layout. Sure there was a navigation bar, but it was disordered and uninformative. This meant that the content which was otherwise sound, was harder to access.

So I guess my point is, try detach your self from what you "know" when you design & layout a site. Put yourself in the shoes of "Jo Bloggs" who knows nothing when planning and laying out your site, and build it from the ground up with the intention of making it what I call "idiot proof".

Don't be too shocked, even though I try my best, the amount of times I have had clients joke with me about recieving emails from web visitors saying "we couldn't find your address ANYWHERE on your site" when it was clearly listed on their "Contact" page is staggering!

__________________
www.masterpeace.com.au - overdue for overhaul
www.papercutmedia.com - where I write CSS & XHTML these days
"insert witty remark here... when I think of one..."

All very good points, important points, from everyone. But these comments are mostly about the page design. Graf1771 asked for tips on designing a "webSITE". Here's what I found important as well:

Have a structure planned out on paper. Start backwards! In other words, work from the lowest level pages up to the home page. It makes implementing the navigation easier AND stops the project from getting out of control with late stage additions - up to and including complete revamping (whew).

I couldn't agree more with K.I.S.S. - Keep It Simple, Silly!! Janeth is right, there are many good sites on every topic or service to choose from, so if I don't see right away how to navigate quickly to what is relevant, I'm gone before the site has finished writing their cookie! (LOL)

MAKE NAVIGATION OBVIOUS AND CONSISTENT - same or similar style and placement throughout the site.

I've made all these mistakes listed by everyone here and now look what I look like!

As a follow up on keeping it simple and starting
with the lowest pages...back.

I'd like to offer the following link about "writing
for the web". The web is quite different than
a brochure or print ad... and viewers behave some
what differently too.

total-impact.com post

Viewers don't read (at first) they scan.
And you need to make a connection between their
"wants/desires" and your (website) content..
in a very short time.

Enjoy the above post... I've found it to be a great
article about writing for the wrb.

~Roland

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website design | Smith, Sullivan & Company, CPA | video golf lessons | my twitter

It's a good idea to include a set of text-only navigation links at the bottom of your website pages.

It helps visitors find their way around on your site and encourages them to continue moving through the rest of your site after they've reached the bottom of the page.

It's also very important at the bottom of longer pages. After reading large blocks of text, sometimes visitors forget where they are or where they want/need to go next.

__________________
Syren Song Designs ~ http://www.syrensongdesigns.com/
Real Websites for Real People
.

I'm no master, but I'd like to share something I did when I first started developing my site. This goes along with what mik said and is especially helpful if you have a very large site with a whole lot of information to organize.

When I began the development of my website, I started with a notebook and a pencil...and later an industrial strength pencil sharpener to keep up with me. As I had been planning the site in my head for weeks, there was a lot of information floating around up there.

The first thing I did was write down everything that came to mind about the site I wanted to build. I didn't concern myself with spelling, logic, grammar, etc. I just let it flow. Several pages later I had a whole lot of ideas, goals and information to sort out.

Next, I went through and cleaned it up a bit. I completed the sentences that initially came out as a scribbled thought, I rewrote the things that I could barely read, and so on.

Then, I drew out a "spider chart". I remember doing these in school. It's where you start with a circle in the middle of the page, in which you write the central thought/idea to be worked out. In this case, it was "Website/Directory of Wholesale Suppliers". Next I drew lines from this central idea to some empty circles. I then wrote in each of those circles what major things I wanted to do/convey through the site. From each of those circles I drew more lines to even more circles. In those I wrote things that went with the thought it stemmed from. I continued until the page was full of lines and circles and, lo and behold, the beginning stages of a structure for all that information.

Because I had done the "brainstorming" exercise first I was able to more clearly realize what it was I wanted to attain. When it came time to make the spider chart I had everything I needed to fill in all those circles.

After that, I just took each group of items and further developed them. Each of the initial circles became major pages in the site and the sub-circles became branches off those pages. Sure, I reworked my diagram several times but this gave me the start I needed to organize all those ideas I had in my head.

I hope this helps someone! Best of luck to you!

__________________
Leisa
Wholly Wholesale - Wholesale Auctions - http://whollywholesale.com
eStoreFinder.com - eCommerce Store Directory - http://eStoreFinder.com
WholesaleLowdown.com - A Guide for Retailers - http://wholesalelowdown.com

"7 Mistakes to Avoid on Your Website"

The article is targeted to the web developers from Nepal. However, I believe it is useful for anyone. Take a look at



http://www.nepalnet.net/article/1001...rticle1020.htm

__________________
http://www.food-india.com

First off remember that I am not perfect, nor do I claim to be the best at anything, but here are some thoughts on this subject.

My number one rulle it to be consistant! Be consistant with your navigation and be consistant with your design "scheme."

Most visitors are not to bright, so if you make it hard for them to find the navigation then they will simply leave. It should always be in the same place on every page and look the same. People are creatures of habit and if they have to relearn on every page then they will simply run away.

Don't change the design on every page! This again confusses people and they will feel lost and likely leave.

Further pet peeves! I mean suggestions...

Stop using backgrounds under text! They have to be able to read it! Beginners should stay as far away from most backgrounds, including solid colors, as possible. White is your firends and unless you are addicted to light neon and pale pink will be much more forgiving! Until your sure of what you are doing, it is really best to work on white, without backgrounds. Sadly FrontPage makes it to easy to do this.

I could be a grumpy old guy on this subject for days and days. Now seems like a good time to just shut up!

__________________
Timothy A. Keneipp
Managing Member/Designer
TAK Designs, LLC
PO Box 418
Baker City, OR 97814
info@takdesigns.com
www.takdesigns.com
______________________

Professional design services for
web, print and branding.

Please don't "shut up", tkeneipp! LOL!

Those were some excellent points you contributed to the discussion. I'm sure lots of folks will benefit from those pointers. :)

__________________
Syren Song Designs ~ http://www.syrensongdesigns.com/
Real Websites for Real People
.

I am going to add something here again...

I would encourage you to take some time and study traditional design principles. They for the most part (99%) still apply even when designing on line. Go to you local book store or library and read or peruse all the books on graphic design. Subscribe to publications like, Communications Art, How and Print to see real pros in action and do not fear to emulate them.

Focus on a good design first, then worry about coding and SEO. You will gain much more by doing that than you will by slapping something on the web and loosing potential customers because it does not work. Remember that is easier to get a new visitor that to get one back that had a bad first impression.

__________________
Timothy A. Keneipp
Managing Member/Designer
TAK Designs, LLC
PO Box 418
Baker City, OR 97814
info@takdesigns.com
www.takdesigns.com
______________________

Professional design services for
web, print and branding.

Just adding my two cents here.. lots of invaluable advice but something that was mentioned but not in great detail is color.. we as humans are visual people. Most of us could care less what the page says if it's psychadelic pinks and purples that make our eyes hurt.. or too bright. It will be closed before we even read the title. Make sure that not only your text and layout convey your message but your color schemes..

And not just matching.. I don't want to go to a site where everything is PINK.. even if it is called "Pretty in PInk"

Contrasts help bring the focus on parts that you want your viewers to see first, colors that help them feel. If there is too much.. then they focus nowhere. Use your images in ways that match your message.. not just ones that look "cool".

Think about how you feel when you see reds, greens, yellows etc. and try and match moods:)

Something that has helped me more times than I can count is to watch nature.. Nature has such a wonderful way of matching colors and making you feel awesome.

Another good way is to watch around town at signs, flags, billboards, you name it. Watch the ones that stand out to you. Think back to commercials on tv that you remember most or that appealed to you and think about why they did.

A website is not just something to be read.. it is to be felt by the audience just like a good movie, poem, book or more except you have much less time to capture your audience:)

I'd just like to mention something here thats really important to my design but hasn't been included that much so far..

getting all your concepts on paper like the spider idea is great but you cant stop there!!

take your concepts from graphics and do all your work on a pad of paper!! this is everything from your brainstorming, to your concept sketches to your final design. invest in some colour pencils to find out what colour scheme looks best. once you've got it on paper then build it.. dont fluff around for hours tittling between different tables and colours. have it all set out already.

the best advice i can give is paper.. having your entire site in front of you with all your tables marked out and exact dimensions will save you an amazing amount of time and wasted effort.

plus ive found it stops me from beating my comp to death some nights! lol its much easier to critique your work on paper (ut it on the floor and look from a distance) than what you've been struggling on screen to achieve.

well thats my 2pence!!

oh and another thing.. keep your code clean. comment tags are your friend!! especially when you muck up and have to go in there and fix it later!

Hi all,

Just a note to let you all know I have split the commments & thanks posted in this thread to a separate thread so we can keep all the "hints" & ideas posted together (and as brief as possible).

The comments thread can be found here... http://www.webproworld.com/viewtopic.php?t=19401

__________________
www.masterpeace.com.au - overdue for overhaul
www.papercutmedia.com - where I write CSS & XHTML these days
"insert witty remark here... when I think of one..."

It's all changed since the old http://www.2advanced.com WOW days and it seems to be settling firmly in favor of "Ergonomic" design.(Even though it still wows me now,). Wow is not what it's all about.

Don't get me wrong. You still need a well designed site.

So what's ergonomic?

Ergonomic simply means fitting into the environment and there is definately an internet invironment that has manifested itself during our short history.

This site you're on is what is called ergonomic. Simple, easy to navigate with lots of depth. But most importantly "SEARCH ENGINE FRIENDLY".

I know! you have a son, daughter or friend that knows how to put a site together. Or even worse you did it yourself. Not that there's anything wrong with that if you know the rules of ergonomic design.

Here are a few to get you started.

1. look at other great ergonomicly designed sites.

2. Get a good designer or at least a good page editing program. There are a lot out there. GoLive is Abobe's solution that is easy to learn and works well with other Adobe programs.

3. Take another look at some ergonomic designs.

4. Copy. Yes copy. That way you can't let your own ideas spoil a good design. Your content is what's going to make the difference.

5. Use type instead of graphics were posible. Most search engines only recognize the first three alt text tags on a page. It will hurt your search ratings.

6. Use a great hosting service that allows you to create depth. You will need a database and all the user toys: Forums, Blogger, Affiliate programs, Chat, etc etc. I recommend one through my site. It's only $95 for the year with 800Mb space, db, 5 subdomains, etc. etc. plus the toys. I have 8 sites of my own here and you even get $50 in clicks from Overture.

7. Use css syles. Css styles are cascading style sheets. They are really easy to learn and your site's text will look consistent on everyones screen. This site uses css styles. (try making the type size larger, View> Text size> Largest). Golive handles them really well.

8. Use rich text and relevant Meta keywords, site description etc. It will pay dividends. DON'T TRY TO FOOL THE SEARCH ENGINES. It will hurt you.

I hope this helped someone but if not, email me and I'll fill in any gaps you may have or better still post your question here.

<Mod edit - post merged into "tips" thread - Masterpeace>

__________________
"Working it as we speak" www.gotum.com Designing the future today. Tomorrow if I'm real busy john7@gotum.com Newest site: www.loveti.co.uk

When making a site, people tend to cram whatever they can into a page. As a new webmaster, you try to add as many flashy banners, colors, jingles and christmas lights as you can to make it stand out in a crowd. Is this the right way to go when designing a site? I think not.
When content is highly recommended, all the content in the world could not make a badly designed site worth looking at. When designing a site you need to keep in mind what the average surfer is looking for.
Nice design, good navigation and quick loading.
Less HIGH quality graphics is much better that more
LOW quality graphics when considering bandwith usage and general look and feel of your site so keeping the graphics simple and adding alot of quality content will pay off much more in the future.
If you take a quick glance at this site: http://www.flamedesign.ca/
I must say that it was love at first sight.
I simply love how they incorated the simple (quality)graphics with the overall plain but extremely professional look and feel of the page.

The graphics are simple but professional and high quality. The layout is plain and easy to follow. It is pretty much impossible to get lost in the site because of well designed navigation. It gives a clear example of what to do when looking at overall design and effectiveness. I think they have achieved their goal in creating a visually pleasing and efficient site.
In no way am I condoning copying this site or plagiarizing its content but am stating that more is not always better and it is a good example of keeping a site simple with good content.

Keeping your site clean, simple, and to the point will make you much prouder of it at the end of the day.
PS: Stay away from background colors that conflict with the rest of your page and scrolling,flashing, thingamagiggies that remove the surfers attention away from the primary reason they are on that page in the first place.

If this helps at least one person today, you have made my day.
Bye for now

A few books that opened my eyes:

MUST READ
1. MTIV: Process Inspiration and Practice for the New Media Designer
---Hillman Curtis

2: Site Seeing: a visual approach to web usability
--- Luke Wroblewski

3: Deep Sites: Intelligent Innovation in Contemporary Web Design
---Max Bruinsma

and when you're done with those...

READ THESE:
1. The Language of New Media
---Lev Manovich

2. MULTIMEDIA from Wagner to Virtual Reality
--ed. Randall Packer and Ken Jordan

__________________
amorphic8
http://www.amorphicmedia.com

Don't forget the seven 'P's!

Proper Prior Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance



(It'll probably get bleeped and won't work!)

__________________
Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work. Aristotle (384-322 BC)

I must strongly agree with tkeneipp re: consistency. Nothing turns me off more than going from page to page within a site and seeing different area's for navigation, content, etc. With my site, there is no deviation in structure...and to boot, it is much easier to code since all you're really changing is the content!!

As a step 2 after design, and adding to other posts above, let's not forget a couple more things:

1) Test, test, test...in multiple browsers! Not everyone uses IE!!! It is easier to test than you think, as IE, Netscape, Mozilla/Firefox are all downloadable for free! There are differences between browsers, so try your site out on each, and tweak it where necessary. Many html editors make it easy, as you can include multiple browsers within the editor (even with a shortcut key) to preview your page in each specific browser...

2) Don't forget to validate your code. Again, most browsers have this built in (whether it be their own, or HTML Tidy), or go to http://validator.w3.org/ to validate your code is clean.

3) Think for the future. Xhtml and CSS are here and will be standard. So do your research and gear toward future standards. It will help in the long run...

__________________
Custom Golf Clubs and Repairs at: www.tcustomgolf.com
A GCA Accredited Clubmaker

I agree sites that have poor navigation annoy me.

All sites should have good navigation because without that many visits might just never come back

__________________
Real Estate Talk

Consisency is important, as are colours. It is "natural" for the human brain to read black text on white paper. When it comes to web design there are loads of colour choices. I have seen dark blue text on a black background. Nothing like this to make me move to another site.

Another of my pet hates is a site that is so cluttered that you have no idea where to start. KISS - Keep It Simple Silly - Always keep this in mind as once again it is human nature to follow the path of least resitance.

What I am trying to say is that it is more attractive for a visitor to a site if things are natural and easy.

Cool. I like the www.apple.com website. really awesome too.

thanks for the Tip - really helpful. I have always been stuck on designing a website because I kept starting from the homepage.

__________________
BlackBerry Pearl 8100 - Latest Device
Free HSDPA 3G Data CardS - broadband on the move

Your information and insight is really helpful. Thanks.

Make your site accessible.

See here why: http://www.webnauts.net/accessibility-need.html

Also here a page with a lot of useful resources for Web Design: http://www.kayodeok.btinternet.co.uk.../webdesign.htm

__________________
"Being an expert isn't telling other people what you know. It's understanding what questions to ask, and flexibly applying your knowledge to the specific situation at hand. Being an expert means providing sensible, highly contextual direction." Jeff Atwood
SEO Workers - Search Engine Optimization Consulting Company | SEO Analysis Tool | Webnauts Net SEO

thank you Graf & other contributors for your perfect but yet simple ideas, I learned alot & I need to re-design!

Wow! It's been nearly 3.5 years since I started this topic... and it's surprising that not much has changed. The sites I mentioned as being good examples are STILL good examples!

I'm currently in the process of working on a new design of my own company website and I'm finding it hard to come up with something fresh, new and interesting that hasn't been done before. As a web design company the site has to show off everything that is great and good in the industry: Accessibility, usability, good design, quality graphics, well presented text and great content.

I'm following one of the other tips on here:
Design from the internal pages out to the homepage.

Too often I've designed a homepage and nearly completed a site for a customer only to be presented with content and images that won't fit... So for my own site I'm making sure everything works from stage 1.

I'm glad that lots of people have found this topic useful. There are only a couple of points that need to be added after all this time:

1) Accessibility and Usability - make sure your site can be read and used by everyone. Not only is it a legal requirement (UK and US) but it helps your site in every area including SEO.

2) Test, test and the test again on every browser you can get your hands on including PDAs and mobile phones. Over the next year or two there's going to be a huge increase of web customers using these devices - be prepared now and you won't miss out!

And that's all I can think of for now!

__________________
Best Served Cold - UK web design
101 Best Websites - design, css and flash showcase site

web site development is a very big business these days. Almost every company in the world is trying to make their make on the web. However creating a nice looking, functional web site is not very easy to achieve unless you have the right tools and workers to help you.

Search Engine Optimization should be considered during the planning of any web site. And the best time for implementing good SEO is during the initial design stage.

There are companies online that outsource webmaster service that could sure help other people who are thinking of setting up their own business web sites.

I hope this helps!

__________________
TopHatSolutions
Web Design Wexford
Web Design Ireland

information is still great. thanks for your input.

couldnt agree more - clicking on a menu for it to then disappear or collapse is confusing for users

__________________
Creative web design company with top-notch website designers in the UK.

My advice is Be creative - Learn the Rules then completely disregard them otherwise you will end up making websites that look that that awful apple one.. !!

There are wise words in this post but we don't all want to be creating the same looking websites now do we?

__________________
Nomax5 - PageMakerOnline.com - The Fastest Small Business Website Builder in the West
OnlineLetterhead.com - Free email letterheads created online)

Don't forget that people still use dial up. Create your site that someone that has no computer relate experience can follow.

__________________
Baitnhook Fishing Supplies
Thetoolworkshop.comAnglerAmerica

Articles and content in this section of the website are really amazing. From http://www.goindiamedicaltourism.com

Thanks for these few but interesting tips. Continue the great work

ers... The tips I got from this thread can really help me. But just want to know is there still room for success here in the Web for a newbie?

__________________
Lease a Car
Car Leasing Directory

For everyone, Thanks for the tips.




Yes, there still is a room for newbies. And, the next generation will always surpass the previous.

Thanks a lot

Hi,
Thank you Graf & other contributors for your perfect but yet simple ideas, I learned alot & I need to re-design !..........

I have seen alot of websites that people asking for review followed with the words "this is my first website".

Often these sites look like throwbacks to 10 year old web pages, where design hadnt really taken off to a great extent.

Now days sites need to look appropriate for what you are promoting. I have seen some truely low class looking sites trying to sell high ticket items.

As previously mentioned, a variation, is check out the opposition, if their site looks awful, then you might get away with an awful site, though you shouldnt really be happy with an ugly site. Take the good sites and start with that as your first site. Dont try and invent the wheel again, often it ends up a mess.

If your target audiance is not in your country, look at websites from that country, what might pass in yours doesnt always work in other areas of the world.

It is very important now to get a site that looks good.

Cluttering sites with every cool feature you can imagine results in a very dated looking site, non functional bells and whistles are pointless, a rotating image needs to be clickable these days.

Centering text - I have not seen a site with centered text that looks good in a long time, same for all in italics or using Comic Sans MS.

Nowadays, a lot of websites that provide free website building include with tutorials, templates and much more. Such as ucoz.com, wix.com, freewebhosting.com and much more. I think there is no hard way for those who really wanted their own website. What they need to do is just get a suitable domain for the website.
for me, It is good for newbie..

__________________
Visit me - Joyblogs27.blogspot.com
SPYWARE Alert! - Try it and Scan your PC for FREE NOW!!

My site has thousands of pages, but only 213 are indexed.
It is a Cube Cart based shopping cart in PHP 5.

I have a different site which uses Zen Cart shopping cart which is CGI based and seems to index much better.

Thanks a bunch!

Larry