Website Production

[Zip]

Afternoon folks,

Just need a little info on website production:

I'm working through some tutorials in Dreamweaver and Fireworks on how to make a website. All is going well and I'll probably be able to make a site in the near future It'll be a website for my dad's primary school.

What I'd like to know is:

1. Well, how do you put a website on the internet? Is it free?
2. How do you get a web address? Does it cost anything? (e.g. www. name>.com, www. name>.net, etc.)
3. How can i make sure the website will be "safe". Obviously with young children and families viewing the website we don't want some sicko hacker putting obscence things on it.
4. How do I get google or something similar to respond to searches for the school?
5. Anything I haven't thought of that's obvious to you all. (I haven't a clue about all this stuff yet)

My dad says he is prepared to pay for a web address www. name>.com, but only a one off payment, no monthly rental fees!

He doesn't want to pay a monthly charge to have his website on the internet either. He'd rather spend his budget on the children rather than it's publicity.

Any info would be great

Thanks

[Sonsai]

Well, first of all let me make a few things clear.

When you want to put your site on the internet, you need a host that will host it. The host usually has his guide-lines like, they'll only give you 50mb, and other stuff.

Having a host just isn't all, you need an address so people can contact the host and see what the site is. .com's, .net's and so on cost money. You can find a good price on .com's at www.godaddy.com . It's 8.95 a year for most domains (USD).

The website will be safe, unless someone hacks your FTP password and address and puts their stuff on it, you're safe.

Google will hopefully automatically catch you. They search for what the title of your site is (in between the <title></title> tags).

If I were you, here's what I would do.

I'd go purchase a domain from GoDaddy. Then I'd go to www.staghosting.com . When they have open registrations (you apply in their forums) you can apply for it. It's great, all the features are excellent and then you have your website!

[m0g]

Check under: Insert > Head Tags in DW and you'll have:

Keywords:
Here you can add your words that you think people would use when searching for your site. for example;
primary school, name of school, city name, principals name etc..

Description:
This is where your write the description of the site. For example;
Ballyduff Primary School has high expectations of pupils, teachers and parents.Children are taught in a warm, caring and supportive environment. ...

[Zip]

Thanks for the info guys Things are a lot clearer now.

The government have supplied my dad with a crap website making thing. He can't do what he wants using it because it is soooo restrictive. Maybe i can make a better website using DW/Fireworks and ask if they will still host the website. They also supply a domain name (www.). Bet they won't let him do that though

All I have to do now is grasp the more complex operations in Fireworks and DW Then I'll have a go at making the site

[m0g]

Good luck to you Zip! If you need any help, you know where to find me

[Zip]

Thanks m0g

[Jack Ruby]

Sounds like your good to go already

I use dreamweaver, I used to use Frontpage when I first started, the name Frontpage is as good as a swear word in most places, but I found it really simple to use, automatically will build forms for you and other things that you would need pretty advanced knowledge of DW to achieve.

You prob have Frontpage installed with your other office products, so I would say take a look at frontpage too, it may be easier for some things than DW

[m0g]

Sounds like your good to go already

I use dreamweaver, I used to use Frontpage when I first started, the name Frontpage is as good as a swear word in most places, but I found it really simple to use, automatically will build forms for you and other things that you would need pretty advanced knowledge of DW to achieve.

You prob have Frontpage installed with your other office products, so I would say take a look at frontpage too, it may be easier for some things than DW

Ahh, I remember the the good old frontpage days...lol
Yes Zip, what he says is true, sometimes its a bit easier to learn with a simpler program... Personally i moved away from Frontpage because it does what other M$ product do, make a mess and put its own standards first :S
There's neat things with Dreamweaver nowadays thats called Extensions, which will add more functions and Behaviours to the program. Have a look at: http://www.macromedia.com/exchange/dreamweaver for those... all you need to do is to install a small program called Extension Manager and get an account at the Macromedia website... All free of course

(this starts to feel like my old job over there..hehe)

[Zip]

Hi Jack Thanks for the advice, I'll poke around my hard drive and see if frontpage is there

m0g, I've worked through the bulk of the fireworks tutorials and from what i have learned i guess it is possible to make a website just using fireworks. Is that right? I certainly found it more fun using fireworks, but then again i've only got to code snippets in the Dreamweaver tutorials.

The people who supplied my dad with the crappy website making thing emailed me back today. They say he can't use another application like dreamweaver to make his site They just said check with your ISP and see if they offer any free web space. I would probably do that if i was in the UK, but Belgacom are lame at providing a good service!

I did wonder though, if I make the website my dad will find it difficult to edit it when i leave to join the Royal Navy. So i guess he'll have to use the government website thingy. I think i'll still make him a website though, it could be the sister site or something.

Anyway, thanks guys