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Build yourself a state-of-the-art website.
It’s incredibly easy...and it won’t cost you a dime!
You need a website. But you don’t need the hassles that usually go with building one or the expense of hiring someone else to do it. Here’s your solution: Build a Website for Free! You’ll learn how you can use new Web 2.0 technologies to create a site that’s impressive and effective. And here’s the best part: You’ll do it all with software and tools that won’t cost you a dime!
Build a Website for Free: Planning Your Site
Download the sample pages (includes Chapter 3 and Index)
Introduction 1
Part I: The Basics
1 The Order of Things 11
The Website Creation Process 12
1. Planning 12
2. Design 13
3. Building 14
4. Testing 14
5. Promotion and Maintenance 14
2 Choosing a Location for Your Site 17
Web Hosting 17
What Is a Web Server? 18
Determining Your Web Hosting Need 19
Cost 19
Technical Knowledge Required 19
Maintenance Needs 19
Storage Space 19
Accessibility 20
Bandwidth Needs 20
Domain Name Service 20
Hosting Options 21
Home Hosting 21
Free Online Hosting 21
Online Hosting Service 21
Professional Hosting 22
Commercial Hosting 22
So What Works Best for You? 22
Working with Different Types of Hosting Services 23
Free Services 23
Low-Cost Commercial Sites 25
Other Resources 26
Part II: Plan and Prep
3 Planning Your Site 29
What Type of Site Do You Want to Build? 30
Types of Sites 30
Learning from Sites You Go To 33
Website Goals 34
Organizing Websites 35
Organizing the Site 36
Organizing the Page 37
Best Practices of Website Organization 38
Keep Your Website Simple 38
Keep Your Website Consistent 39
Keep Your Website Easy to Maintain 39
4 Designing Your Site 41
I Can’t Make a Website That Looks That Good! 42
Content Before Design 42
Overall Design 43
Design Ideas 43
Central Image Design 43
Colors 43
The Magic Four 44
Hex Color 44
Color Schemes 45
Color Blindness 47
Fonts 48
System Fonts 48
Fonts as Images 49
Fonts and Color 50
Images 50
Cascading Style Sheets 51
Design Best Practices 51
Content Is King 51
Put What Is New Front and Center 51
Keep It Simple 51
Don’t Use Attention Grabbers 51
Be Consistent 52
5 Gathering Your Tools 53
Finding the Right Tools for the Job 54
Tool Sites and Reviews 54
Downloading New Software 54
Essential Tools 55
Operating Systems 55
Web Browsers 56
Office Suites 56
File Transfer Protocol (FTP) Programs 57
Text Editor 58
Graphics Editors 59
HTML Editors 59
Sound Recorders 61
Video Editing 61
Advanced Tools 61
The Future of Free Web Tools 62
6 Moving Files to and from the Internet 63
Storing Your Files 64
Naming Files 64
Keep All Your Web Files in One Place 65
Have an Organizational Structure 65
Use a Version Control System 66
Uploading Files to the Internet 66
Logging In 67
Adding New Files 67
Changing Existing Files 67
Downloading Files from an FTP Server 68
One File or Many 69
Downloading from a Browser 69
Types of Download Files 69
Best Practices for Downloading Files 71
Part III: Website Building Basics
7 Elements of a Website 75
Content 76
Content Best Practices 76
Content Standards 77
Parts of a Web Page 78
Title 78
Header 79
Body 79
Footer 80
Sidebars 80
Navigational Elements 82
Parts of a Website 83
Home Page 83
Content Pages 84
Web Advertising 85
Banner Ads 85
Animated Ads 85
Google AdSense 86
8 Using Existing Websites 89
Social Networking Sites 90
MySpace 90
Facebook 96
Other Web 2.0 Sites 101
Flickr 101
Twitter 102
Delicious.com 103
9 Web Page Services 105
Google Sites 106
Signing Up for Google Sites 106
Creating a Google Site 108
Editing a Page 111
Creating a Page 113
Move a Page 114
Delete a Page 114
Edit Page Settings 114
Edit Site Settings 115
Google Sites Features and Limitations 116
Wetpaint 116
Signing Up for Wetpaint 116
Creating a Site on Wetpaint 118
Editing a Page 119
Wetpaint Features and Limitations 120
Netvibes 120
Signing Up for Netvibes 120
Personalizing Your Netvibes Page 122
10 HTML 101 123
The Structure of HTML 124
The Structure of Tags 125
Common HTML Tags 126
HTML Structure Tags 126
Text Tags 127
Lists 129
Tables 130
Hyperlinks 132
Images 132
Free HTML Editors 132
Text Editors 133
WYSIWYG Editors 134
Resources 135
The Latest Version of HTML 136
11 Working with Images 137
Web Graphics 138
Lossy and Lossless Compression 138
The Image Tag 140
Background Images 141
Image Maps 141
Animated GIFs 141
Optimizing Images 142
Resizing Images 142
When to Use Different File Types 142
Slicing Images 143
Finding Images 143
Free Images 143
Other People’s Images 143
Using Your Own Images 144
12 Working with Multimedia 145
Digital Audio Files 147
Audio Formats 147
Audio Players 148
Digitizing Audio 149
Audio Editing 149
Audio Resources 150
Digital Video Files 150
Video Formats 151
Video Players 151
Digitizing Video 152
Video Editing 153
Video Hosting Sites 154
Video Resources 155
13 Building a Site Using HTML 157
How Web Pages Work 158
Page File 158
Extensions 158
Tools for Creating Web Pages 158
Parts of a Page 159
Cascading Style Sheets 167
Format of a Style Sheet 167
Creating and Linking a Style Sheet 168
Scripting 170
Using Templates 170
14 How’d They Do That? 171
Viewing Code from Other Websites 172
Web Development Firefox Add-Ons 172
Recommended Firefox Web Development Add-Ons 173
Recommended Chrome Web Development Add-Ons 176
Recommended Safari Web Development Add-Ons 177
Badges 178
Templates 180
Developer Networks and Sites 181
15 Making Your Site Mobile 183
Why Should You Care About the Mobile Web? 184
How People Access the Mobile Web 184
Become a Mobile Web User 184
Mobile Web Devices (MWD) 185
Mobile Operating Systems 186
Mobile Browsers 187
Limitations of the Mobile Web 189
Making Your Website Mobile 189
Mobile Browser Detection 190
Domains and Subdomains 190
Use the Right Code 191
Page Sizes 191
Interface 191
Things to Avoid 192
Mobile Web Tools and Sites 192
Testing Your Site on a Mobile Phone 193
Part IV: Site Testing and Maintenance
16 Testing Your Website 197
Why Testing Is Important 198
Building a Test Plan 199
Start at the End 199
Testing Basic Functionality 199
Testing HTML 200
Testing Browsers 201
Testing Resolution 202
Testing Printing 203
Testing Navigation 203
Testing Consistency of Design 204
Testing Security 205
Testing Mobile Web 205
Testing Accessibility 206
After Testing 206
Testing Tools 206
17 Promoting Your Website 209
Self-Promotion 210
Have Excellent and Unique Content 210
Update Content 210
Publicize Your URL 211
Connect with Others 212
Search Engines 214
How Search Engines Work 214
Optimizing Your Site for Search Engines 216
Keywords 216
18 Maintaining Your Website 219
What? I’m Not Done? 219
Regular Maintenance 220
Weekly Tasks 220
Monthly Tasks 220
Annual Tasks 220
The Power of Analytics 221
Common Analytics and What They Mean 221
Using Google Analytics 222
Tweaking Your Site Based on Analytics 228
Part V: Website Workshop
19 Building a Blog Using WordPress 231
What Is a Blog? 232
Why Should I Blog? 232
Blog Publishing 232
Syndication 233
What Is WordPress? 233
Software Versions 233
Five Reasons to Use WordPress.com to Host Your Blog 233
Five Reasons to Create Your Blog Using WordPress Software 234
Building a Blog Using WordPress.com 234
Signing Up for WordPress.com 235
Activating Your Account 239
Logging In to Your Blog 240
Writing Blog Posts 241
Managing Blog Posts 243
Changing the Design of Your Blog 244
Manage the Comments on Your Blog 245
Setting Up Your Own Blog with WordPress Software 246
Information You Need Before You Begin 246
How WordPress Software Works 246
How Much Does All This Cost? 247
Before Installing Your Software 247
Confirm That the Right Software Is Installed on Your Server 247
Get a Text Editor 248
Get an FTP Client 248
Pick a Username and Password 248
Download and Install WordPress 248
Download WordPress Software 248
Customization of WordPress 249
Adding Themes 249
Adding Plug-Ins 250
Personalization of WordPress 251
Modifying Themes 251
Creating Themes 252
Creating Plug-Ins 253
Blogging on Your iPhone 253
Keep an Eye on Things 253
20 Building a Business Site Using a Content Management System 255
Five Reasons to Use SocialGO as Your CMS 256
Five Reasons to Use Joomla as Your CMS 257
What Is SocialGO? 257
Building a Social Network with SocialGO 258
Sign Up for SocialGO 258
Invite Friends 260
Add Photos and Video 261
Start Admin Center 262
Building a Site with Joomla 264
Before Installing Your Joomla Software 265
Download and Install Joomla 265
Adding Articles 267
Managing Users 268
Modules, Plug-Ins, and Templates 269
Keep an Eye on Things 270
21 Building a Multimedia Website 271
Best Practices for Multimedia 272
Using Multimedia 273
Storing Multimedia Files 274
Downloading Audio and Video Files 275
Streaming Audio and Video 276
Advanced Multimedia Options 279
Wix.com (www.wix.com) 279
Webtrends Apps (www.transpond.com/) 279
Advanced Open-Source Multimedia 279
22 Building a Site Using a Wiki 281
Five Reasons to Use PBworks to Host Your Wiki 282
Five Reasons to Use MediaWiki for Your Wiki 283
What Is PBworks? 283
Building a Wiki Using PBworks 284
Signing Up for PBworks 284
Activating Your Account 286
Editing a Page 287
Adding a Page 288
Linking Pages 289
Viewing Page History 290
Setting Up Your Own Wiki Using MediaWiki Software 291
Information You Need Before You Begin 292
MediaWiki Software Architecture 292
Before Installing Your MediaWiki Software 292
Download and Install MediaWiki 293
Keep an Eye on Things 295
Part VI: Appendixes
A List of the Most Common HTML Tags 299
B Free and Open-Source Software Sites 303
History of Open Source 304
Open-Source News 304
General Open-Source Sites 304
Operating Systems 304
Web Browsers 304
Office Suites 305
File Transfer Tools 305
Text Editors 305
Graphics Editors 305
HTML Editors 305
Video Editors 306
Sound Recording 306
Web Servers 306
Database Tools 306
Blog Software 306
CMS Software 307
Wiki Software 307
Script Tools 307
Index 309