[ WEBHOSTS | STRATEGIES | DESIGN TIPS ]
This is a list i've compiled of some of the many webhosts out there. A webhost is a place on the internet where you can design your pages yourself and then publish them with the click of a simple button. Webhosts store your sites for you, and provide a place to edit and update whenever you wish. Usually a few megabytes of space is provided for free; if you require extensive space for a single site, you'll have to pay to get more. Most give 2-5MB free, which i've found to be plenty of space for *Zann's medium-sized sites. All of the hosts on the list below have my approval, although i recommend joining Tripod over all of them.
![[ Tripod ]](tripod.gif)
www.tripod.com
| NAME |
FREE SPACE |
BANNER or AD REQUIREMENT |
SERVER SPEED |
RELIABILITY |
INFO |
| Tripod | 5MB | no | fast | excellent"Pods" for site promotion and categorizing |
| Geocities | 6MB | yes | fastok | difficult to find an address
| Xoom | 5MB | no | ok | good | excellent features and design |
| FortuneCity | 10MB | yes | extremely slow | ok | -multiple extra features
-did i mention SLOW?!?--many time-outs |
| AngelFire | 2MB | no | ok | excellent | takes a very long time to load the editing page; the template construction and complete html coding window are on the same page |
| FreeYellow | 2MB | yes ( an ugly one, i might add ) | fastgood | difficult to navigate; poorly setup |
| AOLSpace (kw: myplace) | 2MB | no | ok | ok | -must be an aol member
-must upload ALL files inculding html documents; there is no place to edit online |
*some of this info may be outdated... to find out more about each host, use the link and go check um out.
After finding a webhost which suits you best, you should have a basic site design in mind. Register for membership on the host you picked, and begin initial construction. It's a good idea to get into a routine of making new HTML documents. Some tips include:
- always begin with a basic page outline
- type all the codes in CAPITAL letters, so you don't mix them up with the text of the document, and they are easier to see.
- start out easily, then add the more complicated codes later.
- test repeatedly before finally publishing to make sure all links work and everything loads correctly, as well as seeing if the page looks how you wish it to look.
In designing your site, you need to keep the following things in mind:
- the mood and purpose of the site
- is it user friendly and easy to navigate?
- appropriate colors, images, and appearances
- is it cluttered or disorganized? ( those are bad things )
It's best to make a fairly simply designed site, but add a little creativity in the setup. Viewers must be able to move through the site easily from one logical step to the next, or through points of interest. Menus and site maps are useful. Create a home page which links to all the other pages; don't put everything on a single document.
Colors are good, but don't make it too flashy. Multiple images will make it take forever for browsers to load the page. Viewers will get bored of this, and may decide not to look at your site. Create an interesting and appropriate color scheme. Backgrounds ( bg's ) are good, but flashy ones are not. Single colored bg's are usually best. Make your font and link colors stand out on the bg.
It's a good idea not to make tons of frames, even though they are kinda cool lookin'. Frames tend to malfunction or become too complicated. It's difficult to know exactly how frames will appear on all the different browsers. Also, many of the older browsers cannot load frames at all. If you wish to use them, create two or three frames at the most, and make sure to have a no frames option.
Throughout your entire site, it's good to keep the same basic design and font. The color scheme may change some, but not dramatically. Keep the same styles of buttons and graphics on all the pages.
[ WEBHOSTS | STRATEGIES | DESIGN TIPS ]
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