Getting Started The hardest part of creating a web site is designing the first page. Knowing where to begin can sometimes feel like an overwhelming task! The good news is that once the home page is designed, it gets a lot easier! I recommend browsing the web to find sites you like. Look at layouts, look at navigation, look at colors and styles. Do you have a lot of text? Look for sites with ample space for the information you want to share. Do you have a lot of photographs? Look for sites with ample space for the type of graphics you want to display. Looking at sites with similar subject matters is helpful, but if you're making a web site about hedgehogs, don't limit your research to hedgehog sites! I've never made a pasta site but I've found great design ideas from people who do! Color is so important. What attracts you to a site? Bright, primary colors? Muted greens, blue and grays? Need something conservative in beige? Are jewel tones your preference? There are terrific websites offering color palates from which to choose. Your web administrator can direct you to them. Make a note of web addresses you like with a brief reason why you like them. If there's one particular feature that's appealing to you, jot it down. In your quest to find great sites, you're likely to find sites that are not to your liking. Make a note of those, too! Knowing what you don't like is every bit as important as knowing what pleases you!
To template ... or not to template. Maybe you've heard of templates. Maybe you've heard bad things about templates. My advice: don't rule them out! Every website can be considered a template website, it's just that some templates are more customized than others. The beauty of a ready-made template is that the guesswork is done. You've seen the layout and design; you've seen the graphics; you know it works; you only have to individualize it! It's a good starting place when you're really not sure what you want. It's good to remember that templates can always be modified. Often it's not too difficult to change the entire color scheme on a template. If you find a template you like, ask your web designer if the color scheme can be changed. Here is an example of the same template in three different color schemes!
The first image is a template from a template website with a fun, tropical look. The purple site in the middle is the same template modified by my daughter to conform to the colors of her university. The yellow and black site on the far right is the same template, modified to fit a theme of my Australian Rules football team! One template: three looks. Templates are most definitely customizable!
Web Hosting It's important to choose a reliable web hosting company. Your web author can give you tips on companies offering web hosting packages, and some web authors offer hosting as part of their package. I've had my share of bad experiences with fly-by-night companies so I recommend taking time to choose the right host! Many reputable companies exist, and some of them offer a free domain name with a one-year hosting package. It's not a bad idea to have a different hosting company than your web administrator, in my opinion. If things turn sour with either one (I've seen it happen!), you have the other company to turn to for help. Think of it as not having all your apples in one cart.
Domain Names What's a domain name? It's your web address. Beckys-Place.com, for example. It can be almost anything as long as the name isn't already taken by someone else! You don't have to have one but most people do, as they're inexpensive and easily obtained. The most desirable domain ends in .com but there is nothing wrong with a .net or .org domain name. Many others have popped up as more people establish a web presence, including a new .mobi extension for mobile web sites.
Flexibility Reigns! Once you find a couple of web styles that appeal to you and you've selected your domain name and the hosting company, the web designer will go to work with the information you provide. In my experience making sites, the final design rarely ends up looking like the initial concept -- be flexible! The layout is largely dependent upon the text and photographs that are displayed on the page. The page has a tendency to create itself based on the availability of content, and quite often I encounter pleasant surprises as I try to make it all fit aesthetically!
Have Fun!  Even the most serious websites can be fun! Keep the text informative and interesting. Add photos to liven up the page. Incorporate your personality into your writing. Make it fun! Keep it light! If you're not a writer, jot down ideas for the web author and let him/her put it together for you! Then sit back and wait! You'll be able to watch the site come to life as pages are created and you'll have a presence on the World Wide Web! That's the fun part!
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