 |
 |
Q: Say I created all the HTML code in some word processing program like Word perfect, how would I go about getting it on a server? Where do I go, is there a company that does just that sorta thing. I have no problem creating the images and the web page, but i don't think it would suffice just to give them 2 diskettes and say here's your page where's my money. Do those companies charge a one time fee for putting something on the net, or is it like a monthly fee?
A: Some word processing programs have translators to convert text to html. They are limited though and make mistakes. The program (shareware on info-mac) "rtftohtml" does a fairly decent job of converting rtf text (rich-text-format: a format that any good word processing app can save to) to html - again limited (no multimedia) and makes mistakes.
What I usually do is to select and copy the whole body of text in the word processing app and then paste it into a Simple Text document and add the tags. Usually there's not too many tags for normal text, just paragraphs and font attributes, etc. You need to add in the multimedia tags by hand usually to get them right.
Most decent commercial servers that you set up a WWW account with will provide you with easy upload instructions and software (usually Fetch and Telnet) so you can upload files to your directory. The directory might be named "public" or "www", and your gateway page might need to be named something like "index.html", but the server company will provide you all that info.
Some ISPs (Internet Service Providers) are stubbornly Mac-ignorant as well as unreliable and often unstable. Stay away from them. There should be some decent local ones in your area starting around $20/month on up depending on the size of your account (plus some also charge a one time setup fee of about $25). Earthlink and MacConnection are good, very fast and stable connections available in most US cities that also include free website service. GeoCities offers free personal homepages within their virtual "neighborhoods". Make sure the ISP you chose can/will configure their server to serve up the necessary mime-types for your Netscape plug-in needs.
If you're going to do this for a bunch of companies, you could get a pretty big server account and sublease the space out to each company as part of your fee. Remember that part of your service/responsibility will be to maintain, backup, update the sites, and that the companies you make sites for will hold you somewhat responsible for problems with the server. Sometime you might need to move all the sites to another, better server, so keep very good complete backups.
Q: What do people charge for making a web page? I'm sure it depends on what they want and how big the company is, I just don't want to get ripped off. I just need a rough idea of what people are charging these days. In reality I'd do it for 50 or 100 bucks, but I'm just a poor dumb student, I think I could get away with a higher price than that, because I know my page would blow away the competition and that's what I want.
A: Most basic/simple web pages cost about $500. Multimedia costs significantly more. My daughter who just graduated from college does basic web work for a minimum of $45/hr. This seems about right given the knowledge and equipment involved, and the fact that it will take you quite a few hours to do even a simple job well. If you have to generate the text, image, multimedia materials yourself it will take much longer. Also included should be your time/costs for meetings, travel, supplies (cartridges, etc.), and your committment to maintaining the site. I know a recent graduate who made and maintains a large bank site in New York for which he received $30,000. The companies deduct these costs as business expense.
Keep good records for your own tax purposes of all your expenses, and get/make-up business-like stationary and invoice/billing forms. Your services and skills will jusitfy your charges if you present yourself somewhat professionally.
Q: What are some web sites that you check on a regular basis? You always came in with some nice shareware and web design programs. I would like to build up my collection of that junk also. I just wanted to know some of your 'favs'.
A: Here are some of the net sources I use (almost daily) to keep up with updates, shareware, and developments in the field:
|
|
Good luck. Let me know of any cool sites you put up.
|
|