Here are some tips and hints on how
to get a website set up on your own. HTML is not so hard as it seem,
yet, it does look like greek to someone seeing it for the very first
time! In this page you will find some help along with links on where
you can get a website hosted, your domain, etcetera.
Basic
Introduction to to
having a website, explanations of terms, what does it all mean...
Building My Web Page
Ok now that you have the web page idea and hosting down (see
below for hosting info). How are you going to build this page
you ask?
Free Templates - If you
choose to go with a free web hosting, most of them have free templates
that you just fill in the information on the web page. You do not
need to know how to write html code or to have another program to
use these.
WYSIWYG (What You See Is
What You Get) Programs - These programs consist of html generators.
What this means is that you simply layout your web page with graphics,
text etc. and the html is made for you. All you do is copy and paste
the html into your web-hosting page. These programs work similar to
Microsoft Word, in that you see your layout. You can change the fonts,
the colors the backgrounds, add images etc. to your document and it
will be viewable, as it would look on your web page.
Some of the programs that will do this for you are
- Microsoft Front Page (both the full version and Express),
Netscape Composer,
Dreamweaver.
I personally use Dreamweaver. If you have Netscape on your computer,
you will have Composer. It is an easy program to use and as you get
familiar with it you can do anything with it. Microsoft Frontpage
Express came with some versions of Internet Explorer, if you do not
have it on your computer, do a search for it on the internet. I have
used it and it is good. Dreamweaver is very expensive, around $299.00.
It is the absolutely best program I have used, and I have used them
all. Using all these programs after laying it out, you can save your
document, preview it in a browser, so you see exactly what it will
look like. The HTML is generated for you from your layout. You can
then either FTP it to the web-hosting site or copy and paste the HTML.
Your own HTML code - If
you can write your own html code you can write a web page in Notepad,
Microsoft Word or anything other word processing program. You can
also use it in the above mentioned programs, FrontPage and
Dreamweaver.
With these you can do some things with the WYSIWYG, such as layout,
and then hand code some things in separately, like counters (counts
the visitors to my pages), forms (that people fill out and the info
is sent back to me), Paypal button codes for items purchased.Although
with Dreamweaver you can paste the HTML code right onto the WYSIWYG
and it will recognize it.
FTP what is that? FTP stands
for file transfer protocol. FTP is commonly used to transfer Web page
files from their creator (you and your computer) to the computer that
acts as their server (your web host). There are many good programs
that you can use.
Tips for building your
website
After your page is loaded and available for viewing, be sure and check
it out using both Netscape and Internet Explorer. This used to be
more important, but nowadays, as long as it works fine with IE you're
fine, not many people use Netscape anymore. Keep your image size small
so that the page loads quickly. Large images will cause your page
to load very slowly. I do my own images and logos and do them in an
imaging program called Micrografix Picture Publisher. Another great
program is Paint Shop Pro (PSP). It allows you to design and resize
your images for the web. Center things like pictures, counters, and
headings. Keep your information paragraphs short and having more white
(blank) spaces on the left and right hand sides make it easy to read.
If you choose to use a pretty background for your page, be sure that
it is transparent enough so that your information is still readable.
Example would be having a dark blue background with blue fonts, it
would be very hard to read. White is best with color added from your
images and fonts. If you want to sell items from your web site, consider
using Paypals shopping carts and Buy buttons. They are easy to set
up and give you the html codes you need. Shopping carts get expensive
and as a Paypal member they are free. You can find plenty of graphics
on the internet to use on your pages for free. Just make sure that
you read the terms of service very carefully on each page that you
want to take graphics from. Most graphic designers do not allow you
to use them on commercial pages, but will grant you a license for
a small fee for an entire matching set. You can do searches for a
certain theme and find lots of graphics. Most designers ask that you
place a link back to their web site on your page if you use their
graphics, please give credit where credit is due. And last thing about
graphics, always download them to your own computer and never link
directly to their web site.
**Basic
Introduction to HTML**
You will need a basic text editor,
such as Notepad, which is available on any PC. One thing to remember
is that every HTML tag MUST have a beginning and an end
Here are your basic webpage tags:
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>Your page title goes here</TITLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY>
Everything that you want to appear
on your webpages is put into this space, between the body tags.
</BODY>
</HTML>
This is how you make a link... remember,
you need the full url, including http:// such as: http://www.sleepingangel.com
Linking/Jumping to somewhere on the
same page can be done with anchors... I used anchor at the top of
this page to link to this same page... just somewhere below. Put the
anchor like you see below where you want to bring the visitor to:
<A NAME="basic"></A> You can then link to it by using this if on the same page: <A
HREF="#basic">Basic HTML Help</A> If you are linking to it from a different page, then use the full
link, followed by #basic like such: <A HREF="http://www.sleepingangel.com/htmlhelp.htm#basic">My
Links</A>
Back to the top of the page?
You would write the html coding for
your anchor as: <A NAME="top">
placing that next to your first line of your "table of contents".
Then, further down on the page, where you want to put a "back to top
of the page" type link, just put in: <a href="#top">Back
to Top</a>
Everything between the <a href=...>
and </a> tags is part of the link "text", even if it
is an image, or, includes words and an image.
To add a background image to your page,
you need to add this into the opening body tag; remember that you
can use a .gif or a .jpg, you just have to change the filename in
the following code if you use a .jpg. Substitute your own information
where you see bold text:
If you just want a background color
different than white, add this where you see the bold text: <body
bgcolor="#000000" (whatever color # you want)>
If you want to have a color background
AND a background image (you will have a color background while the
background image loads), you can add this tag: <body background="name
of background.gif" bgcolor="#000000" (whatever color #
you want)>
You can also have a fixed background.
When you scroll down your page, your images and text will move but
the background image will stay in a fixed position.
To add text, you need to set up a paragraph
with paragraph tags. The text will automatically be aligned to the
left:
<p>You put your text here</p>
To center your text you do this:
<p align=center>This
will center your text</p>
To align your text on the right you
do this:
<p align=right>This
will align your text to the right</p>
To make your text bold you do this:
<p><b>This will make your text bold</b></p>
To italicize your text you do this:
<p><i>This will italicize your text</i></p>
To underline your text you do this:
<p><u>This will underline your text</u></p>
In order to make a line break you need
to add this tag wherever you want to return to the next line: <br>.
You can use this tag to make vertical spaces between images, and it
works just like the enter key on your keyboard. The
special character [ ] (non-breaking
space) forces a space break, and can be used when you want
to force a web browser to show:
extra blank space.
Like this.
Just use as many
as you need to create the effect you want.
An entire section of text can be indented
on both left and right edges using the <blockquote>
tag:
<BLOCKQUOTE>
A paragraph can be set off as a quotation, getting indentation on
both left and right sides, by enclosing it in a pair of 'blockquote'
tags. </BLOCKQUOTE>
You can change the font
on your page by adding this directly after the <body> tag. This
will change all the text on that page to the same font.
<basefont="your font name" size="3"
color="#your color">
If you want to change the font for
just a portion of your text you can override the above code by adding
this code:
<font face="your font" size="your
size #" color="#your color number">your text goes here</font>
All of the text in between <font>
and </font> will be changed, but the text before and after this
tag will be the default font that you set up in the basefont tag.
To put an image onto your
webpage, you would put this in your html:
<img src="imagename.gif">
Now, if you wanted to put an image
on your site that is linked to another site (useful when having adopted
creatures/images on your site), you would put this on your site:
Your own ISP - Most ISP's
(your internet provider) provide web space to their members. Some
ISP's limit the free pages to personal pages and commercial pages
they charge a fee for monthly. For example, your internet provider
may allow you free personal pages Up to 2 megs. Megs is how much info
you can store on your web site. When doing a commercial page, 2 megs.
is not much space. For commercial web sites, they charge $14.95-$34.95
depending on the size of your web site. You can host your images on
your site.
Free web hosting - They
usually provide you with some templates that you can use for your
pages. You can change the text and graphics on them to fit your needs.
They often provide enough web space for a small web site. If you are
going to have lots of images or are in need of a shopping cart for
selling, you most likely will not have enough room without up grading
to a pay site. Free web sites all have some form of advertising on
them. Either they are large banner ads or the pop up ads. The pop
up ads tends to annoy people and I recommend for a business site that
you choose a free site carefully. Some free web hosts give you a choice
of either banner advertising, which you can customize for your web
site or pop up banners. I can handle banner ads on a site, but the
pop ups personally cause me to leave a site more than often than I
stay.
Here are some examples of free web sites:
http://geocities.yahoo.com/
http://angelfire.lycos.com/
http://www.tripod.lycos.com/
http://www.fortunecity.com/
Be sure and read the terms of use for the site you choose as some
of them have some strict terms. You could suddenly loose your entire
site if you violate the terms. Free web sites limit the amount of
bandwidth that your site has. Meaning that if your web site ends up
getting a lot of traffic to it, at some point someone will click on
your link and get a "this page has exceeded the allowed bandwidth",
and your page will not be there. It will come back up again, but if
someone is looking to buy something from you, they most likely will
go elsewhere. Most free sites allow you to upgrade to a pay package,
which would give you more space and more bandwidth.
Paid Hosting - Paid hosting
is just that, you pay a per month fee. Some range from $4.95 a month
to $50.00 or more depending on the hosting package you choose. Below
are many links for web hosting, just be sure to read the fine print.
I am partial to Dreamhost... they host this website and all other
domains I have. However, here are many others that you might consider
visiting before you make up your mind :-) This is the most comprehensive list you'll ever find!
**The
Ultimate Domain Purchase with or without Site Hosting Guide**
Your own domain is a web
site that you register for a yearly fee. You pick a domain name of
your choosing. One of mine is www.sleepingangel.com. Having your own
domain name allows you to have ownership of the name, customize it
for your business and usually is easier for others to remember you
by. Remember if you are building a site for your business, you want
to pick a name that is easy and clear for your buyers to remember
you by. There are many places on the net that you can go to and register
your domain from. The costs are anywhere from free to $50.00. The
free domain registrations are usually found on web hosting sites.
So if you register for web hosting with a pay per month plan they
will register your web site for you for free. It is not as complicated
as it sounds, but like everything else read the fine print. There
are a lot of registry sites out there. So be sure and read thoroughly
the terms and conditions.
I am partial to Register.com... I think their site is easy to get
around and are very reliable. However, here are many others that you
might consider visiting before you make up your mind :-) This is the most comprehensive list you'll ever find!
SiteMeter
- I am using this coounter everywhere, good stats, very cool.
All
4 One - Submits your Web Site URL to The Webs most popular
Search Engines in 30 seconds or less.
SubmitExpress
- My personal favorite to submit URLs!
PagePromoter.com
- This powerful software gives anyone the ability to submit your
website and drive traffic to your site with ease. NEVER PAY A SERVICE
AGAIN! With a built in scheduler, meta tag creator, link popularity
checker, Doorway page creator, FTP Uploader and so much more...
PagePromoter gives you ONE powerful program for all of your promotional
needs.
"How
far you go in life depends on your being tender with the young, compassionate
with the aged, sympathetic with the striving, and tolerant of the weak
and strong. Because one day in life you will have been all of these. "
~George Washington Carver
