Creating an Effective Web Site

Creating an Effective Web Site 

Often times it is hard to figure out where to start to create an effective web site and where to host it. The first step is to determine the audience you are trying to reach.

I am attempting to build a personal portfolio site about me and I have already determined the layout by searching other portfolio sites that are interesting to me. Now that I have a better sense of the direction I want to go in I can start sketching out my layout on a piece of paper or choose a template form a web site builder. Often times when a web designer meets with a client they will sketch out the layout on something as simple as a napkin. This rough sketch will just be a guideline for the web site. One way I think of designing a website is like oil painting, because just like painting you will have multiple layers until you reach the final product. Also, like a painting the most important thing to remember is to have a solid foundation to build upon.

My web site will have eight pages. The pages will include a splash page, home, about, art, music, web design, contact, and a site map. I hope to accomplish a site that will give an insight to who I am and what I do, and of course I want it to be interesting to look at as well as easy to navigate.

The last step is to find a place to host the site. There are a few options one is free and the other cost.
Often times with the free hosting sites you might have to have advertisement on your site, or you may be limited to how many pages they will host. Below are three sites that I have researched.

1. Weebly
Weebly is awesome because it is 100% free and its interface is simple and quick to use. You basically just drag and drop your content.

2. Wix
Wix is template based and also easy to use, plus like Weebly it allows you to drag and drop content to your liking.

3.Webs
Last but not least is Webs which is similar to the others. You choose a theme to you site and then and you content then publish it. It is really that simple!

There are plenty of other sites that cost but these sites will help anyone that needs a website get started.