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BaronDavis

Hi everybody,

I don't have experience in web design, but I want to learn to build professional web pages. Is there a cheap, easy to use and professional web design software that I could use easily without paying a lot? If you have any suggestions to share with me.

Thanks.
Baron Davis
 
Basic web pages and simple website design is fairly straight forward. There are many free tools around that will do the job. EG If you get a copy of seamonkey (extended firefox suite) then there is a composer that you can use for basic WYSIWYG web page design. That should be enough to get you started.

You should read up on html (hypertext markup language), xml (extensible markup language), css (cascading style sheets) and javascript. You can then do pretty much anything you want with a basic text editor. You also probably want graphics included so a decent paint type package is a must. Depending on the type of sites you're writing you may want to have a look at java and apache tomcat.

If you start doing web site design with a lot of embedded code then have a look at eclipse (Eclipse - The Eclipse Foundation open source community website.).

As a general rule you should also test any website you have put together with a number of different web browsers.
 
As already stated, there are numerous packages available - from free, all the way up to the realms of Dreamweaver. However what you need to bear in mind is that these packages will assist you in writing the code, and also in putting things in the right order - you'll still be left with the fun job of actually coming up with the graphics/layout in the first place.

I wish you luck, and hope you enjoy!

Regards

Ewan
 
I agree with RickyGee, if you're a beginner try Wordpress or Joomla! Both are free options and (at the risk of starting the usual Wordpress/Joomla riot) I prefer Joomla. :)
 
I would suggest going with Wordpress if you are not that familiar with CSS and HTML. This is because you can use a pre-made template, and just fill it with your content.
It gets a little bit trickier if you are looking for extra functionality, but for businesses they are normally a page based website.

If you are okay with HTML and CSS then I would look at building one yourself. Its actually fairly easy (though time consuming) to do, you just need a design to start from.

And yes, as Ricky says SEO is pretty much an essential nowadays. If you do not know anyone good then I have someone carrying out SEO for my site and they are excellent, work to my budget and get amazing results. If you want the info then PM me
 
Ask for advice as well. There are friendly web designers out there that can answer simple questions for help you get some hosting and not get ripped off!
 
I would definitely recommend a wordpress site - relatively easy to get a nice looking site using themes, liked by search engines, easy to add content.

However, as with everything, there is a learning curve and to get a professional looking result will take time.

At the end of the day, is your time worth more learning to create an average website or should you pay someone to do a professional job and spend your time earning money doing what you are qualified to do?
 

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