If you would like to have a free copy of this tutorial (updated for the current WordPress version 3.2), please contact me and I’ll be happy to send it to you!

These days, if you don’t have a website, you’re nowhere.

If you are doing something worthwhile and you want to tell people about it, or maybe you want to find people to join you in whatever you are doing, you really do need some sort of presence on the Internet.

Being visible on the web isn’t difficult or expensive.  In fact, it can be done for absolute peanuts.

And you don’t necessarily have to be a technical whiz, or even a teenager, to get yourself set up with a nice little website.

All you need is the motivation to do it. If you can use an average word processor you already have most of the skills you need to build and maintain a website.

Actually, your requirements are almost certainly simpler than you think.

Because of this, my approach is to start simple, stay simple and only get complicated when, and if, it really needs to get complicated.

Most of the websites I design are really simple. They look good, they work well and they fulfill their objectives admirably.

Contact me and let me tell you about it.

If you’re in business (or you want to be) or you’ve got something to say or maybe you’re out to change the world – you need to be visible on the world wide web.

OK, there’s Facebook and Flickr and Twitter and masses more of all that stuff and – maybe – you need to be there. But seriously, all these sites are way overcrowded and cluttered up with a load of irrelevant, low quality junk. And, apart from that, the biggest disadvantage of these Web 2.0 properties is that you don’t own them. You have no control over how they’re operated, you have to fit your content into their format and any of them could actually disappear overnight.

The truth is that, if you are serious about communicating your message, you need to have your own unique website controlled and owned by YOU. This means having your own domain (eg. minniemouse.com) on which you can publish anything and everything you want and which uniquely represents you, your image, your business and your message.

This does not have to be expensive – in fact, it can be done for peanuts.  Forget all the jargon and geek-speak that many web designers would like to baffle you with: trust me – putting up a simple website is not rocket science.

Contact me to find out how I can help you get your own web presence and become visible on the world wide web.

If you are a small company or a community group or you’re self-employed, how can people find you if you’re not on the Internet?

Creating a traditional website is still a technical minefield for most people. To get something half decent you have to employ professional web designers and programmers and it can be very expensive.

I supply an alternative service. I recommend that you consider getting not a website, but a blog. The difference, technically speaking, is not very much but the advantage of a blog is that you can maintain it yourself. You can keep it up to date simply by logging in and typing whatever you want to say. And you can include pictures and links to other places, and you can generally interact with your visitors.

To get an idea of what I am talking about, have a look at the examples I provide over on the right under ‘My Work’. These are recent blogs that I have designed and set up.

If you would like me to design and set up a blog for you that you can then take over and maintain, please contact me. I’d be happy to discuss your requirements.

This is what I do: I design websites for clients, big and small, around the world. But these days when someone tells me they want a website, I recommend that they consider getting a blog. This website here is a blog, and it has many advantages over a static website.

Blogs are not what they used to be. Blogging has come of age and is now a sophisticated way of interacting with your world. And the best thing about a blog is that, once it is set up, you don’t have to be a techie to keep it going.

When you want to add more information, news, views or whatever, you can simply log into your blog, type in whatever you want to say and click the ‘Publish’ button. Hey presto, your new post or page is available and visible on the web immediately.

You don’t have to send your content to a web designer, wait until they have time to upload it, then correct the errors they’ve made, then wait for their bill to arrive for doing it, etc, etc.

If you’d like more information about how you could get a blog, please contact me and I’d be delighted to help!

Gillian