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Building a website is not necessarily a difficult task, but it does require some amount of expertise and experience. The actual techniques and technologies of building a website are beyond the scope of this article, but here are some tips to help get you started:

Do it yourself
If you are somewhat computer savvy, you should have no problem finding the tools and learning the basics of website design. You only need a few simple tools to get started; Photoshop or another graphics program for creating graphics and buttons, an html editor like Dreamweaver or Frontpage for laying everything out (or a text editor like UltraEdit if you know HTML), and an FTP program to upload everything to your site.

If you are interested in building your own website, there are many great HTML and CSS resources on the web:
- A List Apart
- Webmonkey
- css Zen Garden

Hire someone
If you are not up to building a website yourself, hire someone to do it for you. Website design is inexpensive if you find someone local or use a freelance service like Elance. If you have Photoshop, spend some time putting together a sample website design following the guidelines in the website design article.

Before you hire someone, look carefully at their previous work. Have them provide links to websites they have built. That is the best way to know how they will build your website. When you have found someone, agree on a price and write out a short statement of work that lists everything was agreed upon, as well as a deadline. Be specific and write everything down. Be wary about paying the full amount up front. It is general practice to pay no more than 50% up front. The balance should be paid only when the site is finished and uploaded to your server. If they demand full payment upfront, find someone else to build your website. Make sure you get to keep all assets and source files used to create your site. If you ever need to change a graphic or button, you will have what you need.

General Tips
- Go easy on the graphics. A good rule of thumb is: Don’t use a graphic where you can use plain text instead.
- Go easy on Flash and other multimedia that requires plugins. Build for maximum compatibility.
- Don’t use frames
- Keep your image file sizes reasonable. Not everyone has a broadband connection yet.
- Be careful when using free scripts (contact forms, forums, etc). Change the default passwords and keep them updated with latest version.
- Be creative!