Great looking graphic headers can be tough to make by those that lack computer graphic skills. There are graphics programs available to assist with this, but even those are somewhat complex and confusing. If the owner or webmaster of a site finds tackling a quality graphic header a problem, there are other routes to go with like hiring a graphic design firm or individual.

For some webmasters, designing a graphic header themselves is a large undertaking and hiring the job out may not be in what they thought of as their original budget, but it is still something they should consider doing. Attention paid to the header of a website will pay off double down the road.

Other benefits of a well designed graphic header include:

Brand Recognition – Having a well designed and memorable header graphic means that when people surf the web and see a similar picture they will think of the original site. This is true for the color scheme you choose as well. Large corporations invest thousands, if not millions of dollars, in deciding on their logos, images, and color schemes. This makes it obvious that you shouldn’t overlook these things.

Harmonious Web Presence – When you have a well designed graphic image in your header, it means that when the header image is incorporated into a banner ad campaign, both the ad campaign and the website will be very harmonious and in step with eachother. This can only make your online presence more solid over time.

Solidifying A Reputation – Whether dealing with the public or with fellow webmasters or bloggers, having a professional looking website puts any webmaster in better standing with their peers and enhances their online reputation. In general, people have a hard time believing someone knows what they are doing or talking about when their website looks like it was made by an amateur.

It is obvious that one of the more important components of any website is its header. The more advanced, cohesive, and professional a banner looks and the more benefits it can bring the website. Due to the amount of power and control a header has over the overall success of a website, it should definitely receive more attention that it currently gets by most webmasters.

With that much importance riding on the look and feel of the header graphic of a Blog, it is puzzling then why some websites pay such little attention to making sure their Blog’s header graphic projects a positive and exciting picture. A poorly designed, or amateurish looking, Blog header graphic is one of the fastest ways to lose the traffic that has come to the Blog.

When someone opens up the 1st page of the Blog, if they see something that looks unprofessional then they may look at going to another site that may take the material they’re looking for a little more seriously. The last thing any Blog should want to do is turn men and women away that come to visit it because from the looks of their header graphic they appear to be an unprofessional or amateurish site.

The best way to insure that the 1st impression that a Blog makes is a positive one is to have a professionally designed header graphic graphic. While this may cost more than a do-it-yourself header graphic graphic picture or just going with a total text header graphic, the investment should be worth it in terms of how much credibility the Blog gains.

Professional graphic designers are available in different places online and finding an experienced one with good references should not be too much of a challenge.

With a professionally designed header graphic picture added to the top of a Blog, 1st time viewers of that Blog assume that they have come to a site that is better than some of the sites out there that appear to be hobby sites. A header graphic design that gives off the feeling that it was professionally done can add to the legitimacy of the overall Blog.

This works for more than just the homepage too, as most websites use the same header graphic picture on every page within the whole Blog. With that in mind, a professionally designed graphic picture at the top of every page in a Blog means that no matter what page someone surfs to as a result of what came up in search engine results, their 1st impression will be a good one.

Printing problems occur quite a bit from websites where people create their own headers. This usually is because the code for the header conflicts with the driver for the printer. If you don’t know about creating custom headers and you aren’t a professional then you will probably have problems printing your header from your site too. If this option is important to you then you might want to consider hiring a professional to design your header.

A professional knows how to properly design a header that will be compatible with your site. They will ensure that there are no conflicts with the code. Often times when people create their own header it looks funny once they put the code into the html for their site.

A professional will make sure that the header has full functionality. If you want people to be able to click on the header and lead it to your website or another location on the web then a professional designer can do this for you too. Many people create their own headers and find that their header doesn’t work when people click on it and is a broken link. Hackers love to redirect headers also to other sites. This might happen also when you don’t use a professional to build your header for you.

When you create your own custom headers you will come across errors that you don’t know how to fix. You might create ‘band-aid’ fixes that may lead to bigger problems down the road. It is important to understand the code and understand clearly the errors you receive. This is because you may have conflicting code that needs to be fixed. Your header may not sit right on the page.

Your header could also cause other problems to occur on your website if it is not designed properly. A professional header designer can integrate a header that works well on your website.

A professional designer should be considered when you design a header for your website. They know what the viewers are looking for in a header to grasp the attention and create a positive impact through creativity.

A professional also knows how to be sure the header works as it should on the website by providing total functionality. A header is one of the most important things you will implement on your website and you must consider a professional for your header graphic’s needs.

When you have a blog on your website your header is the first thing people are going to see. Your header needs to be professionally designed so people have an immediate impression on your blog when they come to it. Choosing a free header is not as professional and they don’t look as good as what you can design through WordPress. It only takes less than 5 seconds to give a web surfer a good or bad impression. Most impressions are gathered by the header the user sees on the site. That is why your header needs to be the best.

A WordPress header can be clickable. You can make it interactive to take the user to another webpage that you want it to lead to like your website. You can add navigation to your header. You can also rotate header images. You can also hide the header text. Most of the sites you can design a free header do not include the functionality like the WordPress does. In addition, you may not be able to hide the text also.

WordPress allows you to design your header. You can add a logo or a photo to your header if you want. WordPress is responsible for many award-winning headers on the web and you should consider using this tool for your header also. You can customize your header exactly the way that you want it to look. Most of the free header sites give the same look and feel for all of their headers. You don’t have the opportunity to be too creative with your header.

A WordPress header is a simple piece of code by default. When you make changes to the header you don’t have to change the code. You will make the changes through the tool provided and WordPress will do the rest.

If you don’t have graphics but you know you want to add an image or some artwork to your header then you can choose from a large bank of images and styles provided by WordPress. You can have a professional looking header that includes images and artwork with your selected text as a layover on them.

If you are replacing a header that is within a WordPress theme then you need to be sure the sizes match. Most of the WordPress headers are about 192 x 740 pixels. You might need to make modifications to the sizes if you choose a size that is smaller or larger than the original specification.

WordPress headers are the best option for your blog. You can design your header to look professional which will give your readers an immediate impression about you and your business. Don’t use one of the free headers. Make something unique for your company.

A first impression in terms of the internet is the first time someone uses an internet browser to open up a specific website. Most people read from the top down, that would logically prove that the first part of any website that most people see is the header. The header is the portion of the website that has the website’s name and usually a graphic image of some sort.

With that much importance riding on the look and feel of the header of a website, it is puzzling then why some websites pay such little attention to making sure their website’s header projects a positive and exciting image. A poorly designed, or amateurish looking, website header is one of the fastest ways to lose the traffic that has come to the website.

When someone opens up the first page of the website, if they see something that looks unprofessional then they may look at going to another site that may take the material they’re looking for a little more seriously. The last thing any website should want to do is turn people away that come to visit it because from the looks of their header they appear to be an unprofessional or amateurish site.

The best way to insure that the first impression that a website makes is a positive one is to have a professionally designed header graphic. While this may cost more than a do-it-yourself header graphic image or just going with a total text header, the investment should be worth it in terms of how much credibility the website gains.

Professional graphic designers are available in different places online and finding an experienced one with good references should not be too much of a challenge.

With a professionally designed header image added to the top of a website, first time viewers of that website assume that they have come to a site that is better than some of the sites out there that appear to be hobby sites. A header design that gives off the feeling that it was professionally done can add to the legitimacy of the overall website.

This works for more than just the homepage too, as most websites use the same header image on every page within the whole website. With that in mind, a professionally designed graphic image at the top of every page in a website means that no matter what page someone surfs to as a result of what came up in search engine results, their first impression will be a good one.

We all make judgements about items based on what we first saw or noticed about them. The same is true for websites. The first thing you see when you go to a website is the header of the page.

Though it isn’t usually a functional part of the site, the header of a web page is one of the most important parts. With a porfessional and engaging looking header on a web page, visitors to that site will want to stay because they will have been assured that if the header is up to a certain level of excellence, then the content they’ll read there will be too.

While this may or may not be true, it is what the reader will assume from seeing a well designed header. This reassurance will benefit you in that the visitors to your site will not only stay to read your content during that initial visit, but will also return for future visits and hopefully recommend you to others and possibly link to you as well.

The header performs two basic functions on your website. It gives the viewer of it a quick overview of what your website is about, and it also provides an idea of the quality of your site.

Each of these functions are greatly important, but the second may be even more important than the first. There are millions of websites out there and possibly hundreds or thousands compete with yours. If the style or make-up of your header gives your website the look that it lacks quality or professionalism, your traffic will go to your competitors instead.

It is hard to underestimate the value of a well designed and well planned out graphic header. You may not even notice the effects of a good header on your website.

The fact that visitors stick around longer and come back more often will probably be chalked up to your content or another feature you’ve implemented on your site.

Setting Up a Mailing List.

If you want people to come to your website more than once then you need to remind them, from time to time, that you exist and give them the latest news about what’s changed and what’s been updated. One of the best ways to do this is to collect email addresses and use them to create a mailing list. But how do you collect these email addresses and how do you send out emails to so many people all at once?

Collecting the Email Addresses.

Collecting email addresses is easier than you might think. People on the web are used to typing their email addresses in a lot, and usually have an email address to use for this purpose. In most cases, if you ask for an email address as a condition of accessing something interesting sounding people won’t really mind giving it to you.

One way of doing this is to simply include a box on each page ? unobtrusive and not really calling attention to itself ? that gives your visitors the option to sign up to your newsletter. Somewhat counter-intuitively, it is often better to make mailing list sign-up entirely voluntary, as this means you will get a smaller list but it will only have the most enthusiastic people on it.

Basically, it’s a trade-off between forcing as many people as possible to sign up or just marketing to the most eager people. Your strategy should usually be decided by how many people you plan to send out emails to and what kind of response rate you seem to be getting.

What to Write in Your Mailing List Emails.

If you want people to read the emails you send to them then they can’t just be the latest dull news about your technical website features that no-one even cares about. You need to provide information and updates that are useful and relevant to the person who’s going to be opening that email.

If you just write in corporate speak and don’t say anything that’s going to be useful to real people then your email is going to be going straight into their junk mail. You should take some time over your emails. Make them something that their recipients are going to want to keep and refer to more than once ? often-updated, time-sensitive information is best, if you have access to it.

Apart from that, make sure to include links to the latest things on your website, as well as a few older things that are still popular. If you sell anything, you should work in a link, but don’t be too obvious about it ? a good way of doing things is to include a tip or two with potential uses for a certain product (making them look like they are intended for people who already own the product), sparking the reader’s curiosity enough to click through and consider buying it.

The Technical Side.

Once you’ve got a mailing list and you’ve written the first email you want to send to it, the next step is to set up the technical side of things. Just how do you think those emails are going to get sent out? Surprisingly enough, you can just use a normal email program like Outlook, if you paste all the email addresses into it. If you do this, though, you need to make sure that you use the Bcc (blind carbon copy) field for the addresses, to avoid sending out a copy of the mailing list to everyone on it.

Alternatively, there are specialist programs you can get that are devoted to bulk mail. Because spam is such a big industry, companies producing such programs tend to be shady ? stay away from anything that advertises itself on the basis of how many emails it can send in a minute ? but if you look around, you should be able to find something that meets your needs.

There are even web-based solutions that avoid you having to install any programs or send any email from your computer, avoiding the risk that you might get blacklisted somehow for sending out too many emails in too short a time. If you can find a reasonably-priced one, then they’re often the ideal solution, allowing you to manage your lists directly and send out emails easily. Make sure to do a few trial runs with smaller numbers of people before you commit yourself to anything, though.

Setting up a Test Server on Your Own Computer.

When you’re developing a website, you need to see it in action on a real server, to see how it will work. While you could upload your pages to your web host every time you make a change, this quickly gets time-consuming and tiresome. Wouldn’t it be great if you could have a little test server of your own? Well, the server is nothing but a piece of software ? so you can! Please note that, for the purposes of this article, I will assume you’re using Windows as your operating system.

Installing an IIS Test Server.

While using IIS isn’t recommended, a test server is very easy to install. All you need to do is open ‘Add or Remove Programs’ in Windows’ control panel. All you need to do is click Internet Information Services (IIS), click OK, and you’re done.

Of course, there are downsides to this. Many versions of Windows don’t come with IIS, and there’s no way to install it on them ? Windows XP Professional, for example, comes with IIS, but Windows XP Home does not. You might also want to consider that installing IIS on your computer will often make it less secure.

Installing an Apache Test Server.

Compared to installing IIS, installing Apache is hard ? Linux distributions all have relatively easy ways of doing it, but Windows wasn’t designed for it. To get Apache installed, then, you’re going to need to have a little fight with the system.

Note: If you want to skip all the following steps, you might consider using an ‘easy installer’ version of Apache, such as XAMPP (for Windows), which you can get at www.apachefriends.org/en/xampp-windows.html. The downside to this approach is that you will be relying on them to provide new releases, instead of being able to update things yourself.

First of all, download Apache from http://httpd.apache.org/download.cgi. Make sure you download the Windows Installer (MSI) version. You’ll find it easiest to make the server run as a service, as this will make it run automatically ? Apache will appear in your system tray (in the bottom-right corner of your screen).

Now, you need to find your Apache configuration file. In the folder where you installed Apache, look for another folder named ‘conf’, and then a file named ‘httpd.conf’. Open this file and look for a setting called DocumentRoot. You should change this to point to a folder on your hard drive, such as ‘c:/html’.

Now, you’ve got Apache, but that’s not usually much good on its own. The chances are that you’ll want to install PHP and MySQL as well, so here’s how:

Download PHP from http://www.php.net/downloads.php. Again, go for the installer. Once you’ve installed PHP, find its folder, and rename the php.ini-dist file there to php.ini. Find the ‘doc_root’ setting there, and set it to the same thing you set Apache’s to.

Back in Apache’s httpd.conf, you should add these lines:

LoadModule php5_module “c:/php/php5apache2.dll”
AddType application/x-httpd-php .php
PHPIniDir “c:/php”

If you didn’t install PHP in c:\php, change the lines above to reflect where you put it.

Now, installing MySQL isn’t as difficult, because it runs independently of your Apache configuration. Download MySQL from dev.mysql.com/downloads. Again, get the Windows installer version. This installer has a lot of settings, but you’ll be fine if you just click Next through them to accept all the defaults.

The only remaining step is to enable MySQL support in PHP. Copy libmysql.dll file from c:\php to your Windows\System32 folder, and then open the php.ini file you created before. Remove the semicolon from the start of the line that says ‘;extension=php_mysql.dll’, and save the file.

Shut down Apache and restart it, and you’re done!

Visiting Your Server.

When they’ve installed a server on their computer, many people wonder how they can access the server they just installed as if they were visiting it over the web. The answer is simple: just open your web browser, and go to this URL: http://localhost (you can also use http://127.0.0.1). This special address means ‘the server on this computer’.

You’ll know if you installed Apache successfully because you’ll see a page congratulating you. When you change your web pages, just use your browser’s Refresh button to see the effect.

Some Places to Go For More Information.

If you feel like you know quite a bit about web design now, but you?d really like to explore the details a bit more, then this is the article for you. As web designers are, by their nature, very likely to be web users and website owners, there?s a wealth of information and discussion forums on the web, all free to read or participate in. I?m going to give you a few websites that are my first port of call when I have a problem or I?m curious about something, in the hope that they?ll be useful to you too.

W3Schools (www.w3schools.com). A great resource, with free tutorials on everything from HTML to CSS to ASP. It offers a ?try it yourself? editor that lets you edit example code and see the results straightaway, as well as comprehensive language references. I go to W3Schools first when I forget the name of an obscure CSS property or wonder if there?s an HTML tag suitable for a certain purpose ? they?re all there.

A List Apart (www.alistapart.com). A web magazine for web designers, it?s very good for ?how to? articles covering more complicated subjects, especially when it comes to CSS. The writers at A List Apart are very good at working around CSS? shortcomings and offering practical workarounds and solutions that you can take and use on your own website.

Digital Web Magazine (www.digital-web.com). Weekly pieces on issues relevant to web designers, with a focus on web design and accessibility. It tends to be especially good for reviews of the latest web design books, and analysis of current trends.

The Web Style Guide (www.webstyleguide.com). If you?re a writer, you need to read The Elements of Style, and if you?re a web designer you need to read the Web Style Guide. It is, essentially, an online book, giving best practices for many different aspects of web design. If you?re looking for general strategies, it?s a very good read.

Webmaster World (www.webmasterworld.com). An excellent place to watch for the latest news relevant to webmasters ? if something is going on with a search engine, or there?s a new advertising service out, then Webmaster World will have the news, as well as lots of comment and analysis from people who run big, successful websites. Well worth checking daily.

About Web Design (webdesign.about.com). A resource that mostly sticks to the basics, but covers all of them, and covers them well. If you?re trying to do something that seems like it should be quite simple and you?d like a step-by-step guide, About Web Design is a good place to go.

Web Design Bits (www.webdesignbits.com). Web design tutorials with a focus on those big, difficult to use programs, like Flash and Photoshop. Especially good if you?re trying to achieve advanced effects in Photoshop without having to learn it inside out. The tutorials linked to are off-site, making it a good way to find other useful web design websites.

Web Design Forums (www.webdesignforums.net). A pretty comprehensive set of forums about web design, and a very good place to go if you?re having a problem that you haven?t been able to solve for yourself. As long as you take the time to find the right forum to post your question in, you should find the people there helpful and knowledgeable.

The Site Wizard (www.thesitewizard.com). This site has a sprawling, categorised set of web design articles ? if you want an article about something, you can probably find it here. It tends to be especially good if you?re looking for a guide for how to do something with a specific program.

SitePoint (www.sitepoint.com). Although it can feel advertising-heavy, SitePoint is a good resource for articles about web design. The articles tend to be slanted towards online business and other ways of making money online, although there are plenty of design tricks there that would be useful to anyway. They also have a very active and useful set of forums.

The W3C (www.w3c.org). Finally, it?s worth giving a mention to the web?s official standards body, the W3C. They have the authoritative copies of the specifications for open web languages like HTML and CSS. You can also take a look at the working groups, who are working on the future of the web right now.