DESIGN CONCEPT

Welcome back!
Lesson 1: Basic web concepts -

PART 2

Getting your web site 'live' on the Web
With the nerd background details under our belts, we can now learn about the two steps to going live on the Web:

Register your domain.
Rent some server space.


Registering your domain
There are many companies out there that allow you to register the domain name for your web site. Prices vary, as does the quality of service, but at the end of the day, they all handle the details of getting your domain name listed in the giant address book I spoke about earlier.
These days, you will find that many of the names you may be interested in registering are already taken. As I mentioned above, domain names have to be unique and many have been slurped up.


1 What is the difference between .com, .net, .org, etc.?
Practically speaking, there is really no difference these days. Search engines don't discriminate between a .COM address and a .NET address. The only thing you might consider is that people tend to type in .COM automatically since it was the first publicly known domain extension. So when registering a domain name, I would go for the .COM first and if it was taken, I would then try for any of the others. (.net, .org, .tv, etc. ...)

You probably guessed; a .COM address is not the same domain name of the same name with a different extension. So for example:
http://www.killersites.com/is not the same place as http://www.how-to-build-websites.com/lessonOne_part2.php#
As such, each of the addresses can be registered separately.



2. Renting server space to 'host' your web site
You need to rent space on a server so that it can serve your web site to the World Wide Web; this is often called 'hosting'. Companies that provide this service are often called 'host' or hosting companies.
After you've registered your domain, all you need to do is contact a hosting company and tell them your domain name. They will be able to guide you through the process and you should be live on the web in no time - typically within a week or less.



A cheaper option
Some people may not want to buy a domain or pay for hosting because they only have a personal web site for fun or practice. You can still get your website live on the web by using a free hosting service that allows you to create what is called a 'sub-domain'. A sub-domain is just a domain that is part of another domain. So if killersites.com offered sub-domain hosting you could have an address like:

www.killersites.com/yourWebsite/

Or it could be like:

http://yourwebsite.killersites.com/

Whichever way the free hosting service decides to do it. The point is that your web site domain is really a part of the parent domain, in this case killersites.com. Doing it this way, you don't need to buy a domain name, and you don't need to pay for hosting.

This is fine for fun or project websites, but if you are serious about your web site (say it's your business website) using sub-domains is like taking someone else's business card and writing your name on it! You figure it out ...
One last point, I've heard of free hosting services that will allow you to host proper domains with them for free and without annoying ads that other free hosts will insert into your pages. But I've never used them, and in my opinion you always get what you pay for. In the internet's recent past there was once a crop of free service providers that would give away access to the web via dial-up, they were notorious for bad service and all have since gone bankrupt ... I wonder why?




Components of a great web site ;
So you've finally decided it's time to create your own Web Site. After all, your friends and business associates have one and you don't want to be left behind on the Information Super Highway.

Great Web Sites all have a few common elements about them, and that's what we'll be discussing here. It's usually a good idea to plan the site out on paper before even touching your PC. It can be difficult to come up with content staring at a blank computer screen, so get out an old fashioned pen and paper and let those creative juices flow. You want to be sure to include all there is to know about your products and/or services.

Once you decide on the main topics you'll be using it's time to plan out the navigation. You need to make it simple and easy for visitors to find their way around your site, otherwise they'll get frustrated and leave. Keep the navigation consistent on all pages so your guests don't have to relearn the menus from page to page. Graphic links are usually more effective than plain text, but make sure you use something readable and easy on the eyes.


Make sure the color of the hyperlinks coordinate with the rest of your site. You should include your contact information at the bottom of every page, at the very least an email address. Businesses should include phone,fax, and company name as well. Not everyone enters a site through the front door and if you fail to include this information, they won't know where they are or how to get in touch with you with comments and/or suggestions. If you surf the Net for any length of time, you'll be amazed at just how many sites fail to include this vital information.
Including a Feedback form is a good way to add some interactivity and makes it easy for people to ask questions without having to pick up the phone.

Graphics make a site visually appealing but, if you use the wrong ones it can leave a bad impression. Make sure to use an unbusy background so the text can be read easily. Surfers are an impatient bunch so make sure the graphics are compressed as much as possible so they download quickly.


If your site is large you might want to include a search mechanism to help visitors find what they are looking for. The more information you include the harder it gets for visitors to find exactly what they want. A search form makes this simple. HTML editors like MS Front Page makes it easy to insert search tools into your site and automatically update itself when new pages are added.

Having a Web Site means making constant updates. People want to that the information they are reading is fresh and new. That being said you should include the last date the page was updated on all of the pages in your site. This lets the public know when changes were last made or you can include a "what's new" page that is specifically used for this purpose.

Adding a page of related links is another great idea. You can contact other site owners and ask to exchange links or just add other sites that you like that compliment yours. By asking to exchange links you help generate traffic for each other's sites. The best sites on the Net usually offer links to related Web Sites where more information can be found on the same topic. If you can write up a brief description next to each link all the better. If you do include a link page check it from time to time to get rid of any dead links. It's very annoying to click on a link and get an error.
If you take all of these tips and implement them on your Web Site, you'll have an interesting, well-designed site that people will want to return to again and again. Anyone can get on the Information Super Highway, it's up to you what kind of car you want to be seen in.



Design Essentials: 1. Planning
Invest some time in planning your Web site and it will pay off. A well-planned Web site will serve your customers better and help you achieve your business goals.

Try the following exercise: First, prepare a mission statement. A sentence or two should be plenty. Try to summarize exactly what you are trying to accomplish with the site. Once you've done that, the rest of the planning simply becomes a means towards arriving at your mission statement. If you begin to lose sight of your mission statement, write it on the top of all your outlines, or use it as the title of your template pages.

Now sit down with a notepad and a pen. Lay out a site map in a flow chart style. This chart should show all the pages you intend to create for your Web site and how they fit together. Once you have your site map drawn, outline your homepage on paper. Draw your tables and the names of the pages linked from the homepage.

Sketch your graphics out and position them. Note where you want to place scripts or animations. Even if you aren't the world's greatest artist or your handwriting is tough to decipher, you're on your way to painting that picture in your head.

Now, outline each individual page you link to from your homepage. As you begin each page, ask yourself the purpose of the page. Sometimes you'll find there is little purpose in a page and delete it from the site map.

That's fine; it's best to find your flaws before you're too deep into the project. Your vision will probably change to some degree during the creation process, forcing you to edit the map or redesign some of the pages. When that happens, get the same notepad out, and modify from there. Laying out a site on paper is faster than laying it out in code.



Design Essentials: 2. Design
Your site should have a similar theme throughout its entire design, so if you decide to enhance your homepage by changing colors or graphics, remember that you'll want to carry over the theme to your subsequent pages to give your site a unified feel.

If you are not design-savvy or artistically inclined, consider enlisting outside help with the artistic elements of your Web site. Paying for graphics or hiring a professional designer is worth the investment if your goal is a Web site that you'll use as a serious business tool.

First, figure out what color scheme you want. Establish what colors represent you the best. Usually two colors are enough. You don't want your colors to be too subtle, nor do you want them to be too vibrant.

Now sketch out your graphics/buttons. Try to keep the colors down. Lots of colors are not only distracting, they are also larger files. Keep your graphics clear and easy to decipher. If you plan to have any effects, such as rollovers, try to do it as subtly as possible.

Before you create graphics, lay out the site out without graphics. Use tables and table backgrounds to illustrate the color of the site. Create a rough draft of your home page. Show your draft to other members of the team or friends, and listen to their opinions. Sometimes the best feedback can come from people who aren't Web-savvy.

If you aren't satisfied with the draft, create another one and repeat the same process. Create as many as it takes and don't work on anything else until you've settled on a final layout.

Once you're satisfied with your layout, create the graphics and plug them in. You may find that what you had initially planned doesn't work with the final layout. That's okay. It's inevitable that adjustments will be made during the creative process.



Design Essentials: 3. Speed
If your Web site is slow, customers will leave before the graphics load. Sometimes when users encounter a graphics-intensive site, they search for an alternative while that page is loading. Your customers will do the same. Optimize your Web site's graphics and code so that it loads quickly. T

ry using Macromedia Fireworks, Adobe Image Ready or Photoshop to optimize your graphics. Make the size of your graphic files as small as possible without compromising too much on image quality.

Optimize your code. There are several utilities that will eliminate extra data from HTML files to make a page smaller in size. Use them on every page on your site. Try iWebTool.com's Optimizer <http://www.iwebtool.com/html_optimizer> or search for "HTML optimizer" to find other similar tools.

Reuse graphics. Avoid creating extra graphics when you can use an existing one. A different graphic might make the site look nicer, but the existing graphic will have loaded and be in the visitor's cache. Your pages will load faster if a visitor's browser only has to download the new HTML.


Design Essentials: 4. Organization
Your site has to be organized. Keep your directory structure clean. Remember the flow chart you created in the planning phase? Each branch of that chart deserves its own directory. Create a directory for images, and create directories for every other section of your site.

If you leave everything in one or two folders, maintaining it will be an absolute nightmare. The more you update, the less organized it becomes. Finally, you'll get to the point where it takes longer to navigate the server than it does to create the updates themselves.

If you move pages around a lot, try to use absolute URLs (http://www.yoursite.com/file.html)
instead of relative URLs (/file.html) for your graphics and links. It's easier to work with absolute URLs than to fix 50 broken links every time you move a page.


Design Essentials: 5. Clarity
Your customers have to understand what your point is. Keep your message simple and clear. If you do a lot of writing on your site, be direct and to the point.

Use one-word menus, alt text descriptions in your image tags or window.status Javascripts. Try not to use too many colors, and try not to use contrasting colors. Your visitors should have an idea of where to go and what to do as soon as the page has loaded.

Don't move your Web site's navigation all over the place. Keep menus in one place. Keep your links to the left, right or top of your page, and content in the middle.

Leave plenty of white space. Crowding images and text together will give your site a noisy, confusing feel. White space directs the eye where it needs to go


Design Essentials: 6. Content
Content is the backbone of your Web site. When writing your content, reflect on the planning stage and specifically, your mission statement. Every bit of content should relate to the mission statement. If your mission statement is to make people laugh, then anything that isn't funny should be left out. If your mission statement is to inform people about whales, then you shouldn't talk about browser updates.

Don't create filler content. Plan your content as you planned your site. Use short declarative sentences, bulleted lists and descriptive subheadings so that your content is scan-able.

Don't steal content from other Web sites. Do your own research and share your own opinions.

Keep the content going. Update your site and your content regularly. Don't put something up and leave it there for years.


Design Essentials: 7. Service
A common misconception about Web development and Web marketing is that customer service is not a requirement. But putting your business online means that you're creating another channel of contact with your customers--they're going to expect replies to their e-mails.

Listen to your visitors for the same reason you would seek external advice on personal issues, or edits to your writing. It's hard to be objective about something you've created.

It's a good idea to insert an e-mail contact link somewhere highly visible on the homepage. Encourage users to leave a comment about the site. Sure, you'll get more e-mail than usual, but this is direct feedback from your customers. Use it constructively to improve your Web site's ease of use and clarity. Plus, you might even receive a positive comment every now and then



Design Essentials: 8. Administration
Have you ever run across a site that hasn't been updated in the past year or more? Did that company or organization seem more or less professional to you?

Update your site. Make sure all your content is fresh. You may think that you have a wealth of material and that it could take the average visitor months to finish it, but not everybody will be interested to read it all. If someone visits your site, finds a good article and enjoys it, they will likely come back at some point to read more. But if nothing changes, your visitor isn't likely to come back again.

Once you stop staying on top of your site, so will your visitors. Sometimes there simply isn't time to make updates as often as you would like. Maybe set an update goal for yourself when you're planning, and stick to it. If you're launching a blog, there will be an expectation of regular updates, so you'll want to set reminders to ensure those updates happen. But if you're launching a simple online presence for your uncle's sleepy accounting practice, then you could probably go months without an update.

An honest understanding of a particular Web site's needs at the outset will help keep it from going stale too quickly.


Design Essentials: 9. Personality
Your Web site is simply part of your business, and it should reflect the way you do business. While thousands of words have been written outlining the rules of Web design, perhaps the most important one is for you to be yourself online.

If you tend to be conservative in the way you conduct your business, don't publish a Web site with loud colors and an informal tone simply because some tutorial said that's the way it should be. The tone will end up feeling awkward and forced. A Web site that engages, informs and entertains will benefit your business, but remember--you can accomplish those goals the same way you're comfortable doing them offline.

Bottom line--you don't need to change anything about your business' identity because you're putting it online.


Design Essentials: 10. Usefulness
In some ways, this tip might be the most important. Every Web site should fall under one of the following categories:

Informational: Serve as a resource for information about a trade, product or cause.
Service-oriented: Offer a service, sell a product or advertise a company.
Personal/entertainment: Keep visitors engaged via your articles, stories, blog or multimedia.

If your site doesn't fall into one of these three categories, you may want spend more time brainstorming and planning your site. Try to come up with a mission statement to keep your goal in focus. If you're going to publish a Web site, do it because you feel you have something of value to offer to your audience.


Until I come your way again next time stay bless, and remember "Its not working too hard but working very smart"

Bye...