There's a widely-held misconception about what it takes to create a website, even accounting for differences across class, gender and educational levels. It is generally thought that a degree in computer design or programming is necessary for web design, or, at least a lot of hands-on experience with computers. Having done web design and coding for eight years for many clients with widely-differring needs, I know that the opposite is true. Designing and creating a website is not only enjoyable but is not as difficult as the general public seems to think.

It helps when you start the process to already have in mind how you want to go about the design part when you create a web site. Having graphic software is helpful, but truthfully no longer entirely necessary today if you are just creating a simple site for yourself. Many free image sites are out there that can resize the images for you or even add graphic effects, or provide changes such as changing your photos into black and white images.

When you create a website, many kinds of services all over the internet are available, for either free web hosting or paid web hosting. For those who are new to creating websites, it might be better to set up with free hosting at first as you learn skills for creating better and more improved sites. The advantage of using free hosting services is that many such sites also provide free HTML editors.

The best HTML editors for those who are entirely new to designing websites are the WYSIWYG editors. This is short for "What You See Is What You Get," which means that you can lay out any of the elements for your pages onto the screen and see what it will actually look once published in real time. This is more convenient than straight coding the site by hand in a .txt file for beginners that aren't familiar with the terminology.

As your skill with both coding and website design increase, you may think about changing to software other than the free WYSIWYG editor to build your sites. There are some editors available that combine WYSIWYG with viewing of the code that you use to create your website. As you gain competence in more complex levels of coding, these types can be more efficient than your standard WYSIWYG editor.

Regardless, learning to create a website is lots of fun but also challenging. As your skills develop in web design, you may be able to assist others in developing their websites for compensation. I began to do this when I was in high school and I now design webpages full-time. Web design does require patience and experimentation but it is also fun to do and something many people can learn.

Contrary to popular belief, it doesn't take a degree or a great deal of training to create a website. There are a wide variety of options available to make the process relatively easy for even the novice. One of the easiest ways for a beginner to create a web site is through the use of a WYSIWYG editor, short for "What You See Is What You Get." These editors allow you to lay out a page piece by piece and see, as you work, exactly what the page will look like to its visitors. This is much easier than putting together a site by coding it yourself.