Your Website Design Is Very Important

Your website is the hub of your online business; it is the virtual representation of your company whether your company exists physically or not. When you are doing business online, people cannot see you physically like how they could if they were dealing with an offline company. Hence, people do judge you by your covers. This is where a good design comes in.

Imagine if you are running an offline company. Would you allow your salespersons to be dressed in shabby or casual clothes when they are dealing with your customers? By making your staff wear professionally, you are telling your customers that you do care about quality. This works simply because first impressions matter.

Similarly, the same case is with your website. If your website is put together shabbily and looks like a 5 minute "quick fix", you are literally shouting to your visitors that you are not professional and you do not care for quality.

On the opposite, if you have a totally professional looking website layout, you are giving your visitors the perception that you have given meticulous attention to every detail and you care about professionalism. You are organised, focused and you really mean business.

On the other hand, you should also have anything related to your company well designed. From business cards to letterheads to promotional brochures, every little bit matters. This is because as you grow your business, these items become the face of your business. Once again, think of the "salesperson dressed shabbily" anology, and you will get my point.

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How to Choose the Right Online Web Design Course

A skillful web designer can lead to becoming a successful career if one ever decide to go further with their skills. Another option for becoming a professional web designer is building site for client, such as big company or even small business. You can also become a freelancer and provide your skills via the web, there are tons of people looking for web designers that knows the in and outs of web designing.

You might be thinking you have to enroll in a web design class and sit in on some classes, but this is not the case; you'll can find the right web design courses online and take these class at home. Here are some advice you should remember when choosing an online web design courses.

• Be sure to look into the online courses and see what they have to offer, a good web design course should include basic programming language like HTML and CSS. More advanced programming such as PHP is also a plus to learn but not recommend for beginners.


• Those the online course offer a walk through on how to use FTP, all designer will be working on their desktop and must transfer files to their web server and having an understanding of using an FTP is a must in this field.


• Online web design course offer a wide range of formats, these course can either be given through a webinar, video courses, or downloadable files. Seek what is best for your style of learning.


• Last but not least is the cost of the online course, you should really look into the advice I provided to help justify the cost of the online course. Take in to consideration that you can find web design course for as little as $50.

If you follow this advice you should be able to find the right course that will suit your time and skill level. With the right material and the determination to succeed you'll be able to become a professional web designer in under a year!

Chris Courture blogs at WebDesignCoursesGuide.com, which is dedicated to helping aspiring web designer achieve their dream. Chris's guide to web design courses are rated as one of the top informational articles for web designers. Feel free to swing by his blog for more information regarding a career in web design!
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Chris_Courture

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Web Design Course - You Don't Need to Go Back to College!

A quality Web design course can arm you with the skills and knowledge for making big money as a Web designer, or just give you the confidence to build your own fabulous site with ease. But you don't have to spend big bucks and years of your time on a college degree to become a first rate Webmaster.

In fact there are multiple online Web design courses that will give you a basic, intermediate, and even expert level of skill in the Web development arena. Some of these courses are available in the form of free tutorials on public pages, others are accessible in video format via secure member's area, and still others can be downloaded and studied in PDF.

Some Web design courses are free, and others require a nominal investment. The thing to remember is you often get what you pay for online, and any free course on something as complex as Website design is not likely to be well-organized and comprehensive.

This is not to say there are no good free courses available. There very well may be but it's best to select a program based on the quality of the content and presentation rather than the price tag.

You'll already be saving big money by not taking a college Web design course. You can find a variety of great programs for less than $50, and instead of gambling on a set of freebie tutorials with zero backend support I advise you invest some cash into an option that gives you at least basic follow-up instruction.

For example, a downloadable Web design course might cost between $25 and $40, and this price includes free lifetime expansion modules. In other words you pay one fee up front and you receive every updated version of the course material for the rest of your life.

The very valuable skill of Web design and management is certainly worth a little money. And again, by investing with a professional company you'll get at least basic ongoing support and be able to ask a few questions if you get stumped.

Regardless of how much you budget for your Web design course, you should select a program with a good amount of positive, public feedback. This can be in the form of customer testimonials, informal reviews posted at forums and/or blogs, or any other form of consumer input you can find on the matter.

The idea is to find out what previous users have to say about the Web design course you are considering. This kind of social proof is priceless, and will give you an idea of how real people responded to the course material.

Did many people find the lessons too complicated? Or do previous users report the course was easy to understand and learn?

Do the course chapters provide great detail and accuracy? Or do people complain that many important points were left out of the material?

If most of the feedback you can find is in the positive, you should feel comfortable moving forward. On the other hand if loads of people complain, you may want to look elsewhere for a Web design course.

Also, any good digital information product should include a money-back guarantee. This statement usually infers that you can request a refund for 30 to 90 days after purchase if you aren't satisfied with the content. Such a guarantee is a solid courtesy that should never be abused; only exercise your right to a refund if you find the material is seriously lacking and not worth the price you paid.

Finally, the ideal Web design course should be open-ended. This means the creators should make clear that new material is added on a regular basis.

Web development is a skill that changes with time. The course you choose needs to be flexible and ready to add new content as needed; ideally you should get free access to future additions when you pay the entry fee.

Quickly and easily learn Web design with the author's amazing online course. You'll be an ace Webmaster in no time with this full-blown Web design course at your disposal.
Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/web-design-articles/web-design-course-you-dont-need-to-go-back-to-college-579577.html

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Top 10 Photoshop Tutorial Sites for Web Design

Adobe Photoshop, or simply Photoshop, has been an indispensable tool for web development. Though Photoshop was commonly used as a graphics editing program, Photoshop today is now integrated for web development purposes such as creation of website layout, buttons, navigation, logo, fonts, and graphical materials frequently seen in a website.

There are hundreds of sites in the web that provide learning materials in using Photoshop, may it be for the web, photo editing or others. Here is the top 10 list of popular websites that offer different and useful tips and tricks in Photoshop.

PSDTuts.com

PSDTuts.com is one of my most favorite sites that provide useful “Spoonfed” tutorials for beginners and professionals. Much like any Photoshop tutorial sites, PSDTuts.com also offers different kinds of how tos for text, image effects, and web design. The unique thing about this website is that, this is open for all who are willing to impart their knowledge in Photoshop for the use of all.

PSDTuts.com provides a great way of exposure by allowing artists to write tutorials and articles as well as earn cash.

Visit an online Web design Philippines site to learn more about web design tips and tricks.Visit http://www.myoptimind.com for more info.

PSHero.com

PSHero.com is another site that provides useful and effective Photoshop tutorials as it offers comprehensive graphic designs that include navigational bars for web, complex repeating background patterns, and cool and useful font effects, as well as the popular artistic sepia on photos.

Tutorial9.net

Tutorial9.net is a collection of teachers, experts, and caring folks from around the world, all gathered in one place to pass along their knowledge to absolutely anyone interested in learning.

Tutorial9.net offers Photography, illustrator, and web tutorials which include SEO, blog designs such as adding thumbnails to wordpress or usability improvements for blogs, and other tools to understand a website’s viewers.

PSDLearning.com

PSDLearning.com also provides some of the juiciest and coolest effects in photo, text, other special effects, and interface for web pages. One of its features is its comprehensiveness, i.e. step by step guidelines in Photoshop.

This site is a perfect place to find various ways on creating portfolios, in addition to coolest trends in web design such as smart objects and videos. It offers a detailed step by step process on each tutorials.

Pixel2Life.com

Pixel2Life.com caters to graphic designers, webmasters and programmers, having 45,154 tutorials listed in 88 categories. They also feature a massive and diversified community with 36,847 registered members that participate in their forums.

Different webmasters can benefit from Pixel2Life.com by receiving a large initial influx of traffic for every accepted tutorial they submit, and continue to do so as long as it stays in the site's index. The best thing about this site is that it’s free. No membership is required, and there’s no requirement to link back to them.

Learn more about web design by visiting an online Web design Philippines site.

Good-Tutorials.com

Good-Tutorials.com is a website that provides a collection of different how tos from Photoshop, Illustrator, JavaScript, PHP, CSS, Flash, HTML, and many more that web designers can benefit from. One good thing about this site is that, much like PSDTuts.com, it also offers a way to submit tutorials which can help beginners and professionals alike.

TutorialSphere.com

TutorialSphere.com offers 3D graphics, audio editing, video editing, and other website development tools such as CSS, HTML, JavaScript, PHP, XML, and Photoshop among others.

Same as the previous sites, it also allows designers and developers to submit their own know hows and articles in the site.

Pegaweb.com

Pegaweb.com directly gives out web design tips using Photoshop. As owner is a web designer himself, he can provide the latest trends in web design, and a way for beginners to learn how Photoshop can enhance the site’s capability to attract viewers.

PhotoshopTalent.com

Another great website is PhotoshopTalent.com as it offers how tos on photo, text, color effects, animations, buttons and icons, web layouts, and Photoshop basics for beginners.

One great thing about this website is that it also shares videos so as to help beginners learn how to use Photoshop in creating specific effects on images, texts, and on web layouts.

For web design and development needs, visit an online Web design Philippines site to learn more.

PhotoshopSupport.com

PhotoshopSupport.com is one of the best places where enthusiasts can come and learn the tips and tricks involved in Photoshop. It provides different information from PS scripts, web templates, web design tips, blog templates, tips and tricks for beginners, to the simple keyboard shortcuts. PhotoshopSupport.com specializes in offering their viewers a comprehensive list of tutorials mainly from Photoshop.

Margarette Mcbride is a copywriter of Optimind Web Design and SEO, a web design and seo company in the Philippines. Optimind specializes in building and promoting websites that are designed for conversion..
Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/web-design-articles/top-10-photoshop-tutorial-sites-for-web-design-711503.html

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What to Look For in a Web Design Program

You've decided that Web design is the career for you. You're ready to jump into the game, but you're going to need some education on how to design Web sites first. However, with literally hundreds of schools offering courses in every possible permutation - Web site design or graphic design with a focus on Web sites; certificates or full degrees - how do you decide which program meets your needs?

Skills taught in a Web Design program

Web site designers require a vast array of skills, not all of which are (or can be!) taught in the classroom. However, there are certain skills that all Web designers should know. First among these is HTML (HyperText Markup Language) code, which comprises the building blocks of the Web. All Web sites, no matter how fancy or how focused on Flash animation, consist of HTML at their core.

Although most designers now use Web editing programs such as FrontPage or Dreamweaver to design Web sites, in order to understand what is actually happening when the Web site loads, you need to know HTML. For entry-level positions, this markup language can be enough, but for more advanced positions, you should learn one or more other markup languages, such as XML (eXtended Markup Language) and CSS (Cascading Style Sheets), as well as one or more scripting languages, such as JavaScript and ActiveX.

You will also need to learn the basics of making a Web site look neat and professional. Although it may seem elementary, there are a wide range of techniques involved in creating a Web site that flows well. A logical site is designed to allow the user to quickly understand the purpose of the Web site, and to easily find the information he or she needs. Although this is obviously more of an art than a science, there are many techniques that help users navigate each page within a site more effectively and quickly. As a Web site designer, you should be fluent in these techniques.

To work on Web sites, you'll also need to understand the basics of how a computer operates. These technical skills enable you to set up and modify the Web site. Being able to use FTP (File Transfer Protocol) clients to add pages and upload site changes is paramount. So is being able to modify the site contents manually by using text editor software. Some of this software allows you to view changes instantaneously, such as the Real-Time HTML Editor, which is available online. Other text editors are included with your office computer, or can be installed, enabling you to work on site contents outside of a site editing program.

Finally, depending on the specific career path you have in mind, you may need to have other skills. If you are focusing more on the graphic design aspect of Web design, you will need to focus on learning about vector and raster graphics. Raster graphics, comprised of grids of tiny pixels, are dependent on the size and quality of the image - photographs are raster images, for example, and can look blurry or sharp, depending upon image size and resolution. Vector graphics use geographical points and coordinates instead of pixels, and can be resized without losing image quality. Typography, or the art of choosing and using fonts and typefaces, is also important. Page layout, or the skill of combining pictures, text, links, and animated images on a Web site to create a pleasing overall design, is also very important.

If, however, you are more interested in the technical aspects of maintaining a Web site, you will need to focus more on server administration, namely by learning to use Web server software (such as Microsoft IIS or Apache), and understanding how to run log analysis so you can track who visits the site, and how frequently you receive unique visitors. There are other specific domains in the field of Web design, including site optimization, security, usability, and quality assurance. Each sub-specialty in the Web design field requires the knowing the design basics described above, plus additional skills which you can learn in class and on the job.

In summary, these are the type of Web design classes you can look forward to taking:

• HTML and other markup/scripting languages
• Web site graphics and layout design
• Some technical skills necessary to publish a Web site
• Other skills related to the specific type of Web design career you want to pursue

How Do I Know This Web Design Program is Right for Me?

There are a large variety of Web design programs, which run the gamut from certificate programs to full degrees. These programs are offered at learning institutions ranging from small, private schools to large, public schools - and everything in between. Finding the specific Web or graphic design school that meets your needs from the many available can be a challenge. Here a few questions to ask yourself when deciding upon a course of study in Web design:

• Do I want to study online or at a traditional school?
• Can I fit a full-time program into my schedule, or should I go part-time?
• Do I want a degree program, or a certificate program, which is usually quicker, and can help me get into the field more rapidly?
• Am I willing to change my schedule or where I live to learn these new skills?
• Am I more interested in the technical end of Web sites, or would I prefer to work on graphic design and page layout?
• Does the Web design program I am interested in offer all of the classes needed for the career I want to focus on?
• Does the school help graduates with their career planning by offering job or internship placement assistance?

By answering these questions, you are well on your way to figuring out which is the right Web design course for you!

Computer Career Center, with campuses in El Paso, TX and Las Cruces, NM, offers a certification program for graphic and Web design specialists. For details about the Website/Graphic Design Certificate Program, or for more information about how you can fit it into your busy professional life, visit the school's Web site at http://www.computercareercenter.com/.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Bill_Laboon

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