Creating your own website is great fun! But how is it done? Well, there are five main
options, read this carefully and choose which one you think is best for you!

Use software you already have:

You may not know this, but you can actually use Microsoft Word to create
webpages! This is great, since you can save yourself the cost of buying expensive
new software. Just create your document as you would do normally, and then just
select “Save As” from the File menu. A new window will open, choose where you
want to save your page, give it a name and then select “Webpage” from the drop-
down box next to “Save As Type”. Click save and thats it - you have a webpage
ready to be uploaded to your host’s servers! For more information, check out this
simple tutorial on creating webpages with Word.

The downside is that since Word isn’t really a proper webdesign application, you’ll
find it impossible to create anything like a “professional” site, but if you only need
something very simple, it’ll do just fine. Also, the quality of code that Word
produces is very poor, so unless your website is reasonably plain, it will be slow to
load.

Use an Online Sitebuilder:

There are number of website on the internet which give you all the tools you need to
build and host your website ready to use in one place. For a beginner these sites are
great, since they’re aimed at people wanting a quick, easy way to build a website
without spending ages learning all the technical ins and outs. Most of them offer a
large range of “template” designs along with a simple “what-you-see-is-what-you-
get” editor with which you can personalise the design with your own logos and
content. Once you’re done personalising, just click save and the site is ready and
online - easy. You can also update your website whenever you want as well, and
since the fees are on a low monthly subscription basis you can avoid paying the
heavy upfront costs that you would have if you hired a designer or bought specialist
software. However, some of them run ads on your website and only offer a limited
range of advanced features; which may be frustrating to more advanced users. We
strongly recommend you try 2Clicks (see link below), they have a great range of
templates and features, don’t run ads on your site and offer excellent value for
money.

Buy specialist web design software:

There are a number of specialist web design applications which are used by the
professionals to create their websites. By far the best (in my humble opinion) is
Macromedia’s Dreamweaver. These powerful software packages install on your
computer and run offline like any of the office applications. Since they’re specially
designed for website building, the range of features and functions is very impressive
and allow you to do just about anything you could want with much greater ease and
simplicity that if you are trying to work with something like Word. However, they
don’t come cheap; last time I checked, Dreamweaver cost something like $400.
Also, since they’re not aimed at beginners, you may find them a little complicated to
start with. But if you’re planning on creating and managing several websites then
this could be an option worth considering.

Hire a professional web designer:

Sure hiring a professional isn’t the cheap option, but it is almost certainly the surest
way to get a really high-quality result (unless of course you hire a really bad
designer of course!). But how to choose someone? Well I would recommend that you
choose someone reasonably local. Offshoring is great, but it makes the job of
monitoring their progress a lot more difficult, and there’s nothing quite like having
someone you can meet with face to face to discuss the project, or who’s there for
you on the end of the phone when you need help. It also makes organising
payments more simple as well as holding them responsible if it all goes wrong!
Always check someone’s portfolio carefully. Have they done projects like yours in
the past, and would you be happy to recieve a site like their previous ones if you
hired them? Ask your friends if they can recommend someone.

Deciding how much you are prepared to pay for a professional is a difficult
question. Everyone offers a different level of service, and the quality of the final
product will vary significalty depending on who you hire. Whatever you do; get
multiple quotes!! And compare them on price, quality and service. I would also
strongly advice against choosing the cheapest person/company automatically - it
could prove to be a very false economy in the long term!

Learn to program in html:

Since most pages are written in a code/language called HTML, you can create your
own websites by directly writting in this language. Its certainly a lot easier than
learning Russian, but it will take a good week at least to get to grips even just the
very basics. Assuming you enjoy technical challenges! A good book can be a great
help.

If you are really serious about building websites like a pro, learning to hard code
websites directly in html is an option worth considering. That said, many
professional webdesigners don’t know much about hard coding html themselves -
with professional software like dreamweaver there isn’t too much need for it.
However, learning to program in html is definitely the cheapest way to build your
own website, plus it can be a great learning experience!

To code in html all you need software-wise is a simple piece of software like
notepad, which comes free with windows. You literally just type the code into a new
notepad document, click save, upload it to a webserver and thats it! If you’re
looking for a good html tutorial, check out the NCSA beginner’s guide to HTML.

Steven is part of London Web Designer Cleartide’s team in charge of managing Create A Website and 2Clicks.com - the easiest way to build a website - They specialise in web design, development and strategy.

Want your articles to get picked up and reprinted by top name brand ezine publishers?

While there is no shortage of authors willing to give their articles away for free with hopes of attracting ezine publishers who will pick up your article to send to their list as supplemental content or ‘guest expert’ - there is a gap between two very different types of articles:

Type 1: Those That Get Reprinted
Type 2: Those That Get Passed Over

Article marketing can help you achieve fame, traffic, credibility, sales, referrals and much more, but not if your articles don’t make it into viral distribution.

Here are the top 5 factors that ezine publishers look for when they decide which articles to publish:

1) Does the article have zero self serving links in the article body? If so, good.

Loading up the body of your article with affiliate links or other obvious self-serving links is a liability. Your short-term thinking or scarcity based thinking (that you need to get an immediate return from your article) will keep your article from ever seeing top results.

2) Does the article have no more than 2 self serving links in the resource box? If so, good.

Your resource box at the bottom of your article should be short, sweet, succinct, to the point, and be less than 10% of the total word count of your article. Ezine publishers don’t mind giving you name credit and a link for sharing your article with them, but they don’t want to look like a fool by being required to reprint a short novel about all of your websites and accomplishments.

3) Is the article short (250-700 words)? If so, great.

We live in a ’sound byte’ economy. No one has time to really go deep when it comes to reading email newsletters. It’s proven that the shorter articles achieve a much higher distribution than the longer ones.

4) Does it deliver quality original content with numbered lists, bullet points or easy to glean information that their audience would find valuable? If so, good.

Key point: Make sure your articles are 100% original content. Anything less is really an insult.

5) Is the author well recognized or respected within their market niche. If so, excellent!

Ezine publishers have an ego just like you do. They want to use articles in their email newsletters that make them look good. The more you use your articles to help yourself gain credibility for your unique expertise within your niche, the greater the chances you’ll find your articles getting picked up by your ezine publishing peers.

Hint: You’ll need to write at least 100 or more articles before a top dog takes your credibility seriously. The greater majority of authors think they can put 1-6 articles into distribution and that’s all that they will need to make it big. How erroneous their thinking is… You can quickly separate yourself by putting 100 more articles into distribution before this quarter is over. Yes, it is possible; Yes, it has been done; and Yes, you can do it.

There are many other considerations that ezine publishers look for, such as:

About The Author:

Christopher M. Knight invites you to submit your best articles for massive exposure to the high-traffic http://EzineArticles.com/ directory. When you submit your articles to EzineArticles.com, your articles will be picked up by ezine publishers who will reprint your articles with your content and links in tact giving you traffic surges to help you increase your sales. To submit your article, setup a membership account today: http://EzineArticles.com/submit/

Copyright 2005 - Christopher M. Knight. All Rights Reserved Worldwide. Reprint Rights: You may reprint this article as long as you leave all of the links active, do not edit the article in any way, give author name credit and follow all of the EzineArticles.com posted terms of service for Publishers.

Direct Answers - Column for the week of October 27, 2003

I met my boyfriend on an online dating service four months ago. About a month ago I went to the dating service website to take my profile off. Out of curiosity I looked his up, and it was still there. When I mentioned it to him, he said he would take his profile off because he wanted to be with me.

Now I know I should have trusted him, but something told me to test him. So I created a fake profile with a picture of an attractive woman and e-mailed him as the other woman. When he didn’t respond, I e-mailed again. He still didn’t respond. I realized then he must have canceled his membership, so I looked him up on Instant Messenger and inquired if he was the guy on the dating site.

I told him I was new to the site, thought he was attractive, and maybe we could meet for a drink sometime. When I asked if he was seeing someone, he said he met someone who could be serious and had a lot of potential. I asked again if he wanted to meet, and eventually he said maybe.

That broke my heart. I got my girlfriend to phone him as the other girl. When she got him on the line, he was suspicious but hesitantly agreed to meet her for a drink. At that point I told him I was the girl who didn’t exist. He said he thought it was either me or some kind of prank.

I am not a jealous person by any means, but I wonder if we can get past this.

Eva

Eva, the law does not permit entrapment. Entrapment occurs when the idea for a crime is suggested by the police, the police talk a person into committing the crime, and the person was not previously willing to commit the crime.

Once you realized your boyfriend canceled his membership you should have stopped. He is innocent of any crime, but you have proven you are by nature a jealous person.

Tamara

Favorite Son

My husband’s parents own a dairy farm, and his brother works full-time on the farm and draws a wage. My husband has a very demanding job, yet he is expected to work on the farm each weekend, count cattle in the morning, and does not get paid even for gas.

Our family time is nonexistent. The phone rings and my husband runs. The only time we get together is when I book a holiday. I really think my husband is frightened of his parents. They say his brother needs time with his child, but what about me and our children?

When we go away, my husband is so burnt out he is ill for the first few days of our break. But when we are away, he is like a different person. I’d do anything to save my marriage, but I’m not sure how much more I can take.

Mona

Mona, there is a South American bird with two subspecies, one which builds a nest on the ground and one which nests in a tree. Occasionally a male of one subspecies will get together with a female of the other.

When this happens the birds live in great confusion. One puts nesting material on the ground, while the other continually moves it to the branch of a tree. The two never succeed in building a proper nest and usually this results in a mating failure. Occasionally, however, they do struggle and successfully raise chicks.

Good parents raise their children to be independent and self-sufficient, knowing that love is the bond which will hold their children to them always. Some parents, however, use demands and obligations to tether their children. That is your husband’s problem.

There is no resolution to this problem unless your husband decides he wants to build his nest with you.

Wayne

About The Author

Authors and columnists Wayne and Tamara Mitchell can be reached at www.WayneAndTamara.com.

Send letters to: Direct Answers, PO Box 964, Springfield, MO 65801 or email: DirectAnswers@WayneAndTamara.com.

While many people purchase a wig to change their style or to create a dramatic look for a special night, others wear wig hairpieces on a daily basis to conceal thinning hair or to cover baldness resulting from an illness. But no matter why you choose to wear a wig, there are a few things that you should keep in mind before you purchase one and incorporate wigs into your style.

There are many different types of wigs available and they can range from being inexpensive to extremely expensive. For the most part, the old saying, “you get what you pay for,” is true when it comes to purchasing wig hairpieces. The more you spend, the higher quality wig you’ll get in return. And a higher quality hairpiece means that it will remain beautiful versatile for years to come.

Perhaps the most deciding factor that will help you decide how much to spend on your wig is how you are going to use it. If you are only going to use your wig occasionally for special events, you may be able to get by with an inexpensive wig. But since most inexpensive wigs are made with synthetic hair, it is almost impossible to match them up with your existing hair color or to achieve a truly natural look. Inexpensive wig hairpieces are also not finely wefted. That means that more hair is sewn into one weft of the wig instead of distributed throughout the wig evenly resulting in a baby doll hair look if you’re not careful.

Other things to consider before you go by an inexpensive wig, is how you are going to style the hairpiece. Synthetic hair cannot be colored, permed or curled with thermal tools. So, your styling and change-out options with an inexpensive wig are limited.

All of these drawbacks make the natural-hair wig your best bet especially if you wear a wig on a daily basis. While this hairpiece may be a little more expensive, you can color it, cut it and curl it just like you would your own hair because it is real hair. Wig hairpieces made with natural hair also look more natural in sunlight and under certain lights than do wigs made with synthetic hair strands.

Even natural hair wigs, though, come with a wide variety of prices. The prices vary according to quality and length of the hair used and the craftsmanship of the hairpiece itself. Again, you get what you pay for.

If you plan to wear your wig daily, you should also look for wig hairpieces that are light and finely woven. The wig should allow a good amount of air to circulate through the wig and onto your scalp. This is not only for your own comfort but for the well being of your own hair. Tight and constrictive wigs can cause friction and cut off the blood supply to your scalp resulting in hair loss.

So, before you buy a wig, investigate all of your options carefully. Choosing a good wig now may save you money in the end because you will probably never have to replace it.

Michael Barrows’ website gives great advice for good hair. Get your free ebook packed with hair style and hair care tips and advice, visit the great hair styles website