Website Design Questions

1. Do you design websites for a living?

No, not at all. This is only the second one I've done. My first website was my side business (www.cathedralstone.net), and I recently began working on a third one, which is a medical website. It uses a regular discussion board rather than a guestbook (www.growthhormonedeficiency.org), but the site itself has a long way to go.

2. Are you interested in building more websites, or possibly helping someone else?

Maybe if I had more time, but I'd rather spend my spare time on music.

3. How did you learn about website creation and search engine optimization?

I learned a lot at places like Webmaster World, and many, many hours of reading. A lot of it was trial and error. I haven't optimized the site for search engines yet, but that's coming soon.

4. On the opening page, how did you get that water-like effect over the BHS logo?

It's a java water applet, and I had to buy a license to use it. It was also a pain to install and tweak, but the result was worth the trouble.

5. What software did you use to build the website?

I used Dreamweaver 4, Fireworks 4, and some Photoshop Elements.

6. Where did you get the Guestbook, and was it easy to install?

The guestbook is Advanced Guestbook 2.3.1 and it was free. However, the big problem with this guestbook is that it's completely unfinished and loaded with bugs in it's original form. When I first downloaded it, it would conflict with my server host software and wouldn't run at all. I looked everywhere, and there really weren't any good guestbook programs out there. Infopop (Ultimate Bulliten Board) made an intial Ultimate Guestbook 1.1 that looked really cool, but they stopped developing it for some reason. I didn't find any others that I liked, so I decided to put the effort into fixing the AG 2.3.1. I hired a PHP guy to re-do the code, fix the many bugs, and then customize it in a cool way. So, the guestbook you see is very unique, and it can't be obtained anywhere in it's current form. I can understand a little PHP programming, but re-doing the entire guestbook was way over my head. There are still minor things that come up that have to be fixed.


7. Why are there so many misspelled words?

Maybe it's just the 'Spelling-Bee' rebel in me or something. I don't know. Actually, the truth is that I just can't spell anymore!!