Getting started with websites

[heartofgold]

Greetings one and all!

I have intended for some time to set up a website, but am absolutely clueless as to where to begin. My question is on the most basic level: I know nothing about website design, registering a domain name (I think I can figure that one out), or about choosing a host.

In my defense, I consider myself to be quite computer savvy. I have done some major script writing for my employer, and have even traveled up the East coast, installing these programs in different offices. I have at least rudimentary knowledge of 5 different programing languages, but have never had any exposure to java or html.

That said, I could probably work it all out on my own, but would like to learn what I can from those with more experience before I jump in head first.

Thanks in advance.

[Tim]

Web programs like Dreamweaver and Front Page are pretty self-explainatory to use and more or less intuitive to anyone who is used to other computer programs, such as word processing programs.

For beginning, I think these are easy to learn, and enable the user to create a decent site with little effort. The more you do, the more you learn. The best way to get ideas for layout, etc. is simply to browse the web and find sites you like. Emulating the design or effects of a given side (without copying it, of course--use the other sites for ideas, not to create exact replicas) is a common means of learning web design and layout. Viewing the source code on a website (Windows: right click, "View Source") is a good way to learn some of the HTML and other code used to create that page.

You need a hosting server for your website. You have many choices: there are plenty of free ones, which place advertisements or popups on your site in return (Geocities and the sort). Most people start out with one of these freebies, since you have nothing to lose, but the limitations and annoyances of these servers become quickly clear.

Your own web provider ISP may well offer you, the user, a limited amount of disk space on which to post a website. Then there are 30 million pay-servers that will host your site for a fee. The fees vary widely, as does the service and the features you get. If you want to post a lot of photos, you need much more space than if it's mainly text. 15 or 20MB of space will get eaten up in a hurry.

A lot of hosts will offer domain names, and/or register them for you. If you're going with a pay host, check this out.

I like www.ipowerweb.com, which is where my sites are hosted. I have not found a better value, but they may offer more than you need to. But if you're going to pay, compare any plan you find to Ipowerweb. It's packed with value.

[dasein668]

Note that there are plenty of free and shareware WYSIWYG html authoring programs out there. At least, there are assuming you work on a windows box.

There are a few decent links to basic (and advanced) html and javascript sites listed on the links page of my site dasein668.com links. Some of these will probably off a lot of insight for you.

I suspect you will find html very simplistic if you are used to "real" languages. It's pretty simple. And if you are used to other scripting languages, you shouldn't have much difficulty picking up Javascript either.

Good luck!