Web Site Tips

Once your web site is ready to be put online for all Internet users to view, it is important that you have a domain name and hosting company. This section will point you in the right direction to obtaining both of these things as well as gives you some tips that you should follow while developing your site.

• Registering domain names
• Getting your web site online
• Get one year FREE web hosting
• Site design tips
• Learn HTML, XHTML and CSS

Registering Domain Names

The first step to getting your web site online is to register a domain name such as http://www.ragesw.com. The first thing to do when deciding on a domain name is to visit a web site such as http://www.checkdomain.com to make sure that your domain name is available.

Once you have decided on a domain name that is available to use, you must purchase the rights to it. Most commonly, domain names are purchased for 1 or more years. Prices for domain names can vary from $15US-$30US or more depending on the type of domain you want (.com, .org, .net, .ca, .us etc...). To register a domain name you can visit http://www.infinityws.com which offers both domain name registration and many other features which are required to get your web site online.

Getting your web site online

Once your domain name is registered you must still find an appropriate hosting company to get your web site online. A hosting company such as http://www.infinityws.com, offer many services and features to getting your web site online quickly and easily. Typically you should be spending $10US-$30US or more per month depending on the amount of features you need. Visit http://www.infinityws.com to learn more about the services offered as well as discounts available to WebDesign users. You can even get one year free of web hosting when you purchase WebDesign with http://www.infinityws.com. See below for further details.

Your Internet provider may provide you with a hosting plan. You should check with them to see what they offer.

Once you have a hosting company, you will be provided with login information for your FTP Server from your hosting provider. With the login information that you are provided you can use WebDesign's FTP Client to upload your web pages to your server.

Get one year FREE web hosting

With your purchase of WebDesign you get one year free of exceptional, personal web hosting with http://www.infinityws.com. Infinity Web Services is a dedicated Macintosh Hosting company with a lot of unique features for your web host such as dozens of free scripts to enhance your sites and awesome 24/7/365 support. Visit http://www.infinityws.com for more details on what they have to offer.

After you purchase WebDesign you can sign up to your free hosting. You can even get domain names at highly competitive prices if you do not already have one.

Site Design Tips

• Keep compatibility with as many browsers and Operating systems as possible
  • Although most Internet users are using either Microsoft Internet Explorer or Netscape Navigator, there are still alot of users still using other web browsers as well as other Operating Systems that may render your web pages differently. To ensure that your web page is compatible with as many browsers as possible, stick to the HTML standards as much as possible and leave out any fancy designs that may affect how your web page is displayed over multiple OSs. Always use HTML Entities when using characters with an ascii value > 127.
• Keep image size small and load time at a minimum
  • Internet users hate web sites that take forever to load. Make sure you keep your images optimized and your HTML code at the bare minimum to ensure that your web pages load as quickly as possible. Your goal should be getting your web page loaded within 8 seconds on a 56K modem. WebDesign provides optimization features which can be found under the 'HTML Tools' menu.
• Provide an easy to use navigation system
  • Make sure your links are all together providing your users with an easy way to find the pages they are looking for on your web site.
• Fix broken links
  • Broken links are a common problem among web developers although there is no reason why a web page should contain broken links. It causes frustration among visitors and creates unhappy customers. Not only should you check the links connecting the pages within your site, it is important to make sure that external links are working and updated to reflect any changes.
• Keep a consistent look and feel
  • Your web site should use the same colors and basic design as each and every other page. This will make it easier for users to find what they are looking for and quickly become familiar with your web site. Design a template and use that as the basis of every page. Style sheets are a great way to keep a consist style across your entire site.
• Double check spelling and grammar
  • A web site filled with spelling and grammar errors is unpleasant and unappealing to your users. Use WebDesign's Spell Checker to ensure that your spelling is correct. Always read over your web pages to find grammar mistakes and other spelling errors not picked up by the spell checker such as words that can be spelt multiple ways.

Learn HTML, XHTML and CSS

Rage Software has partnered with westciv to provide WebDesign users with a complete, hands on tutorial to help you get started with HTML, XHTML and more specifically add appealing styles to your web site with Cascading Style Sheets.

You can view a sample of the tutorial at http://www.westciv.com/courses/course_info/html_and_xhtml/sample_section.html.

Separately, WebDesign along with the HTML, XHTML and CSS tutorial would cost $54.95 US. You can purchase both WebDesign and the hands on tutorial for just $44.95 US a 20% savings. Visit the secure Rage Software store to purchase the bundle online, by mail, email, check or cash.