site creation from the beginning...

So I can build a plane, engineer stuff, even make an occasional "A" on a test... but when it comes to setting up a website, I must have a short circuit. Anyone know where a person can get some good pointers on how to set up your very own "dot com?"

So far the main problem is now that i have a domain name, how do i get a website out there?

Any help appreciated,

It's a simple question without a very simple answer.

I haven't done it myself, but I suspect the easiest way would be to create a blog at one of the many blogging services out there (usually for free), and then redirect or forward the domain you bought to that new blog page. The forwarding can be arranged through the company who helped you purchase the domain.

There are also some companies out there who specialize in online content for homebuilt aircraft. Expercraft is one. You could forward your domain to your expercraft page, I bet.

Moving up from there, there is a big leap in time and mental commitment. You're now in the realm of a custom-built site, along the lines of Dan Checkoway's. You can hire your own hosting provider, or run your own webserver at your house. Then spend almost as much time as you have on the airplane creating and running the site. If you don't already know how, you'll need to learn HTML and maybe a scripting language such as Python or Perl.

Me, suffering from a major case of NIH (Not Invented Here) syndrome, wrote software to automate the daily uploading of photos from my camera and entry of my (not so) engaging commentary. I suspect I spent at least 100 hours creating and tweaking it, and perhaps another 100 hours updating the site...had I spent that time in the shop instead, I'd be flying by now!

My son

Hi Jonathan,
My 24 year old son, Matt is an UGA (Univ. of Ga.) graduate with a degree in Graphic Art design and can design, modify, create a gorgeous web site for you. Contact him at www.mattdsmith.com
Regards,

I you wish to have a "custom" sight and don't know much about programming yet, please feel free to steal whatever you'd like from my site. It's written in PHP...doing updates by hand is pretty simple. I also have scripts that automate them and updates things in seconds.

Let me know if you're interested...I'd be happy to send you the .php scripts.

You don't need to be a programmer to get away from the blogging service web page type. Here's what you'll need:

1) A host. There are a million of them. The first one I went with went out of business but I'm impressed with the one I'm current with: IX Web Hosting. Cost ranges from $5-10 per month. Setup was a piece of cake. You just tell them what domain name you have. I was up in running in less than an hour.

https://www.ixwebhosting.com/index.php/v2/pages.dspmain

2) A File Transfer Program. Again, there are a million varieties you can download for free. They are simple and easy to use. You're just copying the html and jpeg files from your PC to the host server.

3) Microsoft Front Page. This probably came installed on your PC. It's very easy to make web pages. You don't even have to know HTML.

4) Some photo editing software. Used to reduce the size of your images, crop if desired, put text & arrows on your images. I use Paint Shop Pro which cost about $75, but you can probably find some freeware.

What I did was make about 20 web page templates in Frontpage. A template for 2 images, a template for 3 images, and so on. They are all the same, just different number of areas to insert images in.

When I'm making a page, I reduce each image to 700x525 pixels (75kb), then copy the images into the template. I type in my text, update the Previous and Next links at the botton, and that's it. Save the template to the desired filename, then upload it to the host.

Since it's not automated, it probably takes me a little longer than the automated ones, but it's not bad. You still have to write the text either way, and writing is the time-consuming part I think.