| Should I Make My Own Web Site?
Should I Make My Own Web Site? by Fred Ost
With the growing popularity and automation of wyswig (what you see is what
you get) web site design software titles, a growing number of small business
and individuals are creating their own web sites. Should you make your own web
site? One school of thought is that you can save yourself some cash by making
your own web site, and saving some cash is always a good thing. The other school
of thought is that in order to make a top quality product equal to what you
provide your customers with on a daily basis you are going to have to invest
some money in some quality software.
You would need to purchase a web site design program like Macromedia's Dreamweaver
and if you plan on embellishing your web site with some of your digital photography
you will need some photo editing software like Adobe Photoshop or Macromedia's
Fireworks. Even if you take fantastic pictures you will still need to optimize
them for fast loading in your customers web browser. An unedited five megapixel
photo takes up about a 19x19 inch screen and if you put two of those puppies
on a web page and your customer does not have broadband internet access they
will be nodding off before your page is viewable. And that equals bye bye visitor.
That bring us to learning about search engines which is a sceince unto itself.
Am I using the right keywords? What are my best keywords? Is my keyword density
right? The questions are almost limitless, definitely one of the toughest parts
of the job.
There are endless tutorials on web site design available online as well as
the tutorials that come with most software packages, so the tools to learn to
make good web sites and edit photos are there for you as well. But wouldn't
you rather be spending your time learning about the industry you have devoted
your life to and making certain every customer that leaves your establishment
leaves with a smile? My answer is you bet I would.
I could easily run down to my kitchen every morning and get out my flour and
eggs and bake myself a loaf of bread so I can have some toast, but since the
bakery does a great job and gives me quality bread at affordable prices, the
baker wins my breakfast order. I've got customers to please! | 
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