Q: How do I make a web page?
Before starting to create your new web site, scribble it out on paper creating a "battle plan" to save a lot of time later.
1. What kind of "web critter" do you want to create? What best fits your needs?
... Web Page (What you are reading this page on now.) A web page has stuff on it to click and read, and see.
... Forum (Examples) A forum lets the readers put their own comments into the system. It is a collection of opinions of the forum membership or public.
... Blog (Examples) A blog is something you write in and throw stuff onto quickly and easily. It is yours and only your opinion. Blogs are free and a great way to store things you see and don't want to lose. Readers may or may not be allowed to add their comments to your writing, depending on how you set it up.
Newbies online make critical errors in not picking their web critter, and taking time to plan, before going online...
... They think a forum is a web page and get upset when readers do not read the material they posted. Forum readers want to be heard, not research the topic of the forum. If your forum is about bat houses, your readers want to talk about bat houses. They have no interest in learning how to build something they already build. They will also not take kindly to a new forum member who signs up just to post an article on how to kill bats! You become a parent to strangers who want to cause trouble and go off topic. It's work. All you wanted was a web page. Oops.
... They expect responses on a forum or blog from the population of a small town and get disappointed when no one posts, and they give up quickly on the page. They don't realize that a very small population may be fine for making a web page very popular locally, but a forum isn't going to be active unless it's a "working forum" where "members" are actually working on projects together right now, using the forum instead of email. A blog no matter what you call it, is a blog. It is YOUR opinion and people just don't have the time every day to see what you wrote.
... They try to send their myspace URL out as a real web page and can't understand why it isn't respected by their colleagues. Myspace, youtube, and all of the free "make your own page" sites are nice, but they are only a "community system" where people go to be found and have fun. If you don't have a real website to link at your free community page, you are just another tiny piece of a huge puzzle and will not be found. These are the sand boxes where people come to play on their lunch break, you may need something more like an office where people look for real stuff.
... They think forums can send out web page updates and press releases to their members and the world. When someone cares enough to tell them that they are being laughed at, they are not pleased. Forums (everyone in the world's own opinion) and blogs (your own opinion) are not "news" or "research." However, if your forums and blogs are linked off of a main web page, that web page can send out emails to members of the forum and to the public without looking like a platypus. (The first animal created by a committee.)
... They create the wrong type of web critter to suit their needs and expect millions of people to stop what they are doing and come to their web critter and agree with everything they say. Sorry, unless you are the ruler of a country or have tape worms, you are only speaking for you. Take the number of people you know online right now. That is how many hits you will get the first day minus 20% or so. It's downhill from there. Unless you are making a long term commitment on your web critter and promise to nurture it and help it grow into the hunking web presence you know it will be someday... don't bother. Web critters grow like real critters, a little each month and year. If you really are the ruler of a country, expect the growth to be a little quicker, but still have spurts and resting periods.
... They have unrealistic goals, and get angry and depressed. Creating a web page and opening a web store is not going to make you rich. Don't buy into the hype. Less than a dozen Club shirts have sold in this first TWO YEARS of being offered. If your shirts are required wearing of your town's school dress code and you are the only supplier... well, you wouldn't be reading this page right now.
If you want it all, you can have it all. No problem. Make a web page and link on the main page there to your forum, your blog, your myspace site, and others. Having this (Main page, an index, a sitemap, a portal, or whatever you want to call it.) is a great idea. Your forum member may be very interested in your web page, your web page reader has the option of going to the forum and sharing an opinion on your topic or not.
2. What will your web page consist of?
... A Main Page. This is where your main domain page takes people, the starting point.
... Secondary Pages. All the pages linked on your main page that go to your other pages. Like a contact page, or an about page, etc...
... Third Level Pages. All the pages only linked to the secondary pages and not the main page. For example, if one of your secondary pages has a list of your town's Selectmen, and each name is linked to open their own page on your site.
... A Site Map. (Example) A "must have" thingie once you have more than a couple of dozen pages in your site. Most readers would rather book mark this at your site and go back to later to find things quickly. It is a bare bones no nonsense list of links. Period.
Numbers and levels and site map? Yes, it's like a "tree" and the way you plan out your new web page now is going to be a huge help to you later. You will learn later about sub domains, which you also map out the same way. Sections of your web page can be put into folders so everything pertaining to that one thingie is together. Images can be put into folders just for one section or page. As you work on your page, you set up the work saved there the same way as you put it on the server to show up on your domain online. Confused yet? Here is a file cabinet. One cabinet is a domain. Each drawer is a section. Each file folder holds one topic.
What happens if you don't plan out your new web page first? Hee-hee. You end up with one long list of every page, every photo, every chart, every everything to fill up many, many pages. You go to your computer section where you are uploading stuff to your site, and see this long list and get a headache scrolling it to find "momsapplepie." At some point you will have to go back and sort stuff. When that happens you will forget a link on page 322 that goes to an image that you just moved into a folder and forgot to change the code there and you now have a blank box with an x in it and people are writing to you and calling you an idiot. Then you write to me and ask why I didn't INSIST that you set up everything in the first place. OK, to save you a lot of time I'm going to do you a favor now. I INSIST that you plan out your site before building it. There.
Is it ever OK to change the site organization? No. It isn't. Someone is going to have the old URL of a page location or a photo saved, and when they go there and don't find what they are expecting, they are going to think you are an idiot and never come back again. If a page HAS to be moved or deleted, make sure you have a "redirect" on that page forever, taking the reader automatically to the new location or your main page. Big companies who should know better even make this mistake, changing hundreds of page URLs and not recoding the links on their other pages, leaving useless dead links like Autumn leaves scattered across the floor. Some of the richest people in the world employ monkeys to throw doo-doo at their servers. Hang a sign... "Never change a URL!"
If you see something on a page you like, you can click on View and Source at the top of your browser screen and see how they coded something. You will learn a lot that way.
Keep in mind that HTML pages (like http://www.smokersclub.com ), and PHP/Nuke pages (like http://www.smokersclubinc.com ) do NOT speak the same language code! You want to take HTML code only for an HTML page, or learn to adjust it for a PHP/Nuke page.
For now, here's a list for you to start reading and picking up tidbits... (Settle in for a long night of surfing and reading!)Online HTML resources:
HTML Goodies:
http://www.htmlgoodies.com/primers/html/How to create a web page:
http://www.make-a-web-site.com/Web Design:
http://www.booksandtales.com/designframe.htmHow to make a web page:
http://www.pagetutor.com/pagetutor/makapage/index.htmlCreate a Website:
http://www.2createawebsite.com/build/html.htmlTools:
http://www.virtualpromote.com/tools/
HTML Validator
Tables
Color Chart
HTML Entities Listing
CSS Style-O-Matic
Cool Menu and Navigation Generators
And more…How to use HTML meta tags
http://searchenginewatch.com/webmasters/article.php/2167931Want to put little thingies into your page like this heart?
♥ See the list at: http://www.virtualpromote.com/tools/html-entities/
You don't need to supply translations. Let Google do it for the reader:
http://www.google.com/language_tools?hl=en
Translate text or entire domains. Yeah, there may be errors and the page might lose it's formatting because of different lengths of text now... but it is readable.
Sample: The English Newsletter page in French. Another sample that looks cool: English Newsletter page in Russian. This is really pretty in Chinese.
Send me any specific questions you have, like how to do this or that, and I'll try to answer them.
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