I am interested in creating a website for my business.  I have no
experience in this area, but recently I bought a new computer and am
willing to take the time to learn what it will take.  I don't have a
wad of cash to spend on software. Rather, I would like to be exposed
to the most resourceful websites and links that provide useful hints,
tips, lastest developments etc re: website development.  Also, is a
full understanding of HTML required for a professional looking and
efficiently operating website? I'm a do-it-yourself kind of person,
and would appreciate your help in making this project possible and
rewarding.

Hi, desertpharroh:

Create a professional website it's a hard task composed by several
phases, planning, graphic design, development, etc. I don't know the
size of your business, but I'm going to supose it's a mid-sized one.
If it's bigger I recommend you to contract website design specialists,
because is a very important part of a business and must give a good
impression to customers.

You don't need full understanding of HTML, there are tools (listed
below) which will help you to generate code to create a professional
website but, of course, a basic knowledge of HTML is required to
understand problems you could face in your web development. The
following links will help you to start.

HTML Home Page
http://www.w3.org/MarkUp/

HTML Tutorials (very good list)
http://www.htmlgoodies.com/tutors/

If you don't have experience on web design, I recommend you to visit
the following websites, they contain software packages called CSMs
(Content Management Systems) which allow a non-experienced user to
create a full blown website, including an administration panel to add
content, easily without any knowledge on programming.

PHP-Nuke CMS
http://www.phpnuke.org

PHP-Nuke Download
http://www.phpnuke.org/modules.php?name=Downloads&d_op=getit&lid=225

PHP-Nuke support site
http://www.nukesupport.com/

PHP-Nuke Support forums
http://www.nukeforums.com/forums/

PostNuke CMS
http://www.postnuke.com

PostNuke Download
http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/post-nuke/Rogue_714.zip

PostNuke FAQ
http://www.postnuke.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=FAQ&file=index

Also, if you want to integrate a shop into your web, I recommend you:

osCommerce
http://www.oscommerce.com

osCommerce Community (to get support)
http://www.oscommerce.com/community.php

If you want a more customized web site, you will have to do it
yourself starting from scratch, in that case you will need to follow
these steps:

a)Planning:
Write a document about the features you want in your web site. Also
write the organization of pages, for example, if you create a Contact
page, this page can contain a link to a Staff page with the
photos/names/e-mail addresses of all your employees.

b)Domain name:
You will need to buy a domain name to let your users access your web
site, for example, yourstore.com. Choose the shortest name you can, it
will be easy to remember and type.

DirectNIC
http://www.directnic.com

Register.com
http://www.register.com

c)Hosting:
Your web must be stored and published somewhere on the net, you will
need to buy hosting space to store the files that make up your web. Be
sure before contract a host, it has all the features you need to run
your website (Databases, scripting language, etc)

PHPWebHosting
http://www.phpwebhosting.com

Defined Systems
http://www.defined.net

FindMyHosting
http://www.findmyhosting.com/

HostSearch
http://www.hostsearch.com/

d)Development:
Create all the structure you designed in a) without using graphics,
just text, this way is easy to make modifications. You will need a
development tool. This is my selection for you to try, are ordered by
easy of use:

NetObjects MX
http://www.netobjects.com

Namo
http://www.namo.com

DreamWeaver
http://www.macromedia.com/software/dreamweaver/

CodeCharge
http://www.codecharge.com/index2.html


e)Graphics:
Design your graphics, use at max 256 colors and GIF or PNG formats and
don't abuse of them, it can cause your page load slow. If you want to
add photos, use JPG format and use thumbnails (small preview images)
whenever is possible.

Adobe Photoshop
http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop/main.html

Paint Shop Pro
http://www.jasc.com/products/psp/

f)Upload it:
Depending the tool you use to create your website, you will need to
upload the website files to your host yourself or not. If your
development tool doesn't have this feature you will need to use an FTP
program.

SmartFTP
http://www.smartftp.com

CuteFTP
http://www.cuteftp.com/products/cuteftp/index.shtml

g)Test it:
Try to view every page of your web because you designed it on your
machine and your pages can contain broken links.

To learn all you need to perform these steps, you may visit the
following sites:

Interactive Tutorial for Beginners
http://www.davesite.com/webstation/html/

Web Design Basics
http://www.iuinfo.indiana.edu/policy/basics.html

With the previous links and tools, you will have the necessary
knowledge to create websites with static content, this kind of website
is enough if you don't plan to update it frequently, but if you plan
to add content several times a week (news, events, products, etc), you
will need to learn another technologies to create websites with
dynamic content.

The following list contains links to websites where you can download
server-side scripting languages, useful to create dynamic content:

PHP
http://www.php.net

ASP (Active Server Pages Guide)
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?URL=/library/psdk/iisref/aspguide.htm

JSP (Java Server Pages)
http://java.sun.com/products/jsp/

ColdFusion
http://www.macromedia.com/software/coldfusion/

If you want to add dynamic content to your web, this content may be
stored on a database:

MySQL
http://www.mysql.com

PostgreSQL
http://www.postgresql.org/

Website design is not an easy task can be mastered in a couple of
months, be patient and constant and of course, have fun!

I hope this helps and feel free to request any clarification.
Regards.

Hi! You might also find some of these resources useful.

Building your own website from scratch can be fun and rewarding. The
advantage, of course, is that you chose every element to please your
eye, to further your marketing strategy, and appeal to your particular
market. There are many resources available to assist you. Full
knowledge of HTML isn't an absolute necessity, but an acquaintance
with it is. As computer languages go, HTML is among the simplest to
learn and to use. As well as leading you to design, style, and
webbuilding tutorials, I'll provide HTML learning resources. If you
thoroughly learn one word (tag) of HTML a day, you'll be an expert in
about six weeks.

Business website templates can be the jumpstarter for a professional
looking website for the beginner. Templates are ready-made sets of
graphics and HTML ready for installation in your own webspace. Some of
my favorite template sources include:

A+ Templates  - http://www.aplustemplates.com/cgi/templates/inventory.pl?action=list&listcat=Business_Templates
Sticky Sauce - http://www.stickysauce.com/freetemplates/index.htm
Free Site Templates - http://www.freesitetemplates.com/

All of these template providers also offer tips and tutorials for the
use of their templates.

Several sitebuilder megasites offer tremendously helpful resources.

From the Web Design Library at Builder.com, see the Authoring and Site
Design section. Resources cover coding basics, usability guides,
layout and formatting, and browser compatibility.

http://builder.cnet.com/webbuilding/0-3881.html?tag=dir

I really like and recommend the web building resources available from
Webmonkey.com. They're among the best written and understandable
articles, references, and tutorials on the Web. Close your eyes,
circle your mouse and click. No matter where you land, you'll learn
something useful.

http://hotwired.lycos.com/webmonkey/

Select a site and begin learning HTML:

HTML Goodies Beginners Primer:
http://www.htmlgoodies.com/primers/basics.html
Web Diner HTML Adventure - http://www.webdiner.com/webadv/index.htm
HTML Bootcamp - http://www.mylibrarian.com/lis/workpad.html
W3c Tutorials - http://www.w3schools.com/

Before you build, learn a smattering about web usability. What makes a
website good, what makes it functional, what makes it easy for
visitors to use.

Alertbox - http://www.alertbox.com
Web Pages That Suck - http://www.webpagesthatsuck.com/

Web Usability for Dummies, from Zanzara Press, is an excellent printed
resource for the fledgling site builder.

"The book explains how usability work gets done, and how it improves
products from pencils to virtual panoramas. It shows how usability is
crucial to helping a Web site achieve its goals, and to helping Web
projects get completed on time and within budget."

HTML editors can not only assist in writing your HTML, they can be
great teaching tools. Here are comprehensive listing of HTML editor
reviews and commentary from About.com, and the Web Developer's Virtual
Library:

http://html.about.com/cs/htmleditors/
http://www.wdvl.com/Reviews/HTML/

Website Graphics and Typography Resources:

Eyewire: http://www.eyewire.com
Corbis: http://www.corbis.com
Microsoft Typography: http://www.microsoft.com/typography/free.htm
FreeWebGraphics.com - http://www.free-graphics.com/
Google Directory: http://directory.google.com/Top/Computers/Graphics/Web/Free/

If a more structured learning program better suits your habits, try
Barnes & Noble University. Browser their Science and Technology
offerings for the course entitled: How to Build Your First Website.
Courses are free and taught by professional level instructors,
however, you must buy the textbook.

http://www.barnesandnobleuniversity.com/

To find additional resources explore from the links above, you'll find
a wealth of good information available in recommended links.

Best of luck to you,

larre-ga

Glad you're a hands-on person. For most businesspeople, learning what
it takes to create your own Web site from the ground up is too big a
deal to be worth it vs. spending time on your business. I might
recommend you try Bigstep - that will get you up and running quickly.
Then you can build your own from-scratch Web site that really does
just what you want it to, while having the Bigstep Web site as a
starting point until your "real" site is ready. (The other
recommendations are good ones if you truly want to do it yourself.
Thanks to larre for the pointer to my book, Web Usability For
Dummies.)

I was one of the persons like you. Do it yourself. Let me tell you my
experience. If you are trying to make website just of one site that is
for yourself and if you are not planning to become a professional
webdesigner: I would suggest you to give to some one else and it is
not worth to take this much pain and effort. I found one company very
useful and I used them for my site: www.gmsoftware.com. Mention
EzmathTrix name and Mr.Gilled will help you out to his maximum extent.
Other wise: you can go to www.elance.com to find out who else is there
in market to do your job.

Hope this info will help you.
By

www.EzMathTrix.com

great links, thanks much appreciated!

Hi,

You can save a lot of time and effort by using an online website
builder as these mean that you dont need to learn any of the HTML to
build a site and don't have to worry about any of the hosting or file
uploading, etc

Something like http://www.element25.com lets you choose a look and
colour for your site, add you content, images and logo as well as
helping with the search engines. With these site builders you get an
admin area where you can edit all your content, images, etc as much as
you want.

Hope this saves you some stress !!!

I recently started a website that reviews and ranks do-it-yourself
website creation software. A number of these programs have appeared in
the last year or so, both "off-the-shelf" and online.

My website is: www.MakeYourWebsiteNow.com  

Note: I do not sell anything directly on my site. I do have affiliate
links but they are all identified (unlike most websites with affiliate
links). If you think affiliate links are "unfair" and you would rather
have all the money go to the publisher or developer (the price of
affiliate-marketed products are the same either way), you can always
go directly to the company's website.

On my 02 August 2002 post I said that I identify affiliate links on my
website, www.MakeYourWebsiteNow.com

Unfortunately, identifying which programs I am an affiliate for cut my
CTR (Click Through Rate) in half. I guess there is so much
(understandable) suspicion about "someone trying to sell me something"
that many folks don't like to click on affiliate links. Although I
take pains to make my reviews and ratings unbiased, I probably haven't
convinced visitors of my objectivity yet.

Bottom line is that I stopped identifying affiliate links as such. I
hope to be able to do so again in the not-too-distant future.