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These are suggestions based on opinions.
- Educate - search around the web, find other
church/school web sites that offer similar services. It's
also important to educate yourself with 'web' terms like:
url, html, browser, roll-over (mouse-over) images, host,
server, search engine, keywords, meta tags, hits and
unique users.
- Domain name - find an available domain name that
you can personalize, such as, yourname.com. Choose a name
that flows easy, a name that doesn't need a lot of
explaining. Although something like peaceb2you.org, sounds
interesting, it must be explained to every person that
doesn't see it, because it's not spelled like it sounds.
Domain names cost from $0.00 to $35 a year and are
available to purchase for up to 10 years. One year
is recommended because prices are dropping.
- Look and feel of site - determine what kind of
feel you want your site to have. Do you want a look that's
classy, high tech, simple? Explore the web, see what other
people are doing. This will help you determine what you
like and what you don't.
- Content - Decide how big you want your site to be
and what you want on it. A good web designer will consult
with you about the internet and what's best for your site,
but he/she can't tell you about your business. So, working
closely with designer, don't be afraid to get involved so
that your new site is part of you too. Deciding on your
content up front is important to getting you to your final
goal, a fully functional complete web site, in a timely
fashion.
- Hosting - Finally, you need to decide who you
want to host your web site. Do you want a local company or
are you comfortable using a company in other parts of the
country.
Here are some things to look for from a host:
- Reliability - Sometimes people sign up for
bargain hosting, trying to save money. In some cases,
signing up for bargain hosting gets you unreliable service
meaning your site is unreliable or always down. If people
can't access your site, why have it?
- Support - Does your potential host offer an
elusive (800) number that no one answers? Look for either
of these two things:
a physical person you can talk to without being on hold
for an hour.
a browser based interface that easily allows you to make
account or email changes.
- Cost - the price to host a web site has come down
in the last year, $40.00 a month is too much.
- Storage - ample amount of space to store your web
site and allow people to access it.
- Email - You want to make sure you have included
email addresses with your domain attached to them like,
you@yourdomain.com. Most companies are include at least
five free email addresses with your hosting plan.
PeaceB2You can help you on any of the above areas, please
feel free to contact us at webboss@peaceb2you.org.
Email Types - alias and pop
Both have advantages and disadvantages. Email aliasing
is "forwarding" mail that was sent to an alias email address
and is automatically forwarded to another email address or
email account. You may have an existing email account, such
as
myaccount@hotmail.com. You can set up an alias for your
website,
anynameyouchoose@yourdomain.com, which forwards all
incoming mail to your current email address of
myaccount@hotmail.com.
This way, you can have multiple email addresses and only
have to check one email account.
An email pop account is a mailbox. It is something
like a "snail-mail" post office box. All mail sent to the
address of this "virtual P.O. Box" is collected and sits in
the pop account - or virtual mailbox - until you come to
"collect" it by connecting to your account and downloading
your mail. You will have to configure your mail client to
check each pop account separately once they have been
created.
If you would like to forward mail from a new address at
your domain, e.g.,
anynameyouchoose@yourdomain.com, you need to add an
email alias. You would add a pop account if another person
needed their own separate mailbox for an email address at
your domain.
For instructions on setting up your email client, such as Outlook or Netscape Mail, refer to the information supplied for your software.
When you are ready to plan your site click
HERE.
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