There is nothing wrong with making your own website if you are looking to save some money. Be prepared however, for your finished product to resemble an after school project cutesy, homemade touches and all. It is pretty hard to make your own website and have it look professional but, there is an easier way that will leave you with fewer headaches in the long run.
You must first do some web research. Click around and find websites that have the look you are going for. Make some notes and jot down what it is you do and do not want representing you. You should also start thinking of some keywords that will help people find you if they were to type them into a search engine.
After you have a rough idea of what you would like your site to look like, you should contact a professional who will take care of all the hassles that come with making a webpage. I recommend contacting Global Presence in Tucson, Arizona, http://www.saeler.com they do great work and pay special attention to detail.
Your website will be created so that you can make changes when and if you see fit. To do this, you should purchase a web authoring program, and learn how to properly navigate the system to make revisions on your site.
After the site is up, you only need to know how to do 4 things in order to keep your site up to date:
1. Be able to add a new page, complete with all of the navigation buttons from previous pages.
2. Have the ability to add text.
3. Be able to add a graphic.
4. Know how to make a hyperlink.
These are 4 easy steps that will be repeated numerous times throughout your website's existence.
Not everyone uses the same browser, so your webpage may look very different from one computer to the next. To get a quick look at how your site may appear on other browsers, go to http://www.anybrowser.com/. When choosing a font, use something standard like Times New Roman one that virtually every computer has. A good resource to help guide you through all of your website problems is Robin Williams' (no, not that Robin Williams) book, The Non Designers Web Book.
*Remember to keep your site simple, so that customers don't get confused by all the buttons, and click away.
