When hired to create something new (like a building or a movie), professionals
of all kinds take the time to plan their path to success. Once they
have their plans worked out, they begin to build. You may wish to
use the following six-step process to plan and build your Web site from
the ground up.
Design and blueprint the Web site.
This is perhaps the most important step in creating your site.
Before you begin building the actual site, you should always have
a clear idea of what goals you are trying to achieve. Principles
for designing your site can be found in An Introduction to Building a Web Site .
Pre-configure your Web server from EarthLink's
Hosting
Control Panel.
Before you begin to build your Web site, you need to make
sure that your Web Hosting account is prepared. Make sure you have
enough storage space to contain the Web site you plan to build.
Make sure you have enough bandwidth to handle the amount of traffic
you expect to receive. Set up any email addresses that you will
need to communicate with the people that will be visiting your site.
Purchase any additional services that you will require, such as
an e-commerce package. All of these features are available on your
Control Panel. See The Hosting Control Panel
Build a local copy of your site.
Create a test copy of your Web site on your computer. This
test site should look exactly as it will appear when you publish
it on the Web, understanding that some elements may not function
as they will once installed on your Web server. Using your computer
as a development area allows you to experiment without your trials
and errors appearing live on the Internet. See An Introduction to Building a Web Site .
Publish your site.
Once you've finished creating your test Web site
on your computer, it's time to go live! If your HTML editor
doesn't allow you to publish or upload your site to the
Web, you can upload your files to your Web Hosting account using
an FTP client such as
WS_FTP
for Windows
or
Fetch
for
Macintosh. See An Introduction to Building a Web Site .
Verify your site.
After
publishing
your site to the Web, make sure that it looks and works like you
want it to. Thoroughly test your Web site using as many popular
Web browsers as possible. Check for broken links and broken images,
read the text as a last check for typos, and make sure any advanced
features, like a bulletin board or search engine, are working correctly.
Maintain
your site
.
Being a Webmaster is an ongoing process. Set a regular schedule for
checking on your site. If you link to another Web site, you will need
to occasionally make sure that those links are still active. If
you have a bulletin board, you will need to make sure that the discussions
occurring there are informative and useful.
