Structure
A little site plan can make life so much easier

Think about it. You are willing to spend hours building a website. Even better, someone is willing to pay you to do this. How do you start? Break the computer out and get going? Seems like a great idea, but do you know what you're doing? I don't mean HTML, or basic design concepts. I mean, how are you going to get things started?

The truth is, good websites start out on paper. Get your mind working before you touch that mouse. Make a site plan.

A site plan is a blue print for your site. It will help you work more efficiently and make your site more effective than if you just began building without it. So how do you start getting your site on paper? Begin by asking yourself questions. You think you don't know what exactly you want to do, but as soon as you begin answering those questions, you'll start finding answers.

Write out what you want to do--who you want to visit your site and what you want them to get out of the time they've spent looking at your work. The easiest way to start planning is to ask yourself questions. You know what you want, so put it down on paper so you have your own "blueprint" to follow.

Starting out with a purpose: what are your goals?

Generally you know what kind of website you want to have: if you're a Batman fan and want to build a site devoted to Batman, you already have one goal. Be more specific than that: what do you really want to do? A site devoted to the animated series? A trivia site? There are plenty of different types of sites for every subject--decide what you really want to be and go from there.

Determining an audience: who are your visitors?

Most of the time, people have specific interests--punk rockers probably don't watch a lot of Martha Stewart. She has her own specific audience in mind for her products. Think about who will be interested in what you have to say.

Creating a "brand:" what sets you apart from the others?

Everyone has a personality. With that in mind, what kind of personality do you want your site to have? How do you want people to see your site? Is it a personal site, a site devoted to sharing technical information, or a site that is business-oriented? How you build your site will reflect that. Everything from the graphical elements to the text contained within your site shows what you are about.

Think of your goals and write a short phrase to express them. Create a graphic to show something about those goals--something that will tell visitors what your site is at a glance. Do something that shows what your site is about.

Mapping it out: what goes where?

Now that you've got an idea of what your site is going to be like, it's time to do a little more planning. Drawing out a plan of each page may sound tedious but it actually helps to have a visual guide that tells you how large your site is going to be, especially if you're working with a limited amount of storage space.

Start with your main page, or index page. What pages are going to be linked to it? Are any pages going to be linked to those? Include information on what is going to be on each page.

When you're done with your site diagram you should be ready to begin getting everything into the computer and onto the net. Save your planning information to look at and possibly revise later.