This section of the Master Your Domain Series contains articles briefly introducting you to the basics of website development including:
- Content
- Design
- HTML
- Programming
Some Fundamentals :
Once you’ve gotten yourself a domain for your site and a hosting account, besides the items discussed here you’ll also need to learn how to use
- either a text editor or an HTML editor
- an FTP program to physically copy webpages onto your site
- some sort of graphics program, probably
- a couple of different web browsers to check your work
First things first. A website is there to present information to the folks visiting it. This could be something you want to sell, or something you want to share. Either way, that is what your content consists of. It’s the primary reason for the site to exist, and should always remain your greatest effort and focus of attention.
Next comes presentation. Ever notice how a restaurant prepares the food they serve. It’s all laid out nicely, with garnishes of colors that make the whole experience a more pleasant one. This is not to say you can’t get the same flounder made to look less fancy elsewhere… and tasting just as good.
That’s why content is always King.
HTML is the markup language which is used to make the content have a certain kind of look to it. Without markup, or tagging, everything would all be like a page out of a book with no paragraph breaks, changes in type size or style, or variation in color.
Programming is used in websites to allow for information gathering using forms, and other more involved activities such as memberships, email generation and the like.