Make a Website

It used to be that websites were reserved for the elite. The companies, the gurus, the nerdiest of nerds. But now anyone can make a website. And when we say anyone, we mean you. Yes you.

"But isn't this way over my head?"

Only if you want it to be. There is an endless array of programs and free websites out there that can you get you up and running in minutes. At this point, the only reason why you should pause is to first consider what you want to accomplish with your website as that will probably dictate what service or tool(s) you will end up using.

What's on your website?

Most people's websites fall into just a couple categories nowadays. Albeit, some of those categories are a little broader than others but hey, they work. So here's the basic breakdown:

• Photo - You just have to share pics of your dog jumping into the lake. This one is obviously for those who have to have their pics up on the web.


• Blog - With great software support, and entertaining discussions, the blog format has become one if not the most popular webpage format at the moment. Use a blog to share your ideas in a mostly narrative form with people around the world.


• Social Networking - If you argue that blog pages aren't the biggest things on the net right now, you may be right if you argue that social networking pages are. These are the friendsters, and myspaces of the world. These combine a lot of aspects and will often be used to blog, share photos and maybe accomplish other things like marketing yourself. Also, users cultivate their homepages so that they make new social contacts, new friends, new business contacts and the like. We could go on and on about the uses of these sites, but know that they are indeed great for pushing a product or at the least letting a large group of people know about something.


• Commercial - And of course at the top of the list are the obvious...and not so obvious commercial sites. These sites exist to make money, plain and simple.

I've Made My Decision

Once you've made your decision on what kind of stuff you're going to have on your website, it's time to get started. Before we enter that discussion, know that if you learn the language of the web, (html to be precise), you can make any of these sites yourself using a little text editing program that is sure to come with your computer. And as far as programming goes, it doesn't get any easier than html. Having said that, you absolutely don't have to learn html to get started! In fact, in this article we will assume that you don't want to type in any code, but really want to get up on the web as fast and easily as you can. We will tell you about the easiest ways to get started on your webpage, which means making use of services and tools readily found on the web!

What to Look For

Before you sign up for any service though, there a couple things that should be examined across the board. Most notably price, storage space, and URL. Price is a no brainer, and unless you're the very demanding, you should be able to get up onto the web for free. Storage space is also worthy of mention, but less so if you're not going to be storing a lot of pictures and music online. And finally the URL, (if you didn't know), is the address people have to type in to access your site. For instance, the URL for this website is www.learnstuffonline.com. For some sites, users' URL will be www.whateversite.com/username for others it will be username.whateversite.com. And of course, it could still be different from those. The important thing to keep in mind here is that if you're not paying any money, chances are you're not going to get a www.username.com URL. And with that...

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