Create a Personal Website
If you have a ton of pictures and videos that you'd like to share with your family, the best way to do this is with a personal website. A personal website is a great tool for people to stay in touch with friends and family because it allows you to share media and information such as birthdays, weddings, parties, and more. The good news is that nowadays you don't need to know HTML; anyone with some spare time and patience can make a great looking website.
Steps
- Decide on a website builder software to use if you don't have any programming experience. If you are proficient in html, you can skip this step.
- Find a host. The host is the company that will store the files that make up your website. Whether it's free or paid (see Tips), you'll need to set up an account first.
- Get a domain name (optional). If your host doesn't provide you with a domain or sub-domain name, you'll need to get one. It is easier for people to remember a simple domain name (ie: www.wikihowexample.com) than a tediously long URL (ie: http://www.wikihowexample.com/user/creator/index/pg223/creatorhmpg.html).
- Decide on the content. You know this is a website for your friends and family, so think about what you will offer them when they visit. Some great ideas are tools like photo galleries, a calendar, a guest-book or forum, an e-mail list, and news on your front-page. Write down your thoughts as you come up with what to include.
- Create a logo. Even though you may think a personal website doesn't need one, a logo unifies and makes your website more comfortable for your guests. Use a program like Corel Paint Shop Pro to manipulate some text (possibly your name or family name) into an attractive and pleasing design. You could just save yourself the money and look for some open source software, gimp or inkscape should do just fine. They are also free and just as useful as Photoshop and Paint.
- Create pages. Using HTML or a Web-Publishing tool like Macromedia Dreamweaver, create a "Home" page with an introduction to the website, news, and basic instructions on how to navigate it. Other pages such as a "Biography" page and a "Contact" page may soon follow. Save the pages as .html.
- Publish. Upload your pages and files to your root folder ("/"). Use an FTP program or your web browser to log in to the server. On your browser's address bar type "ftp://your-domain-name.com" and hit "Go" or the Enter key, then fill out the prompt with your username and password (provided by your host). You can browse your folders as you would on your PC or Mac.
- Update. Keeping your family and friends up-to-date with news and photos is invaluable to them. Share new stories and jokes with them frequently to keep them coming back.
Tips
- Learning HTML is not necessary but it will help a lot if you want more intricate and diverse web-design. Try it out and practice as much as possible. Compare the code to what it looks like on the actual web-page.
- Some hosting services will try to sell you a Domain. You don't have to buy a Domain from the hosting provider - you can buy your domain from a domain registrar (just search in google for "buy domain") , and then tell your hosting provider that you already have a domain, without buying it from them. In practice it's easier to buy the domain from the hosting provider (as you won't have to do anything more than pay for it), but hosting providers normally charge higher prices for the domain, than you will find if you go and buy the domain yourself from a domain registrar. Buying a domain is not difficult, and normal prices should be +/- around 10€ (as of 2011)
- Don't go with the first host you find; shop around and compare prices.
- Freewebs.com is a great, completely free host and shorturl.com can give you a good sub-domain name.
- If it is available from your host, it is a good idea to give family members an email account @yourwebsite.com.
- You don't need to spend a ton of cash on software and services, there are free options all over; search and you will find.
- Save your home-page as "index.html" so that it will be the first page visitors see when they visit your website.
- Your host may provide you with tools such as guestbooks and photo galleries.
- A great forum system is phpBB (requires PHP and a Database to be installed; ask your host).
- Remember to use the same layout and logo for all the pages of your website. Keep the same colors, font, and icons.
Warnings
- Often you can use free website templates to save yourself time and maintain a quality design.
- People would have you believe that you need to spend lots of money on a website. You do not have to spend much at all. Take the time to look into these topics: apache servers, php coding, html coding, and opensource software. It could save you a lot.
- Make sure your host allows uploads of the file-types you will be sharing.
- Never use copyrighted media unless you are the copyright holder or have full permission from the latter.
- Review your host's agreement policy before creating an account. They may not be what you're looking for.
Things You'll Need
- A personal computer (Windows, Mac, or Linux)
- Internet connection
- A web browser
- A web host
- A domain name (optional)
- Some content like images and stories
Related Articles
- Get VPS Hosting for Your Website
- Build a Photography Website
- Do a Web Hosting Comparison
