Your preferred domain name may already be in use; look at auction sites that sell domain names to see if you can still purchase it. You will be able to find many wonderful domain names that either are for sale, abandoned or have already been sold.
Your computer’s copy/paste capabilities are some of your most powerful tools when you’re building a website with many very similar sub-pages. Do not write new HTML code every time you start a new page. Copy and paste the main structures of your code and make small changes if you need to. You can use the master copy of that main section of code as many times as you need to.
Designing and running a website calls for a personal office space. Avoid distractions, to make everything effectively work in your space. Make your office supplies and tools easily accessible, and keep an optimized work space for your needs.
When you first begin designing a web page you should choose a design layout that’s as simple as possible. This allows you to build your skills slowly and avoid problems you might encounter with more complicated features. You should start with the basics, then advance to the more complex functions as you improve your skills and get more experience with the entire process of web designing.
Many people find pop-up windows extremely annoying. Actually, many users have such attributes disabled through their browsers. These are techniques that should be avoided. If you are entertaining the idea of using them to enhance navigation, consider instead upgrading your overall navigation system with something that doesn’t annoy people.
Use sound judiciously when designing your website. No visitor is going to want to be faced with uncontrollable, automatic sounds that begin playing when they load up your website. Links to videos and separate audio files are fine. The important thing is that all visitors have control over whether or not your site plays sounds when they visit it.
A site that is going to be successful must work with all browsers. This is why it is vital that you test all your pages to ensure that they properly display in all the various browsers. While a certain element may look wonderful in Firefox, it may appear incorrectly on Internet Explorer, Google Chrome or Safari. Before you set your site to go live, look at how every page shows up in all the major browsers.
Aim high and be a stickler for perfection. Since “perfect” websites don’t exist, this mentality can make you expand and improve upon what you create. This is a great attitude to have no matter what type of site you are building.
Stay away from using Flash with your website. While Flash can convey high-technology and an air of excitement, some computers lag when they encounter sites that use Flash. Don’t forget that some tablet PCs and mobile phones do not have Flash enabled, which could also ruin a site visitor’s experience, causing them to avoid your site.
Keep personal information handy in the event that it must be re-entered by a repeat visitor of your website. Make it easy on your visitors by keeping information that they may need for other forms or orders. Your clients will thank you for saving them the time it takes to fill in information that they have previously done on your site.
Allow “site searching” on all of your pages. You make your site much easier to use and more accessible all in one shot with this search offering. Coding this search functionality isn’t difficult, so the increase in usability is definitely worth the time spent.
When developing your website, consistently use fonts and colors throughout your website. If you change the fonts and color on every page, anyone looking at your site can get confused, and they may start to wonder if they are still on your site at all. Avoid this problem by being consistent with your website’s graphics. You can extend this strategy even further by making use of the same fonts and colors in your company’s printed materials, such as brochures and letterheads.
If you are going to be a website designer, unleash your inner artist. By that, we mean you should be open to inspiration all the time. If you have an epiphany while you’re out and about, write it down on any scrap of paper you can find. You can jot down notes on a notepad, carry a small recorder, send yourself a text message or email or call your answering machine or voicemail and leave yourself a message.
If you are designing a commercial website it is a terrible idea to use a free web hosting service. You will not want the advertisements on your site to take away from the content you put on the site. A hosting service that you pay for would be the better option.
Pay close attention to the backgrounds of your site design. Remove obstacles to easy text reading by avoiding things like GIF backgrounds that move. Your audience will have a more pleasurable browsing experience if your background is conducive to reading your text.
Review your site for broken links regularly. Check links on a regular basis as you are designing, and make sure to perform a check before uploading your site to the server. Links that lead to the wrong place or nowhere at all are frustrating and visitors will soon lose interest in your site and stop visiting it. To avoid this, check to make sure everything works.
Now that you better understand how you can be a competent website designer, hopefully you also feel you may be able to make a bit of money from it. Web design can be a great endeavor to make money, may it be for your personal business or for other people.