Web Design: First Post

Well, here's my first post to this blog.
I will try to keep it somewhat entertaining for everyone involved. So I'll keep adding little toys onto here to make it a little more interactive.

Now, I've been asked to mention some things about self-promotion and publicity on occasion, so I will. As most people know, I have an AAS in Graphic Design, and it is a major part of my background. I build websites on occasion for people, bands, and companies and I think that it is an essential part of promoting yourself in this modern world.

Here's two of my current most active sites:
My Portfolio Site (Still getting some editing): hw7online.com
Thrown to the Wolves' Website (My band): throwntothewolves.com



First Thing's First:
You need to find a reliable web hoster. There's many out there ranging in costs, as well as several free ones. Probably one of the best free hosting sites is t35.com, however you will face the general problems of anything "free." The company still needs to pay the bills, so they put footer ads on your site. The good part about t35.com is that there is unlimited storage and bandwidth, and that's a great deal.
I personally prefer, and like to send people to, smallbusiness.yahoo.com. Everyone knows Yahoo! as a search engine and email server, but their small business section is an awesome resource for artists, musicians, and pretty much any other business person. It's not free. It's actually not even really "cheap." But, the money pays off something important: software and assistance. When you design sites for the Yahoo! webhosting server that you purchase, you can use a great, user-friendly program to design the site called SiteBuilder. This program is very intuitive on its base level, and is VERY easy to manipulate in any way. It's also very easy to upkeep and update a website using this program. It also has advanced features that break into code and applets, which allows it to range between beginner and advanced web designers. It's a great learning tool, really. Another great advantage is Yahoo!'s great customer service. I personally have been using this system since I was 10 years old. Oddly enough, when I was 10 years old I built a website for Pokemon on a hosting site called Geocities. Geocities was baught out by Yahoo! and turned into the system that is in place today. Yahoo! customer service is always available, quick to respond, and very well educated and experienced in the field of web design. I have never gotten a wrong answer. I actually don't think I've ever recieved an answer that wasn't what i was looking for.

On top of all of that, Yahoo! also gives you domain-specific email addresses. For example, my email address is john@hw7online.com. What's really great about this is the fact that it's affiliated with Yahoo!. My yahoo email address is spyke927@yahoo.com, and when I log in there's two tabs on the top. I can check my spyke927 email, or I can click on the other tab and check my hw7online.com email. They are linked together as seperate accounts accessable from the same page. This email address is GREAT because it adds a new professional spin to your business card and portfolio. Trust me when I tell you, an email address @gmail.com or @hotmail.com is outrageously unprofessional, and I laugh to myself everytime that I see a company with a website and an email address from a free server.

Why not GoDaddy.com?
That's a question I see a lot. It's a great question when it comes to financial issues seeing as GoDaddy is only a fraction of what hosting sites like Yahoo! charge. There's a reason for this. On Yahoo!, you're given all of the tools for the website. You recieve a server, you recieve the software, and you have 24/7 assistance on the work ahead of you. GoDaddy is just a domain site with limited hosting options. You must have a third party design site that you already know how to work. This alone will cost you plenty, and if you pirate it you don't have much access to help. However, GoDaddy is a great way to get the most out of a server you're already paying for. For example, my sever is based on hw7online.com. However, throwntothewolves.com is actually on the same server. I went to GoDaddy and purchased a domain forward to the site's location on hw7online.com, meaning that I'm getting 2 sites for the price of one.






I will post more within the near future to assist anyone, give the next steps, and answer any questions. Feel free to ask me anything and I'll hopefully respond to it.




.....See you space cowboy.