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Web Books
HTML & XHTML: The Definitive Guide |
© 2000 by David Karlins. All Rights Reserved.
In my previous articles for Unleash.com, I've explored the process of getting graphics from CorelDRAW into a Web site. Foster suggested that it might be a good time to step back and look at the bigger picture: what does it take to actually get a Web site online? In this article, I'll outline the process in broad strokes (with a few detailed tips). In future articles, we can zero in on different aspects of the process of implementing your site.
Designing and implementing a Web site brings to mind the classic proverb of the blind men describing an elephant. One felt a tail and described an elephant as being like a snake. Another felt a leg and thought elephants were shaped like a tree. Yet another felt the side of the animal and described it like a wall, and so on.
When it comes to first (or second, or third) time Web site implementation, many designers see only part of the process. Is Web design a matter of creating graphic elements? Creating an appropriate color scheme strategy? Deciding on a navigational strategy for visitors, accumulating a set of linked sites? Integrating cutting edge media and animation? Creating and collecting text content? The answer of course is that Web design can be all of this and more.
From doing seminars in Web design, and helping clients get on the Web, I've organized the process of getting your site up into eight, more or less consecutive steps. Of course there is overlap, and not all steps apply in each case. But at the very least, this list will be helpful for anyone developing and budgeting a Web to review the whole process in advance.
I list this first because the way domain name speculation is going, you should probably select and reserve your domain name right away if you are even thinking about creating a Web site. I read somewhere recently that almost all six character domain names are taken already. Don't panic, but the Web-media is full of stories about people staking out claims on sites like Madonna.com, and then trying to jack up a celebrity to buy back their own name. (Anybody want to pay me zillions of dollars for my ppinet.com domain name?).
If you are ready to move forward with your Web site, purchasing your domain name can be combined with purchasing Web server space. Everyone who sells server space for Web sites will be happy to handle the process of reserving your domain name. Most charge about $100 to register a domain name for you, and about $50/year to renew it. If you've already registered your name, many providers will charge you (something like $50) to transfer a domain name to their server.
If you are not ready to purchase Web space, but you want to grab a domain name, the cheapest and most reliable provider is joker.com. The joker.com Web site will search to see if your preferred domain names are available. These folks are in Germany, and list prices in Euros, but provide dollar conversion info for those of us who are Euro-impaired. Depending on currency exchange rates, their deal comes to about $35 to register a name.
If you want to be on the Web you have 3 basic options: 1) build your own server, 2) rent server space from a Web site provider, or 3) find free space. If you are creating your Web for an intranet the process is simplified, you publish your Web to a server accessible to your company or organization.
For the purposes of this article, we'll focus on option 2 - renting server space from a Web site provider. Building your own server is doable if that's what you want to devote your life to (not knocking it, some people have to devote their lives to this). But I have a feeling that most folks here at the Unleashed site are more interested in creating content than wresting with T1 connections and Linux server boxes. Besides, I know zilch about the process.
Option 3, free Web space, is viable for individuals and organizations who a) don't need a domain name, and b) aren't that image conscious. Free Web sites from folks like Yahoo/GeoCities (sign up at either site) are… free! But they don't let you use your own domain name, and they place very dominating ads on your site. That said, the Geocities/Yahoo sites allow you to post dozens of pages with graphics, and even include input forms with CGI scripts.
For a serious commercial site, however, you will want the features provided by commercial site providers. They allow full control over your site (without obligatory ads), and allow more space for your content.
There are plenty of site providers competing for your money. I haven't tried them all (!) but I've tested at least 30 over the last few years. As you shop for one on the Web, I strongly advise you to look first for reliability, and second for price. It's not worth saving a couple bucks a month for a site that crashes all the time. Use this simple test to check out site providers: Send them an email with a question, and ask them to call you. If you get nothing but auto-response emails, move on. When your site crashes, you want to TALK to someone! My quest led me to my site host, www.akorn.net.
Expect to pay about $25/month for a basic site package that allows about 10MB of site content, and provides about 500MB bandwidth. More content space means more pictures, pages and media. More bandwidth means more visitors, and more data going back and forth to your site. Most small business can start with 10/500, and move up as your site expands and your hits increase.
Often when I sit down with clients who want a Web site, I find that people aren't clear on exactly what they want their Web site to do for them. Answering the following questions in as much detail as possible will help focus the content of a site:
Get concrete! Make a list - on paper - of everything you want at your site, and prioritize each element. As you design more Web sites, you'll develop the ability to envision the elements of the site in advance. But even for your first site, the more work you do in advance, the better.
Now it's time to get down to the nitty-gritty of putting a site together. Here is where I find it extremely helpful to follow a building analogy - first the architecture, then content. You (or your clients) can assemble text, graphics and other site content at any time during the process, and easily plug it into a site.
Using that approach, my first step is to diagram a site. Scratch paper works great for this! Figure 1 shows the navigational structure for my site, as sketched out in the Navigation View of Microsoft FrontPage.
Starting with a navigational flowchart allows you to plug site content in easily, and provides a guide for placing links on your page.
Other "pre-press" work that will facilitate a smooth implementation of your site includes:
I'm emphasizing preparation here. If all your content files are in place, your Web navigational strategy is charted out (see Figure 1), and your global design elements (like page backgrounds) are in place, then constructing the site goes smoothly.
A review of tools for actually constructing your site is beyond the scope of this article. Perhaps we can arrange some comparative reviews - or even a debate - between FrontPage, Dreamweaver, HTML coding, or other options. The fact is, they all work. And if you are hesitant to invest in a Web design tool, you can publish your pages with CorelDRAW. For low-budget, easy-to-use design tools, I like Netscape Composer which comes free with Netscape. My friends Eric and Deborah Ray wrote Netscape Composer for Dummies, and between the free software and that easy-to-use book, anybody can put together a Web site.
My site (www.ppinet.com) has an extensive overview of FrontPage, and FrontPage resources.
Editor's Note: For Front Page users, unleash.com does have an extensive set of training videos and books available.
With your pages saved as HTML Files, and your other Web objects (like graphics, or media files) collected in a folder, the next step is to transmit those files to your Web server. Your Web site provider will give you easy-to-follow and explicit instructions on how to post content to your site, including a user name and password that be required to access your server.
With this information, publishing and testing your site is a four-stage process:
Including a meta-tag that describes your site will get your site listed in search engines. If your site design program doesn't generate these automatically, use the following HTML code, substituting your own content for the italic example from my site:
<meta name="description" content="Books on web design and web graphics by David Karlins">
<meta name="keywords" content="Karlins, corel, Corel, FrontPage, frontpage, Frontpage, computer books, web publishing, FrontPage 2000, CorelDRAW 8, CorelDRAW 9, Corel DRAW, DRAW, FrontPage 98, Microsoft Image Composer, Wild Web Graphics with Microsoft Image Composer, FrontPage 2000 Bible, web graphics, desktop publishing">
Note that my keywords include a variety of spellings and capitalization options for Corel and DRAW (for example, CorelDRAW and Corel DRAW, frontpage and FrontPage).
But in addition to getting yourself search engine recognition, you will also want a strategy to inform your clients of your site. This can include:
This last item, link exchanges, can be one of the powerful ways to draw visitors from related sites.
You'll want to institutionalize, on some level, the process of managing your Web site. When I sit down with a client, we agree in advance on a schedule for implementing changes. That keeps billing hours under control, and makes it clear just how often, and how quickly, they can expect the site to be updated.
An important part of site maintenance is an easily accessible feedback form. This form (and I recommend a link from your home page) allows you to convert a frustrated visitor into a constructive contributor to your site. Feedback forms are better than email links because they allow you to define the information you need. The feedback form shown in Figure 2 has been designed to force visitors to provide information necessary to respond to suggestions.
With a form to collect feedback from visitors, and a process in place to collect changes to the site in an orderly way (if we're talking about your own site here, this can be a big envelope or folder marked "changes to the site"), you can schedule site maintenance to incorporate fixes and changes in an orderly way.
Aside from routine, ongoing site maintenance (step 7), you will want to periodically update your site content and design. Figuring out how often to do this is an essential part of your Web strategy. Some sites can go a year without being changed, others require daily updates.
Much of the impetus for site updating comes from the frequency of repeat visits. If you want folks to check our your site every day, you need well marked "NEW" items at the site each time they visit.
The important thing is to have a consistent schedule for site updating, so that your visitors can develop a habit of dropping by weekly, monthly or more frequently, and expect to find new content.
Discuss the articles with David in the Graphics Unleashed Discussion Forums
Choosing a Web Authoring Tool · Eight Steps to Implementing a Web Site · Step 1: Grabbing a Domain Name · Step 2: Publishing Your Web Content - Finding a Web Server Provider · Step 3: Develop Your Web Strategy · Step 4: Design and Create Your Site · Step 5: Publish and Test Your Site · Step 6: Promoting Your Site · Part I: From CorelDRAW to the Web · Part II: Creating Web Page Background JPEG Files · Part III: Creating a Hover Button in CorelDRAW
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