design your webpages first
it's not hard to build a website. A simple language called HTML is how we
code web pages. It's about as hard as using a word processing program like
Microsoft Word. There are some great applications like Macromedia's Dreamweaver,
that allows you to build the pages and see how they will look.
But designing an effective website is hard. Remember to keep
the pages simple and bold. Online, people don't read much: they just scan pages.
And remember,
in many
places
folks are still on slow dialup connections, so don't make your pages slow
to download. Use graphics and images sparingly. If you make someone wait
more than a second or two -- you'll lose them. I'd recommend that you play
around yourself, but if you're serious, and you want a professional image,
then hire someone who knows what they're doing. A simple site can cost between
$200 - $2,000. Once you've got the webpages finished, you'll need to post them
onto
the busyworks machine where your domain is hosted...
get an FTP program and login to your domain
you will need to use FTP (file transfer protocol) to talk
to the busyworks machine where your domain is hosted, and to 'upload' the HTML
files. CuteFTP is an easy program to use, but there are many. Simply set the
connection
to look for 'yourdomain.com' and use your username 'kobi@yourdomain.com' (don't
forget to include the domain! this is the most common mistake that prevents
people getting connected!), and your password. Then just click 'connect'. This
will get you connected with the busyworks machine and into your folder. You
will see a folder called "mainwebsite_html"
-- double-click on this, and you will arrive in the directory where you need
to upload your pages.
upload your pages
use the FTP program to drag and drop your HTML files into the directory on
the 'remote' busyworks machine. If pages already exist with the same name,
it will prompt you whether to overwrite them. Say yes. As soon as the upload
is finished (and don't forget your images and other files) your website will
be updated. Go to internet explorer and type your domain address in to check
that the pages were changed. Sometimes you need to hit 'refresh' in explorer.
Bingo, your site's online and any changes should be reflected. It's as easy
as that.