Web Design Resources

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Normally a book from the Dummies series is a great way to start.  However Web Design for Dummies: by Lisa Lolpuck  is not really aimed at a layman who is just trying to become a better informed "delegator of web site design".  The headings for the first chapter make the intention of the book clear:

Chapter I: So You Want to Be a Web Site Designer?

Figuring out the web design process from start to finish
Setting team  member roles and responsibilities
Building a  site map
Creating design mock-ups
Understanding HTML and programming languages
Testing for usability and quality

Here is a quotation from an Amazon.com review: 

"This book was very informative, but not what I expected. It isn't for the regular person wanting to learn how to design their own website, it is for professionals wanting to get into the business of designing web sites."

Before you consider hiring someone to design a website, you should experiment a little on your own. That will put you into a much better position to know what you really need, what you are buying. To register a domain name, consider

1) www.namecheap.com and
http://order.1and1.com

(GoDaddy is commonly referred to, but some Internet gurus have warned that transfering a domain name out of it to another host can be tough, and that if you do not properly cross the t's and dot the i's, GoDaddy could wind up owning your domain name.)

To experiment, and as a back-up:

2) Start with the simplest (and not very pretty) Googlesites and enter some content: https://sites.google.com/

Now look for some free or reasonable website offers on the basis of template designs. These include:

3) http://order.1and1.com

4) www.homestead.com - with about 2,000 designs, but now it asks for your credit card before you look at the designs, which I do not like.

5) www.wix.com quite a good offer

6) www.webnode.com nice designs, quite easy to use, but if you want to make serious changes to the templates, you will need to find someone who knows CSS.

There are other possiblities, but the above should be plenty to get you started on the website design. A seperate issue is SEO - Search Engine Optimization. When you are further along, google it and read up about it a bit. I believe some of the members of this forum will have expertise in this area too.