http://otherpeoplespixels.com
http://www.hostway.com/
https://www.godaddy.com/
http://www.register.com/
http://cyberduck.ch/
http://fetchsoftworks.com/
http://www.apple.com/ilife/iweb/
http://www.blogger.com
http://www.google.com/sites/help/intl/en/overview.html
What do you need to make a website?
1. Domain name, such as www.carriepollack.com. Try to chose one that people will easily remember and be able to find. Your goal to is have a presence on the web so people everywhere have access to information about you.
2. Hosting, a host is a company that provides the space for your site to live on the web. This is where you will keep your site itself and all of the info contained in your site.
3. A web design program of some kind, such as Dreamweaver, ilife, to create your site. Most programs now write all of the code for you so you do not need to know HTML. They are mostly drag and drop and provide you with the structure or template. You can also pay fora redesigned template online and really just put your images and info into them. I have some listed at the top.
4. FTP, an uploading program such as Fetch to transfer your web pages and data up to the web
5. Content, obviously...but when you are working on your content make sure your images are small and 72dpi so things will load fast. I am a firm believer in clean, uncluttered design. You website does not need flash, weird plug-ins that make viewing hard for some people with old operating systems. It should be fast, easy to load and navigate. You want people to be able to get the info they need.
Basically you need to ask yourself how tech savvy are you and how much time do you want to put into this. I think of my website as a diary that I update every few months. It generally looks the same but I tweak it every now and then to match my thinking. I really enjoy thinking of how I want people to move through the content.
You also want to think about price. On average you can expect to spend around 200 dollars a year to maintain your site online. That includes paying for your domain name every year or so and finding a hosting company and plan that works for you. This part can cost around 10-20/month. Then there is the web program and the FTP program which you will need to have in order to make your site.
The other possibility is to just start a blog and use this format as your site. It is free, easy to use and change. A lot of people use a blog for this purpose.
