Different browsers will show your site differently so test your code in at least IE6, IE7 and Firefox.

Differently-sized monitors will show your site differently. Decide whether you want a liquid layout or a fixed-width layout or a mix of both: this will depend on how much and what kind of content your site is to have. If it’s fixed-width a good maximum width is 800pixels.

Always test to make sure your html and css code validates 100%.

Stop using Frames, they are obsolescent and generally problematic.

Separate content and style. Content markup (div, h1, h2, p tags etc) goes in the html; all styling information (size, color, background images, fonts, widths, borders etc) goes in the css stylesheet. Don’t use tables for page layout.

The first instruction in your css stylesheet should reset all margins and padding to zero i.e.

* {
margin: 0px;
padding: 0px;
}

Then for h1, h2, p tags etc you can set specific margins/padding instead of the browsers using their own default settings.

Don’t try to control the design too much. For example use % or em to set font sizes, never an exact number of pixels e.g. 14px. That way a partially-sighted user can increase the text size to make your site more readable to them.

You shouldn’t need to instruct visitors which browser or screen resolution to use, not if you’ve got the design right. You only tend to see this on really amateur sites.

I don’t want to enroll in college.

I am looking for a dedicated course toward practical website design that would last a couple of days/weeks.

Long Island, Rockland, or New York City areas will do. Even better would be to show me a website that has listings of these kind of courses.

Here is a website the teach you how to design a webpage http://www.siec.k12.in.us/~west/online/steps.htm

The Katherine Gibbs school offers a program in it at http://gibbs-ny.college-info.org/&key=go-geo&kid=GOG0002100985&text=Free%20Info%20on%20Art%20and%20Design%20Programs%20Starting%20Soon%20in%20NY

As does Kaplan University http://getinfo.kaplan.edu/Microsite_B/is_technology.aspx

and here is a list from Collegesurfing.com http://www.collegesurfing.com/ce/search/results.php

Good Luck!!!

P.S I want to be a graphic designer to, but in automotive and mechanical design.

Problem is I’m not sure if that’s enough… It’s kind of like I’m missing some advance skills. So what kind of skills would an employer expect me to have?

For web design you would need to know CSS AJAX (javascript/xml) HTML and graphic programs. A web designer deals with the UI and client side development.

Now, for a web developer you would need a server side programming language: ASP, PHP, JSP. You would need to know a DBMS, such as MySQL. Javascript.

The most effective way to advertise on the Internet is
to first set up a website and publish its domain name
on major search directories such as Google.com,
Yahoo.com [at http://www.google.com/addurl/?...... and
MSN.com since 85% of Internet shoppers rely on these
search directories to provide them with goods and
services. In a sense, these search directories are a
very large Internet Yellow Pages.

Nevertheless, should your website or opening webpage
fail to contain "generic" keywords, then anyone using
such "generic" queries will not be able to discover
your website. Your domain name [URL] of your website,
in a sense, will be invisible, undiscoverable.

You may want to consider some simple algorithms which,
when observed and committed in designing of a website
with placement of various critical metatags that can
surely achieve a high search engine presence and
increase Internet traffic to your website. These
metatag strategies work well with published webpages
at Google and Yahoo.

Placement of Metatags:

A ranking or search order does take place with Google
and Yahoo and it begins with the "Title" metag which
should consist of no more than 65 characters separated
by commas. The "Title" should describe in generic
terms, the goods and services, followed by a location
from which the resource is located, i.e., city, state.
The placement of a domain name which is not generic
within the "Title" is not appropriate, unless your
domain name is a major recognizable brand name.

The second metatag is the "Description" which is
usually 25-30 words to form a complete sentence which
best describes one’s goods and services.

And the very last category – "Keywords" are also
somewhat limited to 15-16 words which can be plural
and compound in nature. Again, avoid multiple entries
which could be mistaken as "spamdexed entries" which
is defined as the loading, and submission of
repetitive words into a particular metatag category.
"Spamdexing" when discovered on a webpage and reported
to Google’s spamreport.com can result in the
elimination of your website from their search
directory.

Here’s an example of a very highly-placed website on
Google.com: Begin with the very "generic" search query
"sandwiches downtown los angeles," taking note to not
abbreviate Los Angeles to "LA" and of course, leave
out the parentheses ("). It will bring up some 2.4
million+ search results. Check out where "Nazos.net"
is ranked. It’s ranked No. 1!
Again, Nazos.net’s high web presence was achieved by
proper web design and placement of relevant metatags
according to Google’s publication guidelines.

Good luck!

If you sue them..the cost of that event will be monumentally greater than the difference of your other hosting service….times ten. So..thats really not a logical option.

Get your site up and focus on making more money with actual sales, not by penny pinching expenses.

For now I would pay the bill for the next year….and during that time, have your domain ownership registration transferred to you personally. Obtain the website on CD in HTML format and the raw design format (The actual files from whatever design software was used to create the pages)

Until you do those things, they have you by the *alls

Good Luck

When I would present CMS options to clients as a consultant, I would always include in the quote time for training and technical support. It is definitely not a product that just anyone will pick up and master without thinking, it will involve a bit of training. All that said, it is an excellent option to provide a client who wishes to be able to have updates at their fingertips, you should just make sure that they are aware that using this CMS, or any CMS for that matter, does take a bit more expertise than a standard user may have. They won’t have to be a power user by any stretch, but they will need to be a less timid user who isn’t afraid to explore what’s behind all the buttons.

I would also advise providing a good deal of literature and documentation to any client that you offer a CMS set up to.

Anyhow, you don’t want a funeral home’s website too dark or eerie, it has to be light, tranquil and have warm (not bright nor dark) colors. It has to be elegant yet simple.

So look at your business, analyze what you need to draw in people’s attention and use that as a guide, look for website designers for a fair price, they can help!

Thanks

Business websites tend to be very expensive but my sister does an awesome job on them and is very reasonably priced. Send me your email address and I’ll give it to her.

Since you are a newbie, I recommend you start off using a free WYSIWYG Editor like NVU (http://nvudev.com/index.php). Once you learn HTML and CSS, you can still use this editor in Code View mode. Some other good free editors are:
Matrix Y2K 2005 and AceHTML 6 Pro. You can Google for these.

Ron