Building Your Own Website - kmessamore.com · Building Your Own Website Kent Messamore ... Pricing (Pricing could be ... CoffeeCup HTML Editor ($49)-

Building Your Own Website

Kent Messamore

5/2/2009

JKM 5/2/2009 Enhanced Images 2

Why do you need a Website?To share your photos with family/friends

To build your reputation

You want to be taken seriously

To advertise your business

To allow clients to view images and tell you which ones they want

To sell your photos


Do you know what you want in a Website?

Look at some favorite photography websites and list likes/dislikesCreate a list of what you want to achieve with website

What is your main goal for the site?What features do you definitely wantHow much $$$ can you afford to spend creating? Maintaining?How much time and expertise can you spend creating? Maintaining?

What type of Website do you need?On Line Website ServiceCustom Made Website $$$Blog – on line diary showing some photosContent Management System (database)Your own hand coded website


On Line Website ServicePrinting/Sharing Websites

Free TrialTemplate/ThemesCustomizationEase of uploadingEdit images on lineImage storage (thumbnail & full resolution)

Protection from image thievesDomain NameSimple Client interfaceProduct fulfillment PrintingCommission?Accept Credit Cards & Pay PalVisitor statistics

Lists of On Line Print/Sharing serviceshttp://reviews.cnet.com/4520-6451_7-6245143-1.html?tag=rb_content;rb_mtxhttp://digital-photo-printing-review.toptenreviews.com/http://www.digitalphotographywebsite.com/prophotosharingcomparisonchart.html

Some recommendationsPictage - http://www.pictage.com/client/main.doMomentShare - http://www.momentshare.com/Services.phpSmugSmug - http://www.smugmug.com/Collages.net - http://www.collages.net/Zenfolio/Mpix – http://www/zenfolio.com http://www.mpix.com/

Print/Sharing Website Functionality


Shutterfly


Smugmug


Collages Momentshare


Zenfolio


Custom Made Website $$$To start - define who your audience is and your goalsSketch your website on paper

Joe’s Photography website.com


Custom Made Website $$$ (cont.)A Website markets your products/services. It should include:

Presentation of products/servicesAnswer all possible questionsAttract future viewers/clientsGive testimonialsProvide feedback/contact method

You must provide all of the content for the site – images & text

Copyright – To check text to see if you are violating copyright - http://www.copyscape.com/


Working with a Website DesignerHow to select a Website Designer

Word of mouthYellow pages & internetEasier to work with someone local but not necessaryLook at sites the prospective designer has built (Experience)They understand website is information tool not technical marvel?

Insist on written contractDesign schedule with intermediate progress stepsYou are to retain rights to domain, graphics, web pages, etc.Pricing (Pricing could be all over the place $75 - $1000/page -depending on complexity)

Typically waiting period before Designer can begin your site to allow completion of jobs (2-3 months) Designer should provide a mockup of your site for your approvalThen 2-3 months to build the siteInsist on progress reports from Designer


Photo Blogs

WordPress - http://en.wordpress.com/Set Up - http://www.thesitewizard.com/gettingstarted/wordpress1.shtml

WordPressFreeEasy to Set upThemesWriting is easyUpload of PhotosVideosSite StatisticsLarge File Storage which can be upgradedCan add your own Domain NameCan block ads for $30/year


Web Content Management systemSoftware for creating and managing a collection of Web material (HTML documents and their associated images). Software provides authoring tools allowing users with little or no knowledge of programming languages or markup languages to create and manage content with relative ease of use.Most systems use a database to store content, metadata, and/or artifacts. A presentation layer displays the content to regular Web-site visitors based on a set of templates. Administration is done through browser-based interfacesUnlike Web-site builders like Microsoft FrontPage or Adobe Dreamweaver, a WCMS allows non-technical users to make changes to an existing website with little or no training. A WCMS typically requires an experienced coder to set up and addfeatures, but is primarily a Web-site maintenance tool for non-technical administrators.


Web Content Management SystemSome common features of CMS Systems for websites (database)

Free OpenSource SoftwareEasy to get Websites up & running and to make updatesCore features

Set up navigations systemNon technical content editorPlugins to support most common needsGood community technical supportWritten in PHP programming language and use MySQL database

JoomlaEasy to install, Simple to manage, ReliableEasy to make attractive website due to templates/themesGood Flash Photo Galleries

DrupalRequires a little more of a learning curve compared to JoomlaMore functionality out of box than JoomlaPlugins is a strengthStrong dynamic sites


Creating Your own WebsiteHosting site

Domain Name

Some means of creating/editing your site

Gallery Generator

Preview your Web on your own system

Upload your website to the hosting site


Choosing a Web Host

CostTechnical KnowledgeSupportStorage spaceBandwidthDomain Name ServiceAccessibility


Host SitesRank Web host Price Disk Space BandWidth Rating

Visit Site Review

Free domain forever, free SiteBuilder, Host unlimited web sites, Top pick for personal site, Free Site Builder

Bluehost Read Review Since 1995, Yahoo! Free Domain Name Easy web site

building tools ,Unlimited web pagesYahoo Read Review

Free software, 25 MySQL Databases, unlimited web site, Unlimited Email Forwards, Forums, Blogging

godaddy Read Review Unlimited web sites & Free Site Builder & Free Domain

Forever

Hostmonster Read Review Free Domain Name , Website Builder, Host 6 Domains

in 1 , shopping cart , E-commerce

iPowerWeb Read Review Free domain forever, free SiteBuilder, Host up to 6

web sites, 90 days Money back Guarantee

Dot5 Hosting Read Review Host up to 10 web sites, Unlimited Email Accounts,

FREE Marketing Credits

StartLogic Read Review ssl, shopping cart, E-commerce, instant backups,

cpanel/fantasticoHostGator Read Review

Free Domain Name for Life!, Free setup, Microsoft® FrontPage® Extensions, Unlimited web sites!

Lunarpages Read Review Free Domain, website builder, Host unlimited web

sites

PowWeb Read Review

1.5 TB 15 TB 96% visit site

2 $8.96 UnLimited UnLimited 95% visit site

1 $6.95

3 $6.99 150 GB 1500 GB

4 $6.95 1.5 TB 15 TB

1.5 TB 15 TB

94% visit site

93% visit site

91% visit site

6 $3.95 1.7 TB 17 TB 90% visit site

5 $7.95

7 $5.95 1.5 TB 15 TB

8 $4.95 350 GB 3000 GB

1.5 TB 15 TB

89% visit site

86% visit site

84% visit site

10 $3.88 1.5 TB 15 TB 83% visit site

9 $4.95


BlueHost Control Panel


Domain Name Registration

With Blue Host the initial Domain Name is free. Additional Domain Names cost $10 annually

Domain Tools - http://www.domaintools.com/


Some Terms you will run intoHTML – Hypertext Markup Language(x)HTML – Extension of HTML. Most HTML and XHTML are identicalCSS – Cascading Style Sheet – Stylesheet language used to describe presentation of document written in HTMLHyperlinks – Web’s method of going from one page to another.URL – Uniform Resource Locator – a standard way of identifying Hyperlink addresses

CSS – Cascading Style Sheet – Separate HTML content from Style (font, color, etc)Javascript – Scripting language widely used for implementing actions in Web design.PHP – Scripting language designed for producing dynamic web pages. Flash – Adobe’s platform to introduce rich internet applications


Means of creating/editing your siteNotepad (Not WordPad or MSWord - HTML & CSS Style Sheets (Text, i.e. free)

Free – WYSIWYG

NVU - http://www.nvu.com:80/

Kompozer - http://kompozer.net/

SeaMonkey – http://www.seamonkey-project.org/releases/

CoffeeCup HTML Editor ($49)- http://www.coffeecup.com/

Frontpage 2003 (Don’t Recommend as it is growing old)

Microsoft Expression Web ($299)

Adobe Dreamweaver CS4 ($399)


Hypertext Markup Language (HTML)Hypertext Markup Language

It is a text file containing markup tagsMarkup tags tell your web browser how to display the pageHTML file must have a .htm or .html extensionHTML can be created using any text editor

Typical Web Structure – A series of individual pages linked together by URLs.

HTML tutorialshttp://www.w3schools.com/http://www.htmldog.com/

Home

About Me Photo Galleries Services/Pricing Testimonials

Weddings Portraits Events Student Photos

Contact

Link to on line service?


HTML ExampleStart Notepad

Type:<html> Beginning of your html page<head> This is the header of your page<title>My first Web page</title> This is the title of your page</head> <body> This is the body of your pageThis is my first homepage. <b>This text is bold</b><!– This is a comment and will not be displayed--></body></html> This is the end of your html page

Save the file as “mypage.html”Start your Internet browser and open “mypage.html”

You will see “This is my first homepage. This text is bold


Some TipsFile Names

No spaces (interpreted as “%20”All lower caseDescriptive

Tables in HTML<Table> Beginning of Table

<TR> Start of first row<TD> First Cell

A First Cell content</TD> End of First Cell<TD> Second Cell

B Second Cell content</TD> End of Second Cell

</TR> End of first Row<TR> Start of second row

<TD> First CellC First Cell content

</TD> End of First Cell<TD> Second Cell

D Second Cell content</TD> End of Second Cell

</TR> End of second Row</Table> End of Table

Image insertion in HTML<img height = “650” width = “443” border =

“3” src “images/bird.jpg”

Colors are described in Hex Code

FF0000 - RedFFFF00 - Yellow000000 - BlackFFFFFF - White0000FF - Blue00FF00 - Green

http://www.w3schools.com/Html/html_colors.asp


GalleriesBoth Photoshop and Lightroom have robust gallery generators

Multiple themes and styles, both HTML and Flash

Third Parties are adding Plug Ins to the Web Generator

Web Gallery Pages can either be saved or directly uploaded to your website


Viewing Others WebsitesOpen a Website

Select View -> Source to view HTMLCopy & past into NotepadYou will capture HTML and be able to see the structure of the websiteYou will not copy the objects, i.e. photos

Website CaptureMAC – SiteSucker - http://www.sitesucker.us/home.html

PC – Backstreet Browser - http://www.spadixbd.com/backstreet/index.htmInsert URLGive titleMake sure to relink filesSet maximum file size


Promoting your siteStatistics and Logs – Who is visiting your website and how often?Leveraging the power of search engines

Crawlers and BotsRegistering with the top search engines

http://www.google.com/addurl.htmlhttp://search.yahoo.com/info/submit.htmlhttp://advertising.msn.com/msnsites/SubmitSite.asp

Look at other local Photographer’s websites to see what they are doing and make sure your site has a competitive advantage


Marketing your WebsiteImportant you optimize your website for Google (80% of web traffic.)

Google AdWords -https://www.google.com/accounts/ServiceLogin?service=adwords&hl=en-US&ltmpl=adwords&passive=true&ifr=false&alwf=true&continue=https%3A%2F%2Fadwords.google.com%2Fselect%2Fgaiaauth%3Fapt%3DNone%26ugl%3Dtrue&sourceid=awo

Google Analytics - http://www.google.com/analytics/

Links both inbound and outboundAdd outbound links to other sitesJoin sites (Camera Clubs) and link back to your websiteTrade links with other sites -http://links.digitalphotographywebsite.com/add_link.html


Crawlers & BotsCrawlers – Web Search Engines like Google & Yahoo have automated programs that look for websites and index themThese indexes are rated on website contentEach page in your website should have a descriptive title and metadata with Key Words that relate to the site

Metadata and key words<html><head><title>"Kent Messamore's Web Site: Find Imaging Workshops and Tutoring, Photographic Gallery, and Messamore & Gaudet Genealogy"</title><meta name="keywords"content="Enhanced Images, Genealogy, artistic nude, photo, photos, photography,

photographer, Bedford, Manchester, New England, New Hampshire, portraits, portraiture, model shoots, digital imaging, Photoshop workshop, Photoshop tutoring, Lightroom, Photoshop, Lightroom workshop, Lightroom tutoring, Photoshop training, Lightroom training, Photoshop course, Lightroom course, Messamore genealogy, Gaudet genealogy, Keyes genealogy, Dickenson genealogy" <meta name="description" content="A gallery of Kent Messamore's photographs,

Genealogy of Messamore & Gaudet families, A list and description of courses and schedules offered by KRtraining, Course handouts of seminars">

Don’t overdo Key Words as Search Sites will recognize what your are doing and de-list your site


Sources“Creating Web Pages for Dummies” Bud Smith

“HTML, XHTML & CSS Dummies” Ed Tittel and Jeff NobleHTML Cheatsheet - http://www.addedbytes.com/download/html-cheat-sheet-v1/pdf/

CSS Cheatsheet - http://www.addedbytes.com/cheat-sheets/css-cheat-sheet/

“Increase your Web Traffic” Jerry Lee Ford jr and William R. Stanek

“101 Ways to promote your Website” Sweeney

“Build a Website for Free” Mark Bell

“Create Your Own Website” Scott Mitchell

Web Pages that suck - http://www.webpagesthatsuck.com/does-my-web-site-suck/does-my-web-site-suck-checklist-part-one.html

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Building Your Own Website - kmessamore.com · Building Your Own Website Kent Messamore ... Pricing (Pricing could be ... CoffeeCup HTML Editor ($49)-