Learn the Basics of Making a Web page

What is this Host Thing you Speak of?

You've created a web page and you want people to see it. Well think of a telephone for a moment. If you want people to call you, you have to get a phone and then you have to tell them your phone number. The phone company is "hosting" your phone number. Someone calls that number and the phone company knows what to do, they forward the call to your phone. It is the same with a web page, a company hosts your web page and when somebody "calls" it, the host "forwards the call" to your web page. Instead of getting a web server for your home, most people pay a company to run the web server and host the web site for them.

The good news is that whomever it is that is giving you Internet access, they probably will host some web pages for you too. The cost is probably already included in what you pay for net access. Even if they don't offer it, you can get free hosting with advertisements or very low cost hosting from many many companies, on the order of $5 a month.

How do I Copy My Page Onto My Host's Server?

Well, now that is little more complicated to answer. The basics are that you will copy it using your internet connection to your host's web server. But you will need some information first, what is the name of the server? It'll probably look something like this "webserver.isp-name.com". They'll also assign you a space on their server, that'll be the directory name, something like "/public_html/Your_Account_Name. All of this will probably either be included with your welcome e-mail when you set up an account with the host, or they will direct you to their web page explaining how to upload your web pages.

How you do the actual copying is a little trickier. Your web host is likely to be able to help you with the specifics unique to your situation. That said, if you have files but no tool for uploading, you will have to use a FTP program. If you have web design software, then you can enter the information mentioned above during the program set-up and then it will have a simple upload command to use when you are ready.

How do I View My New Page on the Internet?

Your host will have provided you the web address of your pages. If you want to be really slick, you can register your own domain name, something like "www.my-slick-new-website.com. You can direct your friends to this address and they will be able to view what you have created.

As to getting it listed in the search engines, there are books and books about how to do that. But bottom line, your page has to have something unique to offer to make it into the search engines. Even then, it will probably be very low down in the search results until you have built up a following, such as by getting other web sites to link to yours.