1. Create my own website : Part I
Web site no worries
How should it be promoted? What should it look like? Can it be done on my own or should a
professional be hired to do it?
These are just some of the questions that need to be answered first before designing a web site. Experts
on this field can be turned to help and do the job for you.
Doing it yourself would also be an option if you are taking into consideration the expenses and the time
that can be saved by doing so. There are things that needed to be considered in designing your website.
And questions, too.
What is the goal of the site? It would be helpful if you know from the start what you want your site to
do. Simple as it may seem, you need to get ideas organized into clear details first. Think of the site in the
point of view of others.
The impressions that they would surely have upon seeing your site. Putting graphics and pictures into
the site as attention-seekers is important to keep up with the many sites available nowadays. Having a
site does not only mean having information to give and share. It also means creating an art work that
people will be interested enough to see and read through.
What have the others got? By doing your homework and looking up probable competition sites, you can
get an edge on what your site should possess.
Do your homework. You can get lessons, feedbacks and even inspiration in seeing the works of other
people. Looking them up does not mean you have to copy them. It means you have to think of other
ways to get leverage over the others. Once this has been done, consider yourself on the frontline and be
ready to set some trend.

2. How do you find a good designer? In this case, you have chosen someone to do the designs for you. In
finding the right designer, choose someone who understands and is in harmony with what you want
your site to be.
It is important to note that some designers want their designs put into your site and not your designs
into yours. Consider someone who is interested in what you’re doing, think your thoughts and makes
them the center of their goal.
Is it accessible? Make it easy for people to see your site and contact you for any complaints or
suggestions. Putting contact details would make it easier for people to not only get into your site but
you as well.
What is there to remember? Keeping it simple. From the words to the logos to the graphic designs.
People did not come into your site for those so stick to the more important things.
Hiring a web designer to come up with the custom solution that you need can set you back a few
thousand bucks. But you can do the whole thing yourself and make it drag and drop simple for mere
pennies with a tool like Breezy Websites. See http://breezywebsites.com for details!
Create my own website : End of Part I
Web Site Navigation
Once a visitor gets to your web site, you want to make sure they can find what they are looking for
quickly and easily, or they will just go elsewhere. If a web site is easy to use and understand, visitors will
come back time and time again.

3. Using intuitive navigation techniques will greatly improve the usability of your web site, and therefore
user satisfaction and return rates. By intuitive navigation, I mean some sort of menu, map or list that is
instantly understandable to most visitors to your web site.
One of the first points to making a site easy to navigate is to have a consistent menu that is on every
page. By having a menu that is on every page of your site, users can move from each section from any
other section, with out having to go back to a home page or menu page.
Keeping the menu in the same location, and in the same style throughout your site ensures that visitors
quickly recognize how to navigate your site. If you have a different style menu on every page, users may
get confused and not as easily comprehend how to navigate your site.
Another useful tool a Webmaster can include for visitors is a site map. A site map is a page containing an
organized list of all the pages or sections of the site. Instead of moving through the site's menu system
and down through categories by clicking on links on different pages, a visitor has the option of going to
the site map and clicking directly to the page they are seeking.
Though there are many fancy buttons, graphics and rollovers that can be used for your navigation menu,
sometimes simple text links are the best bet. For one, text link navigation menus are fast loading. Many
web surfers are on slow connections and do not want to wait for a complex navigation system to
download. Text navigation menus also can add relevant text to search engine results, whereas image
navigation bars cannot. Text navigation also helps ensure your users understand what the links mean.
If you do opt to use graphic navigation menus, you may wish to consider adding a redundant text
navigation menu at the bottom of the page to ensure viewability and search engine spidering.
Many new Webmasters are tempted to use frames to create a navigation menu that will appear on all
the site's pages. The benefit is that the navigation will stay in sight even when the rest of the page is
scrolled. But because frames piece pages together from other pages a Webmaster cannot be sure that a
web page using frames will be viewed correctly. If a visitor comes to a page through a search engine that
was designed to have a navigation menu added with a frame, the user will see not see the menu.
Because of this, it is important to add a link to your home page on every page, so viewers can see your
site as it was intended.

4. Even if you are not using frames, it would be helpful to have a link to the home page of your website on
every page, to ensure users can find the "beginning" of your site.
Keeping the navigation menu near the top of the web pages ensures that surfers will be able to see the
menu as soon as the page loads. If a user has to scroll to navigate to other pages of your site, they will
be less inclined to do so.
In closing, it is important to keep in mind that when it comes to site navigation, simplicity is key. If a user
does not immediately see what they need, they will not spend much time trying to find it, but will rather
move on to the next site.
Hiring a web designer to come up with the custom solution that you need can set you back a few
thousand bucks. But you can do the whole thing yourself and make it drag and drop simple for mere
pennies with a tool like Breezy Websites. See http://breezywebsites.com for details!
Create my own website : End of Part II
Web Site Design Mistakes – Database Parameters In URLs
Creating a web site takes thought, planning and execution. Unfortunately, many designs are dead in the
water before they are even published as far as search engine optimization is concerned. Whatever you
do, avoid these critical mistakes.
Database Parameters in URL
Many web site designers don’t take into account the effect of database parameters in site URLs. A
database parameter tells the server what should be loaded onto a particular page when a viewer tries to
see it. In essence, the page is “dynamic” because it is being pulled together with each click. Robot

5. programs that are used by search engines to index sites hate dynamic pages. Often, they will not even
index the pages and the page of your site is not listed in the search engine.
Let’s look at an example using the Nomad Adventure Journals site. The home page URL is aptly,
http://www.nomadjournals.com - a static page. In this URL, there are no parameters telling the server to
load anything other than a static web page. All search engines will index this page without any problem.
Now, what if we changed the page to something dynamic. Let’s say we designed it to record the session
identification [identify the viewer] and dynamically load the pictures on the page. We would have one
parameter for the session identification and four parameters for the various pictures on the page. The
URL for the home page might look something like:
http://www.nomadjournals.com/home/index.html?&DID=9&User_ID&CATID=15&ObjectGroup_ID=39
What a mess. A search engine robot is going to balk at indexing such pages. It simply can’t tell what is on
the page. If you have parameters and session identifications in the URLs of your site pages, you are
going to have a very difficult time getting into the search engine rankings. Obviously, that precludes you
from getting any top rankings and free traffic.
Fixing The Problem
Fixing the problem often is lengthy and costly depending on the number of pages on your site. If you
have over 100 products, a complete re-design may be the best answer. If you have a relatively small
number of pages, there may be less brutish options.
Converting pages to static html is a definite solution for smaller sites. Essentially, one would take the
page for each product and convert it into a static html page. The domain would then be converted to
short sub-domain. If a user then clicked on the “buy” button for the product on the page, they would be
sent to a dynamic database page. The viability of this solution is dependent upon the layout of the site.
Some sites can be fixed, some simply cannot.

6. In Closing
The database parameter problem is surprisingly common with sites selling products. A majority of site
designers do not understand search engine optimization and don’t realize the problem they are
creating. If you intend to build a database driven site, make sure you bring in a search engine
optimization specialist before it is created. Nobody wants to spend the money to design a site twice.
Hiring a web designer to come up with the custom solution that you need can set you back a few
thousand bucks. But you can do the whole thing yourself and make it drag and drop simple for mere
pennies with a tool like Breezy Websites. See http://breezywebsites.com for details!
Create my own website : End of Part III