Build a Website for Free

Files 64 Keep All Your Web Files in One Place 65 Have an Organizational Structure 65 Use a Version Control System 66 Uploading Files to the Internet 66 Logging In 67 Adding New Files 67 Changing Existing Files 67 Downloading Files from an FTP Server 68 One File or Many 69 Downloading from a Browser 69 Types of Download Files 69 Best Practices for Downloading Files 71 Part III: Website Building Basics 7 Elements of a Website 75 Content 76 Content Best Practices 76 Content Standards 77 Parts of a Web Page 78 Title 78 Header 79 Body 79 Footer 80 Sidebars 80 Navigational Elements 82 Parts of a Website 83 Home Page 83 Content Pages 84 Web Advertising 85 Banner Ads 85 Animated Ads 85 Google AdSense 86 8 Using Existing Websites 89 Social Networking Sites 90 MySpace 90 Facebook 96 Other Web 2.0 Sites 101 Flickr 101 Twitter 102 Delicious.com 103 9 Web Page Services 105 Google Sites 106 Signing Up for Google Sites 106 Creating a Google Site 108 Editing a Page 111 Creating a Page 113 Move a Page 114 Delete a Page 114 Edit Page Settings 114 Edit Site Settings 115 Google Sites Features and Limitations 116 Wetpaint 116 Signing Up for Wetpaint 116 Creating a Site on Wetpaint 118 Editing a Page 119 Wetpaint Features and Limitations 120 Netvibes 120 Signing Up for Netvibes 120 Personalizing Your Netvibes Page 122 10 HTML 101 123 The Structure of HTML 124 The Structure of Tags 125 Common HTML Tags 126 HTML Structure Tags 126 Text Tags 127 Lists 129 Tables 130 Hyperlinks 132 Images 132 Free HTML Editors 132 Text Editors 133 WYSIWYG Editors 134 Resources 135 The Latest Version of HTML 136 11 Working with Images 137 Web Graphics 138 Lossy and Lossless Compression 138 The Image Tag 140 Background Images 141 Image Maps 141 Animated GIFs 141 Optimizing Images 142 Resizing Images 142 When to Use Different File Types 142 Slicing Images 143 Finding Images 143 Free Images 143 Other People's Images 143 Using Your Own Images 144 12 Working with Multimedia 145 Digital Audio Files 147 Audio Formats 147 Audio Players 148 Digitizing Audio 149 Audio Editing 149 Audio Resources 150 Digital Video Files 150 Video Formats 151 Video Players 151 Digitizing Video 152 Video Editing 153 Video Hosting Sites 154 Video Resources 155 13 Building a Site Using HTML 157 How Web Pages Work 158 Page File 158 Extensions 158 Tools for Creating Web Pages 158 Parts of a Page 159 Cascading Style Sheets 167 Format of a Style Sheet 167 Creating and Linking a Style Sheet 168 Scripting 170 Using Templates 170 14 How'd They Do That? 171 Viewing Code from Other Websites 172 Web Development Firefox Add-Ons 172 Recommended Firefox Web Development Add-Ons 173 Recommended Chrome Web Development Add-Ons 176 Recommended Safari Web Development Add-Ons 177 Badges 178 Templates 180 Developer Networks and Sites 181 15 Making Your Site Mobile 183 Why Should You Care About the Mobile Web? 184 How People Access the Mobile Web 184 Become a Mobile Web User 184 Mobile Web Devices (MWD) 185 Mobile Operating Systems 186 Mobile Browsers 187 Limitations of the Mobile Web 189 Making Your Website Mobile 189 Mobile Browser Detection 190 Domains and Subdomains 190 Use the Right Code 191 Page Sizes 191 Interface 191 Things to Avoid 192 Mobile Web Tools and Sites 192 Testing Your Site on a Mobile Phone 193 Part IV: Site Testing and Maintenance 16 Testing Your Website 197 Why Testing Is Important 198 Building a Test Plan 199 Start at the End 199 Testing Basic Functionality 199 Testing HTML 200 Testing Browsers 201 Testing Resolution 202 Testing Printing 203 Testing Navigation 203 Testing Consistency of Design 204 Testing Security 205 Testing Mobile Web 205 Testing Accessibility 206 After Testing 206 Testing Tools 206 17 Promoting Your Website 209 Self-Promotion 210 Have Excellent and Unique Content 210 Update Content 210 Publicize Your URL 211 Connect with Others 212 Search Engines 214 How Search Engines Work 214 Optimizing Your Site for Search Engines 216 Keywords 216 18 Maintaining Your Website 219 What? I'm Not Done? 219 Regular Maintenance 220 Weekly Tasks 220 Monthly Tasks 220 Annual Tasks 220 The Power of Analytics 221 Common Analytics and What They Mean 221 Using Google Analytics 222 Tweaking Your Site Based on Analytics 228 Part V: Website Workshop 19 Building a Blog Using WordPress 231 What Is a Blog? 232 Why Should I Blog? 232 Blog Publishing 232 Syndication 233 What Is WordPress? 233 Software Versions 233 Five Reasons to Use WordPress.com to Host Your Blog 233 Five Reasons to Create Your Blog Using WordPress Software 234 Building a Blog Using WordPress.com 234 Signing Up for WordPress.com 235 Activating Your Account 239 Logging In to Your Blog 240 Writing Blog Posts 241 Managing Blog Posts 243 Changing the Design of Your Blog 244 Manage the Comments on Your Blog 245 Setting Up Your Own Blog with WordPress Software 246 Information You Need Before You Begin 246 How WordPress Software Works 246 How Much Does All This Cost? 247 Before Installing Your Software 247 Confirm That the Right Software Is Installed on Your Server 247 Get a Text Editor 248 Get an FTP Client 248 Pick a Username and Password 248 Download and Install WordPress 248 Download WordPress Software 248 Customization of WordPress 249 Adding Themes 249 Adding Plug-Ins 250 Personalization of WordPress 251 Modifying Themes 251 Creating Themes 252 Creating Plug-Ins 253 Blogging on Your iPhone 253 Keep an Eye on Things 253 20 Building a Business Site Using a Content Management System 255 Five Reasons to Use SocialGO as Your CMS 256 Five Reasons to Use Joomla as Your CMS 257 What Is SocialGO? 257 Building a Social Network with SocialGO 258 Sign Up for SocialGO 258 Invite Friends 260 Add Photos and Video 261 Start Admin Center 262 Building a Site with Joomla 264 Before Installing Your Joomla Software 265 Download and Install Joomla 265 Adding Articles 267 Managing Users 268 Modules, Plug-Ins, and Templates 269 Keep an Eye on Things 270 21 Building a Multimedia Website 271 Best Practices for Multimedia 272 Using Multimedia 273 Storing Multimedia Files 274 Downloading Audio and Video Files 275 Streaming Audio and Video 276 Advanced Multimedia Options 279 Wix.com (www.wix.com) 279 Webtrends Apps (www.transpond.com/) 279 Advanced Open-Source Multimedia 279 22 Building a Site Using a Wiki 281 Five Reasons to Use PBworks to Host Your Wiki 282 Five Reasons to Use MediaWiki for Your Wiki 283 What Is PBworks? 283 Building a Wiki Using PBworks 284 Signing Up for PBworks 284 Activating Your Account 286 Editing a Page 287 Adding a Page 288 Linking Pages 289 Viewing Page History 290 Setting Up Your Own Wiki Using MediaWiki Software 291 Information You Need Before You Begin 292 MediaWiki Software Architecture 292 Before Installing Your MediaWiki Software 292 Download and Install MediaWiki 293 Keep an Eye on Things 295 Part VI: Appendixes A List of the Most Common HTML Tags 299 B Free and Open-Source Software Sites 303 History of Open Source 304 Open-Source News 304 General Open-Source Sites 304 Operating Systems 304 Web Browsers 304 Office Suites 305 File Transfer Tools 305 Text Editors 305 Graphics Editors 305 HTML Editors 305 Video Editors 306 Sound Recording 306 Web Servers 306 Database Tools 306 Blog Software 306 CMS Software 307 Wiki Software 307 Script Tools 307 Index 309