Where do I start – Ok, let me say If you are anything like I was when I first started to look around at the possibilities of building my own website, I found it a bit daunting. So hopefully within the next few paragraphs I hope to pass on some thoughts and tips for any fellow newbie wannabe web builders. What I came across is there seems to be two real ways of web site construction – the WYSIWYG way and the Coded way.

Let me expand a little. The WysiWyg way, this is when you use a piece of software that allows you to drag and drop shapes, pictures, format and insert text into a work area. This type of software is aimed at the individual who has no coding experience and wants instant results in a matter of minutes, or hours depending on the depth of your creation.

The Code way. As it says, knowledge of HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language) and CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) is required in order to build your site.

Now - I hear you say which is the best? This is where each camp has its followers, and reasons for believing they are the best. Now it’s not for me to advocate one over the other, just provide you with some knowledge of what I have come across. What I can tell you is this, it is a very heated argument.

Yes I know that doesn’t help you. All I can say is this, if you are like me and have the inclination to learn a new skill and want the coded experience then go code. I am not a pro- coder by any means but I did find it both fun and a real feeling of building something from the ground up; else if you want the whole design graphics arty farty feel thing go Wysiwyg – but I will say this though the common theme is that most designers / builders seem to use a combination of both.

So where do you go from here? Well frankly that depends which route you wish to embark upon Wysiswig or Coded, but I do believe this - if your going to learn this craft, at some point I do think you will need to know what the code is all about and how it is utilised, so you might as well start now at the beginning.

I have tried a few Wysiwig platforms and they are good, but for me the code is the real deal. To do this you will need a good source of reference to get you started.

For learning HTML & CSS I highly recommend a book by Sitepoint “Build Your Own Web Site The Right Way Using HTML & CSS”. I have this and found it to be brilliant. Remember I have no coding experience, and within a day I hade created a sample site as per the exercise / project in the book – learnt some code and how it is used. Really is great stuff. It teaches you the correct way to code and not the lazy way (incorrect way), oh and when you register your book with Sitepoint they currently give you a $10 voucher. Nice eh!

This book will take a complete beginner with no knowledge and give you the basic tools to start you on your way. You will not need any fancy software either, not unless you want to of course. All you need is Notepad to start – seriously that’s it.

For a copy of the book it can be purchased from Amazon See the Link below.

For you Wysiwigers to be, try these couple of sites, Bluevoda.com, and Coffecup.com, the later does however allow you to try before you buy on a lot of their products through Free Trial Periods.

Ok that’s about it, hope you have found something useful in this article - “Rate it – Slate it, you decide”