You Create HTML TAGS
ftp the html conent to a web server
Don't hype yourself
The internet is a medium, just like radio, tv, and paper. It carries your message, that's all. Nothing to get excited and hot about. It's very easy to hype yourself into believing anything. Others may be succesful, but I'll bet you anything that they've worked very hard to get there.
You can't have it all
The triangle of expectations: cheap, fast, and good. You can choose any two, but can't have the third one. For example: fast and cheap means it won't be good.
Start small
Building a website takes time. Start small with a basic website, just a couple of webpages. It will give you a feel of what is possible and what not. It is very tempting to want to start big, with lot's of features and gizmo's, just like what you see on other sites. But it will delay the opening of your website. A website is never finished, plan for continuous updates and growth.
Get a manager
Don't put a whizkid, graphical designer, or a programmer in charge of your internet project. Whizkids are cheap and they have lot's of great idea's. But they focus on what's hot and new, not on finishing your project. A graphical designer will deliver a great looking but completely useless website. A programmer will make a website wich you can use, but don't want to. Building a website is just like any other project; lot's of little details have to be merged into a whole. You will need somebody to organise and keep track of the unruly designers and programmers.
Use the possibilities
Internet is a digital medium with a lot of possibilities. Making a flat copy of your company brochure is a valid way to start a website, but consider adding things like email, ordering, searching, sounds, link list. Maybe a game, chatbox, webcam, postcards. The extra's will make your site interesting to visit, will make visitors want to come back, and will set you apart from your competitors. You can also have protected pages for your own use, or for subscribers. Internet pages are cheap, you can have a lot more information on a website than in a brochure.
Databases
Connect your database to the internet and pronto, another website is born. The database-sellers make it sound so easy, just make some templates and you're in business. Not! You can't break the triangle of expectations (see above). The speed of a database-driven website is an order of magnitude slower than a flat-file website. Search engines generally cannot index database-driven websites. Security is a big issue and must be looked at very carefully. Of-the-shelve programs have very limited customizing capabilities, or are so general that it's faster to build a custom solution. If you don't have sufficient database-knowledge in-house, then you may very well end up in the unbreakable grip of the company you have contracted to build your website.
Don't relax
Update your website regularly. Add new information, remove old stuff. Creating a website is step one, there is no such thing as a finished website. Maintenance will cost a lot more effort than creating the website. Investing to make maintenance easier will definitely pay back.
Planning
Describe, don't dictate
There are basically two ways of telling a professional how to build something. You can describe what you want in global and functional terms, or you can dictate exactly what you want. I favour "describe". It leaves room for the professional to come up with more creative, cheaper, easier, and faster solutions. Beware of wizzkids that may take the opportunity to sell you on using some unproven new hot technology they want to try.
Get your own URL
Grab your own domainname, before somebody else does. Don't limit yourself to the .com domain's, also grab .net, .org, and any others that you can get. Also take permutations and lookalikes, and think of some alternatives. A good domainname is short and easily memorized, and won't cost you much. By the way, domainnames are not property, they can only be rented (usually on a yearly basis).
Domain check
See if a domainname is still free, with support for all major top-level domains.
SIDN
Stichting Internet Domeinregistratie Nederland. Rules and regulations. Lookup which .nl domainnames are already taken. Check if the DNS records of a domain are OK.
Iana
Official list of all the top-level country domains and the organisations responsible.
The cost
Taking webspace at a provider will cost you next to nothing. Creating a couple of webpages is easy, you can do it yourself on a sunday afternoon. Internet is very cheap indeed when compared to traditional ways of advertising. But: the cost will quickly run up if you need non-standard functionality, or if the site needs the attention of a professional designer. Keeping the website up-to-date will cost you as well. Plan for a major overhaul at least once every two years.
Providers
Webspace at a provider in the Netherlands can be had for as little as €10,- per year, suitable for a small hobby website. Professional and commercial websites should take a more expensive subscription with a quality provider. Beware of hosting-providers that are actually resellers for American providers. They are cheap, but your website will be slow for visitors from The Netherlands.
Graphical designers
Hourly rates vary from €20,- per hour for cheap freelance designers up to €100,- for specialized companies. It is usually a good deal to fix a price for the entire project. If a designer asks for what resolution (size) he should design the website then drop him like a hot potato and find another designer.
Programmers
Hourly rates vary from €30,- per hour for cheap freelance programmers up to €200,- per hour for software houses. Ask for examples of work, programming for the internet requires special knowledge.
Abuse
All websites have to be protected against abuse. Not just commercial websites, but perhaps even more so websites that offer free services. People will enter fake information just too see what will happen, hackers are keen on frustrating anyone and anything. People will leave fake email addresses because they fear they'll be spammed. Your graphics and movies will be copied. There are free programs available to make a complete copy of your website. Your pages may be linked so that they will look like somebody else's. Other free programs exist that generate false credit card information. A chat or guestbook is an open invitation for anonymous swearing and soliciting. The internet is insecure and anarchistic, that's life.
Building
Size
The size of pages determines the total download time of a page. If users have to wait too long they will get restless and surf away. Try to make your homepage smaller than 50Kb. Pages inside the website can be a bit larger if you re-use graphics in a menu (caching).
Pagesize calculator
Quickly determine how big your webpages can be.
SiteSpeed
Measure the speed of your website as your visitors experience it.
Webeditors
Webeditor programs are getting better all the time. You don't have to know about html, and the better ones will help you make global changes. But they generate bloated html. By hand you can do tricks impossible in any editor. Templates are always created by hand, editors simply can't handle them.
Yahoo or DMOZ
List of webeditors.
Graphics
It is very tempting to stuff a lot of huge pictures into webpages. It will make your website pretty, but slow. The trick is to make pages look pretty AND fast. Lot's of designers can make cool webpages, only the best can make them hot.
Width and height
Always include the width and height of a picture. It takes only a second to insert, most webeditors will do it automatically. Your pages will seem to load faster: the text becomes visible before all the pictures are downloaded.
Frames
I prefer building frameless sites. It can be very tempting to use frames, but a frameless site is faster, compatible with any browser, it can be bookmarked, and is easier to manage afterward.
Advantages of frames:
Great for static items, such as menu's and banners. Users can look at the static items while a new page is beïng fetched.
Easier to create graphics. You can use a different background in each frame.
Certain graphical tricks are only possible or feasible with frames.
Disadvantages of frames:
Many websites that use frames will not be indexed by searchengines because the robot cannot handle javascript. Some robots cannot index a framed website at all.
Users that enter your website through a searchengine will enter somewhere in the middle and will not get the frames, so they cannot access the rest of the website.
Other websites can only link the homepage, so they probably won't.
The homepage will be slower because every frame must be loaded individually. Subpages will be faster, but the difference is minimal because graphics (usually the bulk of the data) are cached in frameless websites.
Users can only bookmark the homepage, they cannot tell friends about a specific page.
Some browsers do not support frames, such as web-tv, organisers, palmtop's, text-only browsers, old browsers.
It is very difficult to make a website look exactly the same on all browsers. Browsers have different ideas on how to align graphics in frames.
Most browsers cannot print all the frames together as one page, but will print the frame that happens to be active at the time.
Scrolling by keyboard is impossible in some browsers, and only possible after a mouse-click in others (to select the frame to be scrolled).
Less screen-space for content. For example: if you have a permanent frame for a menu then that screen-area is no longer available for content.
Tools for the visually impaired (large fonts, translate to sound, etc.) generally cannot handle frames very well.
Hard to update. Frames are easy to create, but can be a nightmare if you have to add pages 6 months later.
Jumping to a particular page is more difficult. If you use more than one layout then you may have to create a specific page (the frame-start) for each and every jump. In a frameless site you can just jump to the page.
You will probably not want to make a menu in a frame scrollable. You are therefore limited by the lowest common denominator, 400 pixels high or 640 pixels wide. In frameless sites menu's tend to be higher and wider.
You will want to learn JavaScript in addition to Html to control the frames. For example: updating two frames by a single click is only possible with javascript.
Cascading Style Sheets
Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) are part of the HTML 4.0 definition. It can simplify HTML markup and do tricks not possible with standard HTML. However, acceptance of CSS is hampered by buggy implementations and incomplete support in browsers. Try not to use CSS. If you really must then only use CSS that is generated by a (very up-to-date) HTML editor, not CSS written by hand.
Resolution independent
It is possible to create a webpage that looks good on any resolution screen, from 12 to 21 inch, from black-and-white (printing) to full-color, from text-only organisers to supercomputers. Designers hate it, you will have to be firm. It takes some extra work and you may have to compromise a little, but it's possible. Most users find it very annoying if they have to resize their browser-window to fit your designer's idea of how they should look at your website.
Navigation
A website should be easy to navigate. People will glance at your homepage for a couple of seconds only. Make your buttons immediately recognisable as such, don't make your homepage a find-the-button puzzle. Make your website as flat as possible, people will lose track after clicking five times. Put a button to your homepage on every page, for people that got in through a bookmark or a link on another website.
Plugins
There are lot's of plugins available that can spice up your website. But people don't like downloading plugins, it's too difficult for ordinary users. Try to avoid the use of plugins, especially on your homepage. Plugins can be useful for special area's or for avant-garde websites. You don't need plugins for animated GIF, javascript, and basic sounds. A popular and common plugin is Flash (animations).
Java
There are lot's of free and commercial Java-applet's available, like animated buttons, banners, games, counters, clocks, and more. But Java is not included in many browsers and is a big download. Furthermore, Java is a difficult programming language, it is very difficult (although possible) to make a Java applet that will run on all browsers and operating systems.
Programming languages
Every programmer has a favorite programming language that he uses for (most of) his projects. Most programmers can also use other languages, or can learn them in a month or so. Succesfully creating applications depends on the programmer, ofcourse, but also on the programming language.
Independence
Your internet application will depend on a number of items that you may not consider to be part of your application. Examples are the compiler, server hardware, operating system, internet server, database server. Any change in one of these may break your application. Select a programming language that can build applications that depend on as few external items as possible.
Flexibility
Programs come in a lot of flavors. For example: windows and commandline applications, cgi-bin applications, database-driven applications, network client/server applications. A flexible programming language can be used for all of these.
Compatibility
You will want to build applications that are compatible with as many users as possible. Some programs will run on the server, some at the user's computer. Try to select a programming language that you can use for both.
Portability
Applications have a tendency to outlive the computer they run on. Sooner or later you will face a migration to a faster computer, a new version of the operating system, or even a different operating system. Select a programming language that has support for many platforms.
Speed and performance
Compiled languages are an order of magnitude faster than interpreted languages. Computers may be cheap, but it is cheaper still to select a faster programming language.
Stability of language
Older languages are more stable, because all the kinks have been ironed out. If a new version of the language becomes available you will sooner or later have to upgrade your applications.
Syntax
A programming language can have a loose or a strict syntax, or anything in between. A strict syntax helps to find typing errors and bugs, but is less flexible and more work.
Prototyping
How fast can you make a "hello world" prototype? Scripting languages are usually easier to prototype with.
Debugging
All programs have bugs, and finding them is a big part of building an application. In some languages it is easy to make mistakes, especially if single characters have overloaded meanings (like Perl). Interpreted languages usually have better facilities for debugging.
Tools
Good tools can help when writing, debugging, and modifying applications. The more tools there are available the more mature the language is.
Libraries
Applications will use the libraries that come with the language. Extensive libraries mean that you don't have to invent the wheel again. Select a language that has many libraries.
Scaling
Some programming languages do not lend themselves for writing applications that can be used by thousands of users simultaneously.
Pro's and con's of some languages
PHP
By far the most popular programming language for internet applications. Easy to use, fast prototyping, excellent libraries. Support for most webservers. Has a build-in run-time compiler. Selling a program means releasing the source.
ASP (VBscript)
For Microsoft webservers and browsers only. Porting to other operating systems, webservers, and browsers is possible but difficult. Fast prototyping. Applications tend to be unstable. Selling a program means releasing the source. This language is a fluke, only in use because of the marketing power of Microsoft and the resemblance to the ever-popular Visual Basic.
Java (applets and servlets)
Fast prototyping. Language is still in motion. Difficult to make portable applications, despite the hype. Applications tend to be unstable. Growing server support.
C
Industry standard, but not for internet applications. Excellent portability, support, flexibility, libraries. Slow prototyping, steep learning curve, debugging can be a problem.
Perl
Fast prototyping but easy to make mistakes. Many libraries available. Different versions of the language can make portability an issue. Selling a program means releasing the source. Perl is still very popular on the internet, but is a bit long in the teeth and has been overtaken by PHP.
The grand opening
Deadlines
Set a deadline for the opening of your website. Internet professionals are used to deadlines and work best under pressure. Give them an open end and the project will last forever.
Bugs
You can test a site all you want, but there will still be bugs in both the programming and the html. Reserve some budget for solving bugs, expect and prepare for them. Don't get all exited and angry, that's no use to anybody. You won't find bugs by having the same people testing over and over again. Get others specially for testing, from internet specialists to internet illiterates. If your mother can use your website then anybody can (to paraphrase Bill Gates).
Advertising the opening
You are proud of your website and want everybody to know. But don't overdo it. There are lots of horror stories about new websites beïng overwhelmed with traffic. It's better to open the website quietly, or for a limited audience only. Then do a grand opening a couple of weeks later, with a properly running and debugged website.
The morning after
Don't let anybody go on holiday just after the opening of the website. They may all have worked very hard for months, and deserve the best vacation ever. But if they are away they cannot solve problems. Getting the last wrinkles ironed out will take another two weeks. If you're lucky.
Maintenance
Don't relax
Update your website regularly. Add new information, remove old stuff. Creating a website is step one, there is no such thing as a finished website. Maintenance will cost a lot more effort than creating the website. Investing in making maintenance easier will definitely pay back itself.
Answer your email
Email should be treated the same as paper mail. Answer it! Read your email at least once a day. You open paper mail every day, don't you? Take time to answer questions, don't send back a stock reply and don't hammer in a single-line reply. People have taken the trouble of sending you an email and deserve a decent answer. For every complaint or question you get there are at least 10 people that haven't bothered.
Advertise
You may have the greatest website on earth, but nobody will visit it if you don't advertise it's existence. Submit the URL to searchengines and link lists, make sure every page has appropriate meta-tags, buy bannerspace, exchange banners with other sites, advertise in magazines, write the URL on your businesscards and stationary, maybe send spam email to a targeted audience (careful here!), and anything else you can think of. Check regularly if you are still in all the searchengines and linklists, they won't tell you when they remove you.
Invite criticism
For every complaint you get there are dozens of users that will not take the trouble of sending you an email. They'll simply surf away. It is much more likely you'll get congratulations and accolades, especially if the sender needs a favor. To improve your website and correct small or big errors you will need the input from others. Actively ask for criticism, set your ego aside and reward the sender for his trouble.
Watch your competitors
Take time to occasionally surf around to the websites of your competitors. Don't be discouraged by what you see, but use their ideas to improve your website. Try to think like a visitor, where do they surf, what do they like.