I am not qualified in any kind of computer coding or programming, in fact I’m not formerly qualified in anything! The truth is you don’t need to be to run a successful online business. There are plenty of people who are qualified and have the ability to create the website you want (and need to be successful).

However one thing I do recommend is getting to grips with the basics of HTML and CSS. Learning the basics has several big advantages. For example a few lines of CSS and you can instantly change the text across your site; color, size, font; whatever you want you can change it. And these little changes can make your site look better and sometimes fresher.

Learning HTML and CSS basics will also have SEO benefits. With CSS you can reduce the amount of HTML you have on your pages, this moves the main content (text) further up the file which has SEO benefits - and visitors know no different!

With CSS you can also reduce the size of your files because of less reliance on HTML. This helps load pages quicker which improves users experience and it reduces the load on your server potentially saving you money in hosting costs!

There are many websites online which have info on CSS and HTML so you can learn the basics within literally a few hours (you will need a good memory though). Learning these little nuggets of information will save you money in programmers and also have the benefits listed above - a very good use of your time!

Wordpress is brilliant, if you aren’t already using it you should seriously consider it for your next website. Even if you aren’t setting up a blog it works great as a CMS. Not only is it SEO friendly (with the help of plugins) and super easy to use and maintain, but it is also great for the design side!

Many designers create wordpress templates and give them away free, in return you just have to leave a link to their website at the bottom. Great you say, this happens for static websites as well! Very true, but in my experience the wordpress templates are of a much higher quality and there are thousands available.

Installing them is the easiest thing ever! All you do is upload the template to a folder called ‘wp-content’ in your hosting, then login to your members area and activate it - bing - your website instantly has a swish new design! If you want a bespoke design there are plenty of companies/individuals who specialise in wordpress templates. Or if you know CSS and HTML you can create your own masterpiece yourself!

So if you aren’t already using wordpress then download it now and install it on your next website. This blog uses a wordpress template given away for free, not bad hey!

Tinkering with CSS often gets on my nerves, often because I can’t achieve the effect I want to! Trying to sort one tiny little thing out for an hour isn’t fun, and you are left feeling like you haven’t actually achieved anything when you’ve finally sorted the problem out.

Aside from the little moments like this web design is no doubt one of the best bits about webmastering. It allows you to stand out, and make impressive changes to your website within just a few days, or even hours! You can get creative, test different colors, different fonts and different images. You can see what features other webmasters integrate into their design and draw inspiration from it.

The point of this post? Well, a lot of webmastering jobs are boring, repetitive, uninspiring and basically things you don’t want to do. So when your time comes to work on your design make sure you enjoy it! Take your time so you get it spot on as it is a vitally important part of a successful website!

We are putting together a new ‘free image hosting’ service to help expand our existing main website and blog. It will be much the same as other free image hosts although it will be faster loading and have less adverts than most competitors. The script for the service is just being completed now and will be live on our website soon!

I will make an update once the service has been launched, if you want to start using the service right away you should subscribe to our blog feed (square orange button at top of your browser) or add this blog post to your faves and check back in a few weeks.

The web is a busy place, millions of websites all competing for visitors within their niche. Getting visitors to remember your site can be done by promoting RSS feeds and constantly referring to your site as WhateverYourNameIs.com, as well as many other methods. With the web being such a busy place it is important that your design stands out, this in itself can make you memorable.

After first visiting your site, a few months down the line a visitor may not remember your website name/address but may remember the search term they typed into Google to get to your site (it may be saved in their computer). If your site has a boring generic template used by lots of others they may search for your site, find it and think “was this is it? Ill keep looking as im not sure”. If you have a unique and memorable template they will think “yes here it is, great ive found it” and will use your website again instead of a competitors.

The redesign of our main site FreeStockImages.net is now complete, and in the process I decided to compromise purity in order so the site stands out amongst the crowd. The color scheme is ‘red/green/black’, the red and green colors naturally developed because of the header image I had chosen. I don’t think the red titles in each nav are particularly eye pleasing, and the green hyperlinks aren’t the prettiest things either. Overall the design could use different colors and be a lot purer. However the site definitely stands out more as a result, and it still doesn’t look bad (albeit not to everyones taste).

So in conclusion, when designing your website it is important to set high standards regardless of what you are trying to achieve. It is also important to stand out from the crowd, if you have the choice of either;

• The design is perfect, clean and crisp but doesn’t stand out
• It looks good, isn’t perfect but does stand out a lot more then the perfect design

I would go with the second choice everytime, you still have a good design and will have more return visitors mean higher profits for your business.

The main website is now receiving around 15,000 unique visitors a month, and continuing to grow. I also have new features (unique & good quality of course!) to integrate into the site. The problem is the current design! It is a very pretty looking site with the big image of a sunset, but the navigation bar at the top is small and fiddly and now I can’t fit anymore links on it. It also only has one sidebar, ideally for all the content I need two.

So I’m now in the process of completing a new design for the site (screenshot on right of outline). I have plenty of other jobs to be getting on with for my other sites, but I feel this is such an important issue with the site growing and new features potentially letting it grow even quicker.

When I first installed the current design I focused on it looking ‘all pretty and arty’, not thinking what would happen when I came to adding new content and the whole site needing to be more user friendly to accomodate thousands of visitors every week. Now I’m paying for it in time and money, the money lost (IMO) is from potential lost advertising revenue and the visitors not returning like they would with new features/links to bookmark accounts etc.

So when you are coming to do a new site design or improving your current one think of what you will need down the line, and when you need it in the future whether you will have the time or money to find/create a new design!

Im off to finish the new design……….Chris. 

The right images on a website can really help complete a design in style. No matter what the nature or style of your site design there are always plenty of images you can use absolutely free (or though you may have to credit the photographer). On our main site we previously only listed 4 providers of free stock images, now we list 6! You can check them out on our Stock Photo Providers page.