When I first started my art website, I used Microsoft Frontpage. It was okay for gaining experience, but not for a finished product. I then moved to Adobe GoLive (from Adobe Creative Suite 2), which I liked, but it quickly became outdated. I then moved to an online platform - Joomla - with a HUGE learning curve, but it taught me the importance of coding, and I now code all of my websites by hand. Here is a far-from-complete list of programs to help you along your web design journey, in whatever phase you are in:

• Programs for purchase:
  Benefits: user friendly, comes with help files and guides.
  
  
• Adobe Design Premium CS5 - Dreamweaver for web design, photoshop, illustrator, and more - everything you need!
• For anyone new to programming, the best option (my opinion) for designing a website is Adobe's Creative Suite, because it includes EVERYTHING you need to build seamless, professional webpages. Image optimization is so important for an art website, and having photoshop included makes this ideal, if you have the funds!
• Corel Website Creator
• Web Design Studio Professional
  
  
• Free programs for linux users:
  I was never able to get the hang of these - coding by hand seems easier, but they are worth a try!
  
  
• Bluefish
• NVu
• Many more - search the Software Center under Applications (for Ubuntu)!
  
  
• Online Programs - work on your website anywhere!
  (all of these programs are available for free through StartLogic hosting - see the Web Hosting page for more):
  
  
• Joomla - I've used this program. It definitely has a learning curve, but is a nice program, with hundreds (or thousands?) of great add-ons from the developers and community! (see the Joomla Help Site or the Joomla Forums to learn more)
• Drupal - I've never used this one, but it may have a high learning curve like Joomla.
• Wordpress - free, but limited design capabilities - can create a blog-style website.
  
  
• Build your website by hand:
  It has taken me many years (7+) to learn to program well enough to write all of my code by hand. It has been a long, frustrating road, but in the end it's completely worth the struggle. The benefits of writing your code by hand are:
  
  
• Sometimes programs bloat the code, making it messy to work with, giving inconsistent results, and taking more time to load your webpage.
• Cheap! If you have Firefox (free), download the fireFTP add-on for Firefox or use a program like FileZilla (free), and Notepad (also free - I suggest the standard Notepad++ or the Portable App Notepad++ if you are downloading to a computer for which you do not have administrative rights - Notepad++ FAR exceeds regular Notepad!), you have all the tools necessary to make a website!
• You can work on your site almost anywhere, all you need is the internet and notepad - something most all computers have.
• If you use linux (Ubuntu rocks!) you can download Kate - it's a fantastic program for coding in PHP. Gedit also works great.
  
  
• The only downside to this method is you must know how to code.