Welcome

Well, hello. This blog is to accompany my (forthcoming) book How to design websites. Of course, if you don't want the hassle of learning HTML and CSS, why not get a blog like this one. I've gone for a Blogger blog (web log) for historical reasons, but there is also Wordpress, which I think is slightly more versatile, and Tumblr, which I have only recently discovered, which is simplicity itself - and highly tuned to social networking, though some of the templates are a bit fussy for my liking. Other blogging platforms are available!

The advantages of a blog are that you don't have to worry about coding or hosting, they're free, and you can learn to add bells and whistles as you go along. They are also self-archiving - basically they are just a diary or journal with the newest entry showing at the top of the page. The hardest part about them is choosing the right template, though they can be customised to make them look like a regular website. I'll show you how. As you progress, you may wish to learn a little coding so you can work in the 'Edit HTML' window, say if you want to add a link to a Flickr photo, or as I have been doing just now, adding target="_blank" to the link code so that the page linked to opens in a new window. So, that's enough for now - why not start a blog yourself to see how you get on, afterall you've got nothing to lose!