Free or registered?

Buying your own domain name costs about $35 a year, and paying someone to host it costs $20 or less per month. Free sites don't place as well in search engines, plus you get stuck with some stupid URLs.

But if you're just learning, I'd start with a freebie and move it later. If you want a free webpage, you can run a search for "free websites." Here's what I think every web host should have:

• FTP server.
• Banners, frames or pop-ups? Pop-ups are definitely a no-no, and personally I hate frames. So do search engines.
• An easy-to-remember address. (I hate my underline character, even though I chose it myself.)
• CGI support, which means nothing to you now but which you'll definitely want down the road. (Freedback.com may be a way for you to get around that limitation.)
• More than enough space to hold all your stuff, whatever that means. (I've got enough space here for all my free ebooks, but I chose not to use it.)

Once you've decided to take the big leap from free to registered, if you ever do, C-NET offers a pretty darn good comparison of all this mess at http://www.cnet.com/internet/0-3799.html.

If you're looking for some help just getting started, visit Is Your Website Unfriendly? for some excellent pointers and a fine tutorial. It includes the invaluable Web Colour Chart.

If you don't know how to write a website, many of the freebie sites give you the tools to do it by menu in five minutes. Personally, I hate those. To learn all you need to know to write it yourself, visit:

• HTML For The Complete Idiot
• HTML Goodies
• HTML: An Interactive Tutorial for Beginners
• HTML Primer
• The JavaScript Source - Learn about JavaScript. Many "cut and paste" examples. (Okay, this is an "advanced" class. Save it for later, maybe.)
• Web Developers Journal
• Webmonkey

Here's a related subject. Running a "diagnostic" on your site (after upload) will tell you how long it takes to run at various modem speeds, how compatible it is with older browsers, how to improve the problem areas, identify busted links, etc.

• Link Alarm - Website that emails you reports.
• Web Site Garage - A quick online "tuneup" that I should use more often. It'll also shrink the file size of your graphics.
• Xenu Link Sleuth - This is a "must have." I've got over 1000 links on my site, and it checks them all in about twenty minutes. Busted links are embarrassing, annoying, and as your site grows they're too much work to check manually.

• Go Daddy Software
• Network Solutions
• Register
• Register Domain Names
• Register Names

Okay, I have no doubt that you want pictures and buttons and all those bells and whistles. I won't even try to keep the list up to date on the free artwork. Just pop into any search engine and type "free clipart" or "free backgrounds" or "free wallpaper" and prepare to be hammered.

By the way, if you're on a website somewhere and you see an uncopyrighted graphic you like, you can always right-click it and "Save Target As" and take it home with you. Backgrounds too.

But remember, every graphic takes time to load on the user's end. Try to keep the file sizes as small as you can manage. This is where "optimization" comes in handy. Or perhaps you want to do a little graphics creation of your own. For these particular tasks, I recommend the links below.

• DeWitt Industries Interactive Web Site
• EarthStation1 Shareware and Freeware
• Graphics Optimization
• Mediabuilder
• My Imager
• Scream Design

Okay, you're finding you want to do things that HTML just doesn't handle. In a nutshell, if the website sends it to the user, that's HTML. If the user sends it to the website, that's CGI.

But do you really want to learn yet another new language? Of course not. It's already been done thousands of times. You want to go pick up some free code, perhaps learn just enough to plug it in and make it work. Here's what you need to know about scripts, then.
 

Don't buy this book! Go read the free sample first. It's on Books OnLine Newsletter and it's called SAMPLE.PDF.

The sample will tell you what CGI is. If you think you can use it, come back here and buy the book using the above link. That way I get a commission.

See, I won't lie to you. I could probably make more selling this book than my own, but I don't want you buying it if you have no use for it.

This book will tell you everything you need to know about how to install a CGI script, modify it, or even write your own if you feel like it. It's loaded with free samples, and it tells you all the places to get thousands more. It's a resource you'll refer to over and over again, and it'll pay for itself the first time you use it. It's easy to read, and I've certainly put it to good use.