Web Design Training & Support
- Training to Your Requirements
- Free Software
- Website - Quick Start
- Webmaster Help
- Costs & Payment
- Where?
I give tuition and support to people who wish to create a website using modern web design practices. I also provide help to webmasters with existing sites and offer "Quick Start" CSS based website designs ready for clients to add and maintain content.
As a complete web publishing solution, I also give tuition and support for content writing, search engine optimisation, graphic design and photography.
Become a Webmaster
Rather than pay for a website to be designed and maintained for you, with my training and support, you can acquire the skills and knowledge to design a better, faster loading, modern website using free software.
You can be in direct control of every aspect of your W3C standards compliant, CSS based website, expanding it at your leisure, and keeping the content right up to date.
Free and Low Cost Web Design Software
My fundamental "web design kit" comprises of the open-source HTML editor, Kompozer, for HTML content, windows notepad to create external style sheets, Firefox browser with web design add-ons, and the open-source FTP client, Filezilla, to upload website files.
For additional, advanced features such as creation of flash components, I use and recommend low cost commercial software from CoffeeCup and the vector graphics package, Xara Extreme. Simpler graphics, however, can be created with the open-source application, OpenOffice Draw.
Training to Your Requirements
I teach to your requirements. You may wish to avoid the more technical aspects and keep things simple, or you might want to learn every aspect over an extended course of lessons. Even if you decide you want to leave all the design and content to me, you can still be involved, make decisions, and witness your website being created from start to finish.
Appointments can cover any of the following:
- Web design introduction: Using Kompozer with one of my Quick Start predesigns to create simple, static web pages with correctly rendered text and images; uploading the files to your hosting server using Filezilla.
- Web design intermediate to advanced: Using Kompozer in code view; introduction to HTML and CSS; semantics, standards compliance and accessibility.
- Photos: How to prepare photos for displaying on the web; ways to create photo galleries and displays.
- Web graphics: Creation of simple graphics using Xara Extreme or OpenOffice Draw; creation and strict standards compliant rendering of flash components using various CoffeeCup software and Xara Extreme.
- Search engine optimisation and content writing: Keyword research; writing optimised page title tags and meta descriptions; optimising URLs and link anchor text; content writing for good readability whilst including keywords at optimal density, frequency and proximity; Google webmaster tools - creating and submitting an XML sitemap.
Website - Quick Start
If you would prefer to get on with writing content for your site by yourself with a minimal learning curve, I can create a hand coded style sheet and website structure, install Kompozer and the Filezilla on your computer, and teach you how to add content via the graphical interface / design view. This can be supplemented both by further tuition appointments and remote support.
Webmaster Help
If you already have a website, perhaps written with MS Frontpage or similar, and wish to learn modern design practices using clean, W3C standards compliant code and CSS, then contact me to discuss your requirements.
I can help with most aspects of static page web design including CSS style sheets, site layout, HTML coding, semantics, standards compliance and accessibility, flash creation and embedding, contact forms, and more. Further technical information regarding coding and standards compliance can be found at my website technical page.
Costs and Payment
Design and tuition appointments - 2 hours
My call out charge is £50 to £80 (depending on your location) and includes up to two hours of my time.
Design and tuition appointments - 3 hours
My call out charge is £70 to £100 (depending on your location) and includes up to two hours of my time.
Payment
I collect payment in cash on conclusion of each appointment and forward a receipted invoice by email on my return. Other forms of payment, such as BACS, or cheque, are available by arrangement.
No VAT to pay
Because I work from home, I have low overheads and do not need to be VAT registered.
Where?
I am based in Irlam and cover most areas of Greater Manchester and Cheshire including Glazebury, Hollins Green, Cadishead, Irlam, Eccles, Worsley, Monton, Walkden, Swinton, Pendlebury, Salford, Trafford, Urmston, Flixton, Carrington, Stretford, Sale, Altrincham, Wythenshaw, Cheadle, Hale, Lymm, Culcheth, Warrington and Leigh.
Further afield, I also cover areas of Bolton, Bury, Heywood, Rochdale, Oldham, Aston-Under-Line, Hyde, Stockport, Wilslow, Knutsford, Northwich, Runcorn, Widness, St Helens, Newton-le-Willows, Wigan and Skelmersdale.


