whether you build yourself, or have someone do it for you ~ you are going to have to get some things together. - gather links.... name of sites and links you want to include on your page ( and their buttons if you want)
- gather pics... jpg or gif format and scanned in real size.
- gather info.... a good idea is to write out the content you would like on site. organize in sections> a paper template is an excellent resource.
- having problems deciding what to put? try looking at friends pages, see what they have, or look at pages you like... when i first started building i had a little bit of this...and a little bit of that... and my pages evolved into this. do not think what you put up has to be the final completed site. websites are almost always a work in progress
- how many pages will site be? decide what pages will be static and which will be updated.
- do you have a preferred background image/ buttons/ bullets/ etc already? what about custom graphics? will you make some online ( www.cooltext.com or www.flamingtext.com ) or use a program like adobe or paintshop pro .
- what colors do you prefer? background and font? best to have more than one choice.. and play with the combinations Annabellas is a great site for novice builders
- will you want sound? wav/midi? (this does slow page but small ones are nice)
- what other graphics or pictures would you like to possibly include? cursor effects ? (avoid comet cursor. its spy ware) small java tricks? ( www.dynamicdrive.com has tons of scripts to copy and paste ) but do not over do them! you want fast loading pages.
- where will the page be hosted? free server? your own domain? what about promoting? search engines/ outlook stationary/ for certain items. like calendar or group meetings. i urge you to look at the free options yahoo offers and utilize those.. www.bravenet.com also has great free tools. links to those are easy to incorporate and and very easy to edit! much easier than html :)
- and always remember to respect the works of others. it is not okay to take an image because it is in your temp files. or just because it is there. at the least use an alt tag that gives credit or refers to the site you found it on, or include a small note on the page such as image used with permission... or image courtesy of... if you don't know, that's okay, but credit when told!!
- i say if you don't know its okay ~ as long as you honor any requests to take down or credit. i say this because if ann sends pic to joe, and joe sends to dave, and dave sends to sue, and sue sends to mom, and mom sends to bubba..... along the way the source gets lost and sometimes despite your best efforts, you aren't able to find the original source. but as i said before ! credit when you do find out ! or remove when told.
also> make sure to back your site up to a disc. or have someone burn to a cd for you, in case server goes *poof* ..or shuts down, or someone accidentally overwrites of deletes... it has happened. and DO make sure ( if its a business or organization page) that more than one person has the password info to log in where ever the account is hosted. all it takes is the main person ( and only person with password) to leave or move and forget to give password. and your site is pretty much toast on many servers... no way to edit anymore. once you build your site, it needs a place on the net. if you are not using a free host or your webspace provided by your isp, you need a domain and hosting. hosting and domain names are so cheap right now... you can get a name and hosting for about 30 a year. ( http://www.myraqs.com/specials.html he hosts my domain ~ www.nhyrvana.com
and i am nothing but pleased. ~ ) an excellent deal no matter who you chose, check the support files, ask to speak to other clients, and most important! if you go with a pay server, do you have pop and web access to mail? and is there a help page for the mail? i actually helped someone do their pop ~ took 3 hours, because their server had no help pages at all!!!! and be kind link back....it means hits 4 u and me =o) some linked on this site report as many as 2000 new
page views a week just from nhyrvana! |
