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 General discussion of site Learning HTML Planning and building Going live HTML editors Web development resources Ongoing skills development Web databases      |
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"Going live" and site
maintenance This section looks at:
Getting from your computer to the Web How do web pages get from your computer to the web? This will depend on the arrangements at your institution. You might have to e-mail the pages to your institution's "webmaster" who will put them onto a web server for you, or you might be given direct access to a directory on the server. In this case you would probably use an FTP (file transfer protocol) programme to move the files from your computer to the server. One commonly used freeware FTP programme is Ws_FTP, which can be downloaded for free from shareware sites such as TUCOWS. A South African TUCOWS mirror is available at: http://www.tucows.co.za/ Some web editors (such as Netscape Composer) have built in FTP programmes which enable you to "publish" your pages straight from the editor. Even if you've done a thorough "test run" of the web pages before they go onto the server, you'll need to double-check them once they're up:
This Yenza! section was intended to equip users with an understanding of how web pages are constructed, along with the basic skills needed to develop a site. Even if you don't want to develop and maintain your own site, you should have a clearer understanding of how the web works, and how you can get it you work for you. You might want to
Crystal Waters, in "Web Concept and Design" offers a useful checklist to help you think about what you are looking for in the person/firm you hire. How - and how widely - you publicize your site will depend on its purpose and target audience. If the site is aimed chiefly at your own students, for example, it probably won't be necessary to seek widespread exposure. An online journal, on the other hand, would benefit from exposure in appropriate academic circles. Among the general options are: Submitting your site's URL to search engines
OR
Approaching other web sites You might want to approach the administrators of sites in related areas, and suggest "mutual linking." Sending information to e-mail discussion lists If your site offers scholarly resources it may be useful to publicize it on relevant listservers. The publishers of an online journal of sociology, for example, could appropriately disseminate information about the journal on electronic lists relating to sociology or the social sciences. This is easily done on mailing lists you are subscribed to. If you wish to submit information to a list you are not subscribed to, approach the list owner and ask whether it would be appropriate for the information to be distributed on their list. For information on finding electronic discussion lists and conferences, visit the Yenza! section on finding mailing lists. Print! Don't overlook the ways in which you can publicize the site on paper: on your letterheads, in newsletters and so on. Using e-mail for ongoing publicity Sending out a regular "what's new at this site" bulletin can help to get your
target audience coming back to your site regularly. An online journal, for example, could
send out each new table of contents by e-mail. A South African example of the use of this
technique is Women'sNet's "womensnet_news",
a weekly bulletin outlining what new information has been added to the Women'sNet site.
Information about womensnet_news is available at: A good site will have been developed with an eye to the future from the word "go". It's useful to revisit your "vision" of the site after you've had a chance to get user feedback.
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