MAKE A WEBSITE get started fast —for Beginners

MAKE A WEBSITEgetstartedfast—for Beginners Instructor: Gloria Ochoa

INTRODUCTION Your folder has a syllabus of what we will go over Evaluation card: turn it in at the front desk or mail it in COMPUTER LAB & Hours Your name tent is your ticket to use the lab at no charge What will this class cover? What do you need for a website Website basics Create a website fast with drag and drop Other tools for creating a website What skills/tools should you have to get the full experience of this class? Access to a computer with internet connection Comfortable navigating the internet First Things First

CELL PHONES Please be considerate of your classmates either turn off your cell phone or put it on vibrate. Thank you First Things First

Getting Started YOUR LIST FOR A WEBSITE No experience Required Domain Name Web Host Create Your Website !

GettingStarted DOMAIN NAME A domain name is like your home address. It is unique to your “home on the web”. It is where you will direct people who want to visit you. You subscribe to your domain name. You can pay yearly or in increment years. (usually the more years you subscribe you get a discount). Pick a name—any name is it easy to remember? is it easy to say? Check to see if the domain name is availableYou can check to see if the name is available by going to: www.whois.com You do NOT need to purchase your domain name there, you can do it at the time you pay for your web hosting. (coming up!) Register Your Domain nameYou can subscribe to your domain name without a webhost, its just easier to do it all at one time.

GettingStarted DOMAIN NAME Let’s try see how to look up a domain name! Is it available? If not are there other options for a similar domain name? www.whois.com http://www.fatcow.com/product/domainRegistration.bml http://www.networksolutions.com/whois/Domain names can be .com, .us, .org., .info, and more!(certain requirements do apply to certain domain name “endings”)

Getting Started DOMAIN NAME REGISTRATION When you have settled on a name you should register it. You can register it w/out having a website or web host, its just easier to do it all at once through a web host. To Register With Out A Webhost Choose a Domain Name Registrar (ie: Godaddy, 1and1, NetworkSolutions,etc) After you have chosen the domain name and have gone through the registration process you will get a confirmation email. This is not only a confirmation, it is your receipt so keep it in a safe place. You will then get a login and password to the control panel so you can “control” your domain name and email addresses when you are ready.

Getting Started WEB HOSTING A webhost lets you rent space on their servers for your domain name and website. Most Web Hosts let you setup your domain name at the same time you setup web hosting. (Think of it like a place to park your RV or Trailer—your website is your RV). Types of Web Hosting Free Web Hosting Sites Pro: Its free – you get what you pay for You don’t need to purchase a domain name Con: If they go away, so does your website The web address will look like this: www.freesite.nameyouchoose.com Paid Web Hosting Sites (recommended) Pro: You get better tech support & service You have a great web address You get a lot more “tools” to work with and make your site ROCK! Con: You have to pay for the service

Getting Started WEB HOSTs (just a few) You can always google around to find a webhost that fits your budget and needs. Fatcow PowWeb GoDaddy 1and1 NetworkSolutions Free one: Again, You can always google around and find free ones. www.000webhost.com

Getting Started WEB HOSTING SETUP Contact the web host you have chosen to setup your account. At that time you can also get your domain name You will get an email confirmation of your webhosting account with a login and password Once you login you will be at the Control (or Administration) Panel. At that point you can start creating a website, create email boxes and more! NOTE: Different webhosts will have similar control panels…they all wont look like the example here. YOU CAN NOT PUBLISH A WEBSITEUNTIL YOU HAVE A WEB HOST!

Getting Started CREATE YOUR WEBSITE No experience Required! Your home on the web is so close!!!! That’s right…you don’t have to know a stich of HTML coding, graphics creating or anything! These days there are a lot of WYSISWYG (What You See Is What You Get) web design applications. CoffeeCup www.coffeecup.com (Free to try) Xara www.xara.com (Free to try) Even better yet, every Web Host has applications that allow anyone (especially someone that has no web design experience) to create a website!! Weebly Website Creator If you can type you can do it. If you can insert images into a word document you can make a website. Unless you just want to become a designer, it's not necessary to learn coding to create a nice looking website today.

EXAMPLES OF WEBSITES FREE webhosting--used CoffeeCup Visual Designer http://skyline1452.net63.net/ notice the “.net63.net” in the web address. This is because they do not have a domain name. The free webhost let them choose their “address name” but because its free, the webhost adds their touch to the url. Used Weebly only through the webhost (up to 6 pages free) http://caninetrainingcareer.com/ http://acuteccnc.com/ Used Weebly through the web host (6 free pages) created the rest w/HTML http://www.tallahasseevfd.com/ Used Xara (WYSIWYG software) uploaded the pages through the webhost’s control panel. http://ruffriderspetservices.com/ Used HTML only—uploaded pages through the webhost’s control panelThis was created from scratch using Notepad. http://www.LJBalance.com

WEAVING YOUR WEBSITE Why do you want a website ? Personal Site Business Site Informational Site Just Because

WEBSITE –Things to Keep In Mind You want to give visitors to your site good content and plenty of choices,but you don’t want to distract them with unnecessary bells and whistles. The Web is for reaching out to people. Keep your Web pages lean and clean. Color, Text Size are important (ie: color blindness is one example)To Scroll or Not To Scroll…That is a question! Too many bells whistles and images make pages slow and cumbersome Don’t make your visitors jump through hoops. Never make an unnecessary links. Always group necessary items together. It’s your Web site. It’s your vision. Do it your way. Did you know that some people cant see the number in the image on this page?

WEAVING YOUR WEBSITE GLOSSARY—”Website” words HTML –Hyper Text Markup Language . The scripting language of the web. URL-Also called domain name, web address Website—a bunch of web pages in one place Links—connects pages together. Points to another web document Pages—another name for a web document Navigation or Content Bar—images or links that help a visitor move around a website WYSIWYG—what you see is what you get—web design software that does not require HTML or programming knowledge Static web page-content is uploaded and displayed as is and wont change much Dynamic web page-content is pulled updated frequently. (think of a blog)

WEAVING YOUR WEBSITE Draw it on paper first This will give you a better idea of what you want on your site and where it will go.

WEAVING YOUR WEBSITE Navigation Your navigation bar, also called Content bar should be the same on every page for easy navigation. (Suggestion: You should always have a HOME link on every page in case your visitor gets “lost”). Group Sections Together For example, if you are selling multiple items you may want to have a link (page) called: Products and then have sub-links (pages) for the products you are selling. PRODUCTS RINGS EARRINGS HATS

WEAVING YOUR WEBSITE Colors and Text size Unless your site is personal for your friends and family only you should be careful of color and text size. A black background with red or neon colored text is hard on normal eyes…can you imagine what it might be like for someone that has a disability? Your best bet is black text on white or light colored background. You can use dark colors like blue and green but definitely steer clear of RED unless it is absolutely necessary. Text size also matters. Too small and it is had to rread... Content What do you want to write about or tell people about? You will also want to keep like content with like content. Graphics and Images Too big of an image or too many images and your webpage will be verrrrrrry slow. To small and no one will notice. Images should be relevant to the page. Exception to the rule: Photo Gallery

WEAVING YOUR WEBSITE Forms Use a direct email link on your site Use a form for contact (web hosts have super easy tools—no coding required!) Use a form to take a survey... Email Both the webhost and the domain vendor allows you to create multiple email addresses. Create email addresses for specific purposes (info@yourdomain.com, yourname@yourdomain.com, webwizard@yourdomain.com) Share email addresses with your family and friends if you like! NOTE: you need an email for any forms you create. The information needs to be sent somewhere! eNewsetters Webhosts have tools for creating bulk emailing options for things like: Newsletters, Group Announcements, Team Emails, Family Updates

WEAVING YOUR WEBSITE LET’S PLAY!!! I have setup a play area for students to create a website using Weebly. Weebly is a free tool that webhosts include for you and they allow a certain amount of free pages (usually 6). Anything after that you need to pay additional for. WEBSITE FOR BEGINNERS You can create up to 5 pages. Because this is a playground for you and not a real site, your password will expire in 15 days. Students login at: http://students.weebly.com LOGIN NAME PASSWORD sone9142013 Student One sept2013 sthree9142013 Student Three 2013sept stwo9142013 Student Two sat2013 sfour9142013 Student Four 2013sat

WEAVING YOUR WEBSITE IF YOU GET LOST If you need help… Weebly (or any application worth it’s weight) will have the following to help you along if you have questions, need help, want to do something but not sure how: Look for the words: HELP FAQ USER FORUM Worst comes to worse—if you are paying for the product, CALL them. That is what their tech support is for!

WEAVING YOUR WEBSITE LET’S PLAY!!! Enter a title for your website and choose Subdomain of Weebly for this exercise ELEMENTS-Elements are the basic building blocks of your site. All of your site content, be it text, pictures, videos or what have you, is added via an element. PAGES-Your site can have as many pages and sub-pages as you want, since there are no page limits for either free or paid accounts. (this is directly through Weebly…if you use a webhost you are limited to the number of pages you get free) THEMES/DESIGN--You can select from any one of a number of themes and switch to a different theme at any time. This affects the look of your site. All of your pages and elements remain in place, no matter what theme you choose. http://help.weebly.com/beginners-guide.html

WEAVING YOUR WEBSITE LET’S PLAY!!! Drag and drop some elements on to your pages. Now EDIT the element with some text. How COOL is that????? Change how the text looks. Create another page Add some images Now LINK the first page you made to this page SUPER EASY!!!

MORE BELLS & WHISTLES What more can I do with a website? Some other things to think about as you go about creating your website: Ecommerce / Shopping Carts Most web hosting companies offer tools to create shopping cards and ways to sell You could “link” to Ebay or Paypal You could create a shopping cart form scratch or use a third party service. Other Functions--Custom work can be done by third parties. Custom databases can be created to store information Forums (webhosts offer watered down versions that you can setup yourself). Blogs—link to one or create one within your site FTP—File Transfer ProtocolIf you create pages outside of the “norm” or outside of the tools that the web host gives you, you will need a way to upload and test your pages. Webhosts also offer a way to upload pages through their console.

Review What do you need to have a website? Domain name, web host, imagination Map out your website on paper What things should you watch when creating your site? Text, Colors, Images You don’t need to know any programming or to create your own website. Get stuck? Don’t get frustrated…walk away for a few mins and then come back. All the webhosts have Forums, FAQ s and HELP sections. MOST OF ALL…..

CheckList Need an idea of what you want to do with your website Get a web host Get a domain name Email Decide on tools to create your site with Draw out what you want on your site Pages Blog Video, Images Ecommerce Newsletters

MAKE A WEBSITE get started fast —for Beginners