Instructions for Maintaining Your Website

In a folder on your computer, you'd have the template page, and all the web pages already created for you (if any), plus the graphics that show up on those pages.

If you think it will grow to be a large site, I recommend making a sub-folder and calling it "G" - you would save all the graphics to that. (This is something I need to know in advance or the links will all be fooey! Your web pages would not appear to have any background, or pictures!)

I usually name the template page something like 01Temp.html just so it always shows up at the top in that folder. Easier to find. Whenever you want to make a new page for your site, you would open that page, and work on it, and give it the name of the new page.

To make your own additional web page:

Shall we look at some screenshots?



See those words between the h1 codes at the top? You would delete those words and insert your title for this article or page.

The pale grey, italics part between the two areas is a Comment. Comments cannot be seen by the public, so this is a way to mark places for ourselves as web designers, and in this case to show you where you insert your new content for this new page you are making.

Move your cursor below those greyed words, and either type in or paste in the body of text you want there. You may use as much space as you like. Just keep pressing ENTER or Return when you need more lines. But remember all the paragraphs will run together on you if you don't separate them with two "br /" tags (New line) in angle brackets.

(Note: if I try to demonstrate that in this text body, my tags became invisible, but they would create a blank line - which is their purpose).

You can also make some words, phrases or passages bold simply by inserting a b in brackets before - and a /b after.

By now we should be stopping to name this page what it will be on the web. If it is an article, choose the key word or words from the title. Hit save as, and save it with that name. Notice, your template remains as it was in your folder. You are now working with a new page!

Time to look at the Meta tags;

See the words, "Title Your Page Here with Keyword" between the title tags? Delete those words and put in the title you want to assign this web page.

The next one is the Description meta tag. Delete the sentence between the quotation marks after content= and insert your descriptive sentence for this page. Remember that sentence will show up in some search engines later. People may decide to visit based on that sentence.

The last one is the Keywords meta tag. Do the same here; replace the list of keywords you have used in your content - the more frequently used, the better! These should be words that people put into a search engine when looking for a page just like yours. Choose them wisely.

The information in these three meta tags are also what you will enter when submitting your web page to the search engines (although some just want the URL so they can check it out for themselves).

Okay. You've inserted your title and content where it will show up for visitors. You've added the meta tags for the benefit of the search engines. You've named this page. You've saved the page with a one or two word file name and .shtml at the end. Links to the other main pages are already included, so now we just have to add a link to this page from all the others.

However, now we have a shortcut! Using "includes" you now simply add this new page link to that file, which I will have prepared and called something like nav-includes.txt upload it again, and all your web pages will instantly show this page in the navigational bars!

There! Time to open your FTP program, which you set up the first time with your site ID and password, etc., and to connect automatically to your web site host's admin area. One window shows the files in your web site folder on your computer, the other window shows the files on your web site. Highlight and drag files from one to the other, or highlight and click the transfer arrow. In seconds each page is transferred. - Go open your browser window, put in your URL (or use your bookmarks), to see how your pages look to the world!

That's simple enough, isn't it? :)

Gradually, you'll pick up other HTML code lingo and things you can do yourself to change or spruce up your page. That's how I've taught myself over the past four years. Always adding and adding knowledge.

Naturally, you want people to find this new page so you should take time after uploading a new page, to go visit some key search engines and directories, submitting it for inclusion. It takes four weeks or more for your site to show up if accepted. If you do searches and don't find it, try submitting it again. If your site is focused on you as a Christian author, I would recommend a list of about 50 Christian directories to list at first. I found them at Praize.com in their directory, and once most of those have links pointing to your site, the big secular engines see your site as popular, so then they are more willing to include it too.

What do you think? Would you like me to help you get this template and perhaps your basic pages set up? If so, fill in this form to send for the autoresponder with the initial questions to get a snapshot of what your site looks like in your mind, and what you hope to accomplish with it.

How to Request a Site or templates by Azaleas.
When you are ready, fill out the Request Form

If I think I can handle your web site needs, we'll start discussing and brainstorming together by email.