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Hobbies
Building a "YourName.com" Website Cheaply
(Dec., 2001)
Did you know you can name, edit, and publish a complete banner-less web site for almost no money? I pay $15/year and only because I'm picky enough to want my name for the URL! How? Using advertisement companies to cover costs! I knew nothing about web pages when I began, so I'll just trace you through my steps and put together for you all the free downloadable tools you will need to do the same! This is not a full tutorial, but a guide. I will guide you to the best tutorials and tell you where and when you will need the free tools!
 Plan & Design
Know why you want your site. If you surf at all, you have seen the cluttered personal home page with a thousand random blinking headlines and nothing to say. Avoid this by learning the basic design rules first. An outstanding online reference for site design is the "Web Style Guide". This article from Yale University explains what you need in a down to earth, but thorough style. One note I will add, however, when you do create your site, organize your files neatly. This will help you when you eventually upload your site onto a server! (More about that later)
Create Your Page (Lazy, Intermediate, Expert)
 Lazy:
Hey, if you could care less how the code looks or works, that's ok. Look on ZDNet Downloads for a "WYSIWYG Web Page Builder". This will make your site design practically automatic. The drawback to this is loss of control over design, function, and fixing errors.
Intermediate:
You are the type which wants to basically learn the code, but have never used it before. The code you will need to begin learning is HTML. You will probably later discover javascript, CSS, and DHTML,... but later. Ok, choose your editor to learn code on below.
 "NoteTab Light is the ultimate free Notepad replacement and a capable HTML editor."
 1st Page 2000 "Ranked #1:
1st Page 2000 is a professional HTML editing software which lets you create great websites fast! The visually appealing program comes bundled with over 450+ Javascripts and supports all the latest web languages."
Once you have your editor downloaded, it's time to introduce you to HTML. Here's a few tutorials I used:
Page Tutor: This is my favorite tutorial. The style is easy-going, hand-on, and a lot of fun. You will enjoy it.
Web Monkey: This is a great interactive tutorial to teach you hands-on HTML. This site is also great for learning the next level of coding such as CSS.
Page Resource: John Pollock is awesome at bring HTML and javascript down to the begginner's level. It is also easy to print out the tutorials from the site.
Expert
You're the type of person who writes virtual reality programs in your spare time and I have no advise for you. You know what, you are better than me and I want YOU to give ME hints.
Graphic images are the spice of any site when correctly used. I found two incredible graphic programs used for making or adjusting every image on my site.
 Satori PhotoXL: a full studio editing program to edit pictures, or create artistic scenes like the those on my website!
 IrfanView: this simple program quickly allows you to view graphic files, switch the graphic extention (gif, jpg...), and has some basic editing tools.
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Domain Name and the Web Host
What's a domain name? It's the core name of your site. My domain name is StephenWilliamson.com. You can either pay around $15/year to have your own name as the domain name, or there are free sub-domain names available if you use another company's name in your domain. For example if you got a free domain name through a company named "77th", instead of www.Franks.com, your domain would be www.Franks.77th.com. You will probably also be asked to put banners into your web page to advertise their company. To see this example click on the link:
Free-Url.com Network: One of the thousands of networks willing to advertise through your site.
If you decide to pay $15/year for your own domain name, here is a reputable company:
This is the company I register my domain name with.
Web hosting can be very expensive. Some pay as much as $30 to $40 per month, but the normal rate is around $10/mo. However, I found a web-hosting company that is not only banner-less, but FREE. I chose to display their banner at the top of this page because I really want you to check out their deal! They will agree to host your domain name if you will allow them to send you advertisement email (max 1 per day). If you have two email accounts like I do, let them send you adds to your internet account! This is the best way to keep your site cost cheap or free (depending on your domain name).
BEFORE YOU BEGIN WORKING THROUGH THE STEPS BELOW, HERE ARE THE TWO OPTIONS YOU HAVE FOR PICKING THE CHEAPEST POSSIBLE PLAN:
1. If you plan on using your website for MORE than 3 years, choose plan A.
2. If you plan on using your website for LESS than 3 years, choose plan B.
If you are ready to register a domain name and use doteasy as your web host, here is the steps you will need to take:
PLAN A
1. Find a domain name available in the Dotster box above (use .net, .name, .com, ...)
2. You should automatically be transfered to Doster's web page where you will then register you new domain name. (write down your account name and password and save it!) I believe the processing for a new domain name takes a day or two.
3. When registering, you will be able to "park" your domain name on their server until you are signed up with Doteasy later. (This will take care of the "primary and secondary server" boxes)
4. Click the Doteasy button (top of this page or button above these steps).
5. Click on the spot for "Transfer Hosting" (there is a $35 dollar one-time-fee to transfer... there is also the possibility of using Doteasy as the company for registering your domain name, HOWEVER after 3 years you essentially get paid back for using Dotster's cheaper rate and paying the transfer fee. "Transfer hosting" or "Transfer your Domain" does not mean you then pay Doteasy, you are still registered under Dotster. It just means you want Doteasy to host the name you already have..that's all.)
6. Enter your domain name that you registered with Dotster and fill in the remaining information they ask for. (again, write down your account name and password)
7. You will then have an account with Doteasy and can use their "primary and secondary server" addresses in your Dotster account. (This will "unpark" your domain name from Dotster and give you a server to upload your pages to later)
8. Learn how to Organize Your Site Files and upload your pages!
PLAN B
**I have not registered this way, so I'll try to help as much as I can**
1. Click the Doteasy button (top of this page or button above these steps).
2. Click on the spot for "Domain Registration" (I believe it will cost $20-25/yr)
3. Enter your domain name that you want and fill in the remaining information they ask for. (write down your account name and password!)
4. You will then have an account with Doteasy and can use their "primary and secondary server" addresses.
5. Learn how to Organize Your Site Files and upload your pages!
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Organizing Your Site Files
By now you should have a solid grasp on the heirarchy of your site and should have learned such rules as using "index.htm" as your home page file name. If not, read about organizing your site in the "Web Style Guide" I mentioned earlier and check back here...
Here is how I organize my files: I create a "WebSite" folder on the C: drive. I then save my home page html file (index.html) directly into this. Inside the site folder, I create a sub-folder for each sub-page and one sub-folder for images. You will notice in your address bar the url for this page says,"stephenwilliamson.com/hobbiespage/webpage.htm". This tells you webpage.htm is in the "hobbiespage" sub-folder. You will not see "WebSite" folder in the url because you will only upload all the folders and pages inside of it. Make sense? This is very important! If you don't keep exactly the same organization for the files on the server as you have on your C: drive, all your links will not work. One page won't know how to find the other! So, organize...then upload.
Getting Your Site Uploaded
It's outstanding to have this free web host, now it's time to use it! You have created your masterpiece and want to bring it out for the world to see. There are many web-page editors, such as 1st Page 2000, which have the FTP (File Transfer Protocol) included in it. If you don't have one in yours, don't worry, ZDNet has a free FTP software program call FTP Explorer. Upload your pages and whalla! your Published! Want it listed on the major Search Engines? (Of course... for free) Click on the FastSubmit Button below and see what you can do!
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Best of luck to you with your new site!
Take Care,
Steve
 Hobby Page || Next Article: "Easy Webpage Maintenance with PPWizard" 
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