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by William Robert Stanek
Publishing on the World Wide Web may be your ticket to success. Success can be measured in many ways. Your success may be increased sales, attracting new clients, or simply gaining widespread visibility for your ideas. Every success story has a beginning, and in Web publishing, the beginning is to create a Web site to tell the world who you are and what you represent.
The difference between a successful site and an unsuccessful site is attention to detail, good content, and good organization. This chapter follows a hands-on approach for creating a Web site. Through practical, step-by-step examples, you learn how to create, organize, and publish your own Web site. The chapter goes on to tell you how you can publicize your site, which is a critical yet all-too-often neglected part of Web publishing. If you don't tell people your site exists, no one will know and no one will visit.
The key to establishing a Web presence and building a name for yourself in cyberspace is to create a killer Web site that will stop Web surfers in their tracks. To do this, you must learn the basics of organizing, creating, and publishing a Web site where you can feature a collection of dozens or hundreds of pages. Following the steps outlined in this chapter, you can become one of the thousands of individuals successfully publishing in cyberspace.
Here are the eight steps for creating, publishing, and publicizing your Web site:
You build a Web site one step at a time, and the first step is simply defining what you want to publish on the Web. The basic components of a Web site are the pages you link together. These pages can contain text, graphics, and multimedia. The type of information you can publish on the Web is limited only by your imagination.
You can create a site that has many features, such as community services, product samples, and product information. Your Web site can be a commercial venture or simply an adventure. There are no strict rules that say you must publish either for fun or for profit. Your site can be for profit and still provide the Internet community with a useful resource containing information about you, your company, your products, and your services. Your site can be strictly informational with no sales information whatsoever, providing the Internet community with a fabulous free resource. Your intentions could be to show the world you are the definitive expert in a particular subject area, which may ultimately sell yourself, your ideas, or your company to consumers.
You should carefully consider what you want to publish on the Web. You can start by making a list of your creative projects, the plans for your business, your favorite hobbies, and your areas of interest or expertise. You can use this list to help you decide areas you may want to Web publish in.
Competing in a global marketplace requires planning from day one. Before you start building your Web site, you must establish objectives and define what you hope to gain from your Web presence. Establishing an identity for yourself and your company in cyberspace does not come easily. You must use your skills and ideas to sell yourself and your company to the world.
To establish a presence on tomorrow's Web, you must adopt a vision for success focused on global outreach. The Web is the ultimate forum for your ideas. By adding sound, graphics, and video, you can create visually stunning, highly interactive, dynamic documents that will entice readers to visit your site time after time. However, you have only a few minutes to convince readers to read your Web publication. If you do not, they are going to go somewhere else for their information needs as quickly and as effortlessly as you can change the channel on your television by remote control. Therefore, you should carefully organize your ideas and develop a specific strategy before creating a Web site.
Creating Web sites can be either a continuous struggle or a logically flowing process. Take the time to organize your ideas. Not only will the payoff be a better product, it will also mean time and resource savings. Your strategy should focus on four areas:
The purpose of the site is the reason you are creating the site. Are you creating a Web site to tell the world about your latest book? Are you creating a Web site to tell the world about a service you offer? Are you creating a Web site simply because you want to share your ideas or expertise?
If the purpose of a site is to sell a service or a product to Web users, do not hide that purpose-come right out and say it. This ensures readers are informed about what they are reading. Value the readers' time, and they will probably return if they need the product or service later.
If the purpose of the site is to provide an Internet community service, make sure the readers know that, too. You can build tremendous goodwill by simply providing information free. Why not share a bit of your area expertise with the world?
Another key concept to keep in mind is scope. Scope is sometimes defined in terms of the focus and size of the project. As you organize your thoughts, determine the subject matter you will discuss and how broadly or narrowly you will cover the subject. Will your site be broadly focused and cover many topics related to computer games? Or will it be narrowly focused and cover very specific topics related to Multiuser Dimensions (MUDs)?
After you determine the focus, you should determine the level of detail for the site's subject matter. You could briefly discuss many topics or discuss a few topics at length. If you decide you want to cover a few specific topics at length, you may want to cover the topics on a single Web page. However, if you want to cover many topics at length, you may want to present your ideas on a series of pages with increasing levels of detail. For example, the initial page is an overview page discussing the popularity of Multiuser Dimensions. From this page readers can access other pages that discuss the features of specific MUDs in detail. From the detailed page, readers can access other pages that cover newsgroups, mailing lists, and Web sites related to a specific MUD, and so on. Pages set up in progressive levels of detail is the basic format for a Web site.
Developing a strategy with your audience in mind is also essential to your success, yet determining the group you want the work to reach is not always easy. On the Web, you can reach an extremely diverse global audience, and words written in your native language may be read by people from dozens of countries. A site that specifically focuses on resources for U.S. writers may exclude or alienate writers from dozens of other countries. A site written in Spanish may be read by native speakers from the many Spanish-speaking countries in the world or by the millions of people who speak Spanish as a second language.
| Tip |
Although English is the dominant language used on the Web, it is not the only language in use on the Web. Many European Web publishers create sites in several languages, and because of this, millions of people who otherwise couldn't enjoy the site can. If you are proficient in a second language, you may want to consider publishing your ideas in both your native and secondary language. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain by ensuring your publication can reach the largest audience possible. |
As you consider the potential audience for your ideas, products, or services, focus on specifics of who, what, why, and how:
Tell yourself you are creating a site for anyone interested in extreme sports who is between the ages of 16 and 35. Readers will be interested in your service because you are the only such service featuring excursions in the Australian outback and the mountains of New Zealand. You will reach readers by featuring a virtual tour and offering a two-for-one discount that is available only to Web surfers. Got the idea?
Before you start creating the actual markup for pages at your site, you should carefully consider how you will organize the site. Getting organized is extremely important. Not only will it save you time, it will help you create a better site. The quality of your site is what will convince Web users your site is worth visiting.
You can write out the initial structure for your site as an outline or simply as notes you scratch out during a brainstorming session. While you write down your ideas, focus on the purpose, scope, and audience you defined earlier. Key areas of the site you should concentrate on are
The site's home page-This page introduces the site to the world and should provide readers with a brief overview of what is ahead.
The main features of the site-Showcase the content of your site.
The hook-Give readers a reason to come back to your site.
After you develop the basic concept for your Web site, you may want to try to improve your ideas through freethinking, brainstorming, or storyboarding. These and other techniques for unleashing your creativity and better organizing your publications are explored in depth in Chapter 42, "Managing Large-Scale Projects."
You must create a friendly Web site that continues to grow and change. Yet it won't be the size of your site that sells your ideas and products; it will be your vision and ability to find your place in the world community. Two major design concepts you will want to consider immediately are
Whether you are thinking on a grand scale or a small scale, the organization of your information is the most important design issue in setting up a Web site. Carefully consider how you will organize your site. The power of Web publishing is that you can seamlessly integrate complex presentations. Behind those complex presentations are dozens, possibly hundreds, of individual pages that can contain text, images, and multimedia. The result can be either an unfriendly place to visit and a nightmare to maintain or, if organized properly, a friendly place to visit and a joy to maintain.
As the Web publisher, you are breathing life into an information infrastructure that may be seen by thousands, possibly millions, of users around the world. When this information infrastructure is in place, you should not haphazardly delete, rename, or rearrange this structure. If you delete, rename, or rearrange your site, not only will you frustrate users, but all links that were leading visitors to your site may become invalid.
| Note |
Your address URLs are the only thing leading visitors to your site. Readers save lists of their favorite places in their browser using a bookmark or hotlist feature. Some users may have published your link as a favorite site on their home page. Many readers also find new places to visit through the lists published by Web databases, and if your pages are in new locations, the reader may not be able to find your site. |
Your site's directory and file structure can play a key role in helping you organize your ideas. Carefully consider how the outside world will regard the structure of your site. You can organize different types of information into directories. You can organize your site into directories that pertain to the projects or publications featured at the site. You can also organize the files within your directories into a logically named structure.
The base directory of the site should pertain to the overall site or to the organization sponsoring the site. The best way to set up the base directory is to use an index or default page that pertains to the site as a whole. This default page will serve as your home page and will most likely be the first page visitors to your site see. The address URL for your base directory is usually something like this:
http://www.your_company.com/
or
http://www.your_service_provider.com/~you
In both cases, a browser accessing the URL would display the default page for your site. As the default page is usually named index.html, this means you will want to install a page called index.html in the appropriate directory on the Web server. If you are using an ISP's Web server with a virtual domain or an account with Web-publishing privileges, this directory is normally called public_html and is located under your user directory.
| Note |
If the public_html directory was not created by your service provider, you can easily create it. On a UNIX or DOS-based system, type the command: mkdir public_html The command shown above will make a directory called public_html for you. Before you type the command, you should ensure you are in your user directory. One way to do this on a UNIX system is to type the command cd on a line by itself as follows: cd |
A clear structure for your directories and files becomes increasingly important as your site grows. Hundreds of files in a single directory are difficult to track and maintain. Therefore, you should consider a subdirectory structure at an early stage in your Web site creation. Subdirectories at the site should be logically organized and could pertain to projects, publications, or departments within a company. For example, you could create a directory for each of your projects by category and develop the following structure:
| BASE directory | Contains pages that pertain to your company. BASE refers to |
| BOOK directory | Contains pages that pertain to your book-length projects. |
| BUS directory | Contains pages that pertain to business services you plan to provide. |
Each subdirectory would be located under your base directory and could have its own default page associated with it. To access the default page within the BOOK directory, a user could use one of these URLs:
http://www.your_company.com/BOOK/ http://www.your_service_provider.com/~you/BOOK/
To access a page called projects.html within the BOOK directory, a user could use one of these URLs:
http://www.your_company.com/BOOK/projects.html http://www.your_service_provider.com/~you/BOOK/projects.html
Just as it is important to logically name directories, you should also logically name your files. Each file that pertains to a particular presentation could use an element of the project's name to relate it to the project. This is true even if you plan to put individual projects in their own directories and especially important when you plan to publish multiple projects that are closely related. A book publisher that planned to publish extracts of her books on the Web would not want to name the parts of the first book
page1.html
page2.html
page3.html
or
chapter1.html
chapter2.html
chapter3.html
A better naming scheme is to relate the parts of the project to the project itself, which will avoid confusion when publishing additional projects and make the site easier to maintain. Imagine a site with a dozen books that has identical names for the pages of the publications. What happens when the new employee you've hired moves pages 12 through 27 for your third book into the directory reserved for your first book?
To relate the parts of the project to the whole, you could prepend an abbreviation for the project or part of the project's title to the file names. For example, the title Web Publishing Unleashed could be abbreviated as WPU. You could then prepend the abbreviation to the component parts of the project as follows:
wpuch1index.html
wpuch1pg1.html
wpuch1pg2.html
wpuch1pg3.html
wpuch1title.gif
A Web site is much more than pages linked together. It is your home on the Web and, as such, it should contain doorways that reduce communications barriers and help spread your ideas to a global audience. Through step-by-step examples, the remainder of this chapter builds a killer Web site. You can use similar pages to form the basis of your Web site and save hours of work.
| Note |
Extreme Sports Hawaii is a fictitious business that I created for use in examples throughout Web Publishing Unleashed, Professional Reference Edition. Still, I thought it would be fun to publish this demo site so readers could see it live on the Web. You will find the site at: http://www.tvp.com/writing/ |
The first doorway you will want to establish on the Web is the front door to your Web site, your home page. As the first thing most visitors to your site will see, your home page should be friendly and inviting.
Creating a friendly and inviting home page involves much more than hanging up a virtual welcome mat. It involves creating a well-organized page that reflects who you are and what you plan to do on the Web. The page should follow a sound design that provides an overview of what is available at the site. You can present an overview of content in many ways, but the best way to organize the overview is to make it a sneak preview of what visitors to the site can expect to find.
Your sneak preview can tell the world that you are dull and unimaginative, such as a home page organized like the table of contents you would find in a print publication. A home page organized in such a pure linear fashion may seem a logical way to go, but generally this design has only first-time visitors in mind. While you want to attract new visitors, you also want to attract repeat visitors. If McDonald's attracted only one-time customers, they never would have sold billions of hamburgers. The key in business, even if that business is not-for-profit, is to build a customer base, and you cannot build a customer base if your customers visit your site only once. Therefore, your sneak preview should tell the world this is a place to add to their hot list.
Your home page should grab the reader's attention immediately. The first thing visitors to the home page for Extreme Sports Hawaii (see Figure 49.1) see is an enticing image. The image serves a dual role. It creates a dramatic effect and is a clickable image linked to a contact page. The remainder of the page provides a teaser to visitors and closes with a text link to the same contact page. This teaser information is given a unique style using a style element.
Figure 49.1 : Grab the reader's attention immediately with a powerful home page.
Ideally, a home page designed to grab the reader's attention will be updated often. You could also rotate a series of cool home pages on a daily basis. This ensures the home page is fresh and new every time the user visits. Listing 49.1 shows the HTML markup for the home page.
Listing 49.1. Home page for Extreme Sports Hawaii.
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>Welcome to Extreme Sports Hawaii!</TITLE>
<STYLE>
H1 {font: 35pt Times;}
H2 {font: 14pt cursive;
text-indent: .5in;
margin-right: 1in;
margin-left: .5in}
</STYLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY BGCOLOR="#000000" TEXT="#FF0000" LINK="#FF0000"
VLINK="#FF0000" ALINK="#000000">
<P ALIGN="CENTER">
<A HREF="contact.htm"><IMG SRC="lightn.jpg" BORDER="0" ALT=""></A>
</P>
<H2>"In a world without the extreme days slip by one after
another in boring endless succession. If you long to end the
monotony, experience the extreme edge and change your life
forever." </H2>
<H1 ALIGN=CENTER>
<A HREF="contact.htm">More ...</A>
</H1>
</BODY>
</HTML>
Your home on the Web should have many rooms. Filling those rooms with wonderful content is not always easy, especially when you have to choose which room to fill first. A new site should build its rooms a little at a time. You should start by building a solid framework for the site that tells the world who you are and what you plan to do. Show visitors you are dedicated to the development of a wonderful resource, and they will return to see how your site is progressing, even if it is in the early stages of development.
Designing a site with content for first-time and repeat visitors is extremely important in creating an inviting place to visit. Yet you also want your house on the Web to be a friendly place to visit. The friendliest sites on the Web are considerate of your time and present information in the right level of detail based on your location within the site.
When you click on the picture of lightning or follow the text link on the Extreme Sports Hawaii home page, you see the page shown in Figure 49.2. This page provides contact information for the business, which includes the address, phone number, and e-mail address. Linking the e-mail address to a mailto reference enables visitors to start a mail message in one step. All they need to do is click on the reference.
Figure 49.2 : Providing contact information in style.
A background image is used to give the contact page style. Although the background image seems to float in the left margin, the actual image is 800 pixels wide and includes a wide white band that ensures the image will not be repeated both horizontally and vertically.
Although the colors of the image create a stunning contrast, you would not be able to read dark-colored text on the dark section of the background. Similarly, you would not be able to read light-colored text on the light section of the background. This posed a design problem that was solved by centering the elements on the page. As you can see from the figure, centering the text and graphics places them on the light section of the background. Examine Listing 49.2 to see how this was done.
Listing 49.2. Another room for the Web site.
<HTML> <HEAD> <TITLE>Extreme Sports</TITLE> </HEAD> <BODY BACKGROUND="BACK/contactbk.gif" LINK="#FF0000"> <DIV ALIGN=CENTER> <H1>Extreme Sports Hawaii</H1> <H3>5300 Kalekaua Honolulu, HI</H3> <H3>(808) 555-1212</H3> <H3> <A HREF="mailto:sports@tvp.com">sports@maxedge.com</A> </H3> <P><I>"Extreme to the max."</I></P> <P> <A HREF="vacation.htm" > <IMG SRC="Surfbord.gif" BORDER=0> <IMG SRC="Sail.gif" BORDER=0> <IMG SRC="Surfing.gif" BORDER=0> </A> </P> <H3 ALIGN="CENTER"> <A HREF="vacation.htm">Extreme Getaways You Can't Live Without!</A> </H3> </DIV> </BODY> </HTML>
The design of your site does not stop at your home page. The best sites on the Web have many special areas or mini-sites within the site. These mini-sites can be the star attractions with features that constantly change and grow.
The star attraction of the Extreme Sports Hawaii Web site is the page shown in Figure 49.3. The purpose of this page is to promote the vacation packages available. A fairly advanced style sheet is used to add pizzazz to the table shown at the top of the page. This style sheet uses two classes, which are attached to tags in the table. Sizing the table just right and combining it with a powerful graphic creates a promotional banner at the top of the page.
Figure 49.3 : Enhancing product pages with style sheets and VBScript.
Visitors to the page can get customized information about a vacation package by clicking on an appropriate button control. This is handled by using VBScript to perform dynamic writes to the page. If visitors want information on downhill mountain biking, they click on the mountain-biking button and the page is updated as shown in Figure 49.4. If visitors want information on sky boarding, they click on the sky-boarding button and the page is updated as shown in Figure 49.5. If visitors want information on a surfing package, they click on the surfing combo button and the page is updated as shown in Figure 49.6. To see how the information page was created, examine Listing 49.3.
Figure 49.4 : Getting information on mountain biking.
Figure 49.5 : Getting information on sky boarding.
Figure 49.6 : Getting information on a surf, sail, and sun combo.
Listing 49.3. Providing vacation information.
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>Extreme Vacation Getaway Packages</TITLE>
<STYLE>
.classB {font: 20pt Times;
color: black;
background: red;
margin: .1in}
.classA {font: 15pt Times;
font-weight: bold;
color: red;
background: black;
margin: .15in}
H2 { font: 30 pt Times; color: white}
</STYLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY BGCOLOR="Blue" LINK="#FFFFFF">
<IMG SRC="hawaii2.jpg" ALIGN="LEFT" BORDER="0">
<TABLE>
<TR><TH CLASS=classB>Extreme Sports Hawaii Getaways</TH>
<TR><TH CLASS=classA> </TH>
<TR><TH CLASS=classA>Vacation to the Max</TH>
<TR><TH CLASS=classA>Luxury and Style</TH>
<TR><TH CLASS=classA>On The Edge of Life</TH>
<TR><TH CLASS=classA>Gear up to Overdrive</TH>
<TR><TH CLASS=classA>You'll Never Forget</TH>
<TR><TH CLASS=classA> </TH>
</TABLE>
<BR CLEAR=ALL>
<DIV ALIGN=CENTER>
<H2 ALIGN=CENTER>
<A HREF="info.htm">More Information For Your Extreme Vacation Now!</A>
</H2>
<P>
<INPUT TYPE=BUTTON VALUE="Downhill Mountain Biking at 60 MPH"
NAME="m1Vacation">
<INPUT TYPE=BUTTON VALUE="Surf Boarding at 20,000 Ft" NAME="s1Vacation">
<INPUT TYPE=BUTTON VALUE="The Surf's Up Combo" NAME="s2Vacation">
</P>
</DIV>
<SCRIPT LANGUAGE="VBScript">
<!-- Option Explicit
Sub m1Vacation_OnClick()
document.write "<BODY BGCOLOR=White>"
document.write "<IMG SRC=eagle.jpg ALIGN=LEFT BORDER=0>"
document.write "<H2 ALIGN=RIGHT>Downhill Mountain Biking at 60 MPH</H2>"
document.write "<H2 ALIGN=RIGHT>Ultimate Speed = Ultimate Thrill</H2>"
document.write "<BR CLEAR=ALL>"
document.write "<H3 ALIGN=Right>Experience a thrill few have ever tasted!</H3>"
document.write "<H3 ALIGN=Left> Race downhill at speeds up to
60 miles per hour!</H3>"
document.write "<H3 ALIGN=Right>Hear the wind in your ears!</H3>"
document.write "<H3 ALIGN=Left>Watch life rush past your eyes!</H3>"
document.write "<P> </P>"
document.write "<BR CLEAR=ALL>"
document.write "<IMG SRC=eagle.jpg ALIGN=RIGHT BORDER=0>"
document.write "<H3 ALIGN=LEFT><A HREF=order.htm>Make Your Reservations
Today!</A></H3>"
End Sub
Sub s1Vacation_OnClick()
document.write "<BODY BGCOLOR=White>"
document.write "<IMG SRC=airborne.jpg ALIGN=LEFT BORDER=0>"
document.write "<H2 ALIGN=RIGHT>Surf Boarding From a 20,000 Ft Sky Dive</H2>"
document.write "<H2 ALIGN=RIGHT>Maximum Altitude = Maximum Challenge</H2>"
document.write "<BR CLEAR=ALL>"
document.write "<H3 ALIGN=Right>Experience a thrill few have ever tasted!</H3>"
document.write "<H3 ALIGN=Left> Sky surf while racing toward Earth!</H3>"
document.write "<H3 ALIGN=Right>Spin a 360!</H3>"
document.write "<H3 ALIGN=Left>Hear the wind in your ears!</H3>"
document.write "<P> </P>"
document.write "<BR CLEAR=ALL>"
document.write "<IMG SRC=chute.jpg ALIGN=RIGHT BORDER=0>"
document.write "<H3 ALIGN=LEFT><A HREF=order.htm>Make Your Reservations
Today!</A></H3>"
End Sub
Sub s2Vacation_OnClick()
document.write "<BODY BGCOLOR=White>"
document.write "<IMG SRC=sail.jpg ALIGN=LEFT BORDER=0>"
document.write "<H2 ALIGN=RIGHT>Surf's Up Combo: Wind Surfing, Surf Boarding
and Paragliding</H2>"
document.write "<H2 ALIGN=RIGHT>3 X Combo = 3 X Thrills</H2>"
document.write "<BR CLEAR=ALL>"
document.write "<H3 ALIGN=Right>Wind surf Maui's Best Shores!</H3>"
document.write "<H3 ALIGN=Left> Surf the Pipeline on the North
Shore of Oahu!</H3>"
document.write "<H3 ALIGN=Right>Paraglide in Honolulu!</H3>"
document.write "<P> </P>"
document.write "<BR CLEAR=ALL>"
document.write "<IMG SRC=power.jpg ALIGN=RIGHT BORDER=0>"
document.write "<H3 ALIGN=LEFT><A HREF=order.htm>Make Your
Reservations Today!</A></H3>"
End Sub
-->
</SCRIPT>
</BODY>
</HTML>
The linking of pages at your Web site is extremely important. The more navigation mechanisms you provide within the site, the easier it will be for visitors to find their way around.
Your site should follow a flowing design, with multiple routes through the information infrastructure you have created. Readers should be able to advance from overview pages to more detailed pages within your site. They should also be able to go back to your home page and start a new search from any level within the site.
Realize from the start that the structure of the Web is such that readers can enter your site at any level, and you will have a head start on many Web publishers. I don't know how many times I have come across a Web page that gives me no indication of where the page is within the information infrastructure at the site. The worst of these pages become dead-end streets, with no way to return to the site's home page and no way to access any other information at the site. Finding a dead-end street on the Web is frustrating, to say the least, but the reason the dead-end street exists is that its creators lacked foresight. They either thought that all visitors would access the site starting from the front door, or they just never stopped to think about the consequences of creating such a page.
As the Web gets increasingly advanced, good linking becomes increasingly important. To understand why, take another look at the promotional page for vacation packages offered by Extreme Sports Hawaii. Instead of looking at the page in a browser that supports the advanced features used, look at the page in a browser that does not support these features (shown in Figure 49.7).
Figure 49.7 : The vacation page viewed in a different browser.
The difference between what you see in Figure 49.7 and what you saw in Figure 49.3 is so dramatic that it seems you are seeing two different pages. The customized table with style enhancements is displayed as an ordinary table, and the button controls are gone-vanished because they aren't supported by this browser. If I hadn't designed the page knowing this might happen, the result could have been a dead-end page. Instead, to ensure the table remained readable and distinct beside the image, I used data header tags, which ensures the table data is centered and displayed in bold. I also included a text link that readers could follow for more information. Without this link, the vacation page would lead nowhere. Instead, the vacation page leads to the page shown in Figure 49.8. Listing 49.4 shows the markup for the page.
Figure 49.8 : A product information page for those who can't use VBScript.
Listing 49.4. A vacation information page for browsers that don't support VBScript.
<HTML> <HEAD> <TITLE>Thrill-A-Minute Vacation Extremes</TITLE> </HEAD> <BODY BGCOLOR=#FFFFFF LINK="#FF0000"> <DIV ALIGN=CENTER> <H2>Learn About Our Vacations Today!</H2> <H3> <A HREF="#one">Downhill Mountain Biking at 60 MPH</A> || <A HREF="#two">Sky Boarding at 20,000 Ft</A> || <A HREF="#three">Surfs Up Combo</A> </H3> <HR NOSHADE SIZE=10 WIDTH=80%> </DIV> <IMG SRC=eagle.jpg ALIGN=LEFT BORDER=0> <H2 ALIGN=RIGHT><A NAME="one">Downhill Mountain Biking at 60 MPH</A></H2> <H2 ALIGN=RIGHT>Ultimate Speed = Ultimate Thrill</H2> <BR CLEAR=ALL> <H3 ALIGN=Right>Experience a thrill few have ever tasted!</H3> <H3 ALIGN=Right> Race downhill at speeds up to 60 miles per hour!</H3> <H3 ALIGN=Right>Hear the wind in your ears!</H3> <H3 ALIGN=Right>Watch life rush past your eyes!</H3> <P> </P> <BR CLEAR=ALL> <IMG SRC=eagle.jpg ALIGN=RIGHT BORDER=0> <H3 ALIGN=LEFT><A HREF=order2.htm>Make Your Reservations Today!</A></H3> <BR CLEAR=ALL> <HR NOSHADE SIZE=10> <IMG SRC=airborne.jpg ALIGN=LEFT BORDER=0> <H2 ALIGN=RIGHT><A NAME="two">Surf Boarding From a 20,000 Ft Sky Dive</A></H2> <H2 ALIGN=RIGHT>Maximum Altitude = Maximum Challenge</H2> <BR CLEAR=ALL> <H3 ALIGN=Right>Experience a thrill few have ever tasted!</H3> <H3 ALIGN=Right> Sky surf while racing toward Earth!</H3> <H3 ALIGN=Right>Spin a 360!</H3> <H3 ALIGN=Right>Hear the wind in your ears!</H3> <P> </P> <BR CLEAR=ALL> <IMG SRC=chute.jpg ALIGN=RIGHT BORDER=0> <H3 ALIGN=Left><A HREF=order2.htm>Make Your Reservations Today!</A></H3> <BR CLEAR=ALL> <HR NOSHADE SIZE=10> <IMG SRC=sail.jpg ALIGN=LEFT BORDER=0> <H2 ALIGN=RIGHT><A NAME="three">Surf's Up Combo: Wind Surfing, Surf Boarding and Paragliding</A></H2> <H2 ALIGN=RIGHT>3 X Combo = 3 X Thrills</H2> <BR CLEAR=ALL> <H3 ALIGN=Right>Wind surf Maui's Best Shores!</H3> <H3 ALIGN=Right> Surf the Pipeline on the North Shore of Oahu!</H3> <H3 ALIGN=Right>Paraglide in Honolulu!</H3> <P> </P> <BR CLEAR=ALL> <IMG SRC=power.jpg ALIGN=RIGHT BORDER=0> <H3 ALIGN=LEFT><A HREF=order2.htm>Make Your Reservations Today!</A></H3> <BR CLEAR=ALL> <HR NOSHADE SIZE=10> </BODY> </HTML>
Now that you know visitors to your site may use different browsers, you can take advantage of this by providing alternative paths through your site for users with different browsers. The traditional way to do this is to place links on the home page that lead to pages designed for different browsers. On some sites, you will find that the home page has links to text-only pages, graphics pages, pages designed for Netscape Navigator, and even separate pages designed for Internet Explorer. These sites create up to five different sets of pages, which means you have to redesign every page as many as five times.
Not only is redesigning a page five different times a tremendous waste of effort, it is not necessary if you understand how HTML and browsers work together. Because users can, and do, turn off the graphics-loading capability of their browsers if they don't want to see graphics, there is no need for separate text-only and graphics pages. All right, maybe the publisher is creating pages for users with a text-only browser such as Lynx. Well, if you've used Lynx, you know the browser inserts the alternative text you provide where the image should be. So instead of creating text-only pages, add alternative text to your image tags when it makes sense to do so. Or better yet, you can get rid of the possibly annoying [Image] reference by defining your image tag as follows:
<IMG SOURCE="myImage.gif" ALT="">
Creating separate pages for users with advanced browsers isn't necessary either. One way to clearly and easily ensure users with advanced browsers see advanced pages is with frames. Even if you don't want to create multiple windows for a document, you can use frames to provide distinct pages for users with advanced browsers like Internet Explorer and standard browsers like Mosaic. Here is how you can do this:
<FRAMESET ROWS="100%%"> <FRAMESET COLS="100%"> <FRAME SRC="myAdvancedPage.htm"> </FRAMESET> <NOFRAME> Insert markup for standard browsers here.
</NOFRAME>
Another way to create pages for both standard and advanced browsers is to follow sound design techniques that ensure your pages are always usable. You do this by designing your pages for all types of browsers-like I did for the vacation page-and providing alternative paths only when necessary.
Because I knew users with advanced browsers would see the dynamic updates to the vacation page, I included a link in the updates that leads to the VBScript-enhanced order page you see in Figure 49.9 and Figure 49.10. This page contains intrinsic HTML controls that will not work in a standard browser. Yet because there is text on the page related to these controls, it is best to ensure that readers with a standard browser do not access this page.
Figure 49.9 : Enabling visitors to estimate the cost of their vacations.
Figure 49.10: Verifying orders with VBScript before submitting them to a server.
The script on the order page lets visitors see how much a vacation package is going to cost based on the number of people in the party and the length of vacation. Visitors can then submit an order form with their name, address, and phone number. Examine Listing 49.5 to see how this was done.
Listing 49.5. Getting orders online using VBScript.
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>Make Reservations Today!</TITLE>
<STYLE>
H1 {font: 35pt Times;
color: blue}
P {font: 12pt Times;
color: red;
text-indent: .5in;
margin-right: 1in}
</STYLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF">
<H1>
<IMG SRC="power.jpg" ALIGN=LEFT>
Extreme Sports Hawaii Getaways
<IMG SRC="power.jpg" ALIGN=RIGHT>
</H1>
<BR CLEAR=LEFT>
<H2>Going to the Extreme on a Budget</H2>
<P>To determine the cost of your getaway, enter the order number
of days you want to stay followed by the number of people in your
party. Residents of Hawaii must pay an additional sales tax of 7%.</P>
<CENTER>
<HR SIZE=5 NOSHADE WIDTH=80%>
</CENTER>
<PRE>
Number of days: <INPUT NAME="tripDays" SIZE=3>
Number of people: <INPUT NAME="tripSize" SIZE=3>
State of residence: <INPUT NAME="resState" SIZE=2>
</PRE>
<P><INPUT TYPE=BUTTON VALUE="How much to get away from it all
and go to the extreme?" NAME="cmdCost"></P>
<PRE>
Sub Total $<INPUT NAME="tripCost" SIZE=10>
Sales Tax (7% HI only) $<INPUT NAME="tripTax" SIZE=10>
Total $<INPUT NAME="tripTotal" SIZE=10>
</PRE>
<CENTER>
<HR SIZE=5 NOSHADE WIDTH=80%>
</CENTER>
<FORM NAME="frmOrder" ACTION="http://www.yourserver.com/order.pl"
METHOD="GET" LANGUAGE="VBScript" OnSubmit="SubmitOrder">
<P>Full Name: <INPUT NAME="custName" SIZE=30></P>
<P>Phone Number: <INPUT NAME="custPhone" SIZE=15></P>
<P>Address: <TEXTAREA NAME="custAddress" ROWS=3 COLUMNS=30></TEXTAREA></P>
<P><INPUT TYPE="BUTTON" NAME="custOrder" VALUE="Make Your Reservations!"></P>
</FORM>
<HR SIZE=5>
<P ALIGN=CENTER>
<A HREF="index.htm">Extreme Home Page</A> ||
<A HREF="contact.htm">Contact Information</A> ||
<A HREF="vacation.htm">Vacation Packages</A>
</P>
<SCRIPT LANGUAGE="VBScript">
<!-- Option Explicit
dim addCrLf : addCrLf = Chr(13) & Chr(10) & Chr(13) & Chr(10)
Sub cmdCost_OnClick()
Dim State
Dim tripLength
Dim tripParty
Dim Cost
Dim Tax
Dim Total
tripLength = tripDays.Value
tripParty = tripSize.Value
State = resState.Value
If Len(tripLength) = 0 Then
MsgBox "Please enter the length of your getaway."
Exit Sub
End If
If Len(tripParty) = 0 Then
MsgBox "Please enter the number of people in your party."
Exit Sub
End If
Cost = 75.00 * tripLength * tripParty
If State = "HI" Then
Tax = Cost * 0.07
Else
Tax = 0
End If
Total = Cost + Tax
tripCost.Value = Cost
tripTax.Value = Tax
tripTotal.Value = Total
End Sub
Sub custOrder_OnClick
If Len(document.frmOrder.custName.value) = 0 then
Alert "Please enter your full name in the area provided."
Exit Sub
End If
If Len(document.frmOrder.custAddress.value) = 0 then
Alert "Please enter your address in the area provided."
Exit Sub
End If
Msgbox "Click the OK button to confirm."
document.frmOrder.Submit
End Sub
-->
</SCRIPT>
</BODY>
</HTML>
As you know, visitors to the Extreme Sports Hawaii Web site who cannot access VBScript enhancements can follow a link to the information page shown in Figure 49.8. This page provides information about vacation packages. Because these visitors should not access the VBScript-enhanced order form, links on the information page lead to the more traditional order form seen in Figure 49.11. Listing 49.6 shows the markup for this page.
Figure 49.11: An order page for browsers that can't use VBScript.
Listing 49.6. An order page for browsers that don't support VBScript.
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>Make Your Reservations Today!</TITLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF">
<H1>
<IMG SRC="power.jpg" ALIGN=LEFT>
Extreme Sports Hawaii Getaways
<IMG SRC="power.jpg" ALIGN=RIGHT>
</H1>
<BR CLEAR=LEFT><H2>Going to the Extreme on a Budget</H2>
<P>Submit the order form and we'll send you detailed information on
vacation packages ideally suited to your needs.</P>
<FORM METHOD="POST" ACTION="http://www.yourserver.com/order.pl">
<PRE>
Number of days: <INPUT TYPE=TEXT NAME="tripDays" SIZE=3>
Number of people: <INPUT TYPE=TEXT NAME="tripSize" SIZE=3>
State of residence: <INPUT TYPE=TEXT NAME="resState" SIZE=2>
Full Name: <INPUT TYPE=TEXT NAME="custName" SIZE=30>
Phone Number: <INPUT TYPE=TEXT NAME="custPhone" SIZE=15>
Address: <TEXTAREA NAME="custAddress" ROWS=2 COLUMNS=30>
</TEXTAREA>
</PRE>
<P><INPUT TYPE=BUTTON VALUE=RESET><INPUT TYPE=BUTTON VALUE=SUBMIT></P>
</FORM>
<HR SIZE=5>
<P ALIGN=CENTER>
<A HREF="index.htm">Extreme Home Page</A> ||
<A HREF="contact.htm">Contact Information</A> ||
<A HREF="vacation.htm">Vacation Packages</A>
</P>
</BODY>
</HTML>
Proofing is the most neglected aspect of Web publishing. Time and time again I see Web pages with multiple typos and formatting inconsistencies-even at major sites. Pages with glaring typos and inconsistencies reflect poorly on you and your Web-publishing practices.
Proofing is neglected in Web publishing primarily because of the ease with which ideas and words can be published electronically. You can create a page in your word processor or editor and publish it on the Web within minutes after you've finished-even seconds, if you are quick enough. You do not have to spend hours checking spelling and grammar and generally pouring over every punctuation mark on the page, worrying if you have missed something glaringly obvious that is going to cost you a fortune to reprint 10,000 copies. If you make a mistake, you just open the file, correct the mistake, and republish your masterpiece on the Web for the world to see. Right?
Wrong. The quality of your work is a direct reflection on you. Thousands, and possibly millions, of people around the world are going to see your published page. Isn't it worth a few hours of your time to ensure days, weeks, or months of hard work gets the credibility it deserves?
Here are a few tips to help you better proof your Web pages:
Some typos and inconsistencies slip by-the dragon wins every once in a while. But if you find an error after you have already published your page, correct it.
Testing all aspects of your Web page before you publish is crucial. At this stage in your Web-publishing operation, you will want to focus on the accuracy of your links and HTML markup. However, as you add features like images and multimedia, you should test these features as well.
The easiest way to test links is to load the page in your browser and click on the links one at a time. You will want to ensure that all internal page links access the appropriate section that corresponds to the keyword you have designated. Watch out for multiple sections of the page labeled with the same keyword; this can produce strange results. If you know that a section of your publication is labeled with a certain keyword and the browser jumps to a different section of the page, check the keyword label in the section the browser displays. You probably mislabeled the keyword.
You will also want to ensure all links to other documents are valid and access the appropriate page. If you cannot access a page that you are sure should be available, check the syntax of your links. Did you specify the protocol correctly? Did you use the correct file name extension? Did you forget the tilde (~) symbol?
| Note |
In UNIX, the tilde symbol is used to specify the home directory of a user whose system name follows the tilde. Using the tilde symbol in a URL, you can refer to the Web pages in the user's home directory as follows: http://www.aloha.com/~william/vphp.html The Web server servicing this request would know to look in my home directory for the file called vphp.html. Although Web pages are typically in a directory called public_html under the user's directory, Web servers know that when you use a tilde in a URL, you are referring to the directory containing the user's Web pages. The process of inferring a directory using the tilde is called mapping. |
You've created a wonderful page, but for some reason it just doesn't look right. Troubleshooting problems in your page can be difficult, especially because you created the code and have a mental picture of what you meant to type in your mind's eye. This section contains tips to help you solve common problems. Most problems with your page can be directly attributed to errors in the structure of the page's markup code. Syntax is critically important in HTML. The four most common syntax problems involve the following:
Wait a minute, you say, how come half the text of the page looks like a heading? A tag format that goes on longer than it should is usually caused by one of the following:
A closing tag that is missing the < or > symbol will not be properly interpreted by your browser. As a result, the format will not end until the browser finds a matching end tag. This can cause a section of the text to be displayed in the wrong format. If this element is a header, all text between the associated header opening tag and a matching closing tag will be displayed as a heading. If this element is anchor text, all text between the start of the anchor text and a matching closing tag will be displayed as underlined anchor text.
A missing end tag and a mismatched pair of tags will cause a problem similar to the one already described. Sometimes these problems are difficult to trace because you check the page where the problem ends and find nothing wrong. Don't look where the problem ends; look where it begins. After loading the HTML code for the page in your editor or word processor, go through the code to the section of the page where the begin tag associated with the problem is located and trace the problem forward from there. Tracing the problem forward instead of backward is especially useful when the page contains multiple format problems.
Wait a minute, you say, how come half the page is missing? Missing text or objects can usually be traced to those pesky double quotation marks and to misclosed tags that contain URLs. If your page has a " inside a tag, the closing " must be present to avoid potential problems. A tag with a missing double quotation mark may not be properly interpreted by older browsers, and this can produce strange results. If the tag missing the double quotation mark is an anchor tag, all text from the first double quotation mark to the next double quotation mark-no matter where it is located in the text-could be interpreted by your browser as part of an address URL. Address URLs are not displayed on the screen unless you move your mouse pointer to the associated anchor text.
Another problem that may cause missing text is a misclosed tag containing an URL. If a tag containing an URL is not closed properly, your browser could interpret any text following the tag up to the next properly closed tag as part of the URL. This problem is especially difficult to track because, whereas the text following the image will not be displayed, the image with the misclosed tag will often be displayed.
Missing text is also difficult to trace because the problem may seem sporadic. Some browsers, primarily older browsers, display the page with missing text. Others browsers, primarily newer browsers, display the page with no problems. This can make tracking down the source of the problem difficult. Again, don't look where the problem ends-look where the problem begins. After loading the HTML code in your editor or word processor, look at tags that occur before the missing section of text. This should be either the first tag you find with a double quotation mark or URL as you work your way down from the top of the page, or a tag with a double quotation mark that displayed correctly on the page and occurs immediately before the missing section.
| Note |
Any quotation marks you use must be standard ASCII double quotation marks. Some word processors have so-called smart quotes, where the opening quotes look different from closing quotes. If your word processor has this feature, disable it. Smart quotes are not standard ASCII and will not work in your HTML pages. |
Wait a minute, you say, everything looks okay, I've fixed all the bugs, but my browser still won't display the third sentence in bold face. This problem can usually be traced to your browser or to the code. You may want to check your browser's compatibility with character styles. Your browser must be capable of displaying the physical style you have selected. Additionally, when displaying logical styles, the browser ultimately makes the decision about what style to display your text in. A quick way to check to see if you have a compatibility or code problem is to display your page using a different browser. This browser should preferably be one that you know supports the specific style you are trying to use. If the compatible browser won't display the text the way you want, check the code.
The problem in the code could be related to invalid nesting of tags. After loading the HTML code in your editor or word processor, check the section of the page associated with the formatting and ensure all tags are used in parallel fashion. Although you can place the beginning and ending tags for an element fully inside another pair of tags, the tags may not overlap. The emphasis tags overlap with the strong emphasis tags and will cause problems:
<EM>Thank you for visiting<STRONG>The Virtual Press</EM></STRONG>
The right way to use these tags is to use them in parallel fashion, as follows:
<EM>Thank you for visiting<STRONG>The Virtual Press</STRONG></EM>
The moment of truth has arrived, and you are finally ready to publish the Web site. To publish your Web site, all you need to do is to move your pages to the appropriate directory, either on the Web server or within the public HTML directory of your account. Always contact the server administrator if you are not sure where to put your files.
To publish your Web page, you need access to a Web server. After you have access to a Web server (either through an Internet service provider or your own Web server), you are ready to publish your finished page.
Publishing your Web site is as easy as:
When moving files between different types of platforms, you will want to check the file name to ensure it is appropriate for the system you are moving the file to. Some systems restrict the length of file names. Other systems are case-sensitive, meaning a file with a name in uppercase letters becomes a different file if saved in lowercase letters.
When moving from a DOS/Windows system to a UNIX or Macintosh system, watch out for these potential problems:
When moving from a Macintosh or UNIX system to a DOS/Windows system, be aware of these differences:
The first step in publishing your page is to move your file to a directory designated for Web pages. Although this directory may reside on the Web server, typically it is mapped to a subdirectory in your home directory called public_html. If you are using a Web server someone else has installed, contact the server administrator to find out where to put your pages.
| Tip |
A mapped directory contains pointers to directories where the actual files reside. Web servers usually map directories to a subdirectory in a user's home directory that you can point to using the tilde followed by the user's system name. Setting up a Web server to map requests is easy. On most servers, your service provider or system administrator can enable this feature by setting a variable called UserDir to the subdirectory that will be mapped to users' home directories, such as: UserDir public_html If this variable is set as shown, requests to http://www.your_provider.com/~you would be mapped to the subdirectory called public_html in your account, and a Web page called home.html could be accessed with the following URL: http://www.your_provider.com/~you/home.html |
Moving your files to the Web server, or to an Internet account from your home or office system, is easy. The two most common methods to transfer the files are File Transfer Protocol (FTP) and modem transfer.
FTP is a quick and easy way to transfer files, especially if you are transferring files between UNIX systems. The best way to transfer files using FTP is to initiate a binary file transfer. In this way, you do not have to worry about which files are binary and which files aren't.
To start a binary transfer, you could type the following at the shell command prompt:
ftp hostname bin
You can transfer multiple files between systems using the mget and mput commands. You use mget to retrieve multiple files from the host you are connected to using FTP, and mput to send multiple files to the host you are connected to using FTP. When you are transferring multiple files between systems, another useful FTP command to know is prompt. Without toggling the prompt to the off position, your system will prompt you before sending or retrieving each file. Here's how you could toggle the prompt to the off position (if it was on), retrieve all files that start with music, and then quit:
ftp aloha.com bin prompt cd /users/music/fun_stuff mget music* quit
Many modem-transfer protocols can be used to transfer files. Some popular transfer proto-cols are
ASCII
Kermit
Super-Kermit
Xmodem
Xmodem CRC
Xmodem 1K
Ymodem
Ymodem batch or Ymodem-G
Zmodem
Although these transfer protocols are popular, the most popular transfer protocol is the Zmodem transfer protocol. The reason for Zmodem's popularity is its ease of use and reliability. You can initiate a Zmodem transfer within your communications program while connected to the Internet, and there are only two commands you'll ever have to learn:
rz Receive via Zmodem transfer protocol. sz Send via Zmodem transfer protocol.
From your Internet account, you can type sz or rz at the shell prompt. If you type sz or rz and then press Enter, you will get a brief summary of how to use the commands. The most basic format is as follows, where filename is the name of the file to transfer:
rz filename
| Note |
If you own a Macintosh and are transferring files to a different computer platform, you should transfer your files as regular binary files. Other computer platforms cannot read Macintosh binary files, and your files will be unreadable in this format. |
On some systems, files have strictly defined permissions that can be granted or denied to users. These permissions include the ability to read, write, and execute the file. Permissions are generally set by changing the mode attributed to the file. Make sure that files have the appropriately restricted mode for Web access. On a UNIX system, the mode 705 means that the file is readable, writeable, and executable by you, but only readable and executable by others.
| Note |
The command to change the mode of a file on a UNIX system is chmod. The chmod command can be used to set permissions for you, your associated group, and others. You can grant or deny permission to read, write, and execute the file. Permissions are generally set using a 3-digit number that equates to the permissions you are setting. The first digit sets the permissions for you, the owner of the file. The second digit sets the permissions for the group of users you are associated with on the UNIX system. The third digit sets the permissions for anyone else who might use the file. Read permissions are set by adding one to the digit count. Write permissions are set by adding four to the digit count. Execute permissions are set by adding two to the digit count. A file with the mode of 000 has no permissions. If you changed the mode to 754, the file would be readable, writeable, and executable by you; readable and executable by anyone in your group; and readable by anyone else. |
While publishing your new site, you may encounter problems. Sometimes you just can't access your pages. The first thing you should do is to make sure all files are where they should be. Most of the time, HTML pages and associated files must be in very specific directories in order for the files to be accessed, such as the public_html directory. If your files are in the proper directory and you still can't access them, check the following:
All operating systems flag files and directories with permissions. The permissions on files and directories are very important. This is especially true on UNIX systems, where the default file permissions are set according to an involved permission set. If you are having problems accessing the file, check permissions on both the file and the directory the file is in.
| Note |
On a UNIX system, a directory must be executable by the user to be readable. Typically you will want permissions on your public UNIX directories and files set so users can access your files but cannot write to the directory. The command you would use to put your files and directories in this mode is chmod 705 filename |
| Note |
On a DOS or Windows system, valid modes for files and directories include System If you are having problems accessing files and directories, make sure the files are at least readable by the user. Your files and directories should not be hidden. |
The file extension you use should match the file type and format. Web servers may use the extension to determine which type of file you are trying to access. Web browsers may use the extension to determine which type of file you are retrieving and the action to take on the file. If you use a UNIX, Macintosh, or Amiga server, your HTML pages should have the extension .html.
Although your UNIX, Macintosh, or Amiga server may be configured to recognize the extension of .htm as a valid HTML page, it is often easiest to avoid a potential hassle and use the extension .html. If you use a Windows-based server, your HTML pages should have the extension .htm.
Most Web server software wants directories with HTML pages to have an index file. Servers will generally display the index when a user specifies a directory name instead of a file name. If the index file doesn't exist, you may experience problems.
The index file is sometimes called index.html, but not always. On a Macintosh server running MacHTTP or WebStar, each folder should have an index file called default.html.
You've published your Web site. You have a wonderful Web site or at least a start on what will become a wonderful Web site. Now you have to tell the world about it. In fact, you must tell the world about it. On the Internet there are no road maps; unless you tell people you've created a new site, no one is going to find out. Thankfully, dozens of Web sites specialize in spreading the word about Web resources. These sites maintain databases that Web users can search or meander through using links to specific categories.
The good news is that you can register your site with most of these sites for free. All you have to do is tell the site where they can find you and what to expect.
In the past year, more than a dozen new databases have appeared on the Web-and soon, dozens more will be available. Tracking down all these databases individually to ensure maximum exposure to the millions of Web users is difficult and time-consuming, to say the least. Instead of spending an entire day registering your site, one solution would be to register your site only at the major databases-but then the question becomes, which major databases. Here is a list of the major databases and the URLs to their submission pages:
Apollo:
http://apollo.co.uk/
EINet Galaxy: http://galaxy.einet.net/cgi-bin/annotate
GNN: http://www.gnn.com/gnn/wn/whats-new-form.html
Harvest:
http://harvest.cs.colorado.edu/Harvest/brokers/register-with-CU-gatherers.html"
HomeCom Global Village:
http://www.homecom.com/global/gc_entry.html InfoSeek: http://www.infoseek.com/doc/FAQ/ Jump Station: http://js.stir.ac.uk/jsbin/submit Lycos: http://lycos.cs.cmu.edu/lycos-register.html
Nikos: http://www.rns.com/www_index/new_site.html Open Text: http://opentext.uunet.ca:8080/omw-submit.html Starting Point: http://www.stpt.com/util/submit.html
Web Crawler:
http://webcrawler.com/WebCrawler/SubmitURLS.html
What's New Too:
http://newtoo.manifest.com/WhatsNewToo/submit.html
Whole Internet Catalog:
http://gnn.com/gnn/forms/comments.html"
World Wide Web Worm:
http://www.cs.colorado.edu/home/mcbryan/WWWWadd.html
World Wide Web Yellow Pages:
http://www.yellow.com/
Yahoo: http://www.yahoo.com/bin/add
Another solution for registering your site with a database is to use a site that acts as a pointer to the databases. Pointer sites provide a way of automating the registration process; using the fill-out form provided at the site, you can submit your information to multiple databases at the touch of a button. Currently, there are two primary pointer sites: Scott Banister's Submit-It page and HomeCom's Pointers to Pointers page.
The Submit-It page is shown in Figure 49.12. A great thing about the Submit-It page is that all the database sites you see listed at the top of Figure 49.13 are automatically selected to receive your submission. You can tell the site is selected by the X in the box associated with the database. If you don't want to register with a certain site, you click on the box to unselect the site and the X disappears.
Figure 49.12: Use Submit-It to register your site with more than a dozen databases.
Figure 49.13: A fill-out form at Submit-It makes submission easy.
After you complete the online form partially depicted in Figure 49.13, you can automatically register your site with more than a dozen Web databases. The key information you enter into this form includes your name, business address, e-mail address, site URL, site title, and a brief description of your site.
The Pointers to Pointers page is shown in Figure 49.14. The organization of this page is very different from the organization of the Submit-It page. Dozens of large, small, and specialized databases are listed in a comprehensive list. Some databases are presented with a checkbox that you must select individually to place an automated submission. Other databases, particularly the specialized databases, are provided only as links that you must visit individually to submit your information.
HomeCom's page features a fill-out form for automatic submission to databases you have selected. This form is partially depicted in Figure 49.15. The key information you enter into this form includes your name, business address, e-mail address, phone number, fax number, site URL, site title, and a brief description of your site.
Figure 49.15: The Pointers to Pointers submission form.
Creating, publishing, and publicizing your first Web site is easy if you follow the steps outlined in this chapter. If you follow the advice the examples present, your first Web site could have as many as four pages. These include your home page, business background page, personal background page, and a community-service page. Creating a Web site involves much more than creating pages; it involves developing a strategy and focusing on sound design concepts.
To attract visitors, your pages must be friendly and inviting. One way to ensure your pages are friendly is to design them with both first-time and repeat visitors in mind. You should also ensure there are no dead-ends at your site. Dead-ends are frustrating and can easily be avoided by following a sound page design that includes adequate linking. You can use links to create image and text menus, to keep visitors informed, and to provide a feedback mechanism for readers. You can also use links to ensure that all your pages lead somewhere, even if it is only back to your home page.
