If you have opted for one of the free webhosting services, then you may find that part of your page is constantly being overlaid by an advertising window.

If this is the case in your situation then you can optimise your layout by making sure that important information doesn't get covered up.

I got fed up with doing this on my old site, and I wanted to use a domain name so I opted to use a paid hosting service.

If you are using the space provide by your ISP, or are paying for webhosting then you don't have to worry about this.

I have mentioned elsewhere that there could be 2 billion or more pages available for web surfers to view. Because of this you have between 8-10 seconds to get something interesting to attract the casual surfer to have a closer look at your site.

If you don't manage to do this, they will have hit the back button on their browser and be gone, maybe never to return.

Assuming that you manage to grab their attention, you now have to provide a good first impression. Most people take about 90 seconds to form an initial impression about something and colour plays a very major part in this process.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, but text plays a very important part of most web sites and it needs to be readable.

Personally, I don't stay very long at sites that use a Black background with dark Blue text, or any other combination of colours that prove difficult to read. Hey, with a couple of billion pages out there, I can soon find another one with the same, or similar information, in an easy to read format.

The key factor to remember is to provide contrast between the text and the background, A dark background should have light coloured text, and a light background needs dark coloured text.

You also need to be careful if you are using a tiled pattern as a background. This can also make the text very difficult to read unless done properly.

The important thing to remember is that not everybody has 20/20 vision.

The end user should be able to adjust the size of your text to suit their eyesight.

Colour is a very personal thing, almost everybody has a favourite colour. Some colours also have a more or less universal meaning (e.g. Traffic lights the world over use the same colours)

Although not all colours have the same meaning in all cultures. For example White is often associated with weddings in Western society, though in some countries, White is the colour for funerals.

Designers, manufactures and advertising companies world-wide spend millions of dollars in market research before choosing what colours to use for new products.

Another point that you may want to take into consideration is that approximately 10% of all males suffer from colour blindness (i.e. the inability to distinguish between certain colours). You really should consider this if males make up a large part of your target audience.

Communicate with Colour has some useful information.
Designing for the Colour Blind gives some good advice on this subject.
Gale Encyclopedia of Medicine explains what colour blindness is.

Still want more information on colour? Then have a look at the Colour Theory section at Kodak's extensive Digital Learning Centre.

No matter what colour scheme and layout that you choose, once you have made your decision, then you should stick to it. Just look at any of the major sites that you visit. There is a consistency about the pages.

This doesn't mean that you can't introduce some variety, many sites have a different look for different sections of the web site. The best way to do this is to maintain the same layout for the pages but use a different colour scheme for different sections.

Anyway, over to you, work out how you want your pages to look, and start creating them. Then you need to decide how to link them all together.