Chapter Two – Setting the Stage

 Getting back to the web site for Ken’s Custom Golf Clubs, there are several parts to the Internet that are important for Ken to understand:

• The browser – for example Internet Explorer. The browser is Not the Internet, it is just a software program that formats and displays a web page. The browser doesn’t care if the web page comes from storage on your computer or actually comes from an Internet web site. All browsers don’t format and display a web page exactly the same. Each browser has certain quirks. Most of Ken’s customers use Internet Explorer for their browser, but Ken also knows that some customers use another browser. So, keeping his web site design simple means that it will work more consistently across these browsers.

• The web page – a file that a browser can read and format the content into a web page. The file can be stored on your computer or requested from the Internet. Ken will use some ‘tools’ to build his web pages on his computer before uploading the final pages to his web site host.

• The web site – one or more web pages stored on the Internet.

• The domain name – for example KenCustomClubs.com is used as the address to reach your web site on the Internet. Ken needs to register his domain name.

• The web site host – a server, for example godaddy.com, where you rent space for your web site. Visitors can request and get pages from the web site host using the domain name.

• The Internet Service Provider – your connection to the Internet, for example Charter or Qwest Internet services.

• The Tools – we will cover tools in more detail in a later chapter. You do not need a lot expensive hardware and software to build web pages.

• HTML (HyperText Markup Language) – a simple markup language that tells the browser how you want it to format and display a web page. We will cover basic HTML in a later chapter.

• CSS (Cascading Style Sheet) – an easy way to ’style’ elements on your web page. We will cover basic CSS in a later chapter.

 

In the next several chapters, we will find Ken starting the planning phase. He will think about his budget and the ROI. He will make some key decisions regarding his web site. Ken is also concerned about the tools needed to develop a web site. We will also see how Ken uses available tools to build a nice site using just basic HTML and CSS.