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How To Get Started On A Web Site

Phillip Harrington
Jul, 2002

Perhaps the most frequently asked question people ask me about my profession is: "How do I get started on a web site?" This question is only second to some form of the question: "How do I get my web page to show up on Search Engines?" Without really telling you how to do everything, here is my attempt to at least point you in the right direction. People have explained these topics far better than I have.

Things you need to get started on a web site:

  • A Domain Name
  • Web Site Hosting
  • A basic understanding of HTML and/or a decent WYSIWYG style editor

Domain Names

All computers on the Internet refer to one another using numbers. Domain Name Service (DNS) is a system for assigning names to those numbers. This is so you can type: www.aol.com into a browser instead of 205.188.145.215. To get a Domain Name I recommend GoDaddy. They are inexpensive and have good support. Don't get suckered into buying any of the other crap they sell like the clip-art or "Web Site Complete". Just get the domain name. I use GoDaddy for all of my domain names. I purchased some of my domains from other places, but I have since moved them all to GoDaddy because they are small and run by a really proactive group of people. When VeriSign started sending deceptive renewal notices trying to trick people into switching to their service without meaning to, GoDaddy mailed warnings to their customers.

Another vendor who personally emailed me asking to be included on this page is Cheap Domain Registration. The name says it all. I haven't used them myself, but after their polite email, I just might give them a try. It's actually time to renew a few domains come to think of it...

Note: The downlow on why the second site looks shockingly like GoDaddy is that they are a GoDaddy reseller. I was confused at first, but it makes sense now. So ultimately GoDaddy is the source of the domains for both sites above. It's up to you weather to purchase from a reseller or not. It's an interesting service and I may sign up for it one of these days and be a domain reseller myself.

Web Site Hosting

A reliable web site has to be on a computer that is always on and permanently connected to the Internet on a fast connection. That sounds simple, but in reality, it is harder than it sounds. I recommend Cornerhost for hosting. They are inexpensive, run by an individual, and connected to the Internet on RackSpace.com's network. I would start with the "Basic" account and upgrade later if you need to. If you don't like Cornerhost, Hurricane Electric is great too. I've used both.

A Basic Understanding of HTML

HTML stands for Hypertext Markup Language. It is the basic formatting language of all web sites. Learning HTML is very simple.

Nerdy tangent: In case you're wondering, the HT in HTML is the same as the HT in http://. That stands for Hypertext Transfer Protocol. Computers talk to each other using protocols so that they don't all have to be the same kind of computer. It's like an American man and a Chinese man carrying on a conversation in Spanish, each with a Spanish translation dictionary. The protocol is a standard. It doesn't matter if your computer is a Mac or a Windows, it knows how to speak the standard language so you can surf the Internet. Web sites you visit might be hosted on NT, Mac, or Unix (or anything else), but they also speak the standard language so they can communicate with whatever computer is asking. HTTP is the protocol for transferring HTML documents.

Decent WYSIWYG Style Editor

For "article-centric" web sites, I like CityDesk by FogCreek Software. It handles templates and other issues for you. All you do is write.

Alternatively, for journal or news style sites I recommend you join the craze and start a web log (also called "Blog" for short, pronounced one sylable like "Clog"). By far the easiest tools to use for this are either Blogger or Radio Userland. The main difference? Blogger keeps what you write on their computer, Radio keeps what you write on your computer. Both tools move the finished result to your web server for you automatically.

The information above should be enough to get you started. For more advanced techniques, check out Web Monkey.

Search Engines

Showing up on search engines is somewhat of a science, and somewhat pure alchemy. For search engine optimization techniques see:

Making It Do Something Cool

So you want a guestbook/forum/comments page/etc? There are tons of places that will give or sell you web page ad-ons. Want your web page to do something really cool, unique and interesting? Hire a web programmer who can speak English and doesn't talk down to you or confuse you with techno-jargon. Obviously for this job, I generally recommend myself. Otherwise company loyalty compels me to recommend Forte Interactive (my day job).

Making It Look Cool

Hire a graphic designer (who can speak English and doesn't talk down to you or confuse you with design-o-jargon). Don't do this first! Do this last after your web page does what you want it to do. For an explanation of why, see Philip Greenspun's Case Studies Chapter under case study 3 (Birthday Reminder System). Designers I recommend? Linda de Lucca: local artist, former Forte employee (did all the great looking web sites we put up), good friend. Also, my friend Jon needs the work and his graphics are totally awesome. Check him out at Blue Line Media.

This page has been viewed at least 840 times, since we started counting, which was years after this page was up in the first place.

"Experience is that marvelous thing that enables you to recognize a mistake when you make it again." - Franklin P. Jones