How to build a website.
Looking for a neat little advertisement about how easy it is to step by step build a successful website that gets found on You Tube or FaceBook and then you become the next American Idol and make millions and live happily ever after.
Sorry This Ain't It!!
It's very easy to forget how confused you were, the first time you tried to learn something new.
The farther you get from the first experience, the easier the process is to you, but the harder it is to explain away the confusion to some one else.
It's the same with building a website.
Today when somebody asks me how to build a website, I sometimes start throwing words at them like HTML, web page, web host, domain name , ip address and they walk away discouraged and confused, like I did 15 years ago.
My Start
Okay. I built my first website way back in 1996.
How did I do it?
I started with a book. THE WRONG BOOK
The title of the book was 'Build Your Own Website' (Peck & Arrants). Sounds like the right Mojo, but actually the book was more about setting up the Windows Server on your PC than it was about building websites.
I did build a website on my PC using the book but it confused me about the process of getting my collection of electronic pages on the internet for others to see.
Blind Leading Blind
I'd look for answers on forums. Believe it or not Tech forums were worse in those days than they are today! Forums in the tech industry are a collection of blind people leading other blind people. They exist because people in the tech industry are too lazy to provide a proper means of support to their customers.
I tried asking questions like 'How do I put my pages on the internet?' Finally some tech told me in their usual condescending terms that I needed a web host.
Just Google It
You say, 'Why didn't you just Google it?'
Actually nobody knew what a google was back in those days. The top search engine was AltaVista and then there was which was still just a directory.
Most of the information you would find on the topic was written by techs.
Ever read tech stuff?
Techs talk in a secret language. Everything they write is in outline form.
Don't believe me? Visit their website at w3c.org
This is what you get when a bunch of technical thinkers get together.
The Tech Intrepreter
About the time I started building websites, what I like to call 'Tech Interpreters' started to emerge. These were people who could take the tech language and dummy it down so that non-tech people like myself could understand.
One of the first was Joe Burns, who put up a website called HTMLgoodies. When I stumbled on to his website, I was off to the races.
There are a lot of tech interpreters out there today. Find one that speaks your language and you'll be ahead of the game.
Dummy It Down
Believe it or not, the easy part of building your website will be the actual construction of its pages. There is so much software out there that one of the first hard decisions you'll make is choosing the tool you want to use.
Experiment Try all the demos and free trials (like the one advertised above) you can. Download free HTML editors. Download WYSIWYG editors. Then try more online demos and free trials. Find something that clicks with you. Don't settle on the first thing you try.
The Web Host
What is a web host? What is web hosting?
A web host is a company that sells web hosting. Web hosting is actually just a place where your finished website is going to live.
Your web host will rent you a spot on a hard disk on one of his servers.
He'll provide you with an IP address consisting of a series of numbers.
Most will provide you with a domain name which is linked to your IP address, which makes it easier to remember the address of your website.
Mysite.com is much easier to remember than 69.123.456.01, don't you think?
Your web host may even provide you with an online tool for building the web pages of your website.
Some do, some don't!
Most web hosts will provide built in email services for your website.
Your email accounts and addresses will be derived from your domain name. For example info@mysite.com or sales@mysite.com.
Most web hosts will provide you with (FTP) tools to upload your web pages to your web space if you build them on your PC or Mac with a third party tool.
Types of Web Hosting
There are different types of web hosting. The type of webhosting you choose should be determined by what you want your website to do.
The most popular type of hosting is called shared web hosting. Many shared web hosting companies advertise UNLIMITED hosting. THERE IS NO SUCH THING!!!!
Seriously folks. The Web hosting industry is a rat race. Most web hosts are liars. They want your money and when they get it, you are on your own.
They'll sit a monkey behind a desk somewhere who will read your request for help from a trouble ticket, the monkey will find a couple of words that relate to your plea for help and shoot you back a canned response that may or may not relate to your problem. This is today's norm for tech support.
The attractive feature that draws people to shared hosting is its price. You can find it for $2 and month and upward. Whether you pay $2 a month or $12 a month shared hosting is shared hosting. You could be sharing your server with 200 to 500 other customers. Slap on the word UNLIMITED and unknowing suckers buy it like candy.
Some other types of web hosting are VPS, semi-dedicated and dedicated.
Actually, I believe VPS and semi-dedicated are the same thing. This is where you share the server with other customers, but not as many. And you get a little better share of the CPU? Of course it costs a little more also.
Dedicated hosting is for the serious folks only. With this type of hosting the customer leases an entire server. The cost can be anywhere from $100 a month to $1000 a month depending on how much help or management you want.
Some web hosts advertise prices for dedicated hosting around $60 a month. Once you add on the features you need to actually use it, you'll pay about $100 a month.
Free Web Hosting is Crap. Crap is Crap!! All free web hosting is a gimmick to sucker you in and get you to upgrade to their paid hosting which is usually Crap!!
Types of Websites
I'm really going to go overboard in dummying this down. For the purposes of choosing your type of web hosting there are 2 types of websites.
There is the old conventional type website. The old conventional website had very few interactive features. It may have had a contact form, where visitors could submit questions or comments to the owner of the website. Plain vanilla - no bells or whistles - just a simple website to display a resume, or information about a company.
Today people want more. They want the second type of website that we'll refer to as the Web 2.0 compliant site.
The keyword in understanding the Web 2.0 site is interaction. All the bells and whistles available on the internet. Flash presentations, video movies, forums, message boards, interactive blogs, newsletters, bulk email, autoresponders, polls, chat and more. If it can be used to interact with visitors, you can add it to a Web 2.0 website.
Why Not Shared Unlimited
If you are going to build conventional websites, shared hosting is fine. If you want simple features and very little interaction, you probably won't experience any of the problems I've been rambling on about.
It seems like shared unlimited hosting would be the ticket for Web 2.0 sites. If it's unlimited how could you go wrong?
Because!!! Everything is 'unlimited' except your share of the CPU.
Most shared hosting accounts come with a CPU share of 4.5 to 5%. Why so little? Remember! You're sharing the server with 200 to 500 other customers. If your Web 2.0 site exceeds your CPU limit it could shut down, your web host could ban you and even remove your website from his servers.
Be advised. Web 2.0 websites burn CPU. Especially those built with CMS sieves like Joomla or WordPress.
Joomla (CMS) websites are really bad about using excesssive CPU.
Summary
Find a website building tool that works for you. Try free trials (like the one advertised above), demos and free products that you can download to your PC or Mac.
When you've mastered the easy part of building your website, start looking for a web host.
Don't build Web 2.0 compliant sites on shared web hosting accounts.
When searching for your web host look for one that provides every means of support available. If you search the so-called web hosting review sites, look for negative reviews about their support.
Don't be deceived by the term UNLIMITED in advertising. It's a crock of you know what!!
If I haven't talked you out of building a website yet, you should read my article on doing your research before you start.