Website Design
After registering your domain name, the next step is to design your site. Most people people design their site before they go shopping for a domain name.
This is like putting the cart before the horse. You need to know your domain name during the web design process, as the links on each page will reference your domain name or URL (Uniform Resource Locator).
Also, you are not sure of getting the domain name you desire, until you register it. The longer you delay your domain name registration, the slimmer your chances of getting what you want, as thousands of domain names are registered each day.
As stated in the introduction, whatever route you want to go by way of web design (do-it-yourself, or pay someone to do it for you), you have to learn html and know how maintain the site, and make minor modifications necessary to get what you want.
The purpose of the website determines the design. While aesthetics is a nice to have, sacrificing functionality on the altar of aesthetics and razzmatazz is self defeating. This has been the pitfall of many Nigerian sites. Superb and dazzling design, but a nightmare to navigate. Some sites, you cannot even enter without downloading a plug-in (Adobe or macromedia flash). If you are browsing from the office or a cybercafe or at the office where software downloads are disabled, it means goodbye to that site. Even if you are browsing from home, not everyone trusts downloading stuff they don't know from the internet, and even when they do, the speed of their link is such that it will take forever to download, and in most cases, they abort the download due to frustration. Ultimately, the site is so wonderful that very few people can enter.
Some designers have mercy, and provide a "skip intro" link so that serious visitors can skip the acrobatic display and enter the site. Also, some sites welcome you with music, scrolling text and images, the picture of the owner/managing director and a welcome message! Some sites are so heavy with graphics that you have to go have dinner while waiting for it to load, and after it finally loads, most links are not working.
Navigation
People should be able to find their way around your site. The home page should links to all the sections. If your site has about 5-10 pages or so, each page should have a link from the home age, and each page should link to each other. That way, people can always find their way around the site without getting lost. The "home" link should take you back to the home (or index) page. As your site gets bigger, it becomes necessary have a site map that lists every link in the site, so that visitors that cannot find what they are looking from will find it there.
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