Web Resources for Do-it-Yourselfers
While there is no shortcut to a GOOD website, there are ways of building a marginal website yourself when you have limited funds and technical knowledge. There are products that will do the coding for you for a very basic site. Mainly I don't recommend them unless they are for personal use (ie: family reunions, family pet sites). When you use a "coder" programs such as these, the code is VERY search engine unfriendly and your site will use a template that will make it look like thousands of other sites, further hurting you with the search engines. This, in fact, may hurt any future chances of being 'picked up' by Google, Yahoo or the other major engines when you do decide to build a site this way. Google will penalize you for having a "cookie cutter" site and duplicate content, banning you from their search engine completely.
Once you've damaged your URL's credibility, it's very hard to get that back. If that doesn't matter to you, go for it. On the other hand, most businesses do need to be found by prospective customers, suppliers or the general pubic. If this is important to you, it's important your site is built to current standards (CSS, XHTML) with some amount of site optimizing which only can be done if a competent web designer builds your site.
Web design is a profession and our stock in trade. It is our gift, our creativity, our technical expertise. Some of that we get from books and classes, mostly it's trial and error - or more likely, trial by FIRE. You really can't take a college course or two, or even the courses below, and become a good web designer - it takes years of just building one website after another and accumulating that unique perspective that each and every one of us possesses that makes OUR particular skill set and talent a thing of VALUE to you, our client.
A lawyer's expertise, a doctor's healing hand or any other professional's skill takes years to develop and apply, and so does our skill set and ability with web design. While folks would never dream of milking such a professional for "freebie" work or "pick their brains" for free advice or answers to their questions, it's quite common for a web designer/developer to be used this way. This is why we no longer give free "consultations" nor provide "trade secrets" (which aren't all that secret, they just took years to acquire and refine so why should we give them away?) to help you build your "free" site. We also only do pro-bono work when the mood strikes us.
Below are some programs for "do-it-yourselfers". If you cannot afford to do it right, you can give them a try. Please understand their limitations and please don't call us looking for free advice when your site doesn't work properly or you find your site is lost in the abyss of millions of other websites on the Internet. We'd love to build a proper site for you, but we won't tell you how to do it halfway and on the cheap because, really, that's not going to help you succeed.
If you want to do it right....
Web development classes run $1,500 - $2,500.00 per course. There are usually about 11 courses depending on what aspects of web design and development are needed. The courses aren't geared toward teaching all of the tips and tricks, but the basics using the typical web design/development software available. Most topics are general not gone through in great detail. You will have to also do research on the web or take additional college level classes, depending on what you expect to do. At minimum you'll also need common web development software such as Dreamweaver which is $399, image editing software such as Photoshop $999, Fireworks $299, and possibly Flash Professional $699, Illustrator $699, or Acrobat Professional $449.00, or Adobe® Creative Suite® 4 Web Premium.. That's what we use - available for $1,699.00 and can be obtained from Adobe.
It should take you around 6 months to 1 year to complete all the courses you might want or need before you can start building, or seriously edit, your website. The courses run 3-5 weeks each, usually during business hours. Classes are sometimes available in a classroom with standup trainers who do the same classes in 3-5 days per course, but you may have to travel as they are often in central locations such as Pittsburgh or Denver. These are limited in scope and you may not learn the actual things you wanted to learn. Of course you'll also need to get some courses specific to the software like Dreamweaver, Photoshop or Illustrator which is additional. If you would like local tutoring or phone support for something specific relating to Dreamweaver, etc., accommodation is at the above rates.
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If you discover DIY isn't your thing, consider us. Our support doesn't end when your site is complete. We are always here to answer questions about your site, it's hosting, domain and take care of your website maintenance needs. We offer several outstanding and inexpensive plans to keep your site up-to-date. We'll let you know when software updates become available to protect your site from hackers and malware. You can be involved as much or as little as you desire in the maintenance of your site.
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Development will progress at a pace you feel comfortable with. We want your input and include you in the site development process so that it becomes your very own. There are mainly two phases to creating your site. The design phase where we create the design and it's unique look and feel, and the development phase where we configure the software and code in the content. If you want to develop portions of the site yourself, that's ok - here are a few tools to get you started.
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Our strategy is to get you found on the search engines as fast and effectively as possible. We use Style Sheets, Google site maps, follow Accessibility standards, and use every legitimate SEO technique to improve your search engine rankings, while still giving you a user friendly, attractive site.
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