Web sites, like cell phones and iPods, are all the latest rage.
Everyone who doesn't already have one seems to want one - usually because
everyone else has one. "Aww, gee, Mom, all the other kids have one!"Why
Do You Want a Web Site?
By Jim Moore, Phoenix Technologies
Web sites, like cell phones and iPods, are all the latest rage.
Everyone who doesn't already have one seems to want one - usually because
everyone else has one. "Aww, gee, Mom, all the other kids have one!"
Maybe you want a web site to make money. Maybe you have a hobby you'd like to share with the world. Maybe you want to keep in touch with far-flung family members and friends or even old classmates. Maybe you're seeking your 15 minutes of fame. Maybe you're pissed off at XYZ Corporation and want the world to know what scumbags they are after they laid off your department and sent all your jobs to India. Or maybe you're just bored and need to get a life.
There are a million different reasons people want web sites - some good, some not so good.
I design web sites for a living, so I certainly don't want to discourage you. But I do want to be honest with you. It can take a lot of hard work to put together and maintain a good web site. You have to have goals and plans - measurable goals, not just some vague pie-in-the-sky pipe dream. Web sites cost money and if it's an investment for you or your business, you want to know your ROI - Return on Investment.
Some people think web sites are the be-all and end-all. "Just build it and they will come", sort of like the Kevin Kostner movie Field of Dreams. Well, I hate to disappoint you, but it just ain't so! That cold, cruel world out there is pretty damned fickle and a lot more apathetic than you could possibly imagine. And the competition is horrendous!
If you're reading this, you're probably either too broke or too cheap to hire someone who knows what they're doing to build your web site (like me!) ... and you're wanting to do it yourself. In either case, I'm going to assume you don't want to throw away money or time - especially your own. There's nothing wrong with being poor or being cheap. Being poor is certainly a lot less fun. Being cheap is not necessarily being poor.
In some cases, I find I'm both. Yup, my job was shipped off to India in 2005 and I couldn't compete with some poor bloke happy to get paid $5 a day, no benefits and forced overtime (at regular pay). There has to be a better way. I've put together a lot of web sites over the past 15 years and, age 60, still find it hard to compete with a 12-year-old willing to throw something together for school lunch money.
Of course, you get what you pay for.
I'll bet you figure it can't be any harder than throwing something together in Microsoft Word (or worse, one of those cookie-cutter fill-in-the-blanks online website design sites!) and hurling it at the Internet. That may be why you're ready to "do it yourself." It gives you more control. You don't have to pay for it, well, not much.
Just
because you know how to hold chopsticks doesn't make you Chinese - and just
because you know how to hold a scalpel, that doesn't make you a brain surgeon
either. If you don't know the difference between a Java applet and a Java bean
(and no, it has nothing to do with Starbucks coffee!), then you'd better
pay attention.
Are you mad yet? I hope so!
Think of yourself as being a green recruit in the Marines, and I'm your leatherneck drill sergeant. I'm either gonna make a web designer out of you (at least sufficient to allow you to survive in cold cyberspace) or you're gonna fall out on your first 10-mile march and realize that, yes, things like brain surgery and web design actually do require a little more training than you first thought.
And if you're mad enough at being insulted for your ignorance (ignorance is not stupidity, it's just not knowing), then you're going to be motivated to prove what an idiot I am for thinking you can't do it. Then you'll do it and make us both proud! They call that "win-win" I think.
So now that I've dismantled your preconceptions (and there will be more of that yet to come), I'm going to remake you, give you the tools and the training to become all you can be. Ooops, sorry! That was the Army's slogan, wasn't it?
Your first assignment: Download the Web Planning Worksheets and fill them out. That will give you an idea what you're in for and help you define your goals and objectives so you'll have a clear roadmap to your destination.
Phase 3 - Gathering Site Materials and Content
