Detailed knowledge of computer languages such as HTML (Hyper Text Mark-up Language) used to be required to build web sites. Today it is much easier. All of the modern good web site building programs for basic web sites work on WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get). Almost anyone can quickly become familiar with the appropriate software and build a web site. The WYSIWYG software programs work mostly on the computer language called HTML mentioned above. But, the world is changing at an ever increasing pace and HTML is being replaced more and more by newer languages that will allow you to do much more with web sites. HTML is fine for basic, static web sites such as this one, but the three article directory sites mentioned in the next paragraph are interactive and use a computer language called PHP.

A web site can be just one page such as the one I did for a friend of mine , or it can consist of tens of thousands of pages. For example I have three article directory sites, which between them have in excess of 100,000 pages. If you want to take a look those web sites are Aussie Articles, Education Articles and High Ranking Articles. Those 100,000 pages by the way are growing by scores daily. The sites have been in existence for less than two years, and with new authors contributing daily I am certain the web sites will be at least double the current size within the next twelve months. *(see bottom of this page)

So, web sites can consist of any number of pages from a single page up to ...? The majority of web sites however consist of around five to ten pages only.

What should you do about getting your web site built?

If you plan on building several web sites, I would suggest that you purchase appropriate software, learn to use it, and build the web sites yourself. I do have a discussion and comparison on the various software programs available on another web site. Just click on the link to go there. There are also several free software programs now available under the GNU licence. I have a download link to one of the better ones on web sites on the WWW. All software programs take time to learn and understand. And although several of the free programs are good, they are not as user friendly as some commercial programs which are relatively inexpensive.

Another option is to build your own site online. When you go into Ian McKenzie’s Domains site to look at hosting accounts, you will find a Website tonight option. There is a higher fee than the regular hosting fee for this option, but the program is very user friendly, and you actually build your site on our servers, and you can go back to it when ever you wish to make changes. With the regular software programs, you build your site on your own computer and then use FTP (File Transfer Protocol) to transfer the information onto our servers.

Yet another option is to purchase a hosting package from me with software bundled to your domain name. This software is Soho, and there is a basic version and a complex commercial version with shopping carts and other interactivity features. For most users the basic version is all you will need. When you open the software package you will have full access to the full commercial version, but this you will have to make a payment to Soho for after an initial trial period. There is no additional charge for the basic version. There are heaps of templates from which you can choose with this program, and it is very easy to use. I have just built a basic web site using it here. Contact me for information regarding this hosting package. My contact details are on the home page of this web site.

The above-mentioned software package is an ideal way for students and others to quickly build their own web sites and develop the associated self-confidence of doing so without having to go through an extensive learning process as they would with conventional web site building software. If you are an educator (Lecturer, Principal or Teacher), and you would like to discuss with me, the possibilities of using this with your students, then I would love to hear from you. As a guide, if you have 100+ students who want to have this program at the same time (i.e. the one purchase). I can offer the program for each Domain name and host each of the sites for a year for as little as $20 each for the entire year. That works out at less than six cents a day, or less than the cost of an ice-cream for an entire week. I also have a bulk purchase plan on domain names, which would make the total cost for your students very low. Clicking on the link will give a page on another site with a table of some of my bulk prices for .com .net, .org, .mobi, and .ws domain names. As you will see, the bulk pricing can be less than $7 per domain name per year.

I have listed a table which includes the number of sites per school, per class etc., and the cost per year for each of those sites.

In order to use this plan, you will need to firstly purchase your Domain name through Ian McKenzie’s Domains. Clicking on the Ian McKenzie’s Domains link will take you to a web site where you can do a free Domain name search and purchase your Domain name.

You will then need to contact me so I can talk you through the process of changing the Domain Name Server (DNS) that came with your Domain name over to my bulk hosting account. I would then need to get the list of each of the URL’s involved, so I could package the software up with the Domain names, and then you and your students will be ready to roll.

Special Educator’s Incentive

I am so sure that you will be impressed with this software package, I have a special offer to any educator. Here is the deal:

1. Give me the evidence that you are in fact an educator (Principal, lecturer, teacher etc.)
2. Purchase your Domain name through Ian McKenzie’s Domains (minimal cost involved usually less than $10 per year)
3. After your purchase, contact me. My contact details are on the home page of this site.
4. I shall then talk you through the process of changing the DNS in your account, and I shall package the software up with your Domain name and provide absolutely free hosting for your account for a three month period.
5. The software that I send you will be the full commercial version, which you are free to use at no charge initially. However if you need or want to keep all the features in the commercial version (interactive shopping carts and other interactive modules, there is a payment that you will need to make to Soho). After a period the commercial version will be disabled and you will be left with the basic version. However the basic version has all the features that you will need for a basic web site.
6. If at any time during the three month initial period that I have given you the software and hosting package you make a purchase of any of the alternatives in the table above, I shall continue to host your original web site at absolutely no charge for as long as the group purchase remains current.
7. When you purchase your Domain name through Ian McKenzie’s Domains you have full control over your Domain name, you can go into your account at any time and change settings such as the DNS to whatever hosting company you wish.
8. If you have any queries at all regarding this or other alternatives, then please contact me.

Special Note
The web sites you build with this software package supplied by Ian McKenzie’s Domains will NOT be advertisement supported. If you happen to go to the Soho web site, you may read that after the trial period of the commercial software, uses who keep the basic software will have Google advertisements at the bottom of each page. This IS NOT the case with the Software supplied by Ian McKenzie’s Domains. The commercial arrangement we have is for the basic web sites to remain advertisement free.

* I don’t want to bore you with statistics, but the numbers referred to on those article sites above can be quite mind boggling. You see, each of those articles can be downloaded onto other people’s web sites or blog sites. Those people do of course have to acknowledge where the article came from and its author. I just did a check and those 100,000 articles have been downloaded onto other people’s sites around 700,000 times. Now that is an average of about seven downloads per article. It does not take into account how many times each article on the site has been read. Some articles for example have been read hundreds of times, others just twenty to thirty. I do have a counter on each article to show how many times it has been opened and I presume read. I have not done a tally, nor do I intend doing a tally of the total number of reads, but I reckon a fair estimate would be say fifty average per article. It is probably reasonable to assume that each of the downloads may attract an average of fifty readers also. I just did those sums, and that comes to forty million reads on the articles. If each of those articles which were read were hard copies, that would be forty million sheets of paper, which would require several semitrailers to carry. But, the web sites allow each of those articles to be quickly translated into eight different languages also ...! What do you think the numbers may be like in a few years time? And, this is all from a few sites that I put together a couple of years ago, with the information all stored electronically.

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