spygrrl
12-14-2000, 06:01 PM
Hi everyone. Please bear with me because aside from people who have never touched a computer I am about as newbie as it gets. This will be an EXTREMELY long post so if that kind of stuff annoys you I would go elsewhere, LOL! To those of you who plan to muddle through, thanks in advance for your tenacity!
I have a very small business related website on a free host. It is not an e-commerce site and simply advertises a service, so currently the content and bandwith used are quite small. I am planning to move to my own domain and have registered a domain name already. Even after my site grows it will use much more in bandwith than it does in storage. In my efforts to research web hosting companies I realized that I do not know enough about the options and possibilities offered to make a fully informed decision. I need a tutorial in the basics.
I am not lazy and I have spent hours on the web searching for a simple, no-nonsense tutorial about websites and choosing a webhost. The problem is, everything I find seems to assume a core level of knowledge that I do not possess. Some things I fully understand, about some things I am completely clueless, and then there are those terms/concepts that I think I understand through context only, and so maybe know just enough about to be dangerous and do myself damage, LOL!
Actually I've looked for two types of tutorials - one about the web/internet in general, and one about websites/webhosting.
I'd love one that explains the basics of both. Ideally it would start at the *beginning* - definition of basic terms and hardware and software components (computer, modem, etc.). Which would then move into how the various components integrate with one another and through what means (servers, IPP, ISP, node, etc). Moving then into the explanation of what a website is (ie HTML is just instructions, the actual content is a much larger size, where/how the images and text are stored, etc.). Segueing into the various options one can add to a website (POP mail, hit tracking, forms, security issues, etc.) and the tools needed to utilized said options (various types of coding programs).
I used to train people and I was very good at teaching new concepts/skills because I seem to have this acumen for logic, order, and building understanding step by step. (I am slightly obssessive-compulsive, anal-retentive or whatever compound affliction you'd like to sling at me.) Trouble is, I can't find a tutorial like this :-( I've tried learning by simply taking a bit from this article here, that article there, and so on. But I am so busy I just no longer have the time to do so. When I search for just the most basic info on the internet and webhosting I get just massive amounts of articles, sites, etc. to look at. My eyes are starting to shrink from reading text on a monitor all day. Thank god for eyedrops! In the final analysis, there is just too much cross-referencing required to get the info I need, and it is far too time consuming. I want to get my site moved and re-designed *soon*.
In lieu of some kick-a** tutorials, I would be ecstatic (really, no kidding, not just pleased, but ecstatic) to find a web guru in the Chicagoland area who is capable of pretending he/she does not know what he/she knows. In my former employment, the biggest problem I found with most training programs, user manuals etc. was that they were not intuitive or logical. (Sorry, was that redundant?) In order to effectively teach someone who has NO frame of reference in regards to the lesson subject, a teacher must put him/her-self in the position of also knowing nothing. An excellent teacher would then be able to determine how best to present the information in a logical, orderly way, so that new concepts build upon the comprehension of prior concepts.
I am not stupid or incapable of learning, but I cannot find a comprehensive guide from which to learn. And I am one of those annoying people who doesn't want you to just give me a fish, I want you to teach me how to fish! (To give you an idea: I wish I'd learned computers when DOS was IT. I know it was a pain in the a** and difficult, but you LEARNED stuff. With a GUI I don't know how to do anything but point and click...I'm completely useless at any troubleshooting whatsoever on my own PC!) I'm not interested in spending months in class at the local college when I can learn what I need to know in anywhere from a few hours to a weekend (depending on content and scope of your knowledge) with an interactive, private consultant.
If you have a passion for sharing your knowledge with others, and you can share your wisdom at a reasonable price, please e-mail me. I am 30 and a little intimidated by child prodigies, sorry, so would prefer someone over 24 and ideally over 35 who was around when this stuff wasn't so advanced. I am located in the near NW burbs of Chicago, IL but am familiar with the city itself and all the surrounding suburbs. In my home is preferable but I'd be willing to drive a reasonable distance for an excellent professional.
At the end of this tutoring I would expect to understand the following:
the basic mechanisms of the internet itself
the basic components of a web site
the various types of webhosting companies, including what is a re-seller and how it operates
how websites interact with webhosts
available options to add to websites, ranging from simple to complex
what I need in a webhost in order to be able to utilize these options (ie I need x program to provide y attribute)
comprehending my site statistics - bandwith usage, hits, etc. - and to recognize when it's getting too big for its britches or there's been a problem
various types of security issues and how to address them
some other minor stuff I've probably forgotten to mention
If you are also a web designer there would be some other concepts I would like to learn. These are:
portals or entries - what are they and how do I utilize them?
what are meta tags and other ways of defining my site content?
optimizing my ranking in search engine results (without overloading into spamming and being rejected!)
what are forms and how to create them
neato small size graphics stuff I can do with my site
how do I make sure my design is compatible with both IE and Netscape?
basic stuff about FrontPage or FrontPage Express (I know it's easy, I haven't had time, darn it!)
more stuff I probably can't remember at the moment (but will later when I'm desperately trying to fall asleep, LOL)
Although I want to learn how to do these things on my own I am definitely looking for someone to design my website. I am also looking at creating two other websites very, very soon which would also need design services. None of these would be incredibly lucrative but for a real pro it would be quick, easy money for stuff you can probably turn out in your sleep - and did, 10 years ago. (I'm not trying to dissuade you from contacting me, but I don't think it would be fair to mislead you into thinking this would be more than a $ 500 project)
I anticipate that some of you responding to this will want to look at my current website and will wonder why I do not list it. Your logical response would be to post a reply asking for the url and I bet you would think something was very fishy if I said I didn't want to provide it in this forum. Although I would prefer not to post this publicly, after much thought I doubt I will be able to avoid it, so I'll just bite the bullet and say it now:
I am currently employed in the adult industry (no, I do NOT have a porn site!). It is possible you won't care but if you are a designer who might have a moral issue with this it is only fair to warn you in advance. I have not provided my homepage url because I hope to avoid being addressed by those who might find my lifestyle choices distressing. I do not wish to inflict my beliefs/values on others, and ask that you do not do so to me. Accordingly, designers please respond only if you will not be offended.
Those of you who contact me privately will be given the url via e-mail. Please don't laugh too loudly at the site: I didn't know how to format a thing but a paragraph at the time, so just sat there with my HTML book skipping to the chapters I needed. Although the funny thing is - someone copied a ton of my source code right from the site in order to do their own amateur site...I was sooo flattered until I saw their very poorly done site...then I realized why they might I have thought I knew what I was doing, LOL!
Thank you very kindly for your patience in reading my novella. I hope to hear from some gurus soon!
Sincerely,
spygrrl
spygrrl2000@yahoo.com
PS I have tried to find books to teach myself these things but there's just so *much* out there to choose from! If you have recommendations on recently published, up-to-date books that might help me, by all means let me know. I can only look at so many titles on Barnes and Noble before my eyes cross!
I have a very small business related website on a free host. It is not an e-commerce site and simply advertises a service, so currently the content and bandwith used are quite small. I am planning to move to my own domain and have registered a domain name already. Even after my site grows it will use much more in bandwith than it does in storage. In my efforts to research web hosting companies I realized that I do not know enough about the options and possibilities offered to make a fully informed decision. I need a tutorial in the basics.
I am not lazy and I have spent hours on the web searching for a simple, no-nonsense tutorial about websites and choosing a webhost. The problem is, everything I find seems to assume a core level of knowledge that I do not possess. Some things I fully understand, about some things I am completely clueless, and then there are those terms/concepts that I think I understand through context only, and so maybe know just enough about to be dangerous and do myself damage, LOL!
Actually I've looked for two types of tutorials - one about the web/internet in general, and one about websites/webhosting.
I'd love one that explains the basics of both. Ideally it would start at the *beginning* - definition of basic terms and hardware and software components (computer, modem, etc.). Which would then move into how the various components integrate with one another and through what means (servers, IPP, ISP, node, etc). Moving then into the explanation of what a website is (ie HTML is just instructions, the actual content is a much larger size, where/how the images and text are stored, etc.). Segueing into the various options one can add to a website (POP mail, hit tracking, forms, security issues, etc.) and the tools needed to utilized said options (various types of coding programs).
I used to train people and I was very good at teaching new concepts/skills because I seem to have this acumen for logic, order, and building understanding step by step. (I am slightly obssessive-compulsive, anal-retentive or whatever compound affliction you'd like to sling at me.) Trouble is, I can't find a tutorial like this :-( I've tried learning by simply taking a bit from this article here, that article there, and so on. But I am so busy I just no longer have the time to do so. When I search for just the most basic info on the internet and webhosting I get just massive amounts of articles, sites, etc. to look at. My eyes are starting to shrink from reading text on a monitor all day. Thank god for eyedrops! In the final analysis, there is just too much cross-referencing required to get the info I need, and it is far too time consuming. I want to get my site moved and re-designed *soon*.
In lieu of some kick-a** tutorials, I would be ecstatic (really, no kidding, not just pleased, but ecstatic) to find a web guru in the Chicagoland area who is capable of pretending he/she does not know what he/she knows. In my former employment, the biggest problem I found with most training programs, user manuals etc. was that they were not intuitive or logical. (Sorry, was that redundant?) In order to effectively teach someone who has NO frame of reference in regards to the lesson subject, a teacher must put him/her-self in the position of also knowing nothing. An excellent teacher would then be able to determine how best to present the information in a logical, orderly way, so that new concepts build upon the comprehension of prior concepts.
I am not stupid or incapable of learning, but I cannot find a comprehensive guide from which to learn. And I am one of those annoying people who doesn't want you to just give me a fish, I want you to teach me how to fish! (To give you an idea: I wish I'd learned computers when DOS was IT. I know it was a pain in the a** and difficult, but you LEARNED stuff. With a GUI I don't know how to do anything but point and click...I'm completely useless at any troubleshooting whatsoever on my own PC!) I'm not interested in spending months in class at the local college when I can learn what I need to know in anywhere from a few hours to a weekend (depending on content and scope of your knowledge) with an interactive, private consultant.
If you have a passion for sharing your knowledge with others, and you can share your wisdom at a reasonable price, please e-mail me. I am 30 and a little intimidated by child prodigies, sorry, so would prefer someone over 24 and ideally over 35 who was around when this stuff wasn't so advanced. I am located in the near NW burbs of Chicago, IL but am familiar with the city itself and all the surrounding suburbs. In my home is preferable but I'd be willing to drive a reasonable distance for an excellent professional.
At the end of this tutoring I would expect to understand the following:
the basic mechanisms of the internet itself
the basic components of a web site
the various types of webhosting companies, including what is a re-seller and how it operates
how websites interact with webhosts
available options to add to websites, ranging from simple to complex
what I need in a webhost in order to be able to utilize these options (ie I need x program to provide y attribute)
comprehending my site statistics - bandwith usage, hits, etc. - and to recognize when it's getting too big for its britches or there's been a problem
various types of security issues and how to address them
some other minor stuff I've probably forgotten to mention
If you are also a web designer there would be some other concepts I would like to learn. These are:
portals or entries - what are they and how do I utilize them?
what are meta tags and other ways of defining my site content?
optimizing my ranking in search engine results (without overloading into spamming and being rejected!)
what are forms and how to create them
neato small size graphics stuff I can do with my site
how do I make sure my design is compatible with both IE and Netscape?
basic stuff about FrontPage or FrontPage Express (I know it's easy, I haven't had time, darn it!)
more stuff I probably can't remember at the moment (but will later when I'm desperately trying to fall asleep, LOL)
Although I want to learn how to do these things on my own I am definitely looking for someone to design my website. I am also looking at creating two other websites very, very soon which would also need design services. None of these would be incredibly lucrative but for a real pro it would be quick, easy money for stuff you can probably turn out in your sleep - and did, 10 years ago. (I'm not trying to dissuade you from contacting me, but I don't think it would be fair to mislead you into thinking this would be more than a $ 500 project)
I anticipate that some of you responding to this will want to look at my current website and will wonder why I do not list it. Your logical response would be to post a reply asking for the url and I bet you would think something was very fishy if I said I didn't want to provide it in this forum. Although I would prefer not to post this publicly, after much thought I doubt I will be able to avoid it, so I'll just bite the bullet and say it now:
I am currently employed in the adult industry (no, I do NOT have a porn site!). It is possible you won't care but if you are a designer who might have a moral issue with this it is only fair to warn you in advance. I have not provided my homepage url because I hope to avoid being addressed by those who might find my lifestyle choices distressing. I do not wish to inflict my beliefs/values on others, and ask that you do not do so to me. Accordingly, designers please respond only if you will not be offended.
Those of you who contact me privately will be given the url via e-mail. Please don't laugh too loudly at the site: I didn't know how to format a thing but a paragraph at the time, so just sat there with my HTML book skipping to the chapters I needed. Although the funny thing is - someone copied a ton of my source code right from the site in order to do their own amateur site...I was sooo flattered until I saw their very poorly done site...then I realized why they might I have thought I knew what I was doing, LOL!
Thank you very kindly for your patience in reading my novella. I hope to hear from some gurus soon!
Sincerely,
spygrrl
spygrrl2000@yahoo.com
PS I have tried to find books to teach myself these things but there's just so *much* out there to choose from! If you have recommendations on recently published, up-to-date books that might help me, by all means let me know. I can only look at so many titles on Barnes and Noble before my eyes cross!