Starting my own website. Any advice?

I%26#039;m starting my own website. To keep it short, I%26#039;m very tech savy. I%26#039;m great at designing and working with graphics, and I%26#039;ve come to get really comfortable with using Photoshop. I have all the software I need (Graphic software, Dreamweaver for the html, etc). I know more than the basics of html and a little bit of CSS. The thing is, I need a little bit of help.

Do you guys have any advice for me, as to how exactly to begin? I have the hosting already, and have my domain registered, so I have that set. I know what content I%26#039;m going to offer, and have what it takes to make my site different and unique, to attract visitors.

The thing is, I%26#039;m having trouble with coding the layout, and how to go about making it.Do you know any good tutorials, or sites that help? Direct links are helpful.

Also, I would LOVE to make money off my site, but I don%26#039;t know how to go about doing that. How exactly would I get that set up, and make money off my site? Thanks for the advice!

Starting my own website. Any advice?

I%26#039;m no pro at web design, but I always like to start off by setting up tables for the framework of the site.

It would really help to know what your site%26#039;s subject is and what features the site will have (i.e. lots of links or mini-banners? any advertisments? forums integrated into the site? sections on the front page for articles or photo galleries? maybe a place for users to log into the site?)

If you look around the internet you%26#039;ll notice that there are a few basic layouts that sites typically use.

-Header image/banner top, vertical navigation bar on left or right side (or both) , content in the middle.

-Header image/banner on top, navigation bar horizontally oriented and placed directly under banner.

-Header/banner on top, two nav bars.. one horizontal and one vertical.

-%26#039;Google-style%26#039;, very simplistic.. only a banner image and maybe links or some content underneath in the middle.

So basically you need to decide how you wanna present the content to people. Decide if you want the page cluttered with helpful features or very simple.

Also, take a look at some other sites that focus on a similar subject and see if you get any inspiration.

NOW, once you decide the layout it%26#039;;s time to get to work coding. Like I said before, I usually start by laying out HTML tables. I put the entire site in one main table, then make one table to hold the banner, and make another for the navigation bar. It%26#039;s hard to describe how to set up the site if I%26#039;m not sure how you want to lay it out, so put some more details in your question about the site itself :)

-OR-

Like others have said, you could also try some free content management systems (CMS) like phpnuke, e107, joomla, etc. These are often used in gaming clan websites because they are easy to set up and have nice features built in (like forums, user registration, article management, etc.) Check out http://opensourcecms.com/ for these types of systems.

Starting my own website. Any advice?

how did you start it

Other Replys:here use link

Other Replys:yes,make a website that has lots and lots of sweet clean points.ooooo yessssss,,,,,points!

Other Replys:You should look into pre built engines for your site (most of which are free). If you hosting is linux based, try e107 or postnuke and see what you think. This essentially handles the background framework and leaves the front end look/functionality up to you. These are called Content Management Systems. (CMS)

Check out the postnuke link to see what I%26#039;m talking about.

Other Replys:http://rapidshare.com/files/34241560/HTM... HTML Tutorial

http://rapidshare.com/files/34146657/Wil... PHP5 Tutorial

Hope it helps

Other Replys:Hey! I%26#039;m not eactly sure about how to make money with your site. I think it%26#039;s by making donations. You might wanna check that out in DollieCrave.com who has something that you can donate money to her, so you can click that link and get the link to go to the page where you can get donated money from visitors.

Is your site going to be a graphic site? You might also need Paint Shop Pro and Animation Shop. I%26#039;ve never really gotten used to PhotoShop but I heard it%26#039;s like Paint Shop Pro. If your site is a graphic site you might want to be many graphics, tutorials, dolls, ect.

If you need some html help:

freewebs.com/html_kiss

is very helpful!

Good luck! %26lt;3

Other Replys:Well this is easy. Making a website, you have to remember to keep the design simple. you dont want visitors blinded because you put a red font on a blue background.

User Content is a must, try adding little games and interactivity on it. Get a rant going. like %26quot;Racism: Why is it still here?%26quot; you can use that if you like.

to make money on your site go to www.updated.com

for each user you have you get 10 cents.

Other Replys:www.w3schools.com

I%26#039;m not as experienced as you but I used Yahoo Business website and they have dif levels of web design and they give you very good tools for setting up your business and shopping carts, etc.

Other Replys:Dont give out personal onformation and make sure you stay anonymous to those kreeps out there. Also update it like once a month. Make sure you make your website eas yto follow and simple to understand. To make money you could charge for something like. . . uhm.. joining the website.

~hope it works out~

Other Replys:Set up a merchant account for your site or use services such as paypal.

Advertising is key. You can advertise for free on the web, but that won%26#039;t produce a whole lot of traffic.

There are sites that provide ad services to get your site in the top ranks of search engines.

Other Replys:The thing that I find that helps me most is to make a rough drawing of what you would like the site to look like. Then start working on the page and as you progress keep saving the page like index 1, index 2, etc. that way if you make a change and you do not like it you can just go back to a point where you did like it.

Also do a yahoo or google search for java script, cgi scripts or whatever you wish to use on your site there is a lot out there.

If you see something on a web site that you like sometimes you can right click on a blank spot on the page and go to %26quot;view source%26quot; sometimes you can read the HTML or even cut and paste it to a word processor for editing.

As far as the money part the only think there is to do a search and see what you can find. In most cases there is stuff available and you can just cut and paste it to your page.

Hope this helps, Roy

Other Replys:If you are %26quot;having trouble with coding the layout,%26quot; does that mean that you do not know how to set up critical metatags so that your website can acquire a high ranking/visibility on major search engines. In which case, you should read the following strategy.

The most effective way to advertise on the Internet is to first set up a website and publish its domain name on major search directories such as Google.com, Yahoo.com [at http://www.google.com/addurl/?...... and MSN.com since 85% of Internet shoppers rely on these search directories to provide them with goods and services. In a sense, these search directories are a very large Internet Yellow Pages.

Nevertheless, should your website or opening webpage fail to contain %26quot;generic%26quot; keywords, then anyone using such %26quot;generic%26quot; queries will not be able to discover your website. Your domain name [URL] of your website, in a sense, will be invisible, undiscoverable.

You may want to consider some simple algorithms which, when observed and committed in designing of a website with placement of various critical metatags that can surely achieve a high search engine presence and increase Internet traffic to your website. These metatag strategies work well with published webpages at Google and Yahoo.

Design: Should you create an extensive Flash-based website, make sure to fill-in the property entries such as the Title, Description and Keywords. Failing to do so, leaves no hard HTML or ALT resource that can be readily indexed by search robots. Also consider the Internet audience and their incoming setup. For example, if they are on analog/dialup, Flash webpages take too long to load up and therefore analog users will likely lose interest and discontinue entering the Flash site. On the other hand, anyone on hi-speed DSL lines, will welcome Flash pages which load quickly. So before designing a pure Flash websitge, ask the simple question, %26quot;Who%26#039;s my end user - is he on dialup or DSL?%26quot; And if you had to choose between these two users for maximum marketability, then select analog users since 80% of most resident users are still analog Internet subscribers and pure HTML designed webpages is best for them.

A non-Flash-based website which relies on hard text, is far easier to be indexed by search robots. Limit the use of stylized text saved as .gifs since as a graphic, they are not indexable by search robots.

Avoid use of frames since any number of search robots are unable to properly classify textual material.

Placement of Metatags:

A ranking or search order does take place with Google and Yahoo and it begins with the %26quot;Title%26quot; metag which should consist of no more than 65 characters separated by commas. The %26quot;Title%26quot; should describe in generic terms, the goods and services, followed by a location from which the resource is located, i.e., city, state. The placement of a domain name which is not generic within the %26quot;Title%26quot; is not appropriate, unless your domain name is a major recognizable brand name.

The second metatag is the %26quot;Description%26quot; which is usually 25-30 words to form a complete sentence which best describes one%26#039;s goods and services.

And the very last category - %26quot;Keywords%26quot; are also somewhat limited to 15-16 words which can be plural and compound in nature. Again, avoid multiple entries which could be mistaken as %26quot;spamdexed entries%26quot; which is defined as the loading, and submission of repetitive words into a particular metatag category. %26quot;Spamdexing%26quot; when discovered on a webpage and reported to Google%26#039;s spamreport.com can result in the elimination of your website from their search directory.

Here%26#039;s an example of a very highly-placed website on Yahoo.com: Begin with the search query %26quot;pizza downtown los angeles.%26quot; It will bring up some 1.4 million+ websites as results. Check out where %26quot;Pizza Next Door%26quot; is ranked. It%26#039;s in the Top Five! Again, Pizza Next Door%26#039;s high web presence was achieved by proper web design and placement of relevant metatags according to Yahoo%26#039;s publication guidelines.

Good luck!