Initially, I was planning to pay a web designer to create my website. I don't have strong skills when it come to web design softwares, such as Dreamweaver. What I do know is to create a blog with Wordpress. I know how to get a ready template and change it the way I want it to look like, but for my website I was planning to do a bit more. So I've contacted a couple of web designers to research some prices and they were more expensive than I was planning and could afford. So, for financial reasons, I was forced to leave this idea behind and now I'm creating my own website. I have a problem and I need to break it down, to make it more manageable.
The problem?
I need a website in 3 weeks but I can't afford to pay someone to do it and I know how to change templates online but not how to create a brand new website from scratch.
Solution?
Use lynda.com to learn the basics of web design (html, css, java) and use it as well to finish learning Dreamweaver. I started learning a couple of months ago but didn't finish. I can still have 3 weeks to do it. If I focus my first week on learning everything I can use my two weeks left to work on it. So first I should learn the language - html, css, java - there are loads of videos at lynda.com, then I go to Dreamweaver, learn how to do everything there. Create my layout with Photoshop and transfer to Dreamweaver and add the functions I need.
What if it doesn't work?
I go to wordpress.com and create a website, using their Premium themes, buying a domain and changing everything that I need to make a website look good. I need to find a theme that is adaptable to a full-width so I can have a slideshow or similar, I need a good navigation bar (no menu that you need to click on anything). Everything must the there to easy click. A sidebar with all the content that is secondary and a footer.