Your First Website

This blog is for people who have a vague idea that they'd like their own website but have no idea where to begin. It's for complete beginners and people who want to ask very basic questions. I know what this is like. You feel stupid but you do actually want some answers without everyone falling off their chairs laughing and saying,
"Cor, don't you even know that?"

Making your first website
To start with you will need to decide who your audience is going to be. If your site is going to be a personal site about yourself and your family, or is intended for a small audience, then have a look at your Internet Service provider's home page and see if there's anything that says you can make your own site for free. For example I looked at the AOL help pages and typed "build website" into the search box. The first link that came up took me to a page that confirmed that I could build my own website for free and gave me links to the necessary pages and tools that I would need to get started.

Another way to get yourself onto the World Wide Web is to create a blog like this one. All you need to do is to go to the home page of blogger.com and follow the links to create your own blog. It's as easy as falling off a log.

One thing that has always puzzled me is why people climb on logs in the first place. If it's so easy to fall off them there must be health and safety issues involved and Climbing On Logs should really be classified as an extreme sport.....I digress.....I knew I would.

The Cost of Slightly Posher Websites
If you want a website that's aimed at a larger market and you don't think a blog or a freebie space is the right thing for you, then you will need to think about spending a small amount of money. Starting your own site can be incredibly cheap. The most expensive thing you may want to buy is the software to help you to create your site. You will also need to buy a domain name and find someone to host the site. The last two items needn't cost you more than thirty pounds.

So What Do You Do First Then?
For now you just need to work out what your website is going to be about and who is going to look at it. You'll also need some kind of design idea. It's unlikely that at first you'll start with a large number of pages but even so you will want to divide the subject you're writing about into manageble chunks.

Here's an example:
My first website is still up and running and it's all about dog agility. I have an introductory page that tells visitors what the site is all about and I also have a section called "Updates" on the opening page. On the left hand side there are links to all the other sections such as, equipment, classes and shows, breeds etc. In each of these sections there are pages of information all about dogs and dog agility.

Before you start your website you'll need to work out what you want on the opening page or the home page as it's called. You'll also need a rough idea of where your visitors are going to go from there and what they're going to see.

I'll leave you to get on with that before you come back to find out how to go about getting it all up and running. Good luck.