Make Your Own Website

Congratulations.

You've registered your website name, now you have to make your own website and decide what it should look like. Some of the "look and feel" of a website will depend on the type of site you are going to build. If you are going to be placing a lot of photos or pictures on the site then you may have to approach it differently. Most of you will not be opening that kind of a site though, so we'll ignore that type.

For now, we can look at 2 major types of web layouts. They are 2-column or 3-column. My first website, Funny Email For Everyone is a 2-column style. I used this style because, at the time, Site Build It only offered a 2-column setup for people who were using their "Block Builder" template to build their site. (Block Builder is essentially for use by people who aren't really computer literate and don't know HTML language and CSS or Cascading Style Sheets. It allows relatively inexperienced computer users to build quite a good looking website! They are now very close to releasing their 3-column "Block Builder" template and probably by the time you read this they will have released it!)

What Is The Difference?

Well, basically, the 3-column style has an extra column down the right-hand side of the page. (You can see it on this website.) I built this website by learning more about HTML and CSS and using a template I purchased from another Site Build It entrepreneur for $49. I think it was worth it. I wanted the extra column. With all the flat, wide-screen monitors now showing up on people's desks, I just thought it looked better.

3-column may not be better for small screen viewing however and more and more people are buying small notebook computers and surfing the Internet on their Blackberry Smartphones. When they try to view a 3-column website, the third column drops off or the viewer has to scroll from left to right to see the right side of the screen. So, we'll have to see where that goes. For now I think the 3-column format is better.

So, you've decided on either the two or the three column format as a basic style for your website and you've found a template that you can use. (Usually you have to pay for these but I believe there are free ones out there as well. Site Build It has several modifiable templates to choose from.)

What Color Should It Be?

Once you have a template, the next thing to think about if you are going to make your own website, is color. What color would suit my site and what complimentary colors would work with that color? I used a site called Color Match Hypergurl There are probably others that you could use but this one displays colors AND all their complimentary colors so you can see what works with what. All the colors are coded as well so you can duplicate them whenever you need to. So, pick a color that you like and go from there.

One Word Of advice?

Use a light color for the background and a dark color for the typeface (or print). People tire faster trying to read light print on a dark background and if they decide to print a page, it uses a lot of ink! Don't make your own website look too drab.

Page Layout

Probably the next most important thing to think about is the page layout. I'll describe it briefly here. At the top you'll have a header which will likely include the website title. At the bottom you'll have a footer, which will probably, only contain copyright info. Down the let-hand side you will have navigation buttons for your site. (Some people also put some across the top.) In the middle you will have the body of the page where most of the work is done and you may or may not have a right-hand column for ads and information.

A Word Of Advice Here As Well

While you want a professional looking website if you hope to make money from it and have lots of people viewing it, don't think for a moment that it is the only important factor in a successful website. You can probably still find very (financially) successful websites that look terrible and the World Wide Web is full of stunning websites that don't do well at all!

The secret to success is good content NOT prettiness! (But, why not make your own website have both?)

How Did I Get This "Look And Feel"?

This site started out blue and gray and it had a graphic title with a flag at each end. That was OK at first, but it then started to look a little plain, so I decided to change it.

I found a picture I had taken at a car race and decided that Winning Websites and car racing were a good match because someone is out to win the car race just like websites are out to win visitors. Then I uploaded it to my "media" program (which happens to be Roxio) and worked on it.

What I ended up with after I applied some special effects to it was a neat looking header with a lot of Robin's Egg Blue in it. Then I went to Hypergurl for complimentary colors and this is what I ended up with!

Once again, you don't need to be a computer guru to build a header, but it does take some effort and work to make one that you like. (I had my 13-year-old goddaughter help me!)

The bottom line will always be however, that the success of your website will depend on the content you place on it, not how cute your header looks! So don't worry too much about it.

Finally

All right, you have your "Look And Feel" template ready to go. Now what? Well, the next thing you need to do when you make your own website, is build your first page - your home page. That's what I'll talk about next.

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And now I have to say make your own website a couple of more times, so make your own website should do it! (Must please the little "bots" that check these things.)