Be sure to add this page to your favorites - many of the links I provide will lead you away from this site!

Step 1: Find a Host

The first thing you need to do is find a host that suits you. I suggest Brackmann Custom Web Creations (my company...). Every plan provided by BCWC comes with free domain name registration!

Step 2: Build Your Site

Building a site is fairly easy using the HTML editor offered in BCWC’s (and many other) hosting platform(s). It works just like any other text editor! For a more professional look, you might also want to check out templates online (search for “website templates” on any major search engine). Many of these templates can be edited using the same HTML editor.

Step 3: Make Money - Advertise On Your Site

The best way to make money on a new website is to advertise! Google's AdSense program has made the process of gathering advertisers extremely easy - check out the following link.

Step 4: Gain Users - Advertise Your Site

For these go getters looking to actively build their user base, I suggest Google’s AdWords program (see link below).

Step 5: Build a (Basic) Online Store

The more experienced users may want to try and build an basic online store. You can sell almost anything you want. I suggest using PayPal’s services to develop an ecommerce solution that works for you. I have found that PayPal offers the most services at the lowest cost - in many cases, only a per transaction free applies. The following link will provide more information.

Step 6: Tell Me Your Story

Once you've set up your site, please tell me about it! Leave a comment here and I'll visit to see what you've done. (If you want to, you can also link back to this blog to show your support and encourage others to start their own sites!)

This is a pod, casting it's net. And that is what podcasting is.

Actually, basically, essentially, if you would like to hear music, you must subscribe to a podcast, and then your computer will download audio on a regular basis through the use of RSS technology.

However, if you yourself would like to be an online song jockey, there are other steps to take.

For example:

• Record some precious beats overlaid with sugar-sweet lyrics using your computer mic.


• Go to a podcasting site, preferably a free one like ourmedia.org, and proceed to upload.


• Tell a friend to tell a friend to subscribe to your feed.


• Feed away.

There you have it friends, it wasn't as complicated as you thought it was. Cast your nets on both sides of the boat (I don't know what I'm trying to say with that.)

10. You Can Tell the World about Your Business
Millions of people have access to the internet. In today's world, most people turn to the internet first for information on products or services.

9. You Can Sell Your Products or Services (Make a Profit!)
The internet provides another avenue for your business to sell your products and services. You could make more online than in your physical location.

8. Websites Are Cost Effective (Save Money!)
Utilizing the internet is a cost effective approach to marketing your business. You can reach anyone that is interested in your product or service for much less than any other medium. In addition, any products you sell over the internet don't need to be stocked in a physical location or sold by your staff. You could cut over half of your costs by using the internet.

7. You Can Reach New Markets
Your website can be easily customized to attract any market. You can concentrate on your neighborhood, community, state, country or even the entire world.

6. Your Customers Can Advertise For You For Free
Your website will turn your customers into free advertisers. If they can easily find your information on the web, they can save it, print it and pass it on to potential customers who will need your products or services.

5. You Can Provide 24/7/365 Service
A website allows you to be in business 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. You can handle customer concerns anytime, anywhere.

4. You Can Make Changes Available Quickly
Your business is constantly in motion. Your website can be updated to reflect your current prices, schedules, availability, specifications, requirements and regulations almost immediately. Your customers will be notified much sooner than if they had to wait for printed materials.

3.You Can Gather Information from Your Customers
When you combine Web Analytics (see above) with forms in your actual site, you can see what your customers have to say about you and what they would like to see from your company. Whatever you want to know, you can ask.

2. You Can Keep Your Professional Appearance
In today's world, people expect legitimate businesses to have a website.

1. It’s So Easy
I can do it all! (Check out my last entry - you can do it all too!)

As you can see, we have a love/love relationship. Just click below to download Firefox, you'll see what I'm talking about.

MSNBC
CNN
News.com

Viacom claims that YouTube has "built a lucrative business out of exploiting the devotion of fans to others' creative works in order to enrich itself and its corporate parent Google."

"Viacom said YouTube has avoided taking the initiative to curtail copyright infringement on its site, instead shifting the burden and costs of monitoring the video-sharing site for unauthorized clips onto the 'victims of its infringement.'"

The problem is that because YouTube’s content is user populated, Google has very little control over what is posted. Even when they take copyrighted material down, users repost it. Personally, I don’t believe that you can hold Google accountable for what its users do (according to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act "companies are off the hook if they remove copyrighted content promptly when it is brought to their attention."). However, holding users responsible is also problematic (i.e. the RIAA approach). In short, no one wants to be held responsible, but, according to the owners of the copyrighted material, someone must be. Do we make the providers of the services used for illegal purposes, the users who posted illegal material or both groups accountable? Perhaps, in the age of the internet, information belongs to everyone and no one has done anything wrong...

Xbox Live boasts a membership base of over 2 million users, and the main purpose of the service is to connect gaming citizens to each other, in effect allowing users to compete as if they were sitting next to each other in the same room. Experiences with screaming, cursing 12 year olds abound. Invigorating, I know. So, how does it work?

As you have probably guessed, and Xbox connects to the Xbox Live network through an Ethernet port on the Xbox itself. Any matches played with other players are routed through Xbox live servers, but any content of the actual gameplay (for example, who had the highest score) isn't necessary stored on the server. Many games have their own separate networks for storing game info.

Halo 2 has bungie.net and EA Sports also keeps track of game info. In games such as Halo 2, where many players are playing the same games at once, there is usually one person who "hosts" the game. This means that the person's internet connection creates optimal conditions for gameplay, and so all the information is sent to that person's Xbox and the Xbox either agrees with the info, or rejects it. (Packet Power!) Need more info? Click here.

A few months ago, I was looking for a database application for a few websites I was working on. I thought that my only option was going to be learning to use MySQL and PHP, an idea that seemed reasonable in concept, but turned out to be much harder in practice. I thought I was sunk; there was no way I was going to get done what I needed to in any reasonable amount of time. Yet, there was hope; there was Caspio Bridge, a database application that anyone can learn to use.

Caspio Bridge is a web based application that has the look and feel and power of Microsoft Access with the ease of use of Excel. One can create tables in Excel, download them to the application and then create ‘datapages,’ interactive JavaScript based forms and menus based on the database which can be customized in a number of ways (even more since the product update two months ago). Moreover, since the application is web based, changes can be made from any computer.

The best of my whole Caspio Bridge experience is that the service is free! (Although a free (SOHO) account is limited to 2 ‘datapages’ and inferior support options.) Caspio Bridge is a great product I would suggest to anyone. Thus far, I have used it in 4 different websites!

I have the solution, and, moreover, am willing to share it with you. This secret website will enable you to shut down your brain and turn on your clicking finger, because not only will it give you everything you want to download, it will tell you what to download. No thinkers need apply!

So after searching through the site a little and catching up on some good ol' programs, you should have no problem convincing yourself that you are cool. Have a great day!

To top it all off, TiSP, with a little help from Google Checkout, can deliver you online purchases to your bathroom using a "nanobot-resistant bag made of biodegradable corn-based plastic."

A full list of Google’s past pranks is available here.

I was stumbling around the information highway and I "stumbled upon" a little website that a lot of people like to call Google Labs. After looking at what the site has to offer, all of my life questions have been answered; foremost "Does Google have a ride finder?"

Maybe it is just me and I don't sit around thinking about this kind of stuff, but I had no idea Google was so busy with their own pet projects. I had them pegged as a company with an itchy trigger finger; using their monopolistic guns to shoot down competitors/buy their ideas. But I'm not saying Google is a monopoly, I'm just saying they have so much money on hand the business world is just a game to them.

Alas, they still have the cojones to do their own work. Who knew Google would come out with "Google Transit" or "Google Dashboard Widgets for Mac?"

Not me.

"a collection of technologies used together to create interactive and animated web sites by using a combination of a static markup language (such as HTML), a client-side scripting language (such as JavaScript), a presentation definition language (Cascading Style Sheets, CSS), and a Document Object Model. (DHTML, Wikipedia)"

• HTML is the language that makes things bold or a certain color in a website
• Client-side scripting languages make websites interactive
• CSS is similar to HTML and usually performs the same function (although it is better and more efficient way to create websites - many sites created today are heavily CSS based)
• DOM is a standards/navigation issue - click here for more information

Now on to the website review... Dynamic Drive is a website that offers dhtml codes and examples for FREE! They have codes to dress up your forms; images; and menus, display RSS feeds, build buttons and FavIcons and so on… In addition, it’s simple navigation makes finding things really easy. I simply love it. In fact, I check the site every few days to see the newest script and ponder how I can use it! I highly recommend checking it out.

For Movies and TV shows played in the last couple years, go to:

For streaming TV, with hundreds of channels, go to:

I would have to say that I prefer VideoHybrid, because they have a great selection of movies, some of which haven't even come out to rent yet. I think it is so true that we live in a wonderful world, and websites like these just prove it. I'm not sure how legal they are, but hey, you aren't downloading anything. Delve deep young ones...

In all seriousness, I think del.icio.us is a great tool; not for the tagging feature, but for the organization of websites based upon popularity (and hopefully usefulness). I realize that tagging makes this possible, but the organization part is so much better. In fact, when I can not find what I am looking for through the usual search methods (Google), I use del.icio.us and I haven’t been disappointed yet. Del.icio.us is achieving what Google set out to (organize the world’s information) in a slightly better way.

I don’t mean to say that del.icio.us is infallible, there are some problems. I have seen a lot of horrible sites make it to the hotlist with less than 100 tags. But, all in all, the sites are pretty good.

If I had to change one thing about the del.icio.us assignment, I would loosen the ‘tag every day’ requirement. I tried to tag only when I found something I would need later, not everyday just to tag. It ended up that I would tag every other day or so; but still, why have a requirement that encourages tagging just to tag?

Such a simple icon, and such a great idea for a website, but not enough time in the day to use it! Really though, I thought del.ico.us was a great tool for learning how to acclimate to the current "web environment." I had never heard of del.ico.us or anything like it before this class. Now I have, and now I'm happy.

This site motivated me to find new destinations on my daily trip to the Internet. It made me realize that I was way behind everyone else as far as Web 2.0 stuff is concerned. I was still using hotmail.com for goodness sake.

Like Eric said, it is a great search engine as well as bookmarking site, and I did use it instead of Google at times. By using del.ico.us, you feel like you are closer to the "edge" of the technological cliff. At least I did anyway.

I will continue to use del.ico.us on a daily basis; not only to tag websites I find, but to search for new websites other have found as well. If this is a Brave New World, then I am now a Brave Little Toaster. Adieu.

Well, where do I begin – web 2.0, intellectual property rights, new products, amazing websites? I know it might be hard to believe, but a lot has changed. That’s the beauty of the internet; things are able to change so quickly!

A think that it might be best to focus on two major trends:

• Major companies buying internet start ups
• The issue of intellectual property rights in the information age

Over the last year, a number of small internet start ups (YouTube, JotSpot, del.icio.us, and Facebook (in the near future – see Wesley’s March 4th post) to name a few) have bought out by established internet giants (Google, Yahoo...). It seems that a 1.6 million dollar deal has been hatched every other month! I want to propose a few questions: Is this good or bad for the industry? What about the send user?

The issue of intellectual property rights in the information age

The issue of intellectual property rights in the information age is, at the least, difficult. In the past few months, we have seen at least one major lawsuit break out, Viacom v. Google (see my March 18 post), and it’s not the only one. It seams that every corner Google turns a lawsuit is waiting (i.e. Google Book Search). There are a lot of things we as a people of the information age need to figure out. Where do we draw the line? Could there be exceptions? Can one really own information in the information age?

Well, I hope I’ve given you some food for thought. Thanks for reading – we hope you enjoyed it. Best...