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Practice makes perfect and that is never truer than with web design. If your family and friends want sites for displaying photos to other family members then go ahead and create. If they want them for a business I'd be very careful as you could do a lot of damage, not just visually but with the search engines as well, get a bit more experience first. I'd certainly try to get some good knowledge of JavaScript and PHP as well and try out the open source content management systems. I think a great way to learn is to make sites on your personal computer, pretend you were creating for a client who wanted X, Y and Z then you get more of a feel for it and learn a lot quicker by just doing it.

I'm not a big fan of the directories but I hear the niche directories can be good, link swapping on exchanging can be OK just don't abuse it or go crazy with it as it could potentially get you penalized if Google suspects foul play. The social stuff is a must but people think having an account is all there is to it. Certainly not, you need to participate with others within your niche. If you're looking at news then HARO is amazing. HARO stands for help a reporter out and they send out frequent emails requesting information from specialists in their field. If you can provide good information you can potentially get a link from a mainstream news site and loads of traffic. Good luck with your link building! One more thing, best not to outsource as you can do it better in house with a strong knowledge of your subject.

Welcome and good luck with learning design.

Definitely a better answer than I was able to give. This sounds like someone with a good eye for design and art, unfortunately I don't have that gift. That's why I deal with mainly the back end of sites.

It can be demanding of server resources compared to its rivals and it has a bigger learning curve but it has a strong community willing to help you. It comes with a ton of out-of-the-box features as well.

I can't personally see much wrong with it, looks like an alright site. If I had to be picky the black menu doesn't seem to match the rest of the site and the banner. Also the asterisk in the section "next day delivery" doesn't look quite right. But that's about it and that is being picky!

Followed all of the above, looking forward to the geeky tweets and tech ramblings..... Just another distraction from work. If anyone fancies following us it's @Host_Something .

They don't really have that much of an effect, nothing to worry about at all. If that is the TLD you want then go for it.

Be quite complex to make a social networking site from a static site especially if you have limited knowledge of these things. Why don't you use a open source social networking CMS?

Thanks, looks pretty good. I always enjoy funny pictures related to design, bookmarked the site. I'll keep checking for updates.

Shame really and because of this people are starting to prefer to do their own SEO, I know we do. There are some really great SEOs out there but it's like finding a diamond in the dirt. Another problem is some black hat SEOs earn a lot more money than white hat.

Just another reason not to get an Xbox, only joking, I'm personally waiting to get the PS4. Never really been a fan of browsing on consoles. Do any of the others browser on a console instead of a PC/Laptop/Tablet etc. ?

It's better than Windows but unfortunately I can't see it going mainstream as Microsoft is huge and people like the familiarity. Non-techies also struggle with resolving issues within Linux as well. Vista was an abomination!

Nice site, smooth and clean!

Looks good, you may lose some SEO benefits with the URLs but can't see any other issues. Stands out!

Done. Good luck with your project.

Great question and what a lovely thought! I would probably be working on creating web design tools to aid designers. Unfortunately I haven't the time at the moment, so much on. It would be very nice, I wish it was an option. One day!

I can't vote as I haven't used MAC enough to cast a fair vote. Hoping to get one in the future though. Linux on a PC at the moment is a win!

Keyword tags aren't used at all, by Google. However there could be smaller search engine or sites that find relevant information on things based meta keywords so I put them in anyway. Doesn't hurt.

Total waste of time, better of with Google Ads or Facebook Ads. I'd rather one visitor who is interested in my product than 10,00 who aren't or are bots. There is a reason they're so cheap.

I preferred the third link. The first seemed a bit dark and the second seemed to clash.

2checkout is quite popular with hosts. We use Google Checkout and haven't had any issues.

I use the latest Chrome. Always seems to be the quickest and I never have any issues with it. I can't stand the dreaded IE.

Like said by one of the others, I would check reviews on Web Hosting Talk then check the offers section from a host you see is receiving great reviews. Try to avoid the unlimited hosts.

Hello everyone! Joining the forum to keep up with what's happening! Use to be a web designer but now work with web designers ! Been reading posts for a while and thought I would make an account !