Dreamweaver Video Tutorial of the week #4

To start this week there is another dreamweaver video tutorial for you to enjoy. This one focuses more on the HTML side of dreamweaver, but users with basic skills (like me) will still be able to follow this one. It is important to remember that a well coded page should be the top priority when making a web site.

Choosing a web designer and developer

At the moment I am having my first commercial website designed and developed and many people have been asking me "how do you choose one out of the thousands of companies." These are my few tips for this daunting process

1. Firstly look at their own site:

• Does it look good?
• Is it easy to navigate?
• Do all the pages work?
• Does it work on all the popular browsers
  

2. Make sure they have a portfolio of pages they have designed. You can always email the webmasters of the sites in their portfolio and ask them if they were happy with the designer/developer.

3. If you are also getting them to do your search engine optimization then make sure they rank highly for their name and other popular keywords.

4. It is much easier to have one person to do all the work on the website, but remember that not all designers are good developers and vice versa so it might be worth using one of each.

5. Get a free quote on the website you want done. If they wont give a quote then move on to another company. Make sure they are friendly and will answer all your questions and emails quickly. Remember that cheap isn't always good - a professional web site that makes thousands a year can cost a mini fortune, but it is a once off cost! If the website is a hobby or simply fun then don't spend too much!

6. Give the designer and developer a really good idea of what you want. Some simple drawings of what you want your page to look like and where all the content goes is a really good idea.

I hope these few little tips help you! Good Luck!

Dreamweaver video tutorial of the week #3

Button Rollovers
This is the third video tutorial in this series and is well worth watching if you are trying to develop and your own website. This will help you create button rollovers, where the image changes when you hover your mouse over it. Enjoy!

Webmaster Tip - Dreamweaver video tutorial of the week #2

This is the second video tutorial in this series and well worth watching if you are trying to design your own website. Yes the guys voice is annoying and he explains things very slowly, but there is some really good advice and tips here to be worth the 17 minutes (hell I watched it and I don't even use dreamweaver).
This video focuses on creating hyperlinks and simple menu bars. Enjoy

Websites - building one yourself or paying to have one built?

Currently I am thinking of having my first commercial website built and this question has been running around in my head. I am considering forking over a large amount of money for something I do not know will make me anything back. I have a decent amount of IT knowledge (I even run a tech tips blog), and have even built some small and crappy websites before, but lets look at the pros and cons of each. (I am assuming little or no coding knowledge)

Build it yourself

Pros

• Cheap
• You can design it exactly how you want

Cons

• It might look cheap or not work very well
• It might take you a lot longer than expected

Pay someone to do it

Pros

• It should look professional and work well
• It should be done fairly quickly
• Designers can often provide a domain name and hosting saving you the hassle
  

Cons

• Expensive
• The web designer / developer might not understand exactly what you want

My opinion
If the website is primarily designed to make money then you should probably spend some money to make it as professional as possible. If it is a personal site or just a hobby then have a go at building it yourself - it can't hurt!

Webmaster Tip - Dreamweaver video tutorial of the week

Without a doubt dreamweaver has helped spawn hundreds of websites many built with the WYSIWYG editor. The program is the best in its class and has helped thousands of computer code illiterates to build some very fine (and not so fine) pages. This video tutorial will help you start to gain a basic understanding of building a website with dreamweaver. It is filled with great tips and is a recommended watch for anyone learning dreamweaver or wanting to make their own website.

Please leave a comment if this was useful or if you would like to see more of these video tips. (commenting is open to everyone).

I am planning on starting a video tutorial of the week post so check back later for more video tutorials. You might also want to subscribe to this blog to get the fresh content first!