This is an extremely streamlined path to show you how easy it can be to build a website for the World Wide Web. I suggest reading the rest of the site before attempting to follow the One Page Starter instructions. I give more details about coding HTML and building websites — and more details and options about domain names, hosting, and uploading than we just went through in the One Page Starter. There are some other hosting options that you could take advantage of that are free but with some restrictions. You’ll need to consider the pros and cons and find what works for you.
Open a browser window. Using File > Open File… in your browser menu open index.html and you should have something that looks like this:
It may take up to 48 hours for your domain name to start working. Sometimes it works in as little as 15 minutes, but the connection may be a little flaky. Just try to be patient while the DNS is propagating. Let’s move onto the next step and make a web page while we’re waiting…
I like getting the Dreamhost newsletter, so I leave that checked. Uncheck the additional options, if you don’t want them. We don’t need them for what we’re doing at the moment, and we can always add them later.
If you choose a domain name now, Dreamhost will cover the cost for the first year (some restrictions apply). If you choose a domain name later you have up to a month to use the 1 year free domain name offer. In the meantime, you’ll get a temporary subdomain that you can use on dreamhosters.com.
The Shared Unlimited plan comes with email, and the yearly payment option gives you a discount over the monthly price, so that’s probably a good place to start.
You can see how quick and easy it is to get a website running.
25 years later, the barrier to entry in creating, publishing, and maintaining a website is not any higher than it was in 1994. If anything, it is cheaper and easier to publish a website than it has ever been before. Domain names can be had for under $20 a year and hosting is as low as $2 a month — meaning that you can keep a website online for a year for less than the price of a video game. To build your own website just takes access to a computer that can reach the Internet, a little knowledge of HTML , and a method to get your HTML files up to a server . There’s much more that you can learn after that, but this will get you started.
Once upon a time, the World Wide Web was the Wild Wild West. It was an Information Superhighway that contained research from 1,000 different universities, and 1,000 different research centers, 1,000 different scientific organizations. The late 1900s was a tidal wave of published content where you could surf 1,000 different fanzines ; 1,000 different personal sites; and 1,000 different hobby sites. The World Wide Web promised a democratization of publication and a liberation of information; an open community of sharing for mutual benefit. Anyone could get online and create a website.
The HTML Hobbyist Mission
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