A presentation covering the basics of setting up your own website. I cover some of the basic decisions as well as some tips.

1. Master your domain http://www.blacklotuscinema.com/_Bruce-Lee-Wallpaper/PHOTO/1873440/54417.html Web Workshop AraPehlivanian | Presented Wednesday, November 18, 2009 This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 Canada License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/ca/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, 171 Second Street, Suite 300, San Francisco, California, 94105, USA.

2. Websites, who needs them?

3. You do!

4. Why?

5. “Like, everyone who’s anyone has a website!”

6. Seriously though…

7. A website is a part of your online presence

8. It establishes or reinforces your professional brand

9. It shows that you’re serious about the web

10. It presents your product or service offering

11. It’s a showcase

12. A storefront

13. A brochure

14. A soapbox

15. It never sleeps

16. It breaks the ice

17. Done right, it can make a great first impression

18. So the big question is:

19. What kind of website is right for you?

20. It’s a matter of picking the right tool for the job

21. Blog?

22. Portfolio?

23. Brochure?

24. E-Commerce?

25. All of the above?

26. Some tips:

27. It’s about you, not the website

28. A website is a tool, a means to an end

29. Keep that end in mind

30. Start small

31. Don’t reinvent the wheel

32. You can probably find it for free

33. Focus on your strengths

34. Outsource the rest

35. Setting up

36. First question:

37. Hosting or hosted solution?

38. Hosting = more controlmore complex

39. Hosted (or 3rd party) = less controlless complex

40. Examples of hosting providers: DreamHost Media Temple

41. Examples of 3rd party solutions: WordPress.com WebStore by Amazon Squarespace

42. Let’s create a WordPress.com blog

43. But I don’t want mysite.wordpress.com!

44. Registering a domain is easy

45. Use a tool to make life easier

46. www.bustaname.com

47. Costs from $3.95 to $34.99 per year

48. Once you have it, what do you do with it?

49. There is no magic in computers

50. That domain name has to live somewhere

51. Domain Name System mysite.com = 127.22.10.55 DNS Server Web Server

52. Some 3rd parties offer it at a cost

53. Hosting packages include DNS hosting for account holders

54. Customizing your site

55. Before you can customize your site, you need to know how!

56. Here are some resources: http://www.opera.com/company/education/curriculum/ http://www.w3schools.com/ http://www.sitepoint.com/

57. If you aren’t an artist, it’s OK to admit it

58. There is help

59. You can find regular and product specific templates for free and for sale online.

60. Search Engine Optimization

61. It’s something you should care about!

62. If search engines can’t find you, you simply don’t exist!

63. A lot of SEO comes for free if you build your site correctly

64. SEO from the horse’s mouth: http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=35291 http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/

65. Attracting Traffic

66. Blogs should be updated consistently with helpful content

67. Portfolios should stand out and really make a statement

68. Commerce sites should be functional and user friendly

69. Thank You! http://arapehlivanian.com/ ara.pehlivanian@gmail.com http://twitter.com/ara_p