there is two option that people can choose for developing a website:
1. Simple, but hard method (aka HTML Editing)
2. Easy, but Complicated method (aka WYSIWYG Editing)
The first option, is by learning how to code in, at the most least:(X)HTML and CSS (later you could move on to Browser-Side-Scripting [javascript or vbscript] and Server-Side-Scripting [php, asp, or jsp]). Coding directly on HTML needs time, hard work, and practical experience with it. But you'll soon find it is much more worthy to study HTML than by using WYSIWYG Editor.
Developing in HTML needs literally no special program, other than a basic text editor like Notepad (although you'll learn that some text editors, which mightn't be basic, is often used to code in HTML since they helps writing codes.
Directly writing HTML means you must deal with the mess yourself, but this mess is worthy the full control you got over using a WYSIWYG program.
Reference, Tutorials, etc for HTML Editing:
- http://www.w3schools.com/
- http://www.notepad.com/
Second choice, is to use a WYSIWYG editor. Editing in WYSIWYG editor seems simple for most people, but you'll soon see that the limitation of what a WYSIWYG editor is often unbearable. WYSIWYG Editor is only good if you don't want to put much needless attention to little details, and just want an easy, working website.
Some Good WYSIWYG Programs are like: Dreamweaver (paid software, made by Macromedia) and NVu (free, and open source). I recommend not to use FrontPage since Frontpage's html code results on a page that is only viewable on IE (and sometimes it doesn't work on IE either). And Yahoo Page Builder is rather way too limited, even for a WYSIWYG Editor.
Reference, etc, etc:
See the WYSIWYG editor's developer's help.
The best way however, is to hybrid those two ways. Use a WYSIWYG editor, then if somethings mess up, edit the code by hand.
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Whatever the way you choose to make the website, there are things in common:
- Even though this is a personal website, you'll need something that interests visitors. So you need a content that attracts visitor, and preferably contents that makes people would want to come back again and again.
- Make templates. A consistent design is much better than an outstanding design. A page that looks awfully designed, but is consistent throughout the page is much better than meeting a site that has a navbar on the left, then the next page has it on the right, then the next page on the bottom, and the next page has no navbar, etc, etc.
- Design is not as important as readability. As long as your website is clear and information on it can be read easily without much hassle. Although, it is very good if you could make a good design.
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The next step on making a website is publishing it. You just need to find a server that would host your website, upload your website to the server, and you're set. There are some free webserver like Geocities, but be aware that most of those free servers are either:
- Features forced Ads, popups, etc
- Very limited features
- Unreliable
- Short lived, today you start your site, the next month, poof, they're gone.
- Need you to join a forum and post often there (and see the ads they put on the forum)
- etc, etc.
It is very rare to see a decent host. To this date, I've never met a really good, free host. For a personal website, though, you won't need much. Just somewhere to put your site, and hope that the site serves well when someone enter your site.
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After publishing your website, your work is still not done yet. You need to tell the whole world that you've just opened a new website. A good starters is by telling your friends about it, and putting your site into major search engines index: Google (http://www.google.com/addurl/ ) and Yahoo (http://search.yahoo.com/info/submit.html ). Last but not least, wait. You'll need to wait months before you could expect someone to come to your site.