Wanting to start a new site but don’t know where to start? Well, in this article I’ll give you some hints and tips and my personal suggestions. They are only my opinion, so you do not have to agree with me!
Finding A Host
If you’ve never made a website before, you’re going to most likely be stuck with a freeserver with hundreds of popup advertisements. That isn’t too nice, but there are a few not-so-annoying freeservers that I would recommend – freewebs.com, 50webs.com and freehostia. They have minimal ads and are also quite user friendly. Of course, there is the choice of having an individual (usually another web designer or blogger) kindly host your site – they will allow you to use some of their space, and you won’t require ads either. Often though, they will require you to have good HTML and graphic skill.
If you are only starting out, that option is out of the question.
Choosing a site name
This is where you actually need to use your brain. You need to think of a site name, which is obviously very important. Generally your site name will be your username, so you’d have something like freewebs.com/yoursitename.
Here are examples of what you should definitely not use as a site name:
- xXx-punk-princess-xXx
A big no-no. No one wants to type in a billion letter x’s for your URL, even worse if you have capital ones too, in some random order. - Ann’s site
Sure, it may be easy to remember, but it’s rather boring, and your name in your site name may also make you seem pretentious. - Yummy Chocolate
Something like this is too generic, and chances are, someone will have the word ‘chocolate’ in their site name too. You want to be unique. Same goes for words like ‘girly’ or ‘cute’. - Gobbylobbyasree
Words you make up yourself may be pretty cool to use, but they are hard for others to remember and can be a pain to type. It’s also something to consider that if you plan to have a website showcasing your romantic poems, a website name like Gobbylobbyasree doesn’t quite fit. - Coca Cola
Just don’t use brand names; it isn’t very original. - Biotechnology9001
Avoid using numbers. Numbers can get confusing and elongate your site name unnecessarily. No matter what word/s you use, try not to use a number. - iir0kbi9tim3
Don’t use chatspeak or lingo. It looks terrible and gives off an immature vibe.
Now that I’ve gone through the no-nos. Good names are usually nouns. Website names can be as many words as you’d like it to be, but if it’s a short phrase, make sure it’s easy to remember. And if it’s a derivation of a word, make sure it’s not that hard to spell.
Often people get their website names from song lyrics or titles of songs. If you’re stuck, listen to some of your favourite music and check out the lyrics. My previous site name, Out The Window, comes from one of my favourite songs. My current site name Heartdrops is a derivation of song lyrics.
Don’t always stick with two or more words, and don’t stick with too many. Something like ‘Today Is The Greatest Day’ would just be too long. One word names can also work – like ‘snowglobe’.
Site Purpose
What are you going to put on your site? Is it going to be a graphics site? Will you offer content for visitors? If so, what will they be? You can have icons, backgrounds, web material, layouts, avatars.
You can also have a personal site, meaning that most things on it will be about you. About your life perhaps, stories of life events, personal opinions, and might include a blog.
A fansite is one in which most content focuses on someone the owner is a fan of. They can be an artist, singer, author, celebrity. You do need to make sure that you credit for any celebrity images that do not belong to you.
A portfolio contains all the works of the site owner. These can be written works like poems, stories or opinions, or visual imagery, like photos, drawings, sketches or paintings.
A review site can contain reviews on products, books, films, or even websites.
A blog site is one that contains only the blog of the owner. Blog, for those new to the concept, is short for ‘web log’ which is basically like an online diary where people can comment on the entries.
Those are just a few examples. You can have whatever you please on your site. That is, providing you don’t steal or use other people’s content without permission or credit. Get creative, think of your own thing.
Your exact site purpose is not important; just as long as you know basically what you want to put on it. My site started out as a graphics site, then branched out into an article site too, then I decided to add my blog, reviews, and now tutorials. This has resulted in it being quite a miscellaneous site. You don’t need to know what type of site yours is, unless you get your site listed in directories. This is when you may need to specify, but there is almost always an ‘other’ option.
The Thing About Splash Pages
Layout comes as very important.. but I’d like to address one thing first: splash pages.
Of course, they were much more common about a decade ago. A little way of introducing your site, like a door. Now, they’ve become less common. The question is, do you need one?
Most likely no, especially when starting out. There is almost no point to a splash page. Especially when there is just one image on it saying ‘enter’, and nothing else. People put counters on their splash pages. What if people don’t even get into the site, they just see the splash page and leave?
Don’t get me wrong, I myself have had a splash page but have learned that it’s not very useful.
You don’t need a splash page. Who wants to click another link to go your site?
You may want one if:
- you have some lovely skins – that is, several different layouts – and you want your visitor to pick which one they want to view the site with (though you can still make a page to change skins anyway)
- your site is a collective with links to all your other sites.
If you have one, don’t:
- put every single affiliate on your darned splash page. If you have sixty four affiliates and you link them all with buttons, it will take up loading time. Visitors would hate you. And people on a dialup connection may sit there for up to an hour waiting for your splash page to load. They may be more interested in your affiliates and click a button instead.
- put a counter on it. Like I said above.
- put requirements on it. It’s very immature, especially requirements like ‘love for Orlando Bloom’. Does that mean if a visitor comes along, they can’t get in if they don’t like him? Nothing is going to stop them.
Splash pages are really quite useless, and if first impressions last, it might not be a good one. And I believe you will get more visitors without a splash page. It happened to me. 
Layout
Image:
Layout is very important, and simplicity is key. You might want your layout to have something to do with your site purpose, but it’s not necessary.
You can use your own photographs, or drawings that you drew yourself, drawn by hand and scanned, maybe painted, maybe vector drawings you’ve done on the computer. Don’t be afraid to experiment as you’re only making your first site. You can use images from the internet but make sure you credit for them.
Colour scheme:
Colourlovers is a site that will assist you with colour scheme. Avoid colours that are too bright. You can use them, but not excessively. Make your layout easy on the eyes. Don’t make it busy and use too many different colours.
Choose a simple array of colours to use in your layout, don’t make too much of one colour either. This is something you should also experiment with.
Coding/Format:
Knowing how you’re going to set things out is a start. Will you have a sidebar? Will you put navigation on the layout or as text?
Make sure your ideas don’t over-capacitate your HTML ability. Placing navigation on the layout image usually requires image mapping. Do you know how to do this effectively? You need to make sure navigation is clear.
The way you manage your content is also important. Using <div>s is usually the best way to organise your website layout. Don’t be restricted or pressured though. Work to the best of your ability as this is only your first website.
Styling
Yet another important point. Fonts and style, and the like. Some tips are to not use fluorescent colours like bright orange or green. Don’t use non-standard fonts like Comic Sans MS. Ditch the font. There are better fonts out there to use, and you can download some at dafont. You need to consider that users may not have the same fonts as you and with limited knowledge, you may not be able to code your layout so that they can see the fonts.
Don’t use too many different fonts and don’t use ones that clash, like using a scriptlike font on your headers (which, let me tell you, looks bad), and combining it with some other scriptlike font on your layout. Keep fonts simplistic and don’t use ones with too many decorations.
With colours, try to make them match your layout, or bring out certain colours in the layout. Don’t decorate your images too much.
Content
Number one, do not cram. Don’t try to make things look bigger than they actually are. Don’t cram things onto one page.
Similarly, don’t spread things out in small paragraphs. Don’t make your font too big. When organising content, put them in appropriate sections and where they belong, without making too many sections. For example if you have graphics that are all different – pixels, layouts, brushes, etc., then do not make separate sections with their links. Putting all the graphics in one section, with links to the pages, is fine, and better than putting all the graphic types.
It may seem like there is more content, but remember: quality, not quantity.
Music
Whatever your question is, the answer is always no. Music is a huge no-no. It does not welcome your visitors. In fact, it can be annoying for the following reasons:
- people may already be listening to music on their media player and will be annoyed by a sudden burst of music coming from their web browser.
- people will have multiple windows open and will be surfing different sites at once, and trying to figure out which window the music is coming from is frustrating.
- the music you put on your site may not be the music people want to hear, or even like.
- it slows down your site loading time, and dialup users will smack you.
- if you don’t provide an option to stop the music, people will just leave your site.
- if you make the music start automatically, people will just leave your site.
- if the options to stop or start the music are at the bottom of the page.
- if the options to stop or start the music are tiny frigging icons.
- if the music starts again on each page while the visitor is navigating, because, duh, it’s a new page.
- any of the above 5 points, or any combination.
It is NOT a good idea to put music on your site. It is not welcoming, it wastes space, takes up loading time, and is not necessary.
Enjoy it!
Yes, enjoy it. Don’t force yourself. Give yourself a challenge, but don’t push it. You should enjoy making a site, and not feel like it is a chore to maintain it and update it. Or even blog. Put what you want on it, it’s yours, so be free with it. Good luck. 
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