[radio_flyer]

I think I want to do a web page, but I have no idea where to begin..First I want to say is I am not that bright or better said, educated, on computers...lol.....I did a search on line, but the info I found was ummm rather difficult... So if anyone has any links on "how to" etc.. I'd greatly appreciate it.. .......Oh, and can it be done, "free", or do I have to pay for the space????

Thanks...........smile

"If you can't get rid of the skeleton in your closet, you'd best teach it to dance."
-George Bernard Shaw - (1856-1950)

[bptoo]

Hi radio flyer,

I'm with you on this, building a website from scratch looks really complicated. I've been reading up on it, and my brain hurts.... Some Internet Service Providers (mine is Comcast) give you free web space for being a customer. They gave me 25MB to start with, and I can buy more if I need it. It's also real simple to use, real user-friendly. You just do a lot of pointing and clicking. Simple instructions to follow. Many ISPs offer stuff like this to their customers, you might want to check yours. Also, do a search at Google for something like "Free Web Site Space". A lot of places will give away space just to get the advertisement. I'd be glad to do a little searching around for you when I get home this afternoon and let you know what I find.

Hopefully you can get some better answers from the others. Some of the gang here have very creative and impressive websites.

Hope to talk to you soon!

bp

"You might as well learn to like yourself; you have an awful lot of time to spend with you."

[dexter]

radio to start your own website these are the things you need to do (I've included a lot of information but the process itself is very simple, check the bottom of this post for the "short" version.

Find Webspace:

First check with your internet service provider (ISP), many of them will allot you a limited amount of webspace (the amount is relatively small but plenty of space for a good personal website) free as a part of your "contract" with them. (Your "ISP" is the company you pay to give you access to the web: AOL, Comcast, etc). I know comcast offers free space, compuserve does, i think AOL does, etc. In some cases you have to go to customer services to "activate" your space, but it is still free (this way they aren't reserving space for the vast majority of subscribers who won't use it)

If your ISP does not offer this, there are other free choices available, check around, these will add advertisements to your web pages, that's how they make money in lieu of asking you to pay. Some will put ads on your pages and others will give visitors "popup" ads, which of course some people find annoying. Check what kind of ads they use by visiting a site using their free service before you chose.

If you don't like the idea of ads, paid webspace can be relatively cheap, depending on what you require. You won't need a large amount of space, or special software for things like setting up an online store, lots of email addresses, etc. In all cases, their most basic service should do you fine. My website (<A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.idexter.com>http://www.idexter.com</A>) is hosted with OLM and I pay $8.95 a month, but even this is relatively expensive. I've heard of other companies offering space for under $4.00 a month. I stick with OLM because I like their service and reliability and I plan on expanding someday.
<hr>
Setting up

Once you get your space chosen, the company will tell you your "url" (the name people type into their browsers to get to your page) and also a url with a password for you to use to upload your pages and photos and things.

If you are using your ISP space your url may be something long, like "www.compuserve.com/ourworld/members/yourusername." Once you get more familier and expand your website and if you want to go further you can purchase your own "domain name" so people can access your site with a url that you chose. "idexter.com" is my domain name that i have personally registered. To start off though it will be best to use the url that the service gives you. no need for the extra expense if you are going to keep your site personal and simple.

Some paid services may require a domain name, if you want to go that route usually the hosting service can set up and "install" a domain name for you.

They will also supply instructions for uploading these files. Most services have a very simple web interface that lets you pick files and click on them to upload, create folders, etc. You can also use more advanced tools but the suppplied interface will let you get started easily.
<hr>
Building your site

Now you have a place to put your site so all you need is the content.

Again, if you are getting your webspace from your ISP they may offer a simple tool for building websites. With these you can chose from several "themes" that include the colors and graphics that give your site its look, and then you can choose the photos and personal graphics you want to upload, add the text you want, and then their tool will put them all together for you. This is probably the best way to get started, but the disadvantages are that you don't have as much control over how your pages look, and since you choose from a predefined "style" the look of your site will not be unique. This usually isn't important when you are just starting out.

If you want to build your own pages there are two ways. You can buy some web page building software. This will give you all the tools you need to not only build the pages, but manage links between pages, manage graphics, customize style, etc. With this kind of software, you put the pages together on your computer screen, like you would with page layout software or a word processor, and the program generates the HTML code for you. HTML is the code that browsers read to display your pages. The HTML is responsible for everything you see on every web page... the colors, text, text location, graphic names and locations, clickable links, etc. You can easily see what HTML looks like by chosing "View => Source" or "View => Source Code" on the menu on top of your browser. Don't get scared by it, it will look like gobbledygook at first, and you don't need to know it as your web building program (or ISP provided tool) will generate that code for you invisibly.

Web building applications can run the gamut of prices. I use Adobe GoLive which is a professional tool and fairly expensive. Macromedia DreamWeaver is another popular professional program, as is Microsoft Frontpage. There will be lots of other software you can find cheaply or maybe even for free. Some software is inexpensive because it is very basic and assumes you know HTML and want to write most of the code yourself... this is NOT what you want! You want something inexpensive, basic, and easy to use.

The other choice is indeed to write your very own HTML code. Many people don't realize that you don't need ANY special tools at all to create web pages. The HTML files are simple text files that you can create using any basic text editor like notepad or simpletext. Some advanced website builders actually prefer to create directly in HTML because the code comes out "cleaner" without a lot of the superflous nonsense that the programs add. An example of a site built by a friend of mine ENTIRELY by hand is http://www.webmonkey.com. If you look at the "how to library" under the first topic "authoring" you'll see that the tutorials start right at the beginning with HTML basics. You can go on and on there and learn advanced topics like CSS, dynamic HTML, scripting, setting up an online database, and more. The Webmonkey taught me everything I know about HTML.

Once you get your basic site setup, if you are interested in learning more I do highly recommend the Webmonkey. Even though I use the GoLive application to generate my pages there are still things I like to adjust or tweak by writing to the HTML code directly, so it is a good knowledge to have. It's not nearly as complicated to get started as it first seems.
<hr>
Summary

I've included a LOT of information that is not needed to for starting out.

To simplify:

first find webspace, check first if your internet service provider offers space for free as a part of your subscription, and find out what you need to do to "activate" it. If you can't get space through your provider, check for free hosting (with advertisements) that many companies offer on the web. Or you can purchase space for a monthly fee.

second get the instructions from the web host you have chosen for uploading your pages and graphics, and the URL that people will use to access your site. Most providers will give you a simple web based tool to do the uploading of the actual files, they will give you instructions as to how to access that tool and instructions for using it.

third build your pages! chose the graphics and photos you want to display and think about the text you want to add. to make the pages, many providers will offer a simple tool, either web based of for you to download, to construct simple pages for you.

fourth upload those pages using the instructions the host provider gave you and thats it! If you are using the host's web building tool it may take care of the uploading automatically for you.

And as you add to your site, you can find more advanced software if you want to have more control over how your pages look, and/or you can learn HTML coding to give you more understanding and more control over the design of your pages. If you want to learn HTML, start with the basics at http://www.idexter.com

[LadyDragus]

www.yahoo.com look at geocities..

that webpage has a simple way to start your own webpage..
and Tripod.com is also another free website servece.. all you have to do is have what information you want to put up..

I have a website on Tripod and I love it

<A target="_blank" HREF=http://crystalrose69.tripod.com/>http://crystalrose69.tripod.com/</A>

Look around at my site that is all done through the softwar that is on thier website.. I only added the pics and wording that I wanted.
You do not have to know much about anyithing to build a website these days..

Also look at what dexter put, for he is more detialed than I can explain..

<font color=purple>The way to love anything is to realize that it might be lost.
- G.K. Chesterton
<font color=purple>

[dexter]

>>Also look at what dexter put, for he is more detialed than I can explain.

But also don't be discouraged just because I wrote a lot... don't think it is complicated to get started because it isn't!

Tripod may be a good recommendation if your service provider doesn't offer space or lacks a simple tool for getting started. Lady Dragus's site looks very nice and the ads are not distracting. They look very much like the ads at the bottom of these forums but are at the top instead. They are simple and don't distract from the design and layout of her site.

I should have mentioned that the most important thing about making a "good" website is the CONTENT! If you have interesting stuff to share, good photos or artwork, etc then that's the most important thing for any website. Setting it up all fancy is secondary. I like LD's website because i love the artwork and enjoy the photos there.

-- The world is what we make of it --
-- Dave
-- <A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.idexter.com>http://www.idexter.com</A>

[LadyDragus]

and I in turn like dextres website..

It is very simple and user freindly..

By the way thank you for saying mine is nicely done....

<font color=purple>The way to love anything is to realize that it might be lost.
- G.K. Chesterton
<font color=purple>

[bptoo]

All the color on your site really reaches out and grabs a person's attention Trish. I love it!!! I'm going to try and spice mine up a little too next weekend.

Greg

"You might as well learn to like yourself; you have an awful lot of time to spend with you."

[LMo]

Hi gang! I've really been enjoying looking at all of your websites! Every single one is great, and hope you don't mind, but I'm taking notes for future improvements for my site!

One comment, though. It looks like several of you have posted your full birthdays. I don't know that this is such a great idea in this day and age of identity theft. Just a thought.

Good job, all!

We are ALL going to be a-ok!

[LadyDragus]

I do not have your website... GImmmie Gimmie please..

<font color=purple>The way to love anything is to realize that it might be lost.
- G.K. Chesterton
<font color=purple>

[Fuzzybear]

I've lost the link to it ... and my brain cell .... too

[bptoo]

Hey stranger, nice to see you drop in!

I don't know that this is such a great idea in this day and age of identity theft

If they steal my identity, do they get my Bipolar too? Anybody who staels my identity gets everything they deserve...Seriously, that's a real good point. I should go check mine out, and remove it if I did post it. Thanks for bringing it up!

Greg

"You might as well learn to like yourself; you have an awful lot of time to spend with you."

[dexter]

I don't even have my email address on my website. I get enough spam as it is. Well, it is there, but you have to look a little bit for it.

I still get spammed, though, because everything sent to my domain name comes to me. I could shut that feature off but this way if anyone uses any one of my many "real world" nicknames the mail will still get to me.

I am pretty careful about my email address though and don't really get a horrible amount of spam. Most of it really is with companies I buy from rather than random sex and nonsense.


-- The world is what we make of it --
-- Dave
-- <A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.idexter.com>http://www.idexter.com</A>

[(JD)]

I was victim of ID theft last year... and that with ALL the stops in place (PTSD ... all mail shredded, keep credit card upside down and in site the whole time it's out... only POB on driver's license, internet info on driver's license etc blocked... and more and more alerts on credit reports,) anyway it ain't fun. Only because of the blocks and tricks did they not actually get any merchandise, so I'm not liable that way.

Remember, once you put something on the internet YOU CAN NEVER TAKE IT BACK> someone, somewhere will have it on their computer.

<font color=green>...I can misspeak like the best of us</font color=green>

[radio_flyer]

Hi bp,

Yeaaaaaaa, I can do one free .. That is good news.....Made me smile, your comment, "made my brain hurt".. lol........ I could not have said it any better.. lol.......... I think I am up for this challenge.... The lil engine said, I think I can, I think I can.. ..

Thanks a lot for your help..... Will start searching a round on google today and see what I can find.. I appreciate you taking your time to help...

Radio.............smile

"If you can't get rid of the skeleton in your closet, you'd best teach it to dance."
-George Bernard Shaw - (1856-1950)

[radio_flyer]

Hi Dave,

Wow, lots and lots of info ....And the good news is, it all makes sense... Hope it is ok if I print your post for reference???........Looking for print button, uh oh.. don't see one..hmmmmmmmm...

I am getting excited. It is either excitement or too much coffee.. lol..........In either case, I will not stop, until the job is completed..

Thank you so much for all the info......I really do appreciate your help...

Radio ............ Smile

"If you can't get rid of the skeleton in your closet, you'd best teach it to dance."
-George Bernard Shaw - (1856-1950)

[radio_flyer]

Hi Lady Dragus,

I checked out your site... Great job.. Very nice indeed.....

I've taken lots of notes from all the great info folks here posted....Taking deep breaths....... One step at a time.............

Thanks again for you help............

Radio ........ smile

"If you can't get rid of the skeleton in your closet, you'd best teach it to dance."
-George Bernard Shaw - (1856-1950)

[radio_flyer]

Hi again

I checked out your site.....Wonderful job.... Loved the coasters.....Beautiful pictures of all the coasters too.... I've been to Hershey Park and Kings Dominion.., when my son was younger..Think my fav was Hershey, but not so much the coasters as the supply of choc everywhere ...... My son rode the rollercoasters and I nibbled choc..

Radio................. smile

"If you can't get rid of the skeleton in your closet, you'd best teach it to dance."
-George Bernard Shaw - (1856-1950)

[LadyDragus]

i apperciate the kind words on my site..

I worked hard to make it as content wothy as possible..

Thank you again

<font color=purple>The way to love anything is to realize that it might be lost.
- G.K. Chesterton
<font color=purple>

[dexter]

you can print all of the replies in this topic by choosing "Print" from the "File" menu at the top left corner of the browser window.

Like I said before, just don't let my "overkill" confuse you or discourage you.

Keep us posted on your progress and ask more questions if they come up... and don't forget to give us the address once it is up!

good luck and most important, have fun!

-- The world is what we make of it --
-- Dave
-- <A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.idexter.com>http://www.idexter.com</A>

[dexter]

thank you, i am very proud of my coaster photos, and i won 1st prize with them the two years i entered the coastermania photo contest at cedar point.

cedar point is my fav park but kings dominion is my second fave and i've been going there longer. in fact i hadn't been on any rollercoasters in many years, and in 1990 took a road trip (by myself) down to florida and on the way back stopped at king's dominion for my own entertainment. that stop is what really rekindled my love of theme parks and started my roller coaster fanatisism. the next year i dragged some friends down there with me and we took a trip there every year up until a few years ago when my depression and arthritis started limiting my travels.

I still have some photos from my last trip to hershey that are not posted on my website yet. they've been sitting here for several years and I just haven't had a chance to post them yet.

-- The world is what we make of it --
-- Dave
-- <A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.idexter.com>http://www.idexter.com</A>