Validating Your HTML Code:  After you write your code, it may not translate the way you expect. There are tools out there to verify your code.

Getting From Here to “Up” There: How do you FTP, publish and upload your code to the web site?

Website Design Considerations: Is the page too busy? Too much flash? Does it take to long to download because of too many bells and whistles?

Webmaster Selection: Do I need one? How much should I be prepared to pay?

Website Complexity

When determining the steps to build a website, it is imperative that consideration is taken in several key areas.   The first consideration is in regards to the level of complexity the website will need. 

There are three (3) major levels of website complexity that must be examined:

HIGH:  The higher the technical intricacy, the greater the level of complexity that is attributed to the website.  For a high level of functionality, advanced database knowledge, expert level scripting and development tools are needed.  Product type and audience help determine how intricate the website must be.  Here are a few examples of highly complex websites with Subject Matter Experts (SME) contacts.

Thoughtworks: www.thoughtworks.com  (Matt Simons, Jeff Norris)

A Mighty River: http://www.amightyriver.com/  (Rudy Martinez)

MEDIUM:  Requires a mid-level knowledge of technical expertise with scripting and development tools.  It does not require the use of advanced databases.  (e.g. Blacks Gone Geek website). Here are a few examples of medium complexity websites with SME contacts.

BDPA Chicago:  http://www.bdpa-chicago.org  (Martin Brown)

Blacks Gone Geek: http://blacksgonegeek.org  (Milt Haynes)

Project CIO: www.projectcio.org/  (Martin Brown)

Mount Zion Baptist Church - Woodlawn: http://www.mtzionwoodlawn.com/  (Brice Baumann)

LOW: Requires novice level expertise with basic web page design experience.  The website is highly functional to a broad base community without technical attributes to maintain.  Here are a few examples of low complexity websites with SME contacts.

North Alabama Interdenominational Golf Association: http://naiga.webs.com/  (Brice Baumann)

V_Lan Technologies: http://www.vlantec.com/  (Vera Holman)

Designed for a Purpose: http://www.designedforapurpose.org/  (Victoria Hook)

Well Spring Design: http://www.wellspringdesigns.biz/ (Lendrear Freeman)

So Many Designs Who to Choose

Creating a website is not as difficult as you may think.  Understanding terminology such as HTML, CSS, JavaScript, etc. are critical; however, not overwhelming to master web page editors and HTML editors are very important tools when you want to design a web site. Choosing a Web page editor or HTML editor can be a hard and tedious task. There are so many different web page editors and HTML editors to choose from, how do you choose the right one?

When choosing the HTML editor or web page editor that's right for you the first thing you want to decide is if you want one that is a strict HTML editor, a What You See Is What You Get (WYSIWYG) type web page editor or one that does both. Another deciding factor for you may be the price. web page editors and HTML editors alike can run anywhere from free to hundreds of dollars.  There are three primary editors and a useful publication tool:  Dreamweaver, FrontPage, PHP, and Publisher. 

\Dreamweaver is a web page editor, designed to allow users to create web pages with a wide variety of features without having to write the HTML code by hand.

FrontPage is a web authoring tool that allows you to create and manage your site.  It helps you to manage the pages in your web as well as create and edit web pages in a WYSIWYG fashion.

PHP, Hypertext Preprocessor.  HTML embedded scripting language used to create dynamic web pages on the server –not the local machine. This helps to ensure your code cannot be copied from the web.  Much of its syntax is borrowed from C, Java and Perl with some unique features. The objective of the language is to allow Web developers to write dynamically generated pages quickly.

Publisher helps you create, personalize, and share a wide range of publications and marketing materials.  Since it is included in the Microsoft suite of basic tools, many people find this an inexpensive way to produce their web pages. 

Validating Your HTML Code

What does it mean to validate a web page (i.e., code)?   Validating your code refers to using a program or an online service to check that the web page you created is free of errors.  This ensures what the designer intended to display is what the customer sees.

More importantly, an HTML validator checks to make sure the HTML code on your web page complies with the standards set by the W3 Consortium (the organization that issues the HTML standards). There are various types of validators - some check only for errors; others also make suggestions about your code, telling you when a certain way of writing things might lead to unexpected results.

The W3 Consortium has its own online validator which you can use for free: http://validator.w3.org/.   You can also visit http://htmlhelp.com/tools/validator/  for validation of your entire page.  

Getting From Here to “Up” There

After creating your web pages you are ready to publish them. This process is known as “uploading.” The most common way to upload your content is via File Transfer Protocol (FTP). Your web hosting provider may have a step-by-step web form to facilitate the uploading process. Once you have committed to a hosting provider and you know where you're going to upload your files, you will need the following information to successfully upload your files:

·                   Your username

·                   Your password

·                   Your host name that you will connect to and upload your files to

·                   Your URL or website address

Website Design Considerations

Put Up Easy to Read Articles.  The most common reason people use the Internet is either for emailing or for researching information. When researching on the Internet, people look for websites that provide quality information. If a site is poorly written, hard to read or is purely theoretical, a customer will not stay on your site for long.

Use A Simple Navigation Menu.  The navigation menu is the only tool that your customers have for navigating your site. It is critical that you design the navigation menu in such a way that it is both intuitive and easy-to-use. Unfortunately, many customers leave these sites not completely getting what they want because the information is either too technical, not practical, or simply because of poor navigation designs.

Optimize Your Pages For Quick Downloading.  The optimal file size for any individual web page is between 30KB and 50KB.  Your website design should factor in people with slow Internet connections so that they can easily download and view your web pages. Remember, the smaller the file size the quicker your customers can download and view your web pages.

Avoid Dead Links.  Make sure that after you upload your site, you go through and check your internal links. Check regularly for dead outbound links. Nothing is more frustrating to a customer than to click on a reference link only to find that the website doesn't exist. Dead links can give your customers the impression that you are careless and unprofessional.

Keep Site Content Fresh and Relevant.  Always try to keep the content on your website fresh so your customers will have reasons to revisit. Provide data that would benefit your customers. Don't write a lengthy thesis; keep your content simple, practical and straight to the point.   In today’s Web 2.0 environment, make your website not just a place to read, but a place for information sharing.  Keep it simple and free of jargon.

Browser Compatibility.  All browsers do not translate all material.  It's hard to know the actual statistics for browser usage, but in general Microsoft Internet Explorer commands the lion’s share of the browser market, while Netscape shares about 4% to 12%. However, Firefox has become increasingly popular due to the unpredictability of Microsoft’s IE version 7.0.  During your website design and testing phase, test the contents of your website using other popular browsers such as Firefox, AOL, Mosaic and Opera. You will also find that earlier versions of the same browser will display your pages differently. Mozilla Firefox is a good alternative to Internet Explorer and it follows the web guidelines of the W3C.

Color Compatibility.  We cannot stress enough the importance of the color scheme of your site. Begin with web-safe colors and stick with them where possible - there are 216 colors that are universally supported by most computer platforms and browsers.

Your customers will return to your site, and even recommend your site if your website design is simple and the menus are intuitive. Keep your design simple and unobtrusive so that people can focus on understanding information.  Ask yourself these three questions at the onset:

1.            Is it easy to read and navigate?

2.            Are the pages optimized for quick downloading?

3.            Can it be viewed on most browsers and platforms?

Once you can answer "yes" to these initial questions, you will have the perfect blueprint to base your website design on - a blueprint you can use with confidence to build your site from the ground up.

Content Management System (CMS):  A content management system (CMS) is a computer application used to create, edit, manage, and publish content in a consistently organized fashion. A CMS (e.g. Drupal, Joomla, Ruby on Rails) is designed to simplify the publication of Web content to Web sites. In particular, allowing content creators to submit content without requiring technical knowledge of HTML or the uploading of files.  CMS products provide the capability to create and edit web pages and they also provide other types of  advanced web content capabilities.  You will need to use a CMS to develop and maintain medium to high complexity websites.

Webmaster Selection

After the level of complexity has been determined, a webmaster must be considered.  A webmaster should be researched based on the following considerations:

1.             Level of commitment and complexity needed to create and maintain site

2.             Level of capital being invested and/or budgeted

3.             Ultimate goal site is to accomplish

4.             $50 an hour for a freelance web master is a reasonable rate for a low to medium complexity site.