THE TECHNICAL STUFF
When I started playing around on the net, chatting, building a basic page, I knew hardly anything about what I was doing. I certainly wouldn't have believed that I could build the type of page I have today! But there are some great technical sites on the net, everything from pages where you can access images and sounds, to tutorials, to simple explanations of basic concepts to the puter illiterate (would you believe I didn't know what a cookie was?), to highly specialised information sites. Below are a few that I've found useful.
Although you can learn how to make your own page by accessing the links and programmes below, you may not have the few hundred hours to put into learning HTML and creating your page. If you are looking for a good company to design your page for you, why not try ours?
Note: Unfortunately, many of the tutorials and other resources I used when I first built this page no longer exist - their links have been removed.
BUILDING THE SITE
Throughout the process of building your site, it is important to remember that just about everything you need is available on the net - so it is NOT necessary to steal anything. I've found so many people who are more than willing to share their expertise. DON'T just take backgrounds and codes. And if you do use free stuff, make sure that you fill the requirements of the authors. Usually a simple linkback is all that they require.
(Where authors have asked for linkbacks on the specific pages on which their graphics, etc., appears, I have done that. Those who simply require a general linkback will find links to their pages here. Thank you to all who contributed to my page in some way.)
Geocities is GREAT! If you want your own free home page you can enter here
If you want to put frames on your page, this is apparently where to learn how
REMEMBER that frames make it difficult for someone to bookmark specific areas within your site, as well as linked sites. They can still be great for particular types of pages though.
Very very important when creating your site - don't commit the very inconsiderate action of "bandwidth stealing". In otherwords, if you wish to place graphics on your site, download/upload them to your own server, rather than linking directly to the server of the designer.
I am proud to be a member of Web Prestige.
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GRAPHICS AND BACKGROUNDS AND STUFF
I have, unfortunately, little or no talent in the visual arts. In my job I am surrounded by very artistic people, both as colleagues and as exhibitors. I have learned to be happy with the fact that I express my creativity in other ways. Thanks to lots of artists in the net community, I have been able to get great images and sets for free!
A fantastic graphics site....lots of great sets, as well as tons of other stuff:
Great graphics, borders, sets, buttons, including clever inclusions like graphics specifically for black backgrounds
Just click on this clock if you want it on your page. You can set it to any time zone...but be warned, sometimes it goes a little wonky, and loses or gains an hour.
Great javascripts to jazz up your site
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CREATING YOUR OWN GRAPHICS
I've just started playing around with creating graphics. Even if you (like me) are not very gifted artistically, it can still be a lot of fun, and very rewarding!
Download a free trial version of Paint Shop Pro from Jasc Software
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PROMOTING THE SITE
REMEMBER that it is generally far better to take the time to register your sites personally with the major search engines, than to use services which will submit your site for you. Firstly, these services are not as quick and easy as you may think - you may need to spend almost as much time with them as you would submitting your site personally. Secondly, some of these services use unethical promotion methods, which may result in your site being banned from certain search engines!
Most of the main search engines are easy to find: just take their name and insert it into the well-known www.xxx.com formula. Here are a couple of not-so-well-known search engines where you can submit your site directly:
Jayde Online has a search engine and also provides a free page "tune-up"
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MISCELLANEOUS
COOKIES
would you believe that I really didn't understand what cookies were? luckily for me I have a really good friend who doesn't believe in spoonfeeding me, lol....instead of just TELLING me, he sent me this URL...thanks johan
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all original material (text, graphics, photographs and programming) © 1997-2002
Sally Smith
http://geocities.datacellar.net/africamuse