Getting ready to get a website for your artwork can be a bit of a daunting experience: there seem to be endless choices of designers, templates and words that quite frankly sound familiar, but do not quite make sense. I have gathered basic information in this article to help you make an informed decision about what is right for you.

How websites are made

A basic website is written in a language called HTML. HTML stands for hyper Text Mark-up Language and was first developed by Tim Berners-Lee. The first version was published in 1993. Since then, attempts have been made to have a set of standard rules on how HTML works. These standards are maintained by a group called the World Wide Web Consortium. Unfortunately, these standards are not official!

HTML is a simple way to format a document for use on the World Wide Web, and uses a series of tags that look like this: “b” “/b” Tags will surround text and force it to display in a specific way on your browser. For example, any text that a user wants to appear in bold will be written in HTML with the “b” tag:

text and will look like this in your browser

To reiterate, there are no standards in HTML. Most browsers will use the WWW Consortium standards, but there will be inconsistencies between browsers and a web designer will spend quite a bit of time making sure that a site looks similar across most commonly used browsers (Explorer, Netscape, etc.).

DHTML or Dynamic HTML is a recent version of website creation, and lets the designer make more interactive and interesting website presentations. DHTML uses a combination of Javascript, Cascading Style Sheets and static HTML. What it comes down to, is that DHTML makes websites which are much more attractive, with capabilities such as animated buttons, or slide shows with fade-ins and fade-outs foe example.

Understand that HTML was first intended as a way to format text. Since the popularity of the web has soared, the big challenge has been how to make web pages more attractive to users.

Flash

This is where Flash comes in. Flash, formally a Macromedia program now owned by Adobe, has two basic components that concern an artist:

· one side of Flash is an actual program used to create content

· the other side is a browser plug-in that lets the viewer see the content as a website.

A Flash site is created using a software application, which is decoded in your browser through a Flash Player. What gets created by a designer is essentially a Flash movie, that will play on a browser, but which is also capable of letting the viewer interact with it, as in a navigation bar or buttons.

Flash is a multimedia application, and as such, a designer can create any type of very attractive content for a website, adding sound and animation for example. The biggest challenge for an artist is then which one to choose? HTML or Flash?

Flash vs. HTML

The choices, unfortunately, are not very simple. There are pros and cons to both types of websites, and fortunately, you are not limited to one or the other but can use a combination of both to get the best site for your portfolio.

Let’s run first through the advantages of Flash:

· Consistency: remember how I said there are basically no standards in HTML? Flash takes care of that. Provided the user has a Flash Player, a website will look the same no matter what computer or browser it is being viewed on.

· Attractive: Flash can make presentations that are far more attractive than HTML

And of course there are disadvantages:

· Difficult to learn and create: there is a huge learning curve to flash so if you ever want to take control of your site and do simple changes, you will spend quite a bit of time figuring out how to make those simple changes.

· Size: if done incorrectly, a flash site can become quite bloated and your viewer might get bored and move on before the site has finished loading. Know who your audience is, and if they are likely to have a fast internet connection. Mostly make sure you tell your designer to keep the file sizes down.

· Plug-in: your viewer will absolutely need a plug-in on their browser to see your site: ask yourself if your audience is at the cutting edge of technology and is likely to have the required plug-in installed on their machine. Some people (I am one of them) will get irked if they have to download yet another plug-in just to see your site.

· Search engines have difficulties indexing flash-only sites. Most designers will recommend that your site has a point of entry in HTML, and a flash component within.

As you may have guessed, I am a big proponent of HTML, for the following reasons:

· HTML is easy to use and maintain: if you ever have the time to do your own update, you do not need to hire an expensive designer to make simple changes to your site.

· HTML is fast to load so most of your users will not have any problems seeing your site.

· HTML is search-engine friendly (to most extent… there are designer abuses there too!).

To be fair, there are disadvantages to HTML, some of which I have stated earlier:

· There are no official standards to HTML, and users will notice minor differences between browsers

· HTML has fewer design capabilities, though most of them can be worked around with Javascripts and CSS

· Your web designer also has to be aware of how a search engine works to optimize your chances of being indexed no matter what is being used Flash or HTML

Putting it together

At this point, you have several choices to get a website:

· Hire a designer

· Purchase a template

· Do it yourself in HTML and/or Flash

I hopefully have clarified some of the issues, although of course more information means more headaches when it comes to deciding which way to go. Currently, your choices are to have a site completely custom made, buying a template from the myriads of suppliers out there or doing it yourself.

A custom site can be exciting, but be aware that you will need a much bigger budget. Typically designers charge anywhere from $50 to $100 an hour. Take into consideration the design aspect as well as the coding aspect of getting your site done. The more prepared you are, the less time the designer will spend in coming up with ideas. Get as many samples of sites that you like and be very clear in how you want the site to be laid out: think about how the user will navigate your site, how they will find information. Give your designer a flow chart, even if it’s a pen and paper presentation.

Ask your designer how they code the pages to make sure that your site will be more friendly to search engine and easy to view/download. If you are going with a Flash site, make sure you understand about file size and download concerns. Again, make sure your designer knows if you are concerned about being search engine friendly and consider having an entry page that is text only.

Templates can be a great money saver. There are many sites selling very good templates. Be sure you understand what you are getting: a friend of mine bought a template and basically got all the code for the site, which was incomprehensible to her. She spent many months deciphering the instructions, and she still doesn’t have a website. Be aware of what type of site you are getting: many do-it-yourself templates are flash-based, which can be very easy for you to do but tend to become giant files that don’t download very fast, or tend to be impossible to change or simply inflexible.

Finally, you can choose to do it yourself. If money is a concern, and you have time to learn HTML, you can make a good website within one to two weeks. Check your local library for any books on HTML explaining how tags work and see if it’s a project that you can tackle yourself.

Your web site has been up for a few months and you are making money hand over foot. While surfing sites one evening, you are shocked to find a competitor using your design. You find out your designer sold them the same design. They must be breaking the law, right? It all depends on whether you own the copyright to your web site design. Many site owners are shocked to find out they do not.

What is Copyright?

Copyright is a method of protection for authors of original works such as literature, computer programs, music, artistic pieces and photographic images. The protection provided by copyright arises under Title 17 of the United States Code. A copyright gives the owner the exclusive right to do or authorize others to: reproduce, prepare derivative works, distribute copies, publicly display and generally use the material that carries the copyright in exchange for something, typically a royalty or fee. The copyright owner often grants this use through a license agreement, but can sell it outright.

Who Can Claim Copyright?

Copyright protection is created IMMEDIATELY upon the creation of a fixed form of the material in question and granted to the person that created the material. For instance, I automatically own the copyright to this article upon completing it. I am not required to file for an official copyright with the US Copyright Office to prove that I am the owner of the content. However, if I want to sue a person for using my article without permission, I must first register it.

What If I Hire Someone To Create A Web Site For Me?

If you hire a person or company to handle the design of your site, the complexities of copyright become a major issue for you. Specifically, the issue of “work for hire” is critical in determining whether you own the design.

“Work for hire” refers to the relationship between your business and the person creating your web site. If this person is an employee of your business and creates the material within their scope of employment, then your business owns the copyright. However, what happens when the designer is not an employee? In such a situation, the following must occur for the copyright to automatically transfer to you. The work must be specially ordered or commissioned for use as:

1. A contribution to a collective work,

2. A part of a motion picture or other audiovisual work,

3. A translation,

4. A supplementary work,

5. A compilation,

6. An instructional text,

7. A test,

8. Answer material for a test, or

9. An atlas.

It is my opinion that the design of a web site does not fall into any of the above categories. As a result, you do not own the copyright to the design and can do nothing about the fact that one of your competitors is using the design. Obviously, this is not the answer that most site owners want to hear. So, what can you do to protect your business?

When you hire an outside party to design, alter, amend or improve your site, you must have them sign a written contract. The contract must include a clause clearly establishing that the copyright to the material produced is vested with you, not the designer. You should then file the contract with your important documents as some designers “forget” that assigned the copyright to you. Presenting a copy of the contract and noting that it allows for the recovery of attorney’s fees usually solves the problem.

The issue of copyright ownership of a web site or aspect of a site pops up often. Finding your design being used on another domain is bad enough, but it can get worse. If you sell your business, the attorney for the party purchasing your business will always ask about the copyright of the site as part of the due diligence process. More than a few business deals have fallen apart when the lack of copyright ownership is discovered. Obtaining copyright at the outset of your business effort will avoid serious problems in the future.

Before doing anything on the technical side, you need some kind of basic idea to work with. I suggest first getting some paper and a pencil. Start by sketching a layout of how you would like your web page to appear. For example, a simple title at the top, the area in which you would like any content, pictures and so on. Now its time to do some programing!

Don’t let the word programing scare you. Anyone can learn and there are several sites that offer free tutorials. One such site is http://www.w3schools.com/html/default.asp. Although it is not necessary to be a top notch programmer to build and operate your web site, you should learn the basics of html. I recommend that you thoroughly learn about tables. They are widely used and with them, you can create a professional looking layout (even as a beginner).

You can use any basic text editor, like notepad, to write, edit, and save your code (html). When saving your work for the first time, choose Text Document for type of file, then save with the extension htm (for example index.htm). Your home page (the first page people usually see) is normally saved as index.htm. To see how your page looks, double click on the file and it should automatically open up in your browser.

Now that you’ve got your web page ready to go, it’s time to find a host (a place for your web page to live). Since this is your first site, I suggest you use Free Web Hosting. Some host will put advertising, such as a banner, on your site as the cost of free hosting. Others will only charge you to register your Domain Name (www.YourSite.com). Be careful not to accidentally sign up for extras such as url protection, spam control, etc. (unless you feel you need them) as they will add to your cost. These sites will have a limit on bandwidth (how much data that can be transmitted per month), email accounts, and maybe a few other things, but are still great for first timers. If later on you feel you need more, then you usually can upgrade. To find a host, just use any search engine and the keyword phrase Free Web Hosting.

Ok! You’ve sketched a layout for your web page, learned some basic html, coded your web page, found your host with the most (couldn’t resist), and registered your URL (www.YourSite.com). Now it’s time to upload (transfer) your file (web page ) to your host. To do this you need a FTP program. FTP stands for File Transfer Protocol. When using this application, there are usually two windows. The left window shows your computer files, and the right window shows the files stored on your host. For a good tutorial and to download a freeware FTP program, FTP Commander, go to http://www.nexcess.net/hosting/support/tutorials/ftp/ftpcommindex.php.

Now you should be up and running. But don’t stop there. Continue to teak, add pages, learn to link to other pages and sites, and frequently add new content. Who knows, you could eventually learn to profit from your creation.

A way to get your web design looking attractive is to use CSS to style the tags in your HTML. For example, you can use web design solutions like CSS to make all the links on the page bold or all the sub-headings in a different colour. As well as adding colour to text, CSS can add background images to HTML tags. For instance, by adding background images to the <div> tags, a basic HTML page can become one which has a modern web design.

Because web pages are split up into tags, you need to cut specific parts of your web design layouts into separate images. Then, you can attach each image to an HTML tag. Of course, to cut your design, you can use professional web design programs such as Photoshop or Paint Shop Pro. There are several ways to do it. You can out the images yourself by selecting an area of your design and then copy it and paste it in a new image. Alternatively, you can use Image Ready, another web design tool that comes with Photoshop, which is effective for cutting up images for websites.

Once you have completed your web design and cut it up into a series of images, you are ready to start building the website. The easiest way to build the web design is to use a visual web authoring program such as Dreamweaver or Microsoft Expression Web which creates the HTM automatically for you. You may simply edit the page as you would with a Word Document. However, unlike Word, it is not a good idea to pick a copy of a web design tool and start creating pages without any skill. Visual web authoring programs have a habit of producing very poor quality HTML code unless you use them correctly. If you just dive and start with a web design process, you’ll probably create one that is slow and inaccessible. Such a web design can affect your overall performance by struggling to do well in search engines.

Therefore, it is vital that you know how to properly handle your web design program in order to produce a website that uses web standards. At first, coding the HTML for your website from scratch, without the help of a web design program sounds very hard. Actually, learning to code HTML and CSS may not be that hard if you are prepared to put in some effort and time. Web design tools such as Microsoft FrontPage can really make things a lot simpler, by colour-coding your HTML to warn you when you make mistakes.

Using a visual web authoring program is fine while you are starting out. But if you are serious about web design, then there could be no best way than hand coding your pages. Hand-coding will give you a better understanding of how codes work in web design and also let you know about your mistakes. Through time, with better understanding of codes, you could create a better web design. If ever things are not working properly in your web design, you could scan lines of codes visually and spot out mistakes easily.