Unless you live in a cave and don't like contact with the outside world, you probably have created some kind of online presence for yourself. It could be a personal website, a corporate website, a Facebook or MySpace profile, a chat room setup, or a personal or family blog. The current Internet technologies make it easy for someone with little technical know-how to build and keep up relationships within the online community, but knowing how to create a website is always a big plus to you.

Knowing how to create a website is no longer the province of the technical or "geeky". You don't need to know a lot of design theory, high end computer knowledge or lots of website design theory. But you do need to be able to stick with reading a couple of books, willing to work hard and able to learn new tricks to web design.

Conduct a preliminary analysis of your website's requirements and specialties. It is good to involve your friends in such analysis to get multiple opinions. They might be able to foresee a design or a technological challenge, which might go unnoticed otherwise. In addition, their involvement would speed things up for you. This will ensure that you created maximum value in minimum time.

Purchase a web design manual, and absorb all the information inside it. Next, try performing small jobs with a free piece of web design software. You won't have to pay for open source programs, for example. After you feel comfortable doing these small jobs, you could purchase some space on a server and design a trial web site. This is like making a sandbox version of a program.

Don't underestimate the value of mentorship. If you know someone who has worked on portals in the past, they can give you pointers on how to create a website. This way, you can build off of their knowledge and avoid any difficulties that they might have had to put up with when they built their sites.

During the design phase of the project, makes sure that you pay attention to details and don't just gloss over them. Look carefully at the design templates you're using and make any small changes that they might need to fit the content located on the pages of your site. This will make sure that there are no problems when visitors try to navigate between pages in your site.

Nowadays almost everyone has an online presence. Many innovations in online living make building a website easier and faster for people who are less technically inclined, but knowing how to do it yourself is always better. To create a website you should be intelligent, motivated, and patient. Catalog your website's needs. Gathering as many people as possible is the best way to do this. Read a primer on web design. Practice small tasks using an open source web design software package. After gaining confidence, you can buy server space and create a test website. Seek advice from someone who's previously worked on portals. Pay attention to detail.