Today, anyone can build a website on a blog or web host, a design program, such as Dreamweaver; or with HTML and CSS on a text editor.  Hosts, such as www.wix.com and www.wordpress.com offer free as well as paid services that will enable you to craft a web presence in a few minutes to a few hours.  

Site builders, provided by web hosts are tools for creating websites.  They are intuitive to use, require little or no programming knowledge, and make fashioning a site no more difficult than crafting a profile on Facebook.  You simply choose a template, upload images and text, then use the tools to insert, size, and space the contents.  I found that through reading the provider’s instructions and trying out the site builders, that I was able to build a site in a few hours to a few days.  Wix, in particular, offers attractive and inspirational templates and is adding new features all of the time.

Choose a Host That’s Right for You

For a few dollars a month, web providers will give you a domain name, free email, enhanced bandwidth and storage, and an assortment of additional features, such as the ability to change the HTML and CSS code to customize your site.

If you are new to creating web sites, search for a provider that presents a site builder”, one-click installation, reliability, and outstanding customer service and technical support www.webhostingbest10.com.   Be sure to read customer reviews of hosts you are considering.

When building your website, make it attractive, interesting, and well balanced with a selection of colorful pictures.  Provide easy-to-see and use buttons, internal links, and hyperlinks.

Visitors usually scan websites for information and links they want.  Thus brevity and simple, easy to read text will keep the reader’s attention and avoid bouncing them to other sites and blogs.  

There are three types of web hosting services: 

Shared Hosting – is for personal or small business use.  The host partitions its servers and shares the space between many customers.  These providers, such as Wix, offer site builders and conveniences that make creating and maintaining a site effortless.  

VPS Hosting – is designed for small to medium sized businesses.  It is similar to shared hosting; however, the host has less web sites per serve, which means more space per site.  The host requires that its customers provide most of their own services.

Dedicated Hosting – is for large companies with extensive traffic.  The customer pays to use a devoted server for their website alone.   

It’s easy to assemble a site using Dreamweaver, a web designing program.  It makes building web pages as simple as writing in Microsoft Word.  Advance designers, conversely, write their own code line-by-line with HTML, CSS, Java Script, and Flash.  Many add blocks of code, already written or extracted from a source such as W3 Schools, to save time.  Large companies usually hire professionals to assemble and maintain their sites, write blogs, and respond to visitor input. 

Creating a Website with HTML and CSS

HTML and CSS are the programming languages of the web.  They tell browsers what pages to create and how to display them on computers, tablets, smart phones and handicapped assisted devices.  

HTML is used to produce the structure of web pages and sites.  It can create, for example, headings, paragraphs of text, sidebars, and add pictures, graphics, lists, and links.  CSS tells browsers how to display the HTML, and is linked to it.  

JavaScript is used along with HTML to build interactive features, such as asking for customer feedback, and for adding pictures, graphics, sound; and video.  Flash, another web programming language, can produce animation, rich media, and desktop, mobile, and tablet apps. 

If you plan on building websites using coding, it is recommended that you learn
 HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and Flash.  Numerous websites are available which offer 
free blocks of code that make getting started and building a site go much faster.
www.w3schools.com is one of the most comprehensive.  It furnishes HTML, CSS,
and JavaScript tutorials, and free prewritten options for each program.  It
will even give you free templates and a “web designer” package, similar to
Dreamweaver. 

Writing HTML

HTML consists of pairs of tags that appear inside of angle brackets.  Each pair of tags tells browsers what component to build.  This tag, <h1> How to Write a Blog</h1> tells the browser to create a large title.  Closing tags include a slash: </ h1>.  Here is an example of some simple HTML code that begins a web page:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<title>Buying Health Food in Europe</title>
<body>
<h1>Take Your Health on the Road to Europe</h1>
<p> This year why not travel healthy? Most major European cities boast modern gymnasiums, that offer day usage to tourists, and reasonably priced health food stores and restaurants.  From London to Paris to Athens to Eastern European you’ll find a selection of shops that display healthy snacks and organic grains, fruits, vegetables, fruit juices, and soy products. 
</p>
</body>
</html> 

HTML value tags can be added to an attributes.  In the following example, the <h1> heading is made bold with the <b> and </b> tags. 
<h1> <b> Traveling in Europe on a Shoestring </b> </h1>.

Adding CSS to HTML

After the HTML is written, CSS is added to create the style or presentation for the site.  Although the HTML will always appear the same in any bowser window, CSS can be written to give specific HTML an almost infinite number of different appearances www.csszengarden.com.

CSS consists of a selector, such as h1, that tells the browser what to change; a declaration which describes what attribute the CSS will affected, such as color, and a value”, such as blue, that the selector will be assigned.

h1 {
font-family: arial;}

The attribute is font-family and the value is arial.

The declaration is enclosed in {   } brackets that look like tiny bows.  The attribute is followed with a colon and the value is followed with a semi-colon.

Several HTML tags are available that identifying specific selectors which enable them to be identified for CSS, JavaScript, and Flash.  These include id tags, style tags, and class tags, which can identify categories of elements, such as all <h1> and <h2> headings.   In the following example the id tag identifies one component of HTML:
<p id=”pullquote”> Brevity and sophisticated ideas often require that short sentences be combined to form complicated ones <p>

CSS can be added to HTML in three ways:

 1.	With an external style sheet that is connected to the html with a link in the <head> that affects the entire website.

 2.	With internal styling that appears in the <head> that does not include a link and applies to the specific web page. 

 3.	With in-line styling that only marks the HTML item it is listed with.  In-line CSS styling is used primarily in HTML4 and earlier versions of the software. 
 
Web designers prefer CSS external style sheets because the coding is consistent throughout the entire website and can be updated with only one change.  It also keeps the HTML clean and makes it easier to read.  External style sheets are written in the following way:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html> 
<head>
<title> Biking Across Europe </title>
<link href=””css/styles.css”
Type=”text/css”
Rel=”style sheet”/> 
</head>
</html> 

Internal styling applies to a single web page.  It is written like this:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html> 
<head>
<title> Trekking in the Himalayan Mountains </title>
<style type=”text/css”>
Body {
Font-family:arial;
Background color: rgb (185,179,175);}
</style>
</head>
</html> 

Publishing Your Web Page on the Internet

Once you’ve designed your website, be sure to test it on the popular web browsers to make sure all its features, links, and buttons are working.  
Check it for ease of use, design, and readability.  Ask friends or fellow workers to review your site.  You can find tools for testing it on a variety of browsers and mobile devices at http://www.practicalecommerce.com/19-Tools-to-Test-your-Site-for-Mobile-Devices

When you’ve found an internet service provider (ISP), send your website to it using File Transfer Protocol (FTP). Ask your host’s customer service how to do this. You will usually be given a free copy of FTP software.   

Whether you are a beginner or a professional web designer, you can choose a web host, price, and designing venue that will make building a website fun and easy.