| 've been web surfing for quite a while now and now | | | | I had to throw in a little alphabet soup. It stands for |
| it's time you think you need to set up a web site for | | | | Extensible Hypertext Markup Language with |
| your business — But HOW? All of those techie | | | | Cascading Style Sheets in case you're interested, but |
| sites sound like Greek to you? Alphabet soup got | | | | that's not important now. That is the most modern |
| you down? HTML? XHTML? CSS? ASP? PHP? Flash? | | | | of the available templates and the one that the |
| Javascript? Joomla? Ruby on Rails? What is all of that | | | | search engines can index most easily. There are |
| and do I really need to know all of that? In a nutshell, | | | | many places to download free templates, If you |
| No, You don't need to know all of those details, just | | | | Google free xhtml templates you'll come up with |
| yet. This article should give you a better idea of just | | | | many sources. |
| how to get a website done and up. | | | | Next all you just need to do is put your information |
| The first thing you need to do is to acquire an | | | | into the template. You can open the index file using |
| Internet name, you know a dot com, like This is | | | | notepad (included with Windows.) If you open a |
| called a URL, short for Uniform Resource Locator. | | | | window with the web site template (just double click |
| There are other potential suffixes you can use .org, | | | | on the index.html file in the listing) and another |
| .net, .tv, .biz, etc and if you're not in the US, you can | | | | window with the code open in Notepad, you can |
| get country specific suffixes, such as .mx for Mexico, | | | | make a change to the code, save it, then just hit |
| .de for Germany, .jp for Japan, etc. For most | | | | reload (or refresh) in the browser window to see |
| commercial sites a .com suffix is most desirable, | | | | your work. It will take you very little time to figure |
| because people will probably not remember .biz of | | | | out how the web site code is organized. |
| some other suffix. If you're some kind of | | | | If you want to change the pictures in the web site |
| organization, .org is preferred. This has to be unique - | | | | to your own, it, also is relatively simple. You'll need a |
| no two identical names are allowed, so you need to | | | | picture editing program. Google offers an excellent |
| do a little research first. One easy way to check if | | | | one for free called Picasa. You'll need to crop and size |
| your desired name is available is to use a whois site. | | | | your pictures to the same size as those on the |
| An internet search will reveal dozens of places to | | | | template for best results. Again, as you modify the |
| research internet names. | | | | pictures, and add them to the template, you just |
| Next you need to find someone to host your site. | | | | need to hit reload to see how your work looks on |
| There are thousands of companies offering web site | | | | the web site. |
| hosting. The one I like best is Lunar Pages. They | | | | Now that you have a URL, have a web hosting |
| offer unlimited space, unlimited bandwidth (data | | | | service, and have a web site you like, all you need to |
| transfer) unlimited number of e-mail addresses () free | | | | do is upload it to the Internet. For this you'll need a |
| URL registration and a whole lot of extras and is only | | | | file transfer protocol (FTP) program. An excellent one |
| $5 per month. There's a link to Lunar Pages on my | | | | is Filezilla, and it also may be downloaded absolutely |
| site in the lower right of the Web Development page | | | | free. You want the client version. This makes |
| of my Spira Engineering site. A link is provided in the | | | | uploading your web site simple. |
| resource box below. | | | | That's all it takes. Give it a try. It's surprisingly easy |
| Next, you need a template to build your site with. I | | | | to claim your own space on the web. |
| strongly recommend an XHTML CSS template. Sorry, | | | | |