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Getting Started
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So, you want to make a website but have no clue where to start? Well, below is a helpful guide to get you started. Hopefully this article will teach you a thing or two.
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Finding a Host
The very fist thing you need to do is find a host. There are many free ones out there, but the most reliable ones are the paid hosts. We will talk about free hosts first.
Usually, free hosts give you a subdomain (yoursite.host.com) or no domain (www.host.com/yoursite). I used freewebs before, before you can only have up to 50 files, but now you can have as many as you wish. I really liked freewebs, but compared to Kylosa, I don't know what to say. Free hosts do not give you as much bandwidth and space, but do keep this in mind, they are FREE. Many free sites also have some type of ad, but some good ones don't. These are a few that I highly reccommend: Kylosa (OFFLINE) and Freewebs. I do not reccommend you to use these hosts: Geocities, Tripod or Angelfire.
Paid hosts usually give you a domain ( .com, .net, .org ect.) and more bandwidth. They also offer more. The prices can range from 5~200$. I never used a paid host before so I do not know much. XP
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Making a Layout
Many people judge your site by your layout. If your layout is neat, organized and soothing to the eye, then they might move on to your actual content. You can get a premade one, but I reccommend you to make one yourself.
First, you've got to have any sort of paint program, a few common ones are MS Paint, Adobe Photoshop and Paint Shop Pro.Photoshop and Paint Shop Pro are better ones. They allow you to do more. When you are happy with your top image, save it on the internet. You can save it on your host or on a image host (www.photobucket.com). When that is done, it's time for the coding.
If you are not sure how to code a layout, you can google search html tutorials, read related books, ask someone familiar with html or like what I did, teach yourself. The most common types of layouts are tables, divs, IFrame and popups. If it is your first layout ever, I suggest you to use divs or IFrame, tables can get pretty confusing sometimes.
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The Content
The content is probably the most important part on a website. It shows your skills and effort you have put in. When you finsh writing a page or so, always proofread it OUT LOUD. If your first language is not English (like me), let someone who is more familiar with it proofread your website to check for grammer and spelling mistakes.
Do not use chatspeak, sTiCKy cApS or swear, people will get annoyed and probably will just move on to the next site. Also, do not write any offensive things about another person orelse you might upset someone and wind up in a "Wall and Shame" or something. That will probably end up a closed site (which is not what you want).
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Advertise
When you think your layout and content are both good enough, you can start advertising your site. Advertising brings alot of visitors. Just don't do it on other people's guestbook or tagboard. They are there for a purpose, not advertising though.
You can advertise your site on a plug board or join a link rotation. Your site will only appear randomly, so not everyone will see you site. But Affiliates and Siblings are a whole different story. Usually you need to read a few rules and fill out a form or e-mail that person to become their affiliate/sibling. Be sure to read their rules, it shows respect and if your site does not qualify, then you are just wasting your time fillinf out the form/emailing that person. You can also make a affiliation page with rules and maybe a form for others to apply. When you accept/ get accepted to be someone's affie/sib, put their link up asap unless you have a great reason and tell them immediately.
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Credits
When you use another website's layout/images/fonts/brushes/text ect., be sure to give them the credits they deserve. You can make a credits page where you put the name of the site, the link and a brief description of what you used from their site. It will stop alot of people from putting your site on their "Wall of Shame". Besides, not giving someone's credit is... well... illegal.
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Conclusions
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Now that you know almost everything about hosting a site, you can get started today. Remember, making a website is a slow progress, you cannot finish everything in one day and there will always be more to do and learn. Have fun!
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