Nobody knows exactly how many websites there are in the world, but a good guess puts it at around 40 million. Spork has recently upped that number to 40,000,001. It can be surprisingly easy to stake out your own little corner of the web. This article gives a rough outline of what you need to get yourself online.

a nerd
Having your own website will
make you sexy

Basically, a website is simply a collection of files that are all linked to each other. You can make a perfectly functional website that lives inside your own computer. In fact, until you're ready to send it out into the wild, that's exactly what you'll do. If you're just learning, it's a good idea to just play around on your own machine first, as getting it out live onto the internet will involve spending some money.

As you may or may not be aware, the majority of the internet is written in a very simple programming language called HTML (HyperText Markup Language). Your web browser converts this into what you see on the screen. You can see the raw html code for any page by going to View > Source in your web browser. Looking at other people's code is actually a great way to learn, and once you start coding you'll find yourself doing it whenever you see something you like on the net.

To write this code, you'll need four things:

  1. HTML editing software.

    This is a software package that helps you write websites, much the same way a word processor helps you write plain text. Some people will tell you that you don't need an html editor and that you can write the raw code yourself. The problem with this is that it's bollocks. Hand-coding is pointless for a newbie. A good html editor like Dreamweaver can be picked up reasonably cheaply off eBay. Working in split-screen mode you can see the code that Dreamweaver writes when you tell it to do certain things, which will help you learn faster.

    Microsoft bundle web authoring software called FrontPage in with MS Office, which you may already have. I would recommend avoiding FrontPage though, as its rubbish.

  2. A book

    I'd highly recommend this book.

    It teaches all the html you need to make a decent website, while simultaneously teaching Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), which is something you need to know. CSS is simply a method of appending an extra file to your html pages that has all the swanky-looking presentational instructions for your site. A site built in this way will be less complicated, faster loading, easier to maintain, and (importantly for newbies) easier to tinker with.

  3. A coding hammer

    A coding hammer is a non-existent but useful tool used to bash wayward code into shape. No matter how many people reassure you that html and css are simple and easy, there will be times when they absolutely refuse to do what you tell them. After you've spent endless hours trying to make your site look as if it hasn't been pulled through a hedge backwards, it's tempting to resort to raw violence to solve the problem.

  4. At least six months

    That's how long I reckon it takes a newbie to master all the new software and techniques, working in their spare time. If you want a decent-looking, functional website, allow yourself at least this long to make it happen.

code
Naked code. Phwoar!

So how do you put it all together? Well, don't worry, there's tons of help out there on the net. In particular, the site A List Apart is incredibly useful for finding out how to get the nuts and bolts of your site working. You can find useful snippets of code everywhere. Don't be afraid to directly copy things you like from other sites. Everyone does it, and nobody really minds.

Once you've started to get the hang of building pages, you can start thinking about unleashing your work on the internet. For this you need three things:

  1. Some server space

    You need somebody to host your files so that the public can access them. Check your ISP; you may already have some free server space with them. There's loads of other free hosting deals around, but they will probably do arseful things like put ads on your pages, and you may not even be able to pick your own web address.

    Paid hosting can be pretty cheap, and gives you much better options. Plug "hosting" into Google and prepare to be buried under an avalanche of hosting companies ready to sort you out. They are, however, far from created equal. Shop around, read reviews and ask the nice people of the interweb about their experiences.

  2. A domain name (eg: sp0rk.co.uk)

    You will sometimes get a free domain name with your hosting package. If not, you can buy them cheap from other companies and then transfer them to your host for free. Telivo are a good place to pick up UK domain names on the cheap.

  3. Some way to get your files onto your host's servers

    This is done using something called FTP (File Transfer Protocol). You don't need to know much about this. Just pick up a good free FTP tool like Smart FTP and you'll be able to drag and drop the files from your hard drive onto your host's servers. Simple.

And that's it; your site is on the internet. How easy was that!

All you have to do now is submit your site to a few search engines, get other people to link to it, and drum up some traffic.



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