Web 101 - Your First Web Site?

Hey guys. here's a guide to your web options, what you need and some background info. In summary, to put up a web site now is easy.
* Start by registering a domain name
* Point this to a web server
* Install and operate (free) web authoring software that allows you to update the web site.
This will get ya a starting point. If you are interested, follow the detailed steps below.

1. Domain name
The domain name is the name of the web site so a domain name is essential and options are limited to finding a provider on the Internet that can do this for you. I use XXXXXXXX.com since they are cheap so I looked up YYYYYYYY.com, it sounds like the logical choice but someone got there first!

Second choice is ZZZZZZZZZ.co.nz and its still available. Since my provider in the States can't serve up a ".co.nz" name I went to www.1stdomains.co.nz who have pricing here (http://www.1stdomains.co.nz/info/services_pricing.php). This service costs $NZ25 in the first year and $NZ35 each year after that, not a bad deal.

You can register and sign up on that web site as they have a secure credit card facility. This only provides the web address so we need to store all the content somewhere and point this domain name at all the content...on to part two...

2. Web hosting
Web hosting is where the files that define the web site are stored. Options range from doing it yourself to getting a provider to do this for you as above. To get started you can simply point your domain name at my web server since it will be a small site to start with. This server currently hosts two web sites so one more is no biggie. This has the advantage of being quick to configure and, for you guys, free, there's no additional cost to me other than a very slight increase in bandwidth usage but I'm not expecting enough traffic to affect my bill :-)

As you get familiar with how things work you can easily transfer your site within seconds if you choose to host it somewhere else.
* You get total control of all web site content
* You keep a backup of the web site on your own computers.
* I can show you how to do all this...its as easy as creating a Word or Excel document...almost!

Pricing for commercial web hosting services varies widely depending on the service reliability and features that you want so I won't quote here but an estimate is in the range on $20/month upwards.

3. Layout
Layout is the design of the web site. This is the bit you may need help with initially. By this I mean the menus and text type and size and colour. Once you have agreed on a "look and feel" of the web site, most of the pages with look very similar. This allows the author to post new content using a template (making it easier) however, someone has to design it first otherwise it is going to look less than professional.
Doing this yourself requires that you learn some aspects of web design, sounds bad, but is not that bad really!

4. Authoring
What I mean by authoring is the act of adding, changing or deleting content from the web site, including all the pictures and words and stuff.
The easiest way of posting new content is by using software that correctly saves documents in HTML (web format) so they can be posted to your web site and viewed by anyone with a browser. You can also get someone to do this for you but I reckon you guys can do it if you have a good layout.

5. Content
OK what content should I have. In summary, your web site should include the following:

a. name
b. address
c. how to get there
d. contact details, phone, email, fax, carrier pigeon etc
e. commercial description of your business, why are you here, what do you do
f. achievements, what have you done, testimonials like "These guys are cooler than South Island icebergs - Richard Lewis"

However it should also:

a. be easy to use (easier said than done on some web sites)
b. make sense
c. be professional
d. be capable of being found on more than one search engine (can show ya how)
e. attract the type of people (OK, customers) that you want
f. if possible be informative so people with return to your site, if it static people will not come back, boring!

I could go on but now I'm being boring but these are all simply common sense. If you have flair, your web site should look cool, if not, get someone that does :-)

Google Saved My Life Tonight Sugar Bear

Ignore the lame play on words naming this item, I want to sing the praises of the much praised google for allowing me to not only blog this blog but also email (that can play MP3s natively by the way) but also provides single-sign-on to web services that allow me to add up stuff as well as write stuff to share my resume, add things to my shared diary, analyse my web site and don't forget watching funniest non-home videos online.

And it's free (up to a point).
And its platform independant (up to a point).
And its language independant (up to a point).

What is the point? This "free" (as in beer) does not sit well with the, now, old school, IT business model. Things are getting very interesting! I love technology when it delivers these sorts of benefits. Of course, older readers will understand the significant failure of Microsoft Passport to catch the internet-single-sign-on wave as people out in user-land simply didn't trust them. Google are considered quite differently in this regard so we can only wait and see if this will turn out differently for google.

Font Smoothie

I'm amazed how many people using Windows XP still have not heard of font smoothing for LCD displays. If you have a discerning eye and are running Windows XP on an LCD monitor, you will want to tune your Cleartype.

While you are there you should also make sure your monitor is calibrated. I noticed a massive improvement with Windoze after I tweaked the color settings on my monitor. Since every manufacturer does this differently, have a look at the setup guide for your screen, you might be pleasantly surprised.