I aint no IT Tech, so please forgive my ignorance. But my friend asked me how to create her own web page so that she can show off her pottery that she has for sale. She sells quite a bit, so why not?
Anyway, I aint got the slightest idea.
Please help…
Building a web page is (relatively) simple, provided you have a working knowledge of HTML (Hypertext MarkUp Language). You can spend big bux on a bells&whistles package, but for a simple page–which I assume is the object of your exercise–a text editor should suffice. As far as the language is concerned, one place to start is http://www.cnet.com--take the “Web Building” link, and start drilling down.
Of course, if she wants it done fast, she’ll have to find someone to do it. (Duh!) Any decent-size city should have a few in the phone book–look under “Imternet Web Site Developers” or some such.
Publishing: does your friend have an ISP? In my experience, most Internet accounts provide storage space for a personal web page (though some balk at a personal web page being used for business purposes). If so, there may well be an area on the ISP’s home page explaining how to move the files to their server and publish them. A common web address for such a page would be "www.yourisp.com/~yournamehere."
If she doesn’t have an ISP, or they won’t provide hosting, she’ll have to go another route. There are too many variations on the theme to include in a single message; I’d recommend doing a Google/AltaVista search on “web hosting”–and prepare for an onslaught of information.
Hope this helps.
To OttoDaFe,
Thanks, I used yahoo search and came up with a few.
I will pass them along to her. She actually took a few IT courses as a minor alongside her bachelor’s, but apparently not enough to actually do any programming.
I was under the impression that it would be more difficult, but it appears to be rather simple.
This place http://www.free-web-page-space.com/ helps out a lot.
Again, thanks.
How big is your friends budget?
There are places that will build you a 5-10 page site for a couple hundred bucks if you sign up with them to host it for around $20/month.
There are also places that you can host at for around $20/month that have automated tools that you can use to build the site. You don’t do any HTML coding; you just send your pictures and text to it and choose from one of several layouts, and there you are.
If either of the above are interesting to you, I can post some suggested vendors, but they’re not hard to find.
Both of the above suggestions require no coding ability. If you do want to build your own, you can do as was suggested by OttoDaFe and learn HTML and write your own, but be prepared to spend some time. Once you get it, it’s no big deal but it really sounds like you’re starting from ground zero, and there is some learning curve.
Another alternative is to get a WYSIWYG editor like Dreamweaver or FrontPage (or even Word if you’re really desparate), which will greatly reduce your effort.
You didn’t mention where your friend plans on putting this web page. With my ISP you get free web space included as part of the service plan. Most ISPs are similar in this regard. However, be aware that most of them forbid commercial web pages in the free web space provided.
If you go with one of the web hosting sites (as previously mentioned) then this is usually not a problem.
Once upon a time, I coded my own web pages in HTML using emacs and dos edit. These days I barely have time to sneeze, let alone maintain my web pages, so I try to make my web pages as spiffy as possible with as little effort as possible. I happen to use Microsoft Publisher, which has some built in templates for web pages. Bill mentioned some of the other options. I wouldn’t recommend Word unless you are really desperate. It is very limited and produces horrible HTML code.
I do not know which ISP she uses. Her e-mail is yahoo and hotmail, so I am guessing that she does not cater to any of the larger ISP’s.
She just wants to show off her work, both before and after it is sold. She actually is not a professional pottery person (whatever you call them), nor does she care to make lots of money from her pottery. She does it for the pleasure and stress relief. But she found that she was producing way too much stuff. So, she heard about a local “art” sale at the local Art museum, and rented a space. She sold everything fairly quickly and wants to show off a bit.
I do not know what her long term intentions toward the page would be, but I gather she wants it to be fairly simple and cheap. I have used FrontPage and Publisher for demonstrations of web pages, but getting them on the web is well beyond my knowledge. And since she has both my computer and my laptop, I know she has both of those two programs. So, maybe we can get this thing figured out after all.
By the way, thanks for all of the help. She will think that I am soooo smart!!!
I will tell her where the poop comes from, don’t worry.
If you’ve already made web pages with Frontpage (and presumably already have the software), you’re 90% of the way there! Just write the pages, and look in the help for “publishing”
You’ll need a place to publish; For $20/month or less you can get everything you need. If you want to go cheaper, you can, all the way to free. Of course free will be lower quality.