Starting a Web Site
Posted on 2 October 2009 | No responses
So you want to start a web site… It may seem like a daunting task, especially if you’re not very technically inclined. The good news is that there are many options for people to easily create their own web sites. First, you need to ask yourself a few questions.
Who are you?
Are you an artist? A writer? An entrepreneur? Are you very techy or not so techy? If you are a writer and you just want to start a blog, you may already know about Blogger and Wordpress. Blogger/Blogspot is very easy to use and is free unless you want your own domain name (and you can add your own domain name at a later date within their system for about $10 a year last time i checked). I would suggest trying Blogger to begin with, especially if you aren’t very technically inclined. If you are technically inclined, installing a Wordpress blog on a web site can give you a little more freedom in customization, but you will have to be willing to do a little reading/learning. Many hosts will include a blog installation option in their hosting packages, though someone – you or your web designer – will need to install the blog.
If you are an artist I would suggest that you go to Chris Guillebeau’s web site and purchase “The Unconventional Guide to Art and Money“. I have purchased it and it is a great resource for artists. You would spend a lot more money taking a business class and this information is actually tailored to artists. Entrepreneurs will also find a lot of helpful information at Chris’s site. (Actually, why don’t you all just stop reading this article and check out Chris’s site. He’s got lots of great information and advice plus he’s very positive and promotes helping others while helping yourself.)
Weigh your resources
How much money do I have to spend? How much time do I have to dink around with a web site? Am I technically or artistically inclined?
If you don’t have a lot of money to invest in the initial design, but do have time and artistic/technical ability, you could choose a hosting company that has site builders or ready-to-use templates available to their customers. I mentioned options for blogs above. Many hosts have some sort of site building resource for their customers. Some of these sites are easier to use than others (and that comes from someone who creates web sites for a living). Ask around – search for comments on different resources before you sign up. It is good to choose an established hosting company that has been around for a while. WARNING: building a web site can be tedious and time consuming. I WOULD NOT recommend trying to build your site using a program like Microsoft Publisher that saves a web site as one large file. I’ve known people who have done just that (the most tenacious and technically inclined people, believe me!) and then they’ve gotten in over their heads. Programs like Publisher may allow you to create a web site without knowing anything about coding, but many things can go wrong and someone who DOES have coding experience may not be able to easily fix the problems if you get into trouble (and you’ll end up spending a lot of money for their time anyway). You would be better off to either use a site-builder service from whatever host you choose or to wait, save your money, and hire someone who knows what they’re doing to create the site.
If you are not technically inclined and have the resources to hire someone, investing in a professionally designed site is a very good option – especially if this is a business site and you want to be perceived as a professional. Talk to the designer you hire about your goals. Make sure that the web site design is something that will work towards meeting whatever goals you’ve set.
What do you want to accomplish with your web site?
Examples: sell a product; share your music, photos or video; start a conversation; share your opinion or wisdom on a particular topic… Think about this BEFORE you begin. If you are trying to reach an audience outside of your physical community, this could be a great idea. If you are looking for more local business in your city or town, having a well designed web site may still be a good idea, but you may not be wise to sink a lot of money into only that and expect it to attract more business. If I’m looking for something in my local area, I usually look to the phone book first, depending on the product or service. This may not be true with the younger generation. I also ask people in my community for suggestions. Think about who you are trying to target and spend your resources accordingly. NOTE: Social networking is the new thing (if you hadn’t heard – cough!) – I’m not that into it as of yet, but many people are using it to the advantage of their business or web site. Chris Guillebeau who I mentioned above has recently published “Social Media as a Force for Good” with a co-author, Gwen Bell. You may find their information helpful in finding your audience. I find the included audio session title, “Social Media for Introverts” intriguing…
If you are trying to start a conversation, you may want to add a forum to your web site. There are a number of forums out there. Most have a variety of templates available that can often be further customized to fit in with the rest of your web site. The host that you select will probably have at least one forum that you can install as part of your site. Check to make sure before you sign up.
If you are trying to sell multiple items, you may want to find a host that specializes in shopping cart sites. Some carts allow for more design customization than others. You may not realize that the shopping cart area of many web sites is created separately from the rest of the web site by a program that connects with a database. The shopping cart will often look different from the rest of the company’s web site. If having your cart look like the rest of your site is really important to you, you may have less options and you may have to pay a bit more to get what you want. I have heard that FlyingCart is a good cart with more customization options than some and exceptional customer service. If you don’t care so much about the look of your shopping cart or you don’t have too many products to sell, it may not matter so much which service you choose. Some people use their web site as their personal presence and then use Ebay to sell their products. One of my clients uses a Yahoo shopping cart that is linked to his site and has been very happy with that.
If you are wanting to share your own photos, audio or video material, a good option can be to upload your content to a site like Picasa Web Albums, Flickr or YouTube and then build your web site separately. You can then pull the content into your site from those other web sites. Offering materials that way does “brand” them as content from another site, but may increase your presence since people searching on those other sites can potentially find your content.
How much control do you want over the web site?
If you want to be able to control every single detail of your web site and have lots of time or if you expect to want to change things on your web site frequently, you may enjoy a hosting service like Squarespace.com – their templates are some of the most professional looking that I’ve seen on the web. You will pay a slightly higher monthly fee than for some other services, but it may be well worth your while. I would recommend this sort of host for someone who is not necessarily technically inclined, but does have time to spend developing their own space. If you are not artistically inclined and want some graphics that are specifically yours for the site, you might think about hiring a graphic designer to create a few graphics for you that can be incorporated into the templates. For those using blogging services/programs, most blogs can also be customized with your own graphics. If you don’t have the patience to search online and figure out how to customize your blog, hire someone to help you.
If you want to try a free option that is similar to Squarespace, check out Weebly.com. I know of students who have used Weebly for class projects. I did a Weebly site myself just to see what was possible. Weebly offers a variety of templates. You can sign up and start looking around. There are graphics that come with each template, but you can click on the graphics and it shows you the dimensions for the images. Then you can come up with your own graphics of that size and replace what is there. You would need to do this using a photo editing program. Adobe Photoshop is great if you have it and know how to use it. A couple of free alternatives are the open source program, GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program), and Picasa from Google.
What do i need?
- Domain name (mywebname.com) - Buying a domain name entails paying a yearly fee to a domain name registrar. (This company can be, but doesn’t need to be your hosting company – they just point the name to whichever host you choose.) If you have a name in mind, you may want to go ahead and purchase that name and “park” it. If you’re not worried about someone else buying your desired name, wait until you have figured out how/where to host your site because some companies will give you a special deal on the domain name with the hosting. Note: If you opt not to purchase the “private” option on your domain name, your name, address, phone number and email address will be visible to the public (to people who know how to look for it).
- Hosting package (space on a server) – Examples: Blogger hosts your site automatically when you sign up for their service; I use HostGator for my sites because they have been nothing but helpful, reasonably priced and they are wind powered! (I am not getting a kick-back for mentioning this. See my “About Me” page.) Pair.com has been around forever and has a good reputation (I’ve used them in the past with no problems).
- Photo editing software (if you want to create graphics/edit images for your site) – Examples: Adobe Photoshop, GIMP, Picasa.
- Searching enthusiasm/tenacity – Everyone could Google search, but not everyone has the patience to learn the art of searching. When you get stuck, search on your favorite search engine. Keep trying different word combinations. The most successful people I know don’t necessarily know a lot – they just know how to look for answers and they don’t give up easily. It can be frustrating, but trust me, you’ll get better at it if you keep trying.
- A Community – If you plan on creating your own web site, it may really help you to join a forum or community of people who are also creating web sites. Then, if you get stuck, you can ask for advice. When I was in design school, my interface design professor would stress the importance of joining a web design forum. Search for your question on that forum (and on a search engine) just in case it’s already been asked and answered. If you don’t find an answer, ask your question. People are usually very helpful as long as you seem like you are trying to find the answers yourself. As you learn more, follow the questions of others and see if you can return the favor and answer some questions.
Creating a web site involves a lot of details. Try not to get discouraged when (and i DO say “when” instead of “if” – welcome to my world…) it takes you longer to do something than you had expected. It’s all part of the learning process. Also, don’t let people who already know things make you feel like an idiot because you don’t know. They were in your place at some point in the past… they’ve just forgotten. And if you get really stuck, send me an email (
). Maybe I can help!
Why not “sueweaver.net”?
Posted on 16 August 2009 | No responses
Welcome to my blog. For my first post, I would like to explain why I refer to myself as “Sue”, and my domain name is, “SusanWeaver.net”. I have further confused some by choosing the email address, “sue” at my web site name.
I married into the name “Weaver”, which I love. No problem there… It’s just that in grade school, for a brief period of time I had a few friends who chose a special nickname for me. When you preface “Weaver” with “Sue” and leave off the “ver”, you get… yes, exactly. You are calling in the sows. My friends weren’t being malicious about it and it was only for a brief period of time, but it was one of my least favorite nicknames.
For anyone not named Susan, here are a few other ways that my name has been embellished over the years: “Subaru”, “Sue’s a phone”, “Soupy”, “Oos” (I like this one – my then little cousin, Clint, came up with it), “Sewage”, “Sue-sue-suedeo” and then, of course, the infamous “Suzy-Q”. I’m sure that I’ve forgotten some…