Writers as Web Designers
| Category: Website Design and Development | Date: 2003-10-08 |
There was a time when all a writer had to do was write. Those times quickly faded and then a writer had to become a marketing person if they wanted to sell any of their work. Now a third role has invaded our careers and its quickly becoming one of the biggest time stealers we have. Writers are now adding the role of Web designer to their resumes.
Unless youre one of the lucky few who have a publishing company standing behind you, chances are you will be the one responsible for making sure that you have a Web site, that its maintained, and that its running at a 100% uptime. Youll have to worry about HTML, graphics, content, hosts, ISPs, domain names, email, chat rooms, discussion boards, newsgroups, search engines, just to name a few. The list is endless and all this falls under one category -- the Internet.
All this terminology may scare someone who is new to the Internet, but dont despair -- with a little time and some help, this will become a walk in the park. Building and maintaining a Web site is time consuming and can be difficult at times, but in the end it really is worth it. There are numerous stories of authors who have been discovered on the Internet either by a publishing company or just by fans, and the list is growing daily. The Internet is here to stay, and if youre serious about marketing yourself and your work, then there is no reason not to get a Web site built and up today.
If you still have doubts about having a Web site, just think of it as having a digitally interactive business card. With a regular business card a person sees maybe a picture of you, your name, title, address and phone number. Thats about all you can fit on that little two- by three-inch piece of paper, and that is not much. With a Web site the contact information is just the icing on the cake. You can include as much information as you like about who you are, what you do, books you have available, articles youve written, where you live, your hobbies, your family, and anything else you want to share with the world. People can interact with you by email, chat, discussion boards, and a dozen other ways that the Internet offers for communication. Your Web site can not only show the world who you are, but it can sell your work for you.
There are many ways one can get a Web site up on the Internet and many steps involved in building the site, maintaining it, and keeping it fresh. In future articles we will go into more detail about each one, but for now well put down the foundation of what is involved.
A Web site is a group of web pages all located under one domain name. A domain name is a special address that lets people know how to get to your Web site. When you go to a search engine like Yahoo, you type in yahoo.com to get there. You may type in http://www.yahoo.com/, but the actual domain name for Yahoo is yahoo.com. You can name your domain name anything you like as long as it is not already taken.
When a person types in your domain into their browser the first page they see is your home page. This is the central page of your Web site. Remember your Web site may include multiple pages, but the first page a visitor sees is the home page. There are instances where this may not happen and we will go into that in later articles.
All the pages in a Web site are created using a scripting language called HTML, which stands for HyperText Markup Language. Other programming languages are used in Web sites, but you wont need to worry about those right now. Those languages are used primarily to add functionality and to make your Web site more dynamic. A Web site can exist with just simple HTML tags. And if you master HTML you can create better layouts and more interesting Web pages.
Once you have your content ready, and your Web pages created in HTML, then you need to find a host to house your site. There are thousands of hosts you can choose from and they all offer different services at varying prices. You can do a simple search on Yahoo for web site hosting services. Yahoo even has them listed by region if you want to find a host near your home town. Keep in mind it doesnt matter where your Web site host is located, unless they dont have an 800 number you can call for customer service. Most hosts offer an 800 number, but if the one youre looking at doesnt then you might want to look again. You dont want to rack up large phone bills calling your Web site host when youre having a problem with your site or want to report that the server is down.
Another option you might want to look for in a hosting company is the service of checking on the domain name you have selected and registering it. Sometimes you will be charged a fee for this, but it can save you time and headaches later on. Let the hosting service do this if they offer it and the fee is reasonable. If their fee is high then register your domain yourself. You can do this at many sites on the Web. You can do a search on Yahoo, or go to Network Solutions at http://www.networksolutions.com/. Network Solutions also has a WHOIS database so you can look up the domain name youve chosen to see if its available.
After you find a host and register your domain name then youll need to get the pages uploaded to the hosts server. They will either have a program manager on their Web site, which walks you through the process, or youll need to get FTP software. You can find this software by searching on Yahoo or Download.com.
Once your host activates your account and you get your Web pages transferred to their server, you can now type your domain name into your browser and your web site should show up. If there are any problems, contact your hosting company for support. You may think you are done once you have your site up, but youre far from it.
You have to submit it to the search engines, market it on discussion boards, chats and elsewhere, and you need to maintain it and keep the content fresh and up to date. You may also want to work on an idea for a redesign in a year or two.
Right now you might be saying, "Redesign? No way. Why would I want to do that?" Every year or two, or three at the most, you should consider this. Once you learn more about the Web and get more experience under your belt, youll want to show off your creativity. You dont have to do a major overhaul, but a new cleaner and up to date look is a good idea. Visitors are more inclined to visit sites over and over if they see things are constantly changing. If a Web site stays the same, the content is static, and nothing ever changes, why would they want to come back? You need to offer them a reason to keep your site on their favorite sites to visit.
As you can see, the job of having a Web site is no easy task, but if you take the time with it, you will benefit in more ways than you can imagine. Thousands of Web sites go live everyday and the longer you wait the more you will get lost in the shuffle. If youve always wanted to put up a Web site to show off your work or sell your books, then you should do it now. New tools are being developed everyday to help you create your site and keep it interesting. Its a lot easier today to create a Web site than it was five years ago, two years ago, or even last year. With a little patience and research anyone can do it.
In future articles well delve more deeply into what a Web site is and what it takes to build one and keep it up to date. For now, if you dont have a Web site already, you should be looking at other sites and finding ones that you like. Remember to keep your site simple. Most people would love to have their own amazon.com, but to do that youll need a team of highly technical engineers. Find sites that are clean, basic, and also appealing to look at. Save them in your bookmarks or favorites or print them out. Make notes on what you like and dont like. This will help you when you finally get rolling on your own Web site and joining the thousand of other Web site owners around the world.
About the Author
S.J. Graves is a writer, web architect and photographer. She is the author of A Beginners Guide to the World of Photography, A Beginners Guide to HTML which includes A Beginners Template PAK for the Web, and A Beginners Guide to Writing and Selling eBooks. Besides her nonfiction books she is also the author of Secret Ties, her first novel.
Visit S.J. Graves on the web and find out more information on her books: sjgraves.com/. Also stop by her writers resource center for a large list of valuable writing websites: http://www.sjgraves.com/sites_writers.htm.
:To contact see details below.
sjgarticles@onebox.com
http://www.sjgraves.com/
Unless youre one of the lucky few who have a publishing company standing behind you, chances are you will be the one responsible for making sure that you have a Web site, that its maintained, and that its running at a 100% uptime. Youll have to worry about HTML, graphics, content, hosts, ISPs, domain names, email, chat rooms, discussion boards, newsgroups, search engines, just to name a few. The list is endless and all this falls under one category -- the Internet.
All this terminology may scare someone who is new to the Internet, but dont despair -- with a little time and some help, this will become a walk in the park. Building and maintaining a Web site is time consuming and can be difficult at times, but in the end it really is worth it. There are numerous stories of authors who have been discovered on the Internet either by a publishing company or just by fans, and the list is growing daily. The Internet is here to stay, and if youre serious about marketing yourself and your work, then there is no reason not to get a Web site built and up today.
If you still have doubts about having a Web site, just think of it as having a digitally interactive business card. With a regular business card a person sees maybe a picture of you, your name, title, address and phone number. Thats about all you can fit on that little two- by three-inch piece of paper, and that is not much. With a Web site the contact information is just the icing on the cake. You can include as much information as you like about who you are, what you do, books you have available, articles youve written, where you live, your hobbies, your family, and anything else you want to share with the world. People can interact with you by email, chat, discussion boards, and a dozen other ways that the Internet offers for communication. Your Web site can not only show the world who you are, but it can sell your work for you.
There are many ways one can get a Web site up on the Internet and many steps involved in building the site, maintaining it, and keeping it fresh. In future articles we will go into more detail about each one, but for now well put down the foundation of what is involved.
A Web site is a group of web pages all located under one domain name. A domain name is a special address that lets people know how to get to your Web site. When you go to a search engine like Yahoo, you type in yahoo.com to get there. You may type in http://www.yahoo.com/, but the actual domain name for Yahoo is yahoo.com. You can name your domain name anything you like as long as it is not already taken.
When a person types in your domain into their browser the first page they see is your home page. This is the central page of your Web site. Remember your Web site may include multiple pages, but the first page a visitor sees is the home page. There are instances where this may not happen and we will go into that in later articles.
All the pages in a Web site are created using a scripting language called HTML, which stands for HyperText Markup Language. Other programming languages are used in Web sites, but you wont need to worry about those right now. Those languages are used primarily to add functionality and to make your Web site more dynamic. A Web site can exist with just simple HTML tags. And if you master HTML you can create better layouts and more interesting Web pages.
Once you have your content ready, and your Web pages created in HTML, then you need to find a host to house your site. There are thousands of hosts you can choose from and they all offer different services at varying prices. You can do a simple search on Yahoo for web site hosting services. Yahoo even has them listed by region if you want to find a host near your home town. Keep in mind it doesnt matter where your Web site host is located, unless they dont have an 800 number you can call for customer service. Most hosts offer an 800 number, but if the one youre looking at doesnt then you might want to look again. You dont want to rack up large phone bills calling your Web site host when youre having a problem with your site or want to report that the server is down.
Another option you might want to look for in a hosting company is the service of checking on the domain name you have selected and registering it. Sometimes you will be charged a fee for this, but it can save you time and headaches later on. Let the hosting service do this if they offer it and the fee is reasonable. If their fee is high then register your domain yourself. You can do this at many sites on the Web. You can do a search on Yahoo, or go to Network Solutions at http://www.networksolutions.com/. Network Solutions also has a WHOIS database so you can look up the domain name youve chosen to see if its available.
After you find a host and register your domain name then youll need to get the pages uploaded to the hosts server. They will either have a program manager on their Web site, which walks you through the process, or youll need to get FTP software. You can find this software by searching on Yahoo or Download.com.
Once your host activates your account and you get your Web pages transferred to their server, you can now type your domain name into your browser and your web site should show up. If there are any problems, contact your hosting company for support. You may think you are done once you have your site up, but youre far from it.
You have to submit it to the search engines, market it on discussion boards, chats and elsewhere, and you need to maintain it and keep the content fresh and up to date. You may also want to work on an idea for a redesign in a year or two.
Right now you might be saying, "Redesign? No way. Why would I want to do that?" Every year or two, or three at the most, you should consider this. Once you learn more about the Web and get more experience under your belt, youll want to show off your creativity. You dont have to do a major overhaul, but a new cleaner and up to date look is a good idea. Visitors are more inclined to visit sites over and over if they see things are constantly changing. If a Web site stays the same, the content is static, and nothing ever changes, why would they want to come back? You need to offer them a reason to keep your site on their favorite sites to visit.
As you can see, the job of having a Web site is no easy task, but if you take the time with it, you will benefit in more ways than you can imagine. Thousands of Web sites go live everyday and the longer you wait the more you will get lost in the shuffle. If youve always wanted to put up a Web site to show off your work or sell your books, then you should do it now. New tools are being developed everyday to help you create your site and keep it interesting. Its a lot easier today to create a Web site than it was five years ago, two years ago, or even last year. With a little patience and research anyone can do it.
In future articles well delve more deeply into what a Web site is and what it takes to build one and keep it up to date. For now, if you dont have a Web site already, you should be looking at other sites and finding ones that you like. Remember to keep your site simple. Most people would love to have their own amazon.com, but to do that youll need a team of highly technical engineers. Find sites that are clean, basic, and also appealing to look at. Save them in your bookmarks or favorites or print them out. Make notes on what you like and dont like. This will help you when you finally get rolling on your own Web site and joining the thousand of other Web site owners around the world.
About the Author
S.J. Graves is a writer, web architect and photographer. She is the author of A Beginners Guide to the World of Photography, A Beginners Guide to HTML which includes A Beginners Template PAK for the Web, and A Beginners Guide to Writing and Selling eBooks. Besides her nonfiction books she is also the author of Secret Ties, her first novel.
Visit S.J. Graves on the web and find out more information on her books: sjgraves.com/. Also stop by her writers resource center for a large list of valuable writing websites: http://www.sjgraves.com/sites_writers.htm.
:To contact see details below.
sjgarticles@onebox.com
http://www.sjgraves.com/
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