Making a Website
Introduction
First of all, everything I will say in this guide is strictly my opinion and you have no obligation to follow it and every right to disagree with anything I say. With that settled let's get to the guide ^^The Idea
"I want to make a site," you think, but what is it going to be about? Pokémon? Literature? Sports? Music? Porn? xD it doesn't matter what it is, but you have to have an idea, first of all. I'll be writing this guide as if you were to create a Pokémon website since it's the area I'm more into. Now, you want to create a Pokémon site, covering every aspect of Pokémon but specially the games. So you have a good notion of Pokémon gaming and really like it but... is your liking going to last? That's a question you must ask yourself because if it doesn't, you will loose interest and eventually close your site or simply stop updating until everyone forgot about it. So you're sure that you like Pokémon enough to last at least a couple of years and you're really into making a site, now what?Learn HTML
(If you know your HTML you can skip this section)Please, never ever, ever, ever, ever(!!!!) use easy site-builders. I had no idea HTML existed when I created my first website but I really wanted to make one so I researched and found that it was composed of HTML tags and text. I found various internet languages while learning HTML (like CSS and JavaScript) and created simple pages in Notepad. Everyone starts from the bottom so don't get discouraged if you don't know any HTML. Read some tutorials [resources, my own] and remember that it's simple once you get the hang of it ^^. So you know your (at least basic) HTML and you're excited about making your own site, but wait... how can you get it online?!
Find a Proper Host
First thing you should ask yourself when it comes to getting a host is: "are you willing to pay for one?" If you are, then how much?Let's say you have the money and are willing to buy a domain, you could go to dreamhost.com, for example.
Let's imagine you wanted your site a
.com but you didn't have the money to afford one, you could use a free host which will never be a .com, that's for sure, but there are similar ones like .cydots.com, that wouldn't be that bad, would it? But that only hosts already hosted websites so you must find another host anyway. So use the resources page if you want to find the host that best suits your needs and when you've decided create an account and you're ready to go! Er... what were you calling your site again?
Get a Name
If you have already thought of a name to your site, feel free to skip this section '^^Supposing it's a Pokémon site, the most used formula is "[insert pokémon's name]'(s) [insert location]": Mew's Hangout, Eevee's Headquarters, Lugia's Island, etc. You can use that way, come up with a name unrelated to Pokémon like Shinkirou Tenshi, or a more original name related to Pokémon like The Cave of Dragonflies. It's entirely up to you, but remember: once you picked a name it's not very convenient to change it ever again... how would you feel if you went to Serebii and it's name was changed every week? Your visitors will probably think the same way. You found a name that you will stick to and you want to open the site as soon as possible. "I have a couple of pages, I'll open it now! ^^". Hold it right there!
Get Some Content Before Opening
It's surprisingly huge, the number of sites that opens prematurely. No one's visiting your site when it only has 7 pages, you want to hook people and attract them to stay as much as possible in your site, not to make them read the whole site in 5 minutes... I myself made this mistake... I opened it with, like, 10 pages *shot*Okay so go write some juicy paragraphs about Pokémon gaming and once you think the site is ready (about 15 pages) you can open it. Also, don't post links in your navigation bar leading to 404 error pages or "I HAVENT MADE THIS YET/COMING SOON WITH ::MyGenericPokemonSite v4// SEE YOU ALL NEXT NOV!" (Chaos xD). If those pages aren't made yet then take the link out of wherever it is until it's done. You have your content but O_o it looks ugly just black on white...
Get Yourself a Layout
This is where the CSS usually comes. With CSS you can edit the visual properties of your text and display them in a more elaborate way. You don't need to learn CSS, but if you want to have a styleswitcher you better use it. Visit the free layouts page if you want a free one or just make one yourself.The most common way to display your links is with a left bar with in-site content and a right bar for affiliates, external links, stats, etc. You can make it that way or opt for a more original layout like smogon's. Oh, and although I recommend you do your layout with your raw HTML, you can also use any WYSIWYG software like Adobe Dreamweaver MX or Microsoft FrontPage.