Steps I do to create a website for myself without a CMS.

1. Brainstorming
The first thing I do is a brainstorming session.
I think of the features the website will have, write them down. Then I ask friends, they could have good ideas too.

2. Sketching
I get a piece of an A4 paper, a pencil, and begin to sketch the layout for the website.
Sometimes I use a graphic tablet to do the sketch on photoshop, but I really prefer paper and pencil.

3. Photoshoping
From the ugly, curvy lines paper sketch, I transform it into a clean image using photoshop.
Applying colors. Colors are not used at a random order. I’ll use a color wheel, and with the wheels rules I stick to a color pattern.

4. Slicing (or not)
With photoshop I slice the image to fit my needs. I try to slice as few images as possible.
To say the truth, slicing looks outdated to me.

5. CSS/XHTML
I do a paralel work on an external css file, and the main index file. I create the layout which looks like the image in photoshop.

6. Lorem ipsum
I add lorem ipsum text to the content area.

8. Fix details
A little padding here, a little padding there, the link color is not right. Those kind of things I do at the end until I’m really satisfied.