Blasting Off into CyberSpace! 10, 9, 8....
And now for the exciting moment when your page debuts on the web. Assuming that you've got your web page together, the next step is to find a way of getting it onto the world wide web so others can view it. In order for people to be able to access your web page you must transfer it to a computer which is connected to the Internet twenty-four hours per day, seven days per week. A computer so connected is called a "file server" or "server" for short. For most people owning a server is pretty impractical, so fortunately Internet Service Providers (IPS) rent space on their file servers. ISP's typically include a limited amount of space on their server(s) as a part of a patron's Internet access account. The amount of space included varies, but it typically runs around five megabytes and that's more than enough room for a large web site.
Once you've secured you own server, or more likely, space on one of your ISPs machines, it's a simple matter to transfer the web page you've created from your computer to their server. Transferring files from your computer to a file server on Internet is called "uploading" and its accomplished through a process called File Transfer Protocol (FTP). When transferring files, you establish a connection from your computer to your ISPs file server using the software which they provide. Then simply click on the transfer button and your web page will automatically "blast off" into CyberSpace!
Note: If you desire a special domain name for your web page (www.MyStudio.com), you may secure this address providing it is not already taken, by contacting the InterNic directly, by contacting a Domain Name Registration Service such as TABNET or by working through your Internet Service Provider (see below for contact information on the InterNic, TABNET and a complete list of ISPs nationwide).
Don't Play Hard to Get!
As stated earlier, a large part of having a web page is sharing ideas with others. Obviously, this can not be accomplished if no one knows you have a web site. The final task of creating a web site is to announce it to the wide, wide, world. Internet search engines are your major sources of help with this. Search engines are for profit companies who make money through selling advertising to businesses who wish to advertise on their web site. Search engines make no charge at all to you for listing your site. They are simply eager to increase the size of their data base by including your web site and as many new web sites of every description into their indexes as possible. Each of these search engines employ different methods of data collection, each have different data bases, each indexes their data in different ways and each will yield different results to the exact same search criteria. Therefore, it is important that you register your web site with, at least, several of the major search engines if you are going to be effective in getting the word out about your web site. All the search engines have clickable links on their web sites which allow you to add the address, known as the "URL" (Uniform Resource Locator), of your web page, along with a brief description of your web site, into their data base.