How to build a web-site (for dummies) from start to finish...HELP!

Me | 07/04/02 | Me

[kcvl]

Where do I start? I am the dummie referenced in the headline. And, how do I choose a webhost?

[Starwind]

There's a lot going on under the covers. The visuals are simple, but the ability to search, shop, pay and ship is non-trivial.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Very interesting thread.

To find all articles tagged or indexed using tech_index

Click here: tech_index

I'll just ping some additional people that are also very knowledgable on technical things!

[dvwjr]

Many others have given you advice on where to start. Here is some more...

First, determine what you want to publish to the world.
Second, investigate web hosting according to expected volume. Perhaps start with basic ISP provided web space, and move on from there.
Third, Investigate and choose either freeware, shareware or commercial web design products.

Here is a commercial product you might consider: http://www.v-com.com/product/wep_ind.html
I have no connection to the company, this is just one of many web design tools on the market.

Good luck.

dvwjr

[kcvl]

Thank you all SO MUCH for helping me get started. This is going to take me some time but, at least, I NOW have a place to start. THANKS AGAIN!!!

[Mr Fowl]

I forgot this.....

When working on you webpage or pages make sure you test your pages in diffrent Browsers because some scripts will not work in some browsers.

I test my pages on MIE, Netscape,Mozilla and EarthNavigator.

BOB
Delaware Bay Waterfowler

[kcvl]

When can I plan my vacation?! lol! Those are beautiful lighthouses.

[Mr Fowl]

Sorry for any typo's....Im very tired

[BJungNan]

I agree with you. FrontPage is the way to go.

[Mr Fowl]

"Those are beautiful lighthouses."

I agree, they are all on Delaware Bay. Some of the lighthouse's I use on each page are the lighthouse as they looked on the bay years and years ago.

As for your vacation, your welcome here at anytime!:-)
I live just 3 miles from the Bay. :-)

BOB

[airedale]

I realize that the amount of feedback from a technical standpoint is a little overwhelming Even though your a small business and you want to keep it simple you need to think of this almost as opening a new store in the physical world. It requires the same amount of thought and effort and a business plan for the site (don’t do one at your peril).

The techie part of this has to do with one of the key factors in deciding where to open a new store and that's location, the second is the size and cost of the new store. The next part of all the techie stuff is the way your store looks to the world and what services it offers. Look at those services almost like employees you’d need to hire to run this new store. Look at the way the web site looks and the traffic flow just like you’d do for a new store. I have a friend who used to run a large chain of shoe stores and he spent a lot of time with the layout and where the cash register would be located. The right locations for things and traffic flow increased sales on the other hand not paying attention to these things cost $$$..

The tucows suggestion that someone made is an excellent one. They have a lot of tools that are either free or shareware where you can play with it before you buy it. The tucows site is located at : http://www/tucows.com and use it quite frequently

The actual mechanics of getting the site up and running depends on why you want the site and what you hope to accomplish. Basically your back to the first paragraph above and the need to do a business plan which will force you to make some decisions. The first ones I mentioned above and the second decision is are you capable of learning enough quickly enough to get the site up and running. It’s got to be first class but that doesn’t mean every bell and whistle (most of that’s garbage anyway.). If after looking at some books at the local bookstore about web page construction and reading some of the on line free books you decide you can tackle it then fine, but if your not or it’s going to eat to much time (time being money) then you might want to consider hiring someone to set it up for you. If I had to do carpentry work to get a new store up and running I’d have to hire someone or find a friend to do it for me. I don’t have the skills necessary and even if I tried to do it I’d probably take a lot of time to do it and it wouldn’t be first rate. You’ve got to know your limitations.

We really don’t know the purpose of your proposed site and that’s part of the reason you got more of a the answers on how to pick a web host. (location). If your site is nothing more than an information site with a few simple pages and a link to allow your customers to contact you. That’s pretty easy. The more you add to it or services you want to offer the more you are going to have to learn with a pretty steep learning curve. A plumbing company might have a main page with the information on how to contact you by phone, pager, e-mail and fax. A description of the services offered. It should have a link to a page with comments by customers about the quality of the work. You would want to add some window dressing like some pages with helpful plumbing tips like how to clear out a blocked drain, fix a leaky faucet, why you should strap your water heater to the wall and other helpful hints.

After you’ve decided on the content you then need to figure out how you want it to look just like you would with the store. Spend some time looking at web sites of business similar to yours and see what you like and don’t like. Learn from what they did right and wrong. If you see something you really like you can always change the VIEW to View Source and see how they did what you liked. You can only do that after you have some background in the various web site construction tools. However, even if you are going to use an outside service to build your site knowing what you like and don’t like will make their job easier and help you get what you want.

I’ll give you an example of something that I hate and as a customer it would totally turn me off. Some sites use a dark background with floating lettering in say blue. It’s hard on the eyes. Having a cluttered site that’s not pleasant to look at is a big no no. You only have a few seconds to make that customer decide to look around.

You also need to figure out ways to get people to find your web site. The more ways people can find you the better off you are. Also your site needs to be a value added site to make them want to come back.

This page from one of the web sites I sent you earlier has some great information on things you need to look at and consider when setting up a web site. They are trying to sell you their services but the free newsletters on this page are worth reading while you are in the planning stage. The page with the newsletters on it are: http://www.marketingchallenge. com/articles.html These free newsletters are a wonderful way to make people come back and to subscribe to them which gets their name in front of a potential customer every time it’s sent. It also gives you the information they need to contact the people who visit the site as prospects for their services. Information like that is marketing gold.

[Starwind]

I test my pages on MIE, Netscape,Mozilla and EarthNavigator.

On what OS are you running those browsers, what version of Netscape are you using, and what do you think of Opera if anything? ...if you don't mind my asking :-)

I never heard of EarthNavigator...gotta link? and why do you like/use it?

[glorygirl]

"This is going to take me a LITTLE(ha!) time to figure out. I appreciate ANY AND ALL HELP! I am a VERY SLOW learner so PLEASE BE PATIENT WITH ME!!!"

My friend from other threads, not to worry.

Go to angelfire.com, and don't be put off by all the adolescent stuff you see.

For the first five hours or so, you will feel like you're going crazy. You also won't be able to link from your homepage to FR.

But YOU WILL LEARN the basics of HTML, with help from a good tutorial, which they have linked to the site.

Check it out and let me know.

Regards,GG

[Mr Fowl]

OS.... WindowsXP
Browsers...Netscape 4.7 and 6, MIE 6.0.2600, Mozilla 1.0 and EarthNavigator

I ran across EarthNavigator while surfing about 1 year ago and decided to try out the evaluation (30 day without adds).
I just dont like it the darn thing. Why? I don't know!
The only thing I use it for is just to test my webpages on it and thats all.
earthnavigator.com
I just went to their link using my MIE browser and about 10 popup adds came up..LOL That alone makes me hate it..LMAO

As for Oprea, I never used it or tryed it.

[sourcery]

Everything you always wanted to know about HTML/HTTP/XML/JavaScript/SQL/Web Servers/Browsers/etc., but were afraid to ask

[Starwind]

You might check out Opera

It is lightening fast and has got some great intended functionality in security, privacy, cookie mgmt, multiple pages open, online dictionary, source viewing, multi-platform support, etc, But...it's a bit buggy yet...but worth a free download....

I paid for it, and I was pleased with 6.01, upgraded to 6.03 which seems worse (ignores link history after restart), I'll upgrade to 6.04 this weekend.

My biggest 3 peeves:
1) cookie filtering not working quite right
2) bookmark mgmt almost non-existant
3) seems to have memory leaks which catch up after about 2 weeks solid heavy use.

There are a couple freebies Book Mark Priest and Opera File Explorer which make things tolerable.

Book Mark Priest lets you convert bookmarks between IE, NN, and Opera....so you can them all in-sync (assuming one browser always has a master copy - there is no sort/merge capability, just convert enmasse.

[Starwind]

Opera also has great pop-up blocking.

[Starwind]

Opera plugin mgmt is a bit rough yet...but I don't use to many of them - acrobat, flash, and real player seem to work fine.

[kcvl]

Thank you all for your advice and suggestions. You all have really been helpful and I truly appreciate it.

[Dominic Harr]

Hi.

You'll need to take this in 2 steps.

1. First put up a 'billboard', a site that is only for information.

   This is the (relatively) easy part, you'll only need to know html basics. And absolutely, get a tool like 'Frontpage'. Use it to build the basic skeleton, then look at the html it makes to learn.

2. Second will be the 'interactive', e-commerce stuff.

   You can get by at first with just them 'emailing' orders to you, but in the long run you'll need a database and some db knowledge, and either Java, JavaScript, Perl or ASP knowledge (that's how the web pages 'talk' to the database). Security becomes a concern.

Good luck.

[DoctorMichael]

...........how do I choose a webhost?

Try this:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/710839/posts

I hear the University of Florida is extremely helpful in this regard.