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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.
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