Unless you live in a cave and don't like contact with the outside world, you probably have created some kind of online presence for yourself. It could be a personal website, a corporate website, a Facebook or MySpace profile, a chat room setup, or a personal or family blog. The current Internet technologies make it easy for someone with little technical know-how to build and keep up relationships within the online community, but knowing how to create a website is always a big plus to you.

You do not need to be a computer engineer to design or create a website. Neither do you need to have a strong understanding of design theories and taxonomy. However, you will certainly need to be intelligent, self-motivated, and patient to learn the tricks involved in designing a website.

Perform initial review of your website's features and contents. Having your peers help you do it may help as they may provide varied opinions. They may also be able to see technical issues even before it gets released. Aside from this, having many people help you should provide you with lots of input under a very short time.

Get a "how to" book on web design and read through it carefully. Start out practicing your newfound skills in an open source web design software package. It won't cost you anything extra. After you've become confident in your web design abilities, you might want to purchase some server space and build your own webpage. This is taking the first baby step into building your own software.

Don't underestimate the value of mentorship. If you know someone who has worked on portals in the past, they can give you pointers on how to create a website. This way, you can build off of their knowledge and avoid any difficulties that they might have had to put up with when they built their sites.

While designing the website, ensure that you accord the much needed attention to intricate details. A good practice is to ensure that you design templates that need minor modifications to suit the content on specific web pages or sections of your website. This ensures that there are no technical glitches in collating different web pages into your website.

You do not need to be a computer engineer to create a website. Neither do you need to have a strong understanding of design theories and taxonomy. However, you will need to be intelligent, self-motivated, and patient to learn the tricks involved in designing a website. Be sure to catalog the needs of your website. Buy a primer on web design and read it thoroughly. Pay attention to detail when you design a website. Many innovations in online living make it easier and faster for those who are less technically inclined to do this, especially by internet portals, but knowing how to do it all yourself is always better.