Congradulations! You've taken that first step towards web mastery. Once you've decided, "Hey, I want a web site!", the first task is to find a decent host. There are free and pay hosts, each with their pros and cons.
There are many web hosts out there. The trick is finding one that works for you. Usually, for newbies, free is the way to go. However, free hosts do have their drawbacks. All are supported by advertisers, which means your pages will have either intrusive banners or pop-up ads, the latter is a particular scrounge of the WWW. Ever wonder why so many PC users install "pop-up killer" programs? Unfortunately, WebTV users cannot "kill" a pop-up. Our Little Black Boxes, often slow and of limited memory, in loading the simplest of pages, may stall while that page's pop-up loads. It can be very annoying.
My suggestion: Free hosts are wonderful but you must be careful in choosing which one. If you don't mind ads on your pages but hate the pop-ups, choose a host whose ads are the least intrusive.
Free hosts are also limited in what you can do with those 20 or so megabytes. Almost all free hosts ban remote loading or hotlinking, which means you can't use images or sound files in your email sigs.
Another drawback in free hosts: Their terms of service (TOS). Some don't mind certain content; others forbid anything "adult" in nature. If you're doing a site featuring sexy pin-up art or stories, your free hosting service may yank your pages and terminate your account without notice. Always read the TOS before signing up.
Getting the images, sounds, HTML files to your host is easy, but a handful of free hosts don't allow FTP for their "free" customers. Again, always read the host's FAQ and TOS.
So what about a pay host? If you don't mind parting with $5 to $20 per month, if you want to use your space for linkable images and sounds (e.g., for making email sigs or allowing others to use your files), then a pay host may be your best option. Pay hosts do not plaster advertising all over your pages. They usually offer more than the free hosts by way of increased space and extra amenities such as domain registration, free CGI scripts, FTP, extra bandwidth, unlimited hotlinking privileges. You may use your space for pure storage. I use my pay host for both storing stuff for email sigs and page building. I also keep extra sound and image files on hand in case I should need them. You can't do that on a free host.
Customer support is another consideration in deciding free or pay. Some, not all, free hosts don't have live tech support; they rely on message boards and canned, impersonal FAQ pages. Not much help there when you really need it. Pay hosts, on the other hand, have live tech support, active member forums, email support when you need it.
The choice is yours, and it depends on what you want in a web site. If you don't mind ads, really don't need 100+ megabytes or domain names, and your cash is limited, free hosts are your best bet. If you hate ads on your pages, want more storage space, bigger bandwidth, and don't mind shelling out a few dollars per month, choose a pay host.
On the next pages, I'll dicuss the in's and out's of using those "EZ Site Builders" vs. "CIY" (code it yourself), transloading made easy, various site promotion options, and links to web resources.
On to Page 3 ~ Building your homepage
| Page 1 | Page 2 | Page 3 | Page 4 |
| Page 5 | Page 6 | Page 7 | |
| I Need Help | Contact Me |