I am really proud of this Web site. I spent a lot of time researching and thinking through the basic issues: what pages there should be, what should be on each page, and how we could make visiting the site an enjoyable and informative experience for a range of distinct kinds of visitor. In particular, I wanted every page to answer the questions: are these people worth booking? and (for singers) is this a group I would enjoy being a member of?

On the visual side, I began—as in my design for the Football Prophets site—with the idea that I wouldn’t frame the content, even though I stuck to my own 960px ‘rule.’ I experimented with a new style for top-of-the-page navigation, plus (on the home page) a really inviting visual jump menu. For more detailed design notes, you can check out my Web design portfolio. You can also visit the Costa Barber Web site itself.

In order to put a proposal to “Tom de Selby”—as he wants to be known—I did a bit of research into tipster Web sites. I was staggered to discover how many of them there were, and how many of them specialised in betting on football matches.

I very much hope that “Tom” is successful in this crowded market. I have never met him, and never even knew what he looked like until last month—when I did a bit of sustained detective work and tracked him down to someone else’s Facebook page. But it was obvious from his many emails that he is a really nice guy.

You can visit the Web site itself: it is called Football Prophets. You can also read my design notes on my Web design portfolio.

When setting it up, I discovered that Facebook had already set up a page itself, probably by following a link from my personal profile. What is more, the page had six fans, none of whose names I knew. Unfortunately, I lost them all in setting up the real page, so the new page has no fans yet.

I plan to update it regularly, and will shortly be offering 6 months’ free Webmaster Services as a prize. Have a look yourself!

1. The Web site has got to be found.
2. The Web site has got to be attractive.
3. The Web site has got to deliver.

OK. You look at these wishes, and you think, “How obvious! This is just common sense.”

So how come so many Web sites fail on at least one count—and some on all three? Let’s look at what may not be so obvious.

In the first place, the Web site has got to be found by the people you want to find it. That means designing the whole Web site for those specific people, and calling on SEO and marketing skills to catch their own specific keywords—every time you add text.

In the second place, the Web site has got to be attractive to the same specific people—not to the website owner, not to the website designer, but to the website visitor. You have to deploy the colours and the layout and the design which will engage the visitors you want, and make them want to explore your Web site. If we were all attracted in the same way, we would all be pining for Marilyn Monroe. Personally, I was always more attracted to Jane Russell. (You get the point.)

Finally, the Web site has got to give the people that you want to visit exactly what they are looking for. They came to your Web site because they were looking for something. You can bet every cent you have that they weren’t looking for an advertisement. Advertisements are what people fast forward through when they record TV programmes. So why would they be looking for one on the Web? Just give them what they want—no less, and (this is really important) no more.

So there you have it, and now you know what I mean. Your Web site has got to be found. Your Web site has got to be attractive. Your Web site has got to deliver.

Is Web hosting an area where it is right to assume that money and quality of service are connected? Let’s look at the facts.

There is no real mystery about Web hosting. You rent space on a computer which is permanently connected to the Internet. You also get a bandwidth (traffic) allowance. In general, the bigger the space you rent, and the more visitors to your Web site you get, the more you would expect to pay. Just as if you were renting space in an office building.

This is the case with my Web hosting plans on Web Costa Blanca. And my prices are very low, even for the biggest allocations of space and traffic. So what else are people paying for?

Two things: (1) a range of extras; (2) service.

1. I offer an extensive range of extras (personal control panel, email accounts, programming languages, site builders, databases, etc., etc.) This blog is not the place to trumpet them all, but anyone who cares can find them in the Web hosting plans section of Web Costa Blanca. I have looked at dozens of other Web hosting sites, and never seen a range of options to beat them.
2. I offer a one-to-one personal service to all my clients, who can reach me by email or telephone whenever they hit a problem or want to ask a question.

Why do I charge so little, then? It’s probably something to do with prejudices left over from my radical youth. I’m happy to charge for my labour—website design, website development, website maintenance. However, even when my clients have access to so many tools and extras, I’m not happy to make a profit on renting space.

And as for the service, how else do you get job satisfaction?

In the long run, no. But then, as Keynes said, “In the long run we are all dead.” In the meantime, it helps to follow a couple of simple rules. And on a Web site, it’s always important to be consistent.

In the first place, it should always be the Internet, with a capital I, and the Web, with a capital W. These are the names of specific things, like the Alamo—which always has a capital A. Or like the Monument, if you’re referring to that particular building in London, and not any old monument.

The World-Wide Web is not any old web—not a spider’s web, nor the tangled web we weave when first we practise to deceive. So it should always be the Web.

As far as Web site and website go, it probably only matters to be consistent. What I do is use Web site as a noun, when I’m referring to a site itself, and website as an adjective.

If you have a better idea, please let me know! If I like it I might even offer a prize—such as a period of free hosting on Web Costa Blanca…

In my sixth article on cPanel for beginners, I show you how to edit your own Web pages—online. (For a full list of these tutorials, look at the Articles and Tutorials contents page on the main Web Costa Blanca site.)

In my fifth article on cPanel for beginners, I show you how to upload files—Web pages, images and scripts—to your own server. (For a full list of these tutorials, look at the Articles and Tutorials contents page on the main Web Costa Blanca site.)

1. It looks great
2. It doesn’t do the job it should be doing

It’s like finding yourself with a really stylish teacup—but the tea leaks out of the bottom of the cup. Or coming upon a breathtakingly elegant bridge—but it sways dangerously when you try to walk across it. You get the idea.

What are the alternatives to designer-centred design?

1. Client-centred design
2. Visitor-centred design

Clients are always asking us to incorporate features which we know are not in their best interests. As far as we can, we should calmly and professionally argue them out of such requests. Or they may ask us to change something which we know will work for them as it is. Ditto.

However, if we can’t persuade them, their site ends up being an example of client-centred design. This is better than designer-centred design, but only just.

The holy grail is visitor-centred design. Everything on such a site makes a visitor’s journey through it easier and more satisfying. And everything is on the site because we have spent a fair bit of time working out who its likely visitors and wanted visitors will be, and what they will want from the site. The client gets a site which works, and the designer gets a site to be proud of.

I have identified the obvious questions we need to ask ourselves again and again in this blog. Including my last post.

There I also said that I had one glaring example of designer-centred website design in expatriate Spain to present to you. It will be named and shamed in my next post.

In my fourth article on cPanel for beginners, I show you how to back up every precious file on your site—including your databases. (For a full list of these tutorials, look at the Articles and Tutorials contents page on the main Web Costa Blanca site.)