At long last My website www.mjo-art.com is up and running. Creating a web site from scratch is not always as simple as it sounds and at times this has seemed to be a mammoth task that I have often wished that I had not started in the first place. But I am so glad that I persevered. I have gained so much more than I could have believed possible. So why did I develop this web site? I was completely computer illiterate and a techno-phobic on top of that Dyslexia has over the years given my confidence a good bashing or that's what I told myself. However as an Artist I needed a platform to promote my self and my work, so despite my fears I decided to bite the bullet and just get on and do it. After all of this hard work I'm greatly delighted with the result and I'm sure if you visit my website you will feel the same.
To create my website from scratch I had to do a good deal of research. One of the questions I asked myself was what is a website?. Another question I asked myself was How do they work?. From this began a long journey of exploration about the internet. First you should decide what you want your website to do and draw a simple diagram with all the links from your home page to all the other pages in your site. Once you have chosen the programme you wish to use of which their are many available like Microsoft office, Dreamweaver or Serif web plus. Try them out and make sure you are comfortable with them. I had buy one I was comfortable with. Decide on a theme its important to have the same style throughout with the navigation in the same place on all your pages. You can then start fleshing out you pages, don't be afraid to chop and change things or even start all over again and try and see it from a visitors point of view point. Try and use the same common easy to read type face throughout with a font size of 12 or more if possible and use high contrasts as this will make it easier to read.
So what makes a good web site? Well its content, a few pictures, short snappy paragraphs with catchy titles. Good copy is essential, all of this will get and keep your visitors interest, not only do the search engines like it, so do visitors and if you get it right they will keep coming back time after time. One way to test this is to get as many people as possible, friends and family to explore your web pages and listen carefully. On one occasion I got some friends to look at my site and pretended to be busy with something else while I listened to what they said about my site.
Finally there is Hosting and domain names. As for your domain names, do you want Dot.com, Dot.org or Dot.co.uk, also It is best to get them sorted out early on and think about other ways to spell them too, as you might need to own more than one. We all make mistakes and that's the one I made, Ah well. Hosting for me was the real challenge. Don't just go for a cheep hosting, you get what you pay for in all things and hosting is no different. Try and find out as much as you can about them first, do they have an office, are they on the phone, what sort of customers and services do they offer and send an email to test how good they are at responding to there customers. I was stunned at how few even sent an automated message let alone a response to my enquiries, (only one). Don't they need my custom? In the end my perseverance paid off and I finally found a hosting company I am happy with and I can contact them.
I have realized the web is a lot like painting it requires all the things that make art so interesting. Colour texture, stories, shape and form to list but a few, but unlike painting the web is a constantly evolving creation that the internet is and your views will greatly enhance and develop my website. Please feel free to take a look at my web site www.mjo-art.com and let me know what you think as I would be very interested in your opinions.
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