Links for Building Your Own Website
From The Presentation at the PWP International Convention, July 2000
Updated October 2004
The idea is to have fun and make it fun. Update often to encourage vistors to come back and let everyone know about it in every meeting and newsletter. Once you have completed the site, send a message via the Contact Form to get it approved. Watch out for copyrighted material and if you get stuck, try visiting the computer center at a local community college or university. There are often times folks that will do some work on a non profit site in exchange for an entry on their resume.
Creating a Page
- The HTML Home Page (W3C) - http://www.w3.org/MarkUp/
- NCSA - A Beginner's Guide to HTML - http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/General/Internet/WWW/HTMLPrimer.html
- Dreamweaver MX - http://www.macromedia.com/software/dreamweaver/
Decorating It
- Ditto.com - Picture search engine - http://www.ditto.com/
- Icon and Image Bazaar - http://www.iconbazaar.com/
- Dream Artists - http://www.dreamartists.com/
- The Java Boutique - http://javaboutique.internet.com/
- Paint Shop Pro - http://www.jasc.com/
- Royalty Free Stock Photo Search - http://www.fotosearch.com
Hosting It
- Yahoo! GeoCities - http://geocities.yahoo.com/home/ (Free)
- Homestead - http://homestead.com/ (Small Fee)
Message Boards and Mailing Lists (2004)
You may also want to give your community a more interactive feel. A message board gives your chapter a place where people can read and reply to messages in an open forum. A mailing list is something similar, but instead of needing to visit a web site to read and reply, messages are emailed directly to everyone's inbox. Be careful, though, some free message list servers have hidden options (that can be turned off) that will increase the amount of unsolicited email (Spam). Also, you should make it absolutely clear in description of your mailing list that joining the list is not the same thing as joining the chapter. Since most email list servers let just anyone join, you probably should avoid that solution for that reason. A message board where you can control the members is probably a much better solution.
- E-Mail List Server: Yahoo! Groups (Free)
- E-Mail List Server: MSN Groups (Free)
- Message Board: EZ Board (Free with Ads, Small Fee for Ad-Free)
Blogs (2004)
Blogs (short for Web Logs) have been around for several years, but in the last couple years, they have been gaining popularity. They are being used for everything from individuals keeping daily diaries to game software companies keeping fans informed of progress. They are usually free to set up and extremely easy to keep updated. You can set up calendars of events, information pages, and have a running commentary of news from the chapter officers without having to worry about the complicated issues of web site programming. Most of the time, you only have to worry about the content.
- Blogger (Free with Ads, Small Fee for Ad-Free)
- TypePad (Small Fee)
- Blog City (Free, Small Fee for Additional Features)
Of course, you can always ask your friendly International webmaster any questions you may have in email.
