websites 101

• a domain name (e.g. acme.com)


• a web host


• content!

• domain
  a unique name for your site, e.g. yourwebsite.com
• ftp
  what you use to move things from your computer to your website
• database
  organization system for many content management systems
• CMS
  content management system--makes it easy to add content to a website
• HTML
  the markup language used to make websites (XHTML is sort of html on steroids)
• CSS
  a language for structuring web pages and styling their contents.
• blogs
  essentially one kind of CMS

see also: W3Schools Glossary

• Is my domain name easy to remember?


• How often do I want to update my website?


• What do I want people to be able to do on my website? (contact, learn about my business, see pictures, comment, order?)


• How much time and money do I want to spend on my website?


• Free as in beer vs. free as in kittens.


• The more you are willing to learn, the more you will be able to do.

So, keeping that all in mind. . .

• domains can be purchased separately or through your web host


• some domain registrars: godaddy.com, active-domain.com, gandi.net


• top domain name registrars, via Wikipedia

• Dreamhost free offer for nonprofits


• other free web hosts, via Google


• some blogging platforms offer free hosted versions

• usually $8-12/month


• many web hosts will let you support multiple domains and databases, so you might be able to pair up with someone


• check carefully to find out what features each host offers and how much support they offer

how do you create the stuff that makes up your website?

• free page design: pages.google.com [example] [scrn], geocities.com [example] [scrn]


• html editors: [HTML scrn] [CSS scrn]
  full list of html editors
  WYSIWYG or text-based?
  comparison of WYSIWYG editors
  comparison of text-based html editors

Free page design services are very easy but give you limited options and may be ad-supported. HTML & CSS are hard but you have total control. Using a WYSIWYG editor falls somewhere in the middle.

• content management systems: blogs [example]


• free hosted blogs: blogger.com [example] [scrn] and wordpress.com [example] [scrn], or edublogs.org if you are in some way connected to education


• paid hosted blogs: TypePad [example] [scrn]


• host your own blog: parkcountylibrary.org is an example [scrn]

Websites 101 is one of a series of classes created for the Park County Library System by Meeteetse (and Virtual) Branch Manager Laura Crossett.

This presentation was created in HTML using CSS, based on a template designed by Jessamyn West. The layout and stylesheet are available to borrow via a share and share alike creative commons license. See source code for details.

slides version | printable version