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Here’s the good news … we all start out as dummies, no matter what endeavor we pursue. So web site design for dummies is simply web page design for folks who haven’t done much of it yet and are trying to learn. Welcome! We’ve all been there.

Okay, let’s get started with some basics. You want a web page that’s functional and attractive, right? By functional, I mean you have a goal in mind for that page. You want your visitor to read the content or opt-in to your list or purchase an affiliate program. Something. And by attractive, I mean clean and simple and pleasing to the eye.

I hope we’re on the same page so far.

There are two foundational elements to a web page. One is color, the other is structure.

The role of color on your website is to complement your theme (your niche topic) and to work well with the other colors. I found this particularly difficult starting out because I’m color blind and often created pages that weren’t what I thought they were (for example, I developed a website in the horror genre and used pink throughout the pages thinking it was gray). Fortunately, you don’t have to be a color expert to pick the right colors for your site. I use a free online tool called Color Scheme Generator that shows you four complementary colors covering the spectrum of the rainbow and more. It also provides you with the color code. This is an excellent starting point for your web page design.

Structure isn’t as intimidating as it sounds, but I would suggest that you sit down with a pen and paper and play around with ideas before you jump into your website design. You’ll want to include a header graphic that reflects the theme of the site, a footer that does the same, a content area, and a navigation bar. These are the very basics.

The placement of these elements on a page is most often done using tables. CSS (cascading style sheets) is moving away from the table model, but since we’re addresing web page design for dummies, it’s probably easier and quicker to use tables. Tables are built using cells. Cells are built using columns and rows. So in a very basic structure, you might have a table with three rows and two columns. In the first row (across the top) you would insert your header graphic. In the second row, which might be divided into two columns (one around 80% and the other around 20% of the total table width), might hold your content and your navigation bar. The third row (across the bottom) is where you’d include your footer.

This is a very basic design, but it’s also effective. If you want to add various elements to your web page, you can add more columns or rows, whatever is appropriate. This is why you want to first plan everything out on a piece of a paper where you can move the page elements around until you find the structure that works best.

Don’t let the idea of building a website intimidate you. Let it be an adventure. You can’t really screw it up. If something doesn’t work, simply change it.

How would you like to discover a simple and straightforward software program that takes all the frustrating coding out of the process and let’s you concentrate on the fun part of building a website - the design? Learn all about web site design for dummies software here: .