How To Design a Simple Website
Creating and maintaining a website doesn’t have to be a
monumental task. I think one big mistake people make is that they look at big
company websites and are immediately intimidated by the scope and grandeur of
these sites. For most of us, it’s just important to have a presence on the
internet that contains pertinent information and links to our product
offerings on our shopping site, such as Ety.
While I maintain a successful Etsy shop, I also have my own
website. This site shows my latest jewelry products in a slideshow and then has
links to my Etsy shop, blog, facebook fan page, twitter, and pinterest. There
is also an ‘About’ page and a ‘Contact’ page. It took me one week to create and
I used all free code found on the internet! I can modify it at a later date as
my needs change. But for right now, I have all my important information on one
site.
I found a great site on the internet called Free Website Templates. I browsed through their templates until I found one that had
the style I was looking for. One caveat - there are some templates (usually the
best ones), that do not allow you to download the code. You can only edit and
publish from their site. I quickly dismissed those. There are still many free
downloadable templates to choose from.
Once you download the code, then it’s just a matter of
replacing their logos, images, links, and text with your information.
Fortunately, I used to be a windows programmer, so I do have a lot of comfort
in coding, but html code is very straightforward and anyone can edit it in a
simple text editor. The source code is not cryptic and one can usually decipher
it readily. If you’re stuck on a piece of code, just google it! You’ll find all
the descriptions you need.
The most difficult task was replacing the main body picture
with the slideshow pictures. I found a great site on the internet that gave me
the free code for the slideshow – with all the instructions needed to integrate
their code. There’s even a discussion board to help!
The company is Dynamic
Drive and their website can be found here:
Once I edited the files, cleaned up my images, I copied all
the files onto my hosting site (I use hostmonster.com) and I was instantly
on-line! It was a great feeling to type in my website and see my jewelry on the
internet.
I’m happy to help anyone who may have a question regarding what
I discussed today. Please feel free to leave a comment and I’ll help any way I
can. I realize that programming can be a bit daunting, but it is so worthwhile
to have your own website!
Here's the link to my site: Theresa Rose Designs
