Building a website is not unlike designing the interior of your home.

We can pay interior designers to come out with the interior design ('id') ideas. They can also implement the ideas. They have connections with material suppliers and contractors and can ultimately package a total id design/implemenation concept to you for $xxxx..

How many of us actually can afford an id or own a home that warrants the services of an id?

From young we have been familiar with home concepts and improvements because we visit each other, we get ideas from the furniture shop, from media advertisements, etc. We all have our own ideas of how to improve touches to our home aestically and/or functionally.

Sadly when it comes to website, we have been surfing here and there, yet often do not have a clue about how to create and decorate our home in cyberspace. And when we ask about the costs of building a website, it range from few hundred to few thousands dollars.

This is bewildering? Sure because we got the guy who thinks you own a huge estate and offers the whole works complete with services of an id and full imported Italian marbles, leathers...

On the opposite end, there are open source web software that can be likened to an ikea-like shop except you need your own transport to cart the stuff. There are manual, wikis and forums to help us to put the stuff together. You learn to decorate and ornament your web home DIY style of course (it's ikea!).

You can dive into the open codes and start tweaking html, xhtml or css styling files to give the site your signature - manipulating colors, combination, lining, fonts, display blocks, etc. If you are a novice, do not despair. It is not as difficult as it looks - just do a google with keywords like 'learn' 'tutorial' 'html' 'css' and try out some of the examples. The codes are actually not too cryptic and in fact some are quite common sense like 'footer' 'sidebar'.

A type of popular software for building websites is known as content management system software (CMS or web publishing systems). This software runs on top of an 'underlying' database and thus offers powerful features for storing, categorizing and retrieving information. In fact if you are reading this from some e-magazine, the e-zine itself is running some kind of content management software. We have all experienced using web publishing applications one time or another when we read the online newspapers.

If you think these systems complete with database, web servers and all must be expensive - you are right - SOME YEARS AGO cms cost a bomb for any enterprise to invest. But not anymore. Today we have open softwares like Linux, Apache and MySQL..and there are also open source CMS available that glues everything together.

Just google for 'content management system' 'buy 'open free' and do your own findings.

Start paying more attention to the look and feel of websites when you visit and you will gradually develop a knack for building and decorating your web home like you have always done for your brick and mortar home.

Ultimately find a level of comfort that best befits your idea of your web home.