Conceptualize,
Build and Publish a Web site
by: Sushanth Bastawade
Conceptualize, Build and Publish a Web site - What's
required to get started
All of us knowingly or unknowingly, use a standard
decision making process in our day-to-day lives. The
very first step of this process is to decide whether
TO DO or NOT TO DO. If the choice is TO DO, we think
of the various ways and means of attaining our objective/s,
compare their pros & cons and take a final stand.
The aim of this write up is to make you aware of the
resources that are needed to achieve your TO DO objective.
The TO DO objective is to conceptualize, build and
publish your web site. The first step is to decide
what you want from your web site. Do you want a site
that your near and dear ones can visit from time to
time (I assume you are far away from them.) or do
you want a site that sells a product, service, brand
or image? Whatever the purpose of your web site, the
absolute essentials to have a site up and running
are as below: -
The 5 Essentials: Spare Time - You must have lot of
spare time at your disposal. So if you are a house
maker whose kids have grown up, a worker who has just
been shown the pink slip or college student on vacation
then time shouldn't be a problem for you. Those hard
pressed for time can contract the web page design
work to a professional web master or use a Site Creation
tool.
HTML Knowledge - HTML is NOT a programming language.
Its basics can be mastered within a month and the
learning curve is not too steep. The fact that anyone
can learn HTML and create Web pages is the reason
why the Internet is so popular and has such varied
content. Learn the HTML tags and how to use them.
Skip complex topics like frames, style sheets, CGI,
JavaScript. Buy a good book on HTML. It will teach
HTML and also give links to various online HTML resource
sites.
HTML Page & Site Creation Tools - The main reason
for using these tools is to speed up the process of
page / site creation. However, most of the tools do
not produce correct HTML and editing by hand is necessary.
Your HTML book will provide reviews of these tools
and links to their web sites. If you know HTML and
plan to have 5-6 web pages in your site, a rudimentary
editor like Netscape Composer will also suffice. For
managing a site with huge number of pages you will
need to use a Site Creation Tool.
Make provisions for a fast Internet connection and
a room where you can work without distractions.
Find an ISP (Internet Service Provider) or IPP (Internet
Presence Provider) i.e. a web hosting company, to
host your web site. Crystallize a Concept: With the
5 main things taken care of, you should be ready for
Conceptualization. Some of you will already have a
concept or idea for your site, but take a moment and
download AffMasters.pdf course from http://aff-masters.sitesell.com/
(copy & paste the link in you browser and hit
enter). The AffMasters.pdf is free to download. Please
read page 35 " Day 2 - Brainstorm Your Site Concept
". I am sure that you will appreciate the authors’
approach and find the most suitable concept for your
site. This course also gives a few pointers about
things to avoid in a web site. Make notes and use
them as you build your site.
Build your Site: Once you have arrived at a concept,
use your HTML Knowledge, HTML Page Creation Tools
and ready-made Templates to build the web pages. Edit
the HTML to make the visual just right. Load the pages
with content. Keep in mind that Content is King. Keep
the page design simple yet elegant. You should Value
Content over flashiness. Don't use too much graphics,
if you do the page will take time to load. Impatient
surfers might close their browsers and move on.
Publish your Site: To enable surfers to view your
web site, you must publish your pages to a server
that is connected to the Internet i.e. a web server.
When you publish a page to a web server, you upload
that page on to the web server. You can upload the
pages on the server of an ISP (Internet Service Provider)
or on the server of an IPP (Internet Presence Provider)
i.e. a web hosting company. Usually it is better to
use an IPP because -
An IPP offers more web space (20 MB free) than an
ISP (5MB).
IPPs usually allow CGI on their servers.
To upload web pages to an ISP server a FTP (File Transfer
Protocol) client is required. Some IPPs (e.g. NetFirms)
also require FTP client to upload files to their servers.
However there are IPPs (e.g. FreeServers) that allow
you to upload your files directly to their servers
without FTP. You should prefer the IPPs that do not
require an FTP client because it is much convenient
and quicker to upload your files using a Site Manager
provided by the hosting company.
For the complete article visit http://NewsForUse.FreeHosting.net/
About The Author
Sushanth Bastawade - Web master, http://NewsForUse.FreeHosting.net/
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