Newsletter - July 1, 2009

The Jewelry Crafter

A newsletter for the home jeweler

This newsletter will be published every 2 weeks, and will include hints and tips for your jewelry business. Any feedback or comments about the topics presented here are always appreciated. Click here to e-mail us.

Setting Up A Website (Part 2)

Creating and Uploading Your Site

by

Mary Harvey

Now that you have a domain name and a web host, you have to create your site and upload it to the web. 

First, you have to sit down and figure out what you want in a website - do you want to just have a simple informational site, do you want to have a gallery of your work, or do you want full e-commerce capabilities and an online store? Brainstorm a little bit, and do some planning before you start creating your site. Draw an outline of how you want your site to look, and what pages you want. The more planning you do at this stage, the faster the actual creation will go.

There are lots of programs out there that will help you create a website. Some programs are free, and some cost a lot of money. Here again, you have figure out what you ultimately want in a website. Most programs have templates that will help you create your website. If this is your first attempt at a website, a template is the way to go. You can choose the site style that you want, and then just plug in your information. When you get more knowledgeable about building websites, you may want to get more creative and build one from scratch.

Type in “website software” in any search engine, and you will find lots of free and low cost software to help you out. Some other programs that can be used to create a website are Microsoft Publisher, Microsoft Frontpage, Netobjects Fusion, Sausage Software’s Hot Dog, and Coffee Cup Software. I have experience with Netobjects Fusion. While it’s not cheap, it’s a great website creation tool, giving you the ability to create a simple site, or one with all the bells and whistles. I have also created a site in Microsoft Publisher, and that works well, too. Many domain registrars also have software that will allow you to build and publish a simple website quickly and easily

After you have your site created, you have to upload the files to your web server. Some programs have their own publishing routine built in, which means that you create your website, tell the program where you want it published, hit the publish button, and your files are uploaded. Windodws XP and Vista both have FTP programs that will allow you to publish your files to your web space.  There are also stand-alone FTP programs that will upload your files to the internet. Some popular FTP programs are WSFTP, SmartFTP., and CuteFTP. When using these programs, you simply tell it what files you want published, and where on the web to publish them.

When you signed up with your web host, they most likely sent you a welcome e-mail with the instructions on how to upload your files to your web space (ftp address, username, password, etc), and this is the information you use to tell whichever program you are using where to publish to. If you have any problems with uploading your files, contact your web host, and they should be able to help you.

Next time: Accepting payments online.