Reaching out on the Web -- Unlimited Outreach
How to Basics for a Website on the Fly

The 5-minute Website --as easy as 1-2-3
by Lee Ann Gerhart -- Anchorage, Alaska

You may create an easy to navigate website in 5 minutes or less and have it cost you NOTHING!

  1. http://www.nbci.com/  (as well as others) provides FREE Unlimited webspace and the software to create a fancy custom-designed site.  [Note:  as of 1/16/2002, nbci is no longer offering free webspace, but there are many such sites available.  I suggest you try:  http://geocities.yahoo.com/ or search for another using my favorite search engine, www.google.com]

  2. You are free to create websites using other software and upload them onto the site, known as FTP (file transfer protocal).  They provide several choices of freeware to do so (WS_FTP is what we use).

This website was created at nbci.  I signed up to be a new member, used their software (unfamiliar to me) to create a one-page website, customized every button, and used the FTP software to upload a little morale booster.  I did all of that in less than 15 minutes.  I did not have to talk to anyone, the instructions were clear and easy to follow.  I chose to be garish, but it is only an example.  

Visit the Sample site:  http://members.nbci.com/leeanng
[Note:  defunct as of 1/16/2002 -- go to www.kreig.com/nbci/]

Other ways to make webpages that are already at your disposal.  You need buy NOTHING!

  1. With MSWord or WordPerfect, you can make any any document a webpage by using "Save as a WebPage". 

  2. If you are really in the dark ages and do not have modern word processing software that will save to HTML, you may make any document a webpage by using the following simple HTML codes.  HTML works like left and right parenthesis.  You need a code to open a clause and need a code to close it.  Here is all you need to know to create webpages using a simple text editor:

    3. <HTML>
         <HEAD>
               <TITLE>put the title text here</TITLE>
         </HEAD>
         <BODY>
                 enter the text you want to display
         </BODY>
    </HTML>

    Save the file as text with the extension .htm and you have a webpage.

    If you want to get fancier, (such as bold face, italicize, change background colors, etc.), you only need to know a tiny bit more HTML, but you don't even need to buy a book.  There are wonderful tutorials online, such as:

    http://www.kofc.ab.ca/course/HTMLMenu.html     or http://archive.ncsa.uiuc.edu/General/Internet/WWW/HTMLPrimer.html

  3. If you like the color and look of a website you see in your websurfing, copy it and modify it to suite your needs.  Right click on a webpage.  Choose the option "View Source".  The window that pops up is in HTML.  Just copy and paste the code into your text editor and you have a webpage.  If you are looking for ideas, the sample webpage has hotlinks to the sites of over 100 Private Property Rights Friends and Allies.

  4. There are two main internet webpage viewing software packages, called browsers (Microsoft Internet Explorer and Netscape.  Some versions of Netscape have a webpage composer which may be used to create webpages with ease.

  5. Your ISP (Internet Service Provider) may already provide you with free webspace.  This may be much faster for your users than a free site. Speed is dependent on how far the provider is from the user, user volume, and data traffic patterns. Compare the sample site above to its clone that I loaded onto the space provided by our ISP:  www.kreig.com/nbci and again on the American Land Rights space at:  http://www.landrights.org/OCS/nbci/.  Using our own local ISP in Alaska was lightning fast and nbci's free site was very slow.  It will be interesting to see if that is still the case when we try this in New York!

TIP:  Before you FTP, you can view your homemade webpages as they will appear on the web by opening them with your web browser.

Other helpful freebies on the net:

  1. Add a local website Search Engine -- a must!  This will help your users find material on your website by typing in a word or two.
    It's free and easy at: http://www.freefind.com/   [Note: 1/16/2002 -- still available for free!]

    Tip:  Read freefind's FAQ -- how it works, how to prevent indexing a portion of a page, etc.

  2. Add a counter . . . and more!  Find out how many users have visited your site.  A counter service will also provide user statistics such as how many are new to your site, the type of browsers used, what search engine if any brought them to your site, etc.  You may make the counter invisible to your users or visible, but the user statistics are available only to you and can help you cater your website to your visitors.  One such free counter service is:  http://www.thecounter.com/  [Note:  no longer free as of 1/16/2002.  Type "free counter" in google and many sites appear such as http://www.digits.com/]

A little more advanced, but not required are graphics (pictures).  A word on graphics (pictures) -- they can really slow down your website to the point that no one will visit your site OR they can make it lively and interesting.  Doesn't the photo of park rangers dragging Lizzie Jenkins, 5 months pregnant, off her land in the middle of winter make you want to read more! (see Past Abuses on my sample website)   

If you are going to use graphics, I highly recommend trying out the evaluation copy of PaintShopPro which may be downloaded from http://www.jasc.com.  Use this software to crop the photo or digital image to its essence.  Then reduce the size to the height & width you plan to display and reduce the number of colors used.  Reduce reduce reduce until it degrades too much and then undo your last step. Then save it in .gif format.  Your users will appreciate the effort you have made!

You are now a webmeister!