Advice me!!!

[becki]

I'm going to build me website pretty soon! Im good with graphics, photoshop and corel and use a mac regularly (too expensive for home tho!)and know how to do pretty much most I need to work in graphic design.But the web.......I have issues with it. I don't know what I need. i know I need a webhosting company but what then? When building my webpages what should I really consider? Go on.......advise me!

[Brian Turner]

Aargh! Sorry becki, I didn't see this thread until now. Better late than never, yes?

Anyway...

A few things you need to think about in webpublishing:

1/ Whatever you do, bear in mind the fact that broadband users still account for less than 20% of internet users. Business users will tend to have some form of broadband, but residential users should be expected to be mainly using dial-up modems. So try not to go overboard with graphical presentation - keep it simple but effective, and there are plenty of little tricks for doing this. Ask and you shall receive.

2/ It's likely you'll want search engines to be your friend: therefore bear very much in mind basic SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) issues. There's a good intro on the subject by Andy Beal here: http://www.seo-lab.com/seo-articles/seo-basics-1.php

3/ You want to deliver information as quickly as possible - people just don't have the attention span and patience that they do in real life. Surfers generally don;t want to pause to read a long discurssive on the issue they're looking into: they want FAST AND CLEAR INFORMATION DELIVERY.

4/ When selling, sell the benefits of the product to the customer.


Hm, those are the internet marketing issues. Did you actually want more basic webmastering advice on setting up?

[becki]

Thank you for the advice now I need to know about......practical issues! How about webhosting companies? What software editor for the pages etc?

[carolblake1973]

Know your target audience first and aim at that. Best advice for you, sister!