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There's a widely-held misconception about what it takes to create a website, even accounting for differences across class, gender and educational levels. It is generally thought that a degree in computer design or programming is necessary for web design, or, at least a lot of hands-on experience with computers. Having done web design and coding for eight years for many clients with widely-differring needs, I know that the opposite is true. Designing and creating a website is not only enjoyable but is not as difficult as the general public seems to think.

If you have a design in mind before you begin to create a web site, it can really help to speed the process along. Although not essential, especially for a very basic site, graphic software can be helpful. However, if you don't have the software available, there are numerous free sites that will help you to do something as basic as resizing an image, or more advanced, such as animating your graphics or changing a color photo to black and white.

There are various services offered in the Internet for hosting a web both for free of charge and for fees when you create a website. If you are creating a website for the first time, it may be more valuable for you to use a free hosting at the beginning as you become skilled at producing improved sites. The advantage in using free hosting services is that a lot of of them also present free HTML editors.

The best HTML editors for those who are entirely new to designing websites are the WYSIWYG editors. This is short for "What You See Is What You Get," which means that you can lay out any of the elements for your pages onto the screen and see what it will actually look once published in real time. This is more convenient than straight coding the site by hand in a .txt file for beginners that aren't familiar with the terminology.

As your skill with both coding and website design increase, you may think about changing to software other than the free WYSIWYG editor to build your sites. There are some editors available that combine WYSIWYG with viewing of the code that you use to create your website. As you gain competence in more complex levels of coding, these types can be more efficient than your standard WYSIWYG editor.

In any way, learning to create a website can be a fun and at the same time demanding activity. As you become more expert in doing it, you can eventually grow even bigger as to offer your very own design skills on the market for sale for others wishing to learn to create sites. That's exactly how I started with web design back when I was in school, and today it serves as the sole mean of earning my living. It may demand your persistence and research, however, after some time, it will become a fun skill that anyone can learn to do.

As someone who has done web design and web coding for the last 8 years for a wide variety of clients, I have come across a wide variety of clientele who have the assumption that to create a website, one must have a degree in design or programming and far more experience than they have or hope to possess. Quite the opposite is actually true, and creating a website can not only be fun, but much easier than you think. When you create a web site, the best way to begin is by having your design concept in mind.