Site building

[Publisher-For-You]

Hi again Frank,

Ok, a few more thoughts, about webmastering in general. You can decide whether any of this is useful to your situation.

In the "real world", off the net, in the world of professional publishing, books are written before they're printed. Authors spend months, years even, writing, rewriting and rewriting again. Editors pore over the work, and make more changes. The job is finished in full, BEFORE the presses roll.

On the Net, the typical pattern is to have a site idea, write a page or two in a hurry, and then rush to get it online.

Thus, many newcomers are struggling with web publishing technology, before they really have anything substantial to publish. The technology becomes a big distraction to the real job at hand, which they've yet to begin really.

If an author is serious about providing value to readers, they may not need either money or tech skills.

As example, if someone came to me and said...

"Here's 84 pages of excellent content. I've done my homework, and I know this is useful information. But, I'm a starving artist writer, and have no technical skills. What should I do?"

If the person was sincere (and not just cheap :-) ) and the content was truly well done, I'd give that person a free account, and tell them they could start paying me when they started making money, within reason.

In spite of the billions of sites online, there is actually a shortage of folks who take their sites seriously enough to, finish the book, a good book, before they print it. Money and tech skills aren't really the obstacle.

Ok, enough ranting for today. :-)

[RIFF-RAFF]

Originally Posted by PPCguySCOTT

I recently came across a new site builder called synthasite and can be found under the same URL. I typically hire out my site building, but this one is so easy even I can put up a basic site in less than 30 mins. It has a decent video tutorial as well.

Thanks for the lead.I'm gonna check it out right now.I'm still trying to figure out why I can't publish my material.


Frank

[Publisher-For-You]

Originally Posted by RIFF-RAFF

I'm still trying to figure out why I can't publish my material.

Apologies, but here's why. You're trying to do it by yourself. You haven't put yourself in an environment where someone who is more experienced would be available to help.

[RIFF-RAFF]

You may be right on this,it is very easy to run into trouble when tackling something this complicated on your own and thats when frustration sets in.Unfortunately for me,I don't know anyone who can show me. So....If I want to succeed,I have to rely on forums like this (and the helpful people on them) and keep trying.
On a brighter note though,I was using Nvu and have just discovered that the publishing aspect of this HTML editor has glitches.I went to the Nvu forums and found that many of the Nvu users there use separate FTP clients to transfer material to their sites.I'm going to try filezilla and hope that works.Thanks again.


Frank

Originally Posted by Publisher-For-You

Apologies, but here's why. You're trying to do it by yourself. You haven't put yourself in an environment where someone who is more experienced would be available to help.

[PPCguySCOTT]

when I first started to ftp sites up to my domains I found it very helpful to use godaddy as my hosting provider as the free phone support they give is amazing. They practically do it for you and definately don't assume you know more than you do and don't talk down to you if you are a newbie. I had tried a few others before them, but find them to be the most helpful by far.
Don't get frustrated because once you get it. You'll have it and a whole new world is going to open up for you.

[RIFF-RAFF]

Originally Posted by PPCguySCOTT

when I first started to ftp sites up to my domains I found it very helpful to use godaddy as my hosting provider as the free phone support they give is amazing. They practically do it for you and definately don't assume you know more than you do and don't talk down to you if you are a newbie. I had tried a few others before them, but find them to be the most helpful by far.
Don't get frustrated because once you get it. You'll have it and a whole new world is going to open up for you.

Thanks man,I appreciate the positive reinforcement.

Frank

[Larwee]

RIFF-RAFF, many people use Nvu are are pleased with it.

There are several other free choices you might want to look at to see if you like any of them better. You will find NVU and several others that are free in this thread Your favorite HTML editor

FileZilla is a favorite of many, but it is possible you might prefer another. You will find FileZilla and other choices covered in this thread Favorite FTP program

[RIFF-RAFF]

Thanks Larwee.

Frank

[Publisher-For-You]

Hey Frank,

Apologies, I really don't mean to be sticking my nose in to your business. There's always that danger when using a specific person's situation as an example of a very common experience many, many webmasters have had when starting out.

Please read my comments as being about the market in general, ok?

Originally Posted by RIFF-RAFF

I don't know anyone who can show me.

My passion for this thread comes from years of experience trying to be that person.

More to the point, the focus of my job is create an environment where new comers don't need to learn hardly any technology AND they don't need me either.

While you are frustrated trying to learn unfamiliar gadgets, my frustration comes from trying to serve a newcomer market that insists on learning unfamiliar gadgets, even though this process is usually unnecessary, and counter productive.

Most newcomers are building sites to make some money.
That is, they wish to be online sales people.

If selling is one's chosen career, one should focus on selling!

Focusing means, ruthlessly discarding everything that is in the way of one's goal.

In this case that means, learning as little web technology as possible, because every minute spent trying to understand what FTP means, is a minute not spent learning how to sell.

Getting free tools off the net, and then finding a free or cheap host is a common path for new comers. Regrettably, this strategy is more appropriate for experienced users.

Smart newcomer sellers find a way to 1) avoid technology as much as possible, and 2) create professional relationships with more experienced people, and 3) focus on selling.

If I wanted to be a dentist, a carpenter, a nurse, or most anything else worth doing, I wouldn't try to learn it on my own using free tools and books I found laying around somewhere. It's no different on the Net.

But, most newcomers will ignore this advice, in order to save less money than they spend each week at Starbucks. And that's just how it is, and I suppose, always will be.

End of rant! :-)

[RIFF-RAFF]

Publisher-For-You,there's no need to appologize.I understand the point you're trying to make.I'm just testing my ability to learn and I want to be able to creatively build my own site.I like a challenge and being able to start my own affiliate business,create my own site and maintain it on my own to me is worth the effort and frustration.I don't depend on this to put food on the table so I figure I'll take some time and try to learn as much as possible for now.If all else fails,then maybe I may consider having someone build a site for me.Being able to do this all on my own successfully would bring me great satisfaction.I want to one day be able to come to the newbie forums not as a newbie ,but as a mentor.Thanks.

Frank