WebDesignQuest.com

The first thing that you should establish when in the beginning stages of building your webpage is to consider what the purpose(s) of your website may be. There are a lot of different types of designs that your website can be referred to as. You are probably thinking to yourself, what types of designs are out there, and what type of design do I want my website to be? This is a difficult decision because there are so many different kinds of sites that can be built. Some webpage’s that are out there in cyberspace are e-commerce, general (a.k.a. brochure) web design, and membership/ social networking / dating sites.

An e-commerce site is a site that allows consumers to pay for your products online with a credit card. Some examples of e-commerce sites could be Sears.com, Khols.com, or e-bay.com these sites let you shop online at your convenience. You could be shopping on a site for clothing, tools, or electronics whatever you believe you need. Once you find what you are looking for you can put the products in a “shopping cart”. Finally when you are ready to “check out” you pay for these products with your credit card. The shopping cart and credit card processing makes this web site an e-commerce web site.

If you are not looking to sell your products over the internet, another option that you can explore is a general (brochure) web design.  These web sites are good for getting your name out there, advertising and letting people know who you are. This site could be a simple 5 page site with information on who you are, what you do, and where you can provide your service/ products. These sites are a good idea not only for advertising reasons, but also because the 20^th century revolves around getting information online.  People now days do not pick up the phone book to look for services, because they can just go to yellowbook.com to find the services easily. They can also use search engines on the internet to find the product or service that they are looking for. If you do not have a web page, people might just be “passing you by” while looking for the services/products that you can provide.

Finally, your site can be a membership/ social networking / dating site. These are sites that can be for gaming, finding romance, or just entertainment purposes (myspace.com).  These types of sites can also be e-commerce, requiring membership login for a price or they can be a free membership. Usually most of the membership/social networking sites are profitable by advertising revenue, while dating sites can be profitable by membership fees.

Welcome to Web Design Quest. The goal of this blog is to help individuals and companies decide the best way to build, outsource and market their website. Many have a hard time with the initial starting point and they don’t know how to approach the first few steps of building their web site.   Often website jargon intimidates people, making it seem harder than it really might be. But I can lend a hand to help understand what you may need to know to start. As well as what types of questions individuals may possibly want to ask to better understand how web designing/designers can help.

Topics that I will be blogging about will include:

• What is web hosting and how do I choose a host.
• How search engine optimization will make your website more profitable
• Should I design or hire a designer
• How graphics effect the site
• What is usability and how to improve it
• Web site programming options

All of these topics and more will be exposed by me in next to no time. Please come back to read further about how a web site can be rewarding for you.