Web design is something that many of us are intrigued with today but know little about. With the world rapidly falling into a web based society, more and more people are becoming dependent upon websites to provide information and sell their products. Websites are a helpful way to reach customers and audiences around the world and a good way to make your own creation known. They are often cheaper than normal advertisement and archives of data, articles and products are just a click away. I came into this web design with the intention of offering a service to outdoors men and women who share the same passion about the outdoors as I do. I will be honest, I did not build this site with the intention of getting rich
of of advertisements and services although the cash received helps replenish the initial investment spent to build and maintain the site and provides support for in the field trips and video footage we take. Building sites like MHF Outdoors takes time and patience. This site is by no means massive but it did take almost 5 months to finish. If you are interested in designing your own site, read on and I will relay 2 major steps I took to create MHF Outdoors. I will not be disclosing the details as to how I physically designed the site because first off,it would take me a month to write that article and second, the software I used was so easy, I had the hang of things in just a few hours.
I am a complete rookie when it come to web design and was leading myself blind when I first started. I did a lot of initial research and found that many web design software packages are tough for a beginner to use and require the knowledge of HTML code to design the sites. HTML code is a foreign language to me so I searched for software the allows the user to create sites without knowing such code. I came across a company called Serif and they offer a product called WebPlus X2. The software got excellent reviews and requires no knowledge of HTML code to operate. The X2 software they offer is only 80 bucks which I found to be very reasonable and includes a full instruction book of how to use the software. Other web design software is often more than $300 and requires a considerable amount of computer literacy to operate. I purchased the software and was immediately pleased with its ease of use. It was honestly as simple as using Microsoft Word. The design options are almost endless and they even offer free pre-designed templates for those wanting to get a site up quickly. I took more time and designed the layout how I wanted to. If you are interested in further customization or the addition of HTML, X2 allows you to incorporate HTML into your site with ease. If you are new to web design or simply looking for a great software program that is extremely user friendly, don’t sweat the frustration and check out Serif’s product. I am sincerely honest when I say that I recommend this product to anyone who wishes to get themselves up on the web. I have provided a link below to the WebPlus X2 page. Did I mention that Serif has awesome customer service and support!
The next step after the site is designed is to choose a web host. Web hosts will typically allow you to buy and own a domain name along with host your site on the world wide web. Some companies offer free hosting but typically any host that is worth 2 cents will charge you for their services. The fee is usually monthly and can range from $4 to more than $15 depending on the company and promotions offered. I also did a lot of research on web hosts and found that Google had a list of top 10 awarded hosts for 2009. I chose number 2 which happened to be Justhost.com. They offered a free domain name and hosting for $4.95 a month. Not to mention their customer support is world class. They also offer bountiful hard disk space for large websites as well as search engine submission to sites such as Google, Yahoo and MSN to help get your site out to the public faster. The control panel you get is very user friendly and it is easy to navigate around the different options especially for someone as myself who lacks major computer skills. Below is a link provided to the Justhost webpage to help get things started.
I hope that the information provided will eliminate the frustration that comes with first time site designing as well as offer a product that is simple and fun to use even for advanced wed designers. This will open the door for new and creative ideas if the road to web design is on your mind. Getting your business online, providing useful information to the public or just simply testing the waters for a personal site is a great way to get in tune with the web based world that we live in today. Feel free to contact me at midwesthuntandfish@gmail if you have further questions regarding my site design. Good luck!
Nick Johnson
MHF Outdoors Owner