Creating single page “starter sites”
Ok the chores have been done, it’s time to get down to it.
Following Jim Karter’s methods (as mentioned in the last “Into The Fray” category post “Oh My”), I’m building the one-page placeholders for the six websites which I have not already developed (this excludes the “dating site”; for which I have no domain name as yet). Anyway here’s the process:
In order to do this with maximum efficiency I am taking an html index page from a site I have already designed (in this case, www.air-purifiers-online.com) , and “gutting” it - replacing all the text and image content with relevant content for my new sites.
For those of you thinking “Why don’t I use css?” the simple answer is that I haven’t learned css and don’t have time now. To make a million in one year I have to floor it.
The good thing about html is that it is “open source”. I’m not a lawyer (as you already know if you’ve been paying attention!) - but the gist of it as far as I understand is this - html code doesn’t belong to anyone. Text and image content of course does belong to people (unless it is specifically stated as copyright-free). In other words, if you see an html site that you like the layout of, you can use the view source function on your browser to reveal the code that was used (in Safari: View>View Source). You’ll need to strip out / replace everything that is not an html tag from this code (and of course, you’ll have to understand a little html in order to do this) - but this should be a rapid process. If you are new to the process you’ll most likely have to do some study. There are some great free guides online.
You could also do a google search for “free website templates”.
In order to create the graphics for the site banners, I am going to go online and search for 100% copyright-free images. Just this wikipedia page is enough to sort you out! There are several links to free image collections on here. Be sure to read and understand the terms for each collection, as they vary. You gotta love copyright-free image collections!
I will then import these as layers into Photoshop, mess around with them, then add the relevant title text and maybe some other “artsy” layers. Another web search - “free fonts” - reveals a load of fonts which can be downloaded and used. I love Apple’s Font Book and I’ll type my text into this in order to spin through fonts fast.
If you don’t have a copy of Photoshop yourself (it’s expensive), you can always go to Kinkos; or maybe search for some free graphics software which will do the job - there is bound to be something out there. Same goes for “html editor” software.
To create the text content for some of these sites, I’ll need to do some research. Doing good research is an art. I tend to follow the same formula for research: I do a bunch of web searches and do a lot of reading before starting to write. I look at wikipedia, my Oxford English Dictionary (the big one with the microprint) and anything else that is to hand. It often takes skimming through a fair number of articles in order to start finding really good content and the true authorities in an area, and I want to do my best to make sure I am on point. It’s worth it. And I don’t believe in pillaging people’s content… so I don’t just “lift” content from other pages - I research it properly and create my own articles. I’m one of the ones who go deep - beyond the first couple of pages of google. The most popular content is not always the best….
An advantage I have in this regard is that I worked for several years part time as a researcher for a historian. This was a fantastic job. The author was not very internet savvy (this was in the late ’90’s) but did most of his research from his personal library of over 20,000 reference books. Every single square foot of wall surface of his old house was covered in books… even the small spaces above the doors. After I had been working for him for a long time he would give me subject headings and send me off to work. I combined the results of web searches with what I found in his library. And if we needed to go further we occasionally ordered books from major libraries such as the British Museum. Because his work was academic I had to keep meticulous notes of the sources of all statements. It was great training.
Anyway…
I’ll do some basic on-site SEO as best I understand it - put my keywords near the beginning of my title tags, in my headings, and in meta description and content tags. A quick look at the excellent SeoBook.com and you should be on your way.
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Fortunately I learned how to do all the tasks connected with building these pages in my dim and distant past - and so creating six simple web site homepages should take me about…. ok let’s time it… Go! It’s 12.30 am Tues May 6th.
The first one - criticalmetals.com - took three hours. I put a little energy into making it pretty but just slapped the text together as fast as I could. I’ll soup it up later. I’ve redirected the DNS from Sedo.com - where the domain was parked (it didn’t make a cent!) - to my hostgator account so the site should show within a day or two.
It’s 4am. It’s always 4am. Time for bed. To be continued.
********** U P D A T E May 9th 2008 **********
Have now created the placeholders for criticalmetals.com, troy-ounce.com, outerspaceringtones.com, synthlearn.com . PXR8.com, air-purifiers-online.com and this site are already up. dating site has not been acquired. lucky-lex.com is on hold due to trademark investigation. fantasyfutureworld.com yet to be developed - still undecided as to the direction for this site.
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