The Benefits of Building a Web Site | 3

Plan ahead. Building a Web site always takes longer than you think, so give yourself more time than you originally planned for!

Get organized. Remember to categorize your content and use those categories as the initial architecture for your site when you're doing the user interface design.

Always do the user interface design before the graphics design. The user interface design specifies how your site will work, while the graphical design is the look and feel. If you do the graphics before the architecture is done, you'll likely end up redoing a lot of your design after you've figured out how your site is going to work.

Not all browsers are the same. Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator are the two most common browsers, and in recent versions, they've adopted the same standards. But there are still quirky differences between the two browsers, and you have to check your work on both browsers.

Not all platforms are the same. If only they were! Explorer and Navigator work slightly differently on the Mac, in Windows, and in Unix. If you're developing on the PC, find a friend or a graphic designer with a Mac and check your work on her system as well. Dreamweaver also includes some tools to help you verify whether your site works the way you hope it does on a variety of platforms.

Learn from sites you like. If you like the way a page looks — but can't imagine how such a design could have been translated to the Web — you can view the source code in your browser to see how the page was constructed. Seeing how other people have coded their pages can spur you on to create your own unique designs.

Lots of stuff can be had for free. The Web is filled with geeks like us who have made all sorts of crazy applications, like chat engines, bulletin boards, and even wholesale applications. A lot of them can be had for free or something close to it. This is where sites like www.google.com and www.download.com can be your friends.

Old content equals a dead site. You have to be prepared to update your site on a semi-regular basis. When content is stale, people will notice, and they will stop coming.

If you build it, tell someone. It's one thing to build a site. Site-search spiders will eventually find you, but if you really want to be seen, then you really need to promote yourself. When you're done building, remember, it's time to start promoting.