| Beginners Guide to the Web |
The internet is a minefield of new words and acronyms in fact it
can be a great way to make a small fortune.......especially if you
start with a large fortune. This section is not intended as a
detailed history or explanation. It is intended to give you
enough information to at least understand what you need and assist you
in making an informed decision.
There are four basic components (read costs) when it comes to owning a web site.
1. Design
2. Domain name
3.
Hosting
4.
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
Design
Many people think the World Wide Web (WWW) is the internet, but
in reality the internet is made up of a number of areas. The WWW
is basically the system that allows you to browse using a 'browser"
program such as Internet Explorer, Firefox or Chrome. These
browsers are intended to display information written in Hypertext
Markup Language (HTML) on your computer. The really clever thing
about HTML is its ability to display information in a consistent way to
all browsers, no matter what type of computer or screen size that you
are using to view it with. Or at least that is the intention, but
there are some inconsistencies and these should be considered when
designing a web site.
A web site is anything from one to possibly hundreds of HTML web pages
which are presented to you as if they were all located in one physical
location . Normally the Home page is the entry point and
this will provide the browser with 'hyperlinks' to all or
some of the other pages within the site. The Home
page being the first page viewed, is therefore the most important
single page on your site. It is estimated that you only have 15
to 25 seconds to catch the attention of your visitor, before they get
bored and click elsewhere. So your home page must not only look
good, it must provide your visitor with some useful or entertaining
information within a very short time span.
The other pages in your web site can take a little longer to load
however, they should all follow a consistent design and navigation
concept.
So, Web Design is very important but it is only the one aspect of your
web site. It involves the layout, graphic design, photographs,
the actual text information and the navigation (buttons or hyperlinks)
for people to find their way around. While an
attractive web page is important, LOOKS AREN'T EVERYTHING! In
fact many attractive web pages use techniques that can be a downright
obstacle when it comes to publishing your site.
Domain Name
Your domain name is your unique name on the internet. Domain
names are made up of two or three segments which function not unlike
peoples names in medieval times. My name is Andrew Hunter, so in
medieval days I would have been Andrew the Hunter, where my surname
tells you what I did for a living
In the WWW domains there are a limited number of surnames or extensions
available these are COM, ORG,EDU,GOV,NET and the latest BIZ, NAME
and INF0. The COM, NET and BIZ extensions are
intended for business use. ORG is intended for non profits while
EDU is education and no prizes for guessing what GOV stands for.
My wife does all she can to ensure that I am an non profit so on the
WWW my URL (Uniform Resource Locator or web address) should be
www.andrew.org - However there are andrews in
Britain, USA and Australia so we use an additional extension to
identify in which country my domain is registered and in Australia I
would be www.andrew.org.au Just to confuse matters, I can
if I wish, register my name in the USA and they don't have any country
extension (as in the first example) whereas if I registered in Britain,
my URL would be simply www.andrew.org.uk
The actual rules and conditions that apply to domain names vary
depending on the country you wish to register in. The USA
controls all COM, NET and ORG domain extensions. There are also
new .BIZ and .INFO extensions now being released under new rules.
But at the moment anyone can register any name with any extension in
the USA. This situation led to 'cybersquatting' where
unscrupulous or enterprising people, depending on your point of view,
registered every name they could think of. They then sell these
names to the people who really want them, at a profit. This
situation has reduced somewhat by new rules that allow applicants to
show that they have a more legitimate claim to a domain name and thus
have the name transferred to them. You must realise this when you
apply for USA based domain names. You can register USA based
.com, .net or .org names through KeyChange, for as little as $35AUS per
year with a normal two year minimum (subject to currency rate).
Australian domain names are more controlled. To register
AndrewHunter.com.au you would have to be named Andrew Hunter or have an
association to the name such as a registered business named Andrew
Hunter & Associates or something similar.
Australian domains also cost a bit more to register, but then again
they are probably more secure and definitely an advantage if you
want to sell into the Australian market. It currently costs from
$80 to $140AUD for two years registration. If you would like more
information
click here