01 / DESIGNGet inspired
Look at websites with great designs and think about why they're great designs. It usually comes down to the information, resources, links, and pages being laid out in a way that is easy to see and use. To get ideas about how to design your own site, look at sites which do similar things to get ideas about where you should put different types of content. Stay realistic to your skills. Ease of access is the most important thing.
If you don't have a certain piece of information easily visible, make sure that getting to that information is very logical. Generally the simpler the design, the fewer the pages, the better.
02 / DESIGNChoose a topic and purpose
If you already have a fairly good idea about what your website will focus on, skip this step. If not, here are some things to help you figure that out. First, understand that there are billions of people on the Internet, and a large percentage have websites. If you limit yourself to something that hasn't been done, you'll never get started.
03 / DESIGNMake a plan
Building your website is going to take a commitment of time and possibly money, so set a limit on both, and then dig in. The plan doesn't have to be a big, complicated spreadsheet, or a fancy graphic presentation, but at the very least, you will want to consider what it will do for you and the visitors, what you'll put on the website, what goes where on the webpages.
