QUESTION: I would like to make a website, but I don't know how to get started.
MY GUIDE TO HOW TO START BASED ON
EXPERIENCE
YOU WILL NEED: -Determination and patience. {if you have never made a website before, don't expect to be perfect. it
takes a lot of time, trials and erros, as well as patience to make websites. If
you don't have patience and determination, rethink about making sites because
you will likely give up after a while.}
-Programs: Frontpage, Dreamweaver & Photoshop {The most important programs are Microsoft Frontpage or Macromedia
Dreamweaver. As well as Adobe Photoshop. If you have no idea how that works,
then maybe start with pagebuilders such as ones in geocities that helps you
understand how a webpage works.}
CONSIDER THE FOLLOWING
bandwidth-You will need to know that any website takes bandwidth. if you are
downloading something off the internet, you are taking bandwidth from the person
who created the site. This is usually allocated monthly, and specific amounts of
bandwidth is given depending on how much you pay for them. Usually if bandwidth
runs out, a website will be down till the next month.
space-Any siteneeds an adequate amount of space to host your files.
For example, if you have a website with many pictures and media, you will need a
big amount of space. If your site is small, then you won't need as mnay.
domain-Do you want a proper domain like mysite.com? You usually have to pay
annually for those. They include .org .net and .com domains. If you use free
ones, they are likely to be something like
http://freewebs.com/mysite/index.htm
hosting-Hosting is what keeps your website online, so that people can visit
from all over the country. There are free hosting and paid hosting. There are
different ranges of prices, as well as space and bandwidth. Good free hosting is
VERY hard to find, and I mean extremely difficult. Most times they have annoying
pop ups, banner ads, an uploading limit of 500kb (so you cannot upload files
bigger than that, limited bandwidth and space, server may be down frequently and
others. Paid hosting is the best option if you are serious about your site.
ftp uploading- This took me so long to learn. FTP is a program that
connets directly to your computer, so when you upload your website, you won't
need to spend time uploading each file individually. If you've uploaded files on
photobucket, you'd know what i'm talking about. FTP is easy to learn, and once
you connect, you just select a folder and upload.
HOW TO GET STARTED
So you know the basics, and now it's time to get down to the MAKING.
Firstly, do you know anything about html? This stuff is quite easy to learn, at
least the basics are. Try looking on google for some tutorials. Or take a course
if you're at school on web design. We learned a lot in computer studies on how
to make websites, and they teach you step by step how programs like dreamweaver
works.
If you want to make good layouts, the first thing is to get inspiration. Go on
sites like Aethereality.net and see how they make it. See the different designs,
go to your favourite site and see what's so great about their layouts.
Take that back and work on it with photoshop. There are a range of textures that
help enhance graphics, and you can download them on many websites.
Make sure you have contents ready. Maybe you would like to make it as you go or
have it all up beforehand. If you have the contents ready, such as what pictures
you want, what text, then it will be easier once you start your website.
Save regularly. When you make websites, it's important that you perhaps make a
few copies of the page before you want to test things out. Incase you absoutely
stuff one up, which I've done countless times, and realise you don't have a
backup, then all your previous work would be wasted. Sometimes when you're
unsure what could go wrong, best to save a few copies of the same file, perhaps
in different folders.
Think about your navigation, whether you want it on the layout on top, or the
side. Maybe even have a rough sketch of how you want your site to look like.
Test it on internet explorer or whatever browser you use, sometimes what
displays on the webmaking program is very different from what it looks like on
the browser.
Save your files in one folder especially for that website. You could have
subfolders for individual pages if you'd like, but save them all under a folder
and give it the name of your website, or else it would be hard to find.
IMPORTANT POINTS TO CONSIDER
-Do not COPY AND PASTE Information from other sites! People spend a lot of
time and effort on their webpage and it isn't fair if their contents were taken
to another site without credit or a link back, or without the permission of the
webmaster. If you really like information from a site, please either email them,
or credit them.
-Think of some original contents. Put something different on your site, if
all the sites are exactly the same, then it would be pointless to visit them
all. If there are different things, even your own writing or creation would
attract more visitors.
-Keep your layout consistent. Don't change layouts for every page, if you do
that, it is very confusing and people would probably think they're entering a
new site. If you have a special section devoted for a specific category, then
that is fine.
-Don't put background images everywhere, especially ones with pictures. If you
see text over an image, is that easy to read? Probably not. When I come across
sites like that, they seriously hurt my eyes literally, and I'd need to select
the text to read it carefully, so please be aware!
-Is your background colour matching your text? If your background is a bright
green, and your text is a yellow, that's beyond impossible for anyone to read.
-Make sure your site doesn't have too many popups. If I enter a site and each
page brings me 6 pop up ads, and it takes me longer to close them than to
navigate, I'd probably give up because I wouldn't have the patience to close
them all before more pops up.
-Try not to stretch the page out with a very large layout or big text. It may be
frustrating trying to scroll all directions just to read a few words. Test it on
a 800x600 screen resolution, if that doesn't stretch too much, then you'll be
fine.
-Make sure you DO NOT direct link from other websites. You read about bandwidth
and how people have to pay, is it really fair if you steal their bandwidth? No!
So upload things onto your own server, instead of putting a link to your site of
a video clip that is not on your server.
Try to make it as best as you can. If you are determined enough, try make
more sites in the future. From experience, they get better each time you make
one. There is no such thing as being right and perfect from the start. It is like
you need to master learning a new language in a day, that's just impossible.
I am not an expert webdesigner, there are still many many things for me to
learn, but it has taken me at least 5 years to learn what I've just written on
this document, so it is my honour to share this with you. I wish you the best of
luck.
Use the below sources and anything you can find and if you
would like me to give advice or review your website, I am very happy to do so.
However, right now I am too busy to make a website for you, so please don't ask
me that, it would be too time consuming and I won't have the energy to look
after a lot of sites.
THE SHOW
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and there is always plenty to do!
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Yolei: Don't worry,
it's never too late to go out and make your dreams become a reality!
TK: The darkness has not been conquered, and it will continue to
fight against the light forever. But as long as people remember to
follow their dreams, evil will be kept at bay. And on days like
today, it's hard to see any darkness anywhere. Now it's up to our
children, and to children everywhere, to follow their dreams. Who
knows where they'll end up... But the only way to find out is to
take the first step into adventure.
Davis: Could you kids be a little more negative? The only person who
can take your dreams away is you; by giving up on them!
Oikawa: Thank you Cody. If only I'd had your optimism I might not
have ended up with such a sad fate. But I was unable to maintain
hope through the bad times and I drowned in my despair. If only I'd
had friends like you, or allowed myself to have them.
MAKE A WEBSITE
