Web Design Help: How To Make My Own Website?
If you have been searching the term how to make my own website and found us, then read on as I show you some options which will allow you to make your own website and point out the pros and cons associated with each web design method.
You have 3 options available when you ask the question “how to make my own website”.
Option #1 Use an online service which provides drag and drop web design technology so you can easily build your own website using templates and tools.
Option #2 Take some time to learn basic HTML and about web hosting. Then purchase a pre made web template and modify it to your needs.
Option #3 Get someone to do it for you. Either a friend, relative or pay for someone’s services.
For this article we will mainly focus on option #1 and option #2. Although I will tell you what the pitfalls are which come with getting someone else to build the site for you as in option #3.
How To Make Your Own Website Online – Option #1
The simplest way to get online quickly and build your own website is to use a service which provides the whole solution. They offer you pre built templates and allow you to modify them easily with admin panels that work very much like word or office software. They will also host the site on their server for you to take away the pain of looking for web hosting.
One great service which has been around a long time is homestead.com. It’s free to sign up and get started then they charge a very small monthly fee (which is actually less than a lot of web hosting you find, plus you get to design your website).
First you need to log in and choose a web design from hundreds of pre-built templates. They have designs to suit any business or industry. Then once you’ve chosen the template for the basis of your site you can customize it using the image banks (they have over 250,000 images to use!). You can also edit the color of the website, logos and add your text content.
Once you have built your own website and it looks great, you can then publish it onto Homestead’s server with one click. At this point you will get a web address which you can immediately use to send your clients, friends and family to.
Homestead is a really good option for the total newbie to web design. Also, as you gain experience, you will start to understand a few basics ideas of how a website works and web hosting.
Learn Basic HTML And Use A Pre-Built Web Template – Option #2
So by asking the question “how to make my own website” you either were prepared to do some learning, or you want to take the easy (painless) route above in option #1. Well if you fancy yourself as technical minded, or find that you usually pick new information up quickly, then learning some basic HTML skills may be the way to go for you.
If you plan to build a website and keep it online for a long time then it will pay dividends to learn some basic skills so you can edit and maintain your website. Plus you may find you actually enjoy it. If you want to go down this route, then you can take a look at some of the pre-built templates over at themeforest.com. These can form the basic spine of your web design. Once you have chosen your favourite, hop on over to W3schools.com where you will find some great tutorials about basic HTML.
If you have bought a decent template, usually you will only need to edit the text, menus and images to get started. As you progress building your own website you will learn more. Learning is sometimes just a trial and error game, but be prepared for a steep learning curve.
Then you need to publish your site to some web hosting. Places such as stablehost.com or godaddy.com are popular hosts, and provide great software such as file managers which can be used to upload your HTML files to your hosting space. Once you become more familiar with web hosting, you can get some desktop FTP software to upload directly, but at first keep it simple and use the tools provided by your web host.
Paying For Or Getting A Friend To Do Your Web Design – Option #3
If you want to get started fast, and have no intention of learning anything about web design then this is your only option. However, you have to be aware that by taking this route you will forever be at the mercy of further maintenance costs, or you will become the person that your friend avoids phone calls from.
Any time you wish to change text, add a new image, add a new product.. then you will either have to pay, or bug your friend to do it.
In my opinion, this is the worst route to take unless you have money to burn OR you have no time for either of the above options for building your own website. If you are pushed for time then it’s worth trying homestead.com.
Hopefully some of this helps you decide what to do. There are other options for building your own website, but I will cover them in another article.
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