Building a Web Site in Your Spare Time
If you're a technically inclined individual looking to create a presence online, this page might be for you. This isn't intended to be the alpha and omega of web site creation, but a rough guide illustrating how I did it. Please keep in mind that I am not a professional web designer. I'm something of a purist, so you won't find any details about using Dreamweaver or some other WYSIWYG HTML editor. Likewise, information about creating a site using WordPress or some other blogging software can be better found elsewhere.
If you're still with me, I'm going to make a couple of assumptions.
- You know your way around a computer. You're on this site, so I hope that isn't much of a stretch.
- You're familiar enough with the internet to know what terms like domain name, web hosting, and registrar mean.
- You know how to use HTML and CSS. Okay, that may be taking the assumptions too far. We'll address that in the next section if need be.
Required Knowledge
Okay, so maybe you don't know HTML and CSS. Or maybe you're like me
and those skills are a bit rusty. No worries, HTML and CSS are
easy to learn. There are a number of tutorials on the subject available
online, or you can pick up any of a number of books. I recommend either
Creating a Web Site: The Missing Manual
I should add a caveat here - these books are about versions of HTML/XHTML and CSS that will be falling behind the technology curve in the years to come. HTML 5 and CSS 3 look to be the future of the web. I'm sure authors are even now writing updated versions to capture the changes on the way, but the truth is most of the information in these books is sufficient to create a good web site and be in a position to move to the latest technologies when you're ready.
Concept
You're creative, smart and you want to build a web site. That's great, but there is a little more to a good website than that. The core question is, who are you writing to? Having a web site about your family, or that trip you took to the Carribean is different from creating that Facebook replacement you have in mind (in several different ways).
Know your audience. That's true for any kind of writing and it applies equally to web page design. Whether you're promoting your neo-ska punk and bluegrass band, selling bonsai trees or providing a litany of reasons to boycott Company Y, you have to know who you're writing to as much as you know what you're writing about.
Preparation
So you have the concept and you know your audience. Now it's time to figure out the name of the site you plan to build. Names can be tricky. A lot of the good domain names are already taken. What's in a name? Turns out, there are a number of things to keep in mind.
- The name should be easy to pronounce.
- It should be something memorable.
- As a corrolary to the above, shorter names are preferable to longer ones.
- Also a corrolary, the name should be attention getting.
- The name should be aligned with concepts relevant to the target audience or core concept.
- If you're looking to run a business or somehow monetize the site, the name should also reflect the objective of the business.
Of course, just because you have a cool name doesn't mean that domain name is available. No, that would be too easy. Instead, you might want to come up with a couple names and see if any are available (at one point, I had 15 different names and only two turned out to be available). There are some useful tools online that can help you check the availability or come up with a name. Here are but a few.
Once you have a name picked out that's available and you're ready to grab it, there is another decision to be made. Do you want to just purchase the name, or go ahead and buy the name and the hosting? Most domain name registrars also provide web hosting, so you can do the one-stop shopping if you're ready. When I was conceptualizing this site, I wasn't quite ready for a hosting plan so I just paid for the domain name. With the name alone, you can always purchase hosting later when you've got most of the site ready and you've found a hosting plan you like (the hosting plan does not need to be with the same company where you bought the name).
Design
Building a website is a little easier when you have a good idea of what it's going to look like. This doesn't have to be an in depth and detailed process, but you can make it that way if you want everything planned out before you build a single page. I went with some rouch sketches and notes about what pages I wanted, what the layout would be and how the site would be structured.
The design is easier if you know what you want to say, which is why we started with the Concept before we got to this step. This is where you figure out what pages you want, what content goes on which pages and how the users will navigate through the site. Use whatever tools will help you create the design you're looking for. Pencil and paper, whiteboards, Photoshop, or any other number of applications can help with this, but keep in mind the design is not set in stone (unless you actually used a stone and a chisel as your design tool, very old school of you if you did). Be prepared to change your mind later when you actually start building the web site.
Construction
This isn't a tutorial on HTML and CSS, so I won't go into a lot of detail on those topics. What I will say about constructing the web site is this, content is more important than polish. That isn't to say that you shouldn't worry about the structure and make it as visually appealing as you can, just that you should care more about what your site offers the audience rather than making it the most beautiful site that they'll never visit again.
My general approach is to start with a template page that has a rough outline of the structure and enough styling that you can see how it will display. Once that is in place, start adding content. You can address the style after you've got something to say that people will want to read.
Going Public
No, you shouldn't expect your web site to have a lucrative IPO right after construction. This is about pushing your site to your hosting provider when it's ready so that the world may see your brilliance.
From a technical perspective, this isn't very challenging. From a personal perspective, it might be. You're putting something you've spent time and energy creating out for the wired world to see. What if no one likes it? What if no one comes to see it? These questions will go through your mind, make note of them and move on. Fear of rejection is normal, but that shouldn't stop you from delivering. If you think it's worth doing and investing time in, then it's worth failing until you get it right.
