Friday, May 2, 2008

Do You Wish You Could Make a Web Site?

Getting into the global marketplace is easier now than ever before. The Internet allows you to tap that marketplace from your living room. But what if you don’t know how to make a Web site?

The world is changing in other ways too. No longer do we expect to get a 9-5 job that lasts many years. In fact, short-term contract jobs without benefits are becoming more and more common. This uncertainty might cause you to consider starting a small business in your spare time. If you get the knack, you may even be able to make enough money to make it your sole income.

But you’re not taking the first step. You don’t know how! And you think you can’t afford it.

Making a Web site is easy for novices these days. There are plenty of Internet businesses set up to create a template Web site, so you don’t even have to learn HTML. But there’s a drawback–without HTML, you don’t know what you need to know to manage your Web site! You will need to know at least a bit of this formatting language for Web sites. As Webmaster you will need to add affiliate links and shopping carts, not to mention clickable ads, if you want your site to earn money.

Learning HTML–it sounds a lot harder than it is. Actually you only need to know a bit of HTML, not the whole subject. You can look for a tutorial on it, or a book. If you sign up for a class at the local junior college, you’re probably learning more HTML than you need.

You will need special software that makes both the HTML code and the Web site as it looks in a browser. There are three alternatives for you: Macromedia Dreamweaver, the most costly at several hundred dollars; Microsoft Front Page, a simpler piece of software that you can buy for around $100; and Nvu, which costs you nothing. Nvu is open-source software. Open-source software is available for free; those who create and maintain it donate their time, often to provide us with an alternative to Microsoft.

Web hosting is something else you will need that can be costly if you are not careful. Web hosting is renting space on a server. Hosting companies offer fancy solutions for big bucks, and also simple solutions for little money. If you buy both Web hosting and domain registration from the same company, you may get a better deal. Domain registration is reserving your domain name, such as www.mywebsite.com. In fact, you can probably find companies that offer both for as little as $25 per year for a simple Web site. Open a search engine and type in “cheap domain hosting” and see what you find!

Internet users are buying plenty of e-books these days. E-books are books without the paper and cover. Sound odd? Basically, they’re just the information. You can print them out on your printer, or read them on your computer. The best thing about them is that you can get your book immediately, a popular feature in our culture. So look around for an e-book on how to use Nvu.(articleslot.com)

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