Step 1 - Determine who will be your Host
The Host is the company and computers (servers) where you place your
website with all the associated Web pages, graphics, photos and related
files.
Your Internet Provider (IP), some times called Internet Service Provider (ISP), is the company that connects your computer to the internet. Your provider may or may not be your website Host!
Types of Hosts:
- Free Web hosts
- Standard Web hosting
- Dedicated, Virtual, and Shared Hosting
- Colocation
Step 2 - Finding a URL Domain Name
Free Domain Names
Your provider "gives" you "free" URL's that advertises "they" are providing your website space... Like:
http://home.comcast.net/~yourname
or
http://yourname.angelfire.com/
or
http://www.users.qwest.net/~username
Purchasing a Domain Name
How to Find & Register Domain Names...
A "custom" domain name provides identity for your site and makes it
easier
for people to remember your websites Uniform Resource Locator (URL or
internet address).
Cost ranges from $8 to $35 a year.
Step 3 - Planning Your Website
Type of site? - What kind of content do you want on your web pages?
- News?
- Information?
- Products?
- Education/Teaching/Reference?
- Galleries?
- Social Networking?
- Blogging
- Face Booking
- Play the Web Page game.
Step 4 - Building Your Website Pages
Building a website requires that you work on one page at a time.
To Create your site you need to know:
- Web Design Basics - Elements of good design and and how to use it on websites.
- HTML, the basic building blocks of all Web pages. It is the pages content, that contains elements like, the photos, the graphics, headings, bulletins, paragraphs, forms, etc
- CSS, is the building blocks of how pages look, it's style. CSS defines the "look and feel" of the pages, it's colors, fonts, size of fonts, the boxes, backgrounds, etc
- Web Software...How you put it together
Web Page Editors - How to find the perfect editor for your needs, a process that will help you learn Web Design, HTML, and CSS.
Step 5 - Publishing Your Website
How to get the pages you created in step 4 on to the hosts servers
(computers) you set up in step 1.
Hosting service usually have on-line tools or you can use free software
or you can use tools that are part of the function of your web page
editing software.
- FTP software for Windows
- FTP software for Macintosh
- Built into your web editing software
Step 6 - Promoting Your Website
- SEO - Search engine optimization
- Ranking optimization
- Word of mouth
- Advertising
- Improving page views, hits, entry points, exit points, etc.,
Step 7 - Useability - Maintaining and Improving Your Website
- Testing your site
- Update content
- Respond to feed back
- How to make the site more useable...