How to Design a Professional Web Site Quickly

You want to put up a web site, and there is a sense of urgency about your project. The absolute last thing you want to do, though, is to hang a site that is sloppy and amateurish. You can put together a simple yet professional web page in fairly short order.

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• A domain name
• A web host

1. Surf. Find web sites you admire and model your site after them. It's not necessary to reinvent anything. (Do not copy content and post it on your site without giving credit to the original author; that's plagiarism, and it's against the law.)

2. Draw a map of your site before you log on to your computer. You will save hours of work if you plan the structure and content for your site first. Create a flow chart if you can; if not, use boxes with circles and arrows.

3. Create your content before you start creating your site. Write your marketing articles, your "About Us" material, and your contact information. Check everything for spelling and grammar; ask someone else to check them. Save them in a file. Compress your photos for uploading to the web and save them to a file. Make certain that all your content is professionally done before you load it on your site.

4. Use commercial web-creation software. You can learn and understand HTML, but it will take some time. Many web hosting services offer complimentary web software to their customers; ask if yours does.

Tips & Warnings

• Work on your site and upload your material during off-peak business hours. Sometimes uploads can take time.