How do you make a professional webpage?

I jsut started mine and actually put effort into it. Also I would like it to look more professional. Any tips,pointers?

Ehum, what site are you talking about ? http://www.forgotname.tk/??

if you can, clarify the url to the site I could give you a "Site review " ;)

Thanks
Wispy

KISS Keep It Simple Stupid

For a professional looking website:
• Use websafe colors to maintain consistent look on most browsers/computers
• Test your page on as many browsers you can (keep old versions too)
• Keep graphics small and clean to speed up load time (check your dpi - should be around 72)
• Use fonts that compliment each other
• Make sure things line up with each other
• Visible logo/name on every page

one more thing:
• Middle fingers arent professional ;) and what's with the drunk look?

It's always good to consider every possible end user and ease of navigation is always a benefit to a website. If someone cannot navigate very easily around your site, chances are they won't be spending too much time there. Making sure your site is easy on the eyes is also a beneficial idea.

just a few pointers for you..... I'm hoping you won't take these suggestions the wrong way... my British sense of humour might get in the way in a couple of places :)

And bear in mind they are only suggestions... ok?

For the professional look then....first go to http://w3.org follow the link to the HTML validator, scan your web pages and then make your HTML valid. Once it's valid, proudly display your discrete little .gif from W3C showing everyone that you have taken time over the coding of the site, geeks appreciate it even if no one else does :). You might also want to consider converting to XHTML... but that is possibly a job for future.

If you can get away with it... try not to use frames as they can muck around search engines easily etc.... or you may wish to consider using inline frames (although these can bring their own problems). Using frames is up to you, I try and avoid them myself

use some meta tags... can help with some search engines

consider using CSS as well.. cuts down on the lines of HTML written and is easier to change the look of the site quickly

Consider the use of some of the actual words that appear on screen... example in your graphic art section you have written

'Yeah I know this page looks bad I'll fix it sumday. Well just enjoy the artwork I got up here.'

If it looks bad why on earth have you put it up in the first place? If your work doesn't look like you intended it to look... fix it until YOU are happy with it and then put it up on the net. Testing takes time, yes but it's worth it if the result is what you want. It doesn't look professional if you effectively say to everyone 'sorry I couldn't be bothered with this any more'. If you must put something online but you're not totally 120% happy with it, well ok put up what you have but don't go telling everyone that it looks bad.... sure tell them at a later date that you have improved the look of the site and 'doesn't it look great folks' but never admit to putting up (what you consider to be) substandard work in the first place..... you just have to change the angle of what you tell folks - you with me, yeah??

Along these lines try and be more confident in the style of your writing.... your pictures of friends page for example, 'yeah I actually have some'... cool! I'm happy that you have friends, everyone likes having friends, I have friends... but do you want to sound like your trying to convince everyone that you REALLY do have friends and that the pictures aren't some folks you pulled off the street? Nice friends by the way!

Have a bit more 'white space' around some of your articles, some of them look a bit scrunched up. If the page is still under construction... bring the notice telling people it's still under construction down the page by about 30% e.g. your about the creator page. Try not to have too many 'under construction' pages in the first place!! It makes the site look half finished... and by extension unprofessional. It's better to wait a few more weeks/months and get a decent amount of material online than have half a dozen pages saying 'under construction' people will just go elsewhere.

Also consider using thumbnail images and link them to larger versions of the pictures, cuts down on load times etc makes sure people don't get bored and go somewhere else.

The forum page is nice though.

Hope these suggestions give you something to consider..... and remember you did ask!

Z

PS the look of the site is generally clean an unfussy which considering the subject matter is good.... it takes time to develop a 'theme' for a site so just keep experimenting with designs (before you put them online!)

Light colour shceme are also considered more professiaonl!, your using a dark scheme with high contrast and not very neat fonts, the fonts your using arent what Id call Crisp or clean,

and you only seem to be utilising the top half of your website its a bit like drawing a picture and only using the top half of the paper to draw something

Thanks
Wispy

There are lots of ways to go about this...one of my first suggestions would be to go to a site such as templatemonster.com where they offer very nice paid templates and have a look at what elements they've added to be able to put it in a professional category. Not only are their templates awesome, but they're great for getting ideas.

Don't fall under the assumption that to make a professional page you have to have pastel colors or a uniform deep blue. Screw that. Professionalism is about how your content is laid out, setting a uniform theme, and getting it out to the public in that manner.

What do YOU want your site to look like? You see sites all over the internet, the possibilities are endless. Get a piece of paper and a pencil, sketch an outline, based on the research you did at templatemonster.com and your own ideas. What is your theme? It's obviously a personal site, but if you could choose one word to describe it...do it. Go with that word and create a theme idea for your site. Maybe you're a dark person, so you want to express that in the design of your page. And I'm not talking about...okay, I'm a dark person, I'm going to use all dark colors. Well, that's PART of it, but go a little further...Dark how? Demonic? GOOD...use demons in your site layout. See where I'm going with this?

Now, back to the content, you've got your layout figured out. The suggestions that were given before me are great. Set up a photo album on your site. If we do collaborate on your forums sometime in the future, I'll show you how to integrate your whole site using phpBB, which you can also check out in advance at www.phpbb.com and go into the Portal Dev Forum there. Discussions upon discussions about how to use phpbb as your backend.

And BTW...this is your personal site? Whatcha conforming to a business theme for?

Thxs a lot. I did not take anything the wrong way and some of the issues pointed out i knew and some didn't and I thank you for that. Also as a side note haveing a thumbnail linked to a bigger one. For the past couple dayz ive been trying to make this script i got to work. I'm jsut wondering if you guys know a script i can jsut customized to use. I'm not much of a good programmer. Also its sorta a personal page. But the direction I realy want to take it in is more publie wehre people put there ideas up and so forth. Thanks again for taking the time and evauluating it. I will take al these into consideration and fix a lot. Peace

My humble addition--

An often forgotten question is: Who is your intended audience? If the answer is the world, don't forget to program for those who are on lower bandwidth connections, using older technologies. This also helps define what "fun" technologies you use, platform, languages, etc... Needless to say, the smaller the audience the easier the programming and the greater the possibilities (ie. intranets).

I agree with BabblingBrook, the audience is very important. Designwise, you have a bit more latitude if you are designing for yourself and your friends as opposed to doing something for business purposes. In either case, I've found that if I'm stuck for design ideas, then a visit to CoolHomePages.com usually kickstarts my creative process. They have sites categorized by a variety of styles that you can check out and perhaps give you an idea to distill for your own site.

Since having a graphic arts section on your site, it leads me to believe that you are, in fact an artist. (duh! :) ) One trick that's helped me build pages lately is to design their look and feel in Photoshop first and then transfer that to code.

Also, the inclusion of a forum on your site says you might lean towards building a community around your site. If you can get youre hands on it, get a copy of Design for Community by Derek M. Powazek. It gives great ideas about design and implementing community-building tools, like forums.

ok thxs