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Well, this isnt directly related but it definitely can be for those of you teams out there looking to design your own page.

Lets start off with the basics, to run a website you need a host and a domain. You can always begin with a free host such as freewebs.com (great for beginners), 100webspace.com (free php and mysql), geocities.com, and many many others. Some teams even create pages through myspace - and connect with other teams. If you do decide to go that route, add the account SponsorPaintball to your friends.

Now that you have your host, you'll need to create a free subdomain or pay for a domain name ( example: www.yoursite.com ). Each host is slightly different and should walk you though this process. For those of you using the myspace method, your address will simply be www.myspace.com/account name. Also, if your a myspace user your invited to add us as your friend, the address is myspace.com/sponsorpaintball.

Time for the fun part - Designing your page. Myspace, frewebs, and geocities all provide you with page designers and premade templates. These are very simple to navigate and should be no problem. If you have a specific look in mind before starting then great! make a sketch before you forget it then get to work. If nothing else atleast have a color scheme in mind before you start putting things together. To design a banner/logo/graphics I highly recommend downloading Photoshop as opposed to using paint. For myspacers there are plenty of free templates available simply by searching google.

Things Not to do:

1) Background Music - No matter how much you may love a song or a short sound clip, there will be others who disagree. Even for those who do, it will become annoying and repetitive after time. If you insist on putting a background sound in, at least provide the user with controls to pause/mute, and preferably don't set the clip to loop.

2) Multi-Colored Background Picture - A background picture that is too bright makes text hard to read and will give your traffic a headache.

3) Frames - Today's websites are all about effectively using Cascading Style Sheets (CSS). Tables are also still widely used although not as efficient as CSS designs. To learn CSS, please visit w3schools.com. Frames that scroll with the user are distracting and generally annoying.

4) Excessive Animations - Using too many clipart animations makes the page look less professional and generally deterrs users from returning.

- Paul Silvis
May 25, 2006

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