Projects for Image Preservation & Sharing
> Projects for Families
Sharing Your Family Photos in A Website
Web Site offers vary widely. Several options are discussed to help you decide whether your own website is right for you.
Before turning to web site alternatives, please read the article on "Free and Easy Online Albums and Share Sites" Many of these online albums and share sites serve the photo sharing needs of most families.
Create your own domain and web presence can be very satisfying, but challenging and with a cost. Many online web site hosting services provide templates for websites that can be customized to varying degrees. Many allow you to preview their site building features. Whether you are just curious or actually have an identified need, a visit to a few of these sites can be educational, and help you decide whether the work entailed in developing your own website is preferred to a free share site or online album.
If you are exploring developing a family website, you will find three basic choices. These three choices may all be available at the same hosting service.
► "Free" Websites - The most common tradeoff
for a "free" website is to allow the host to place a variety
of ads
on your website. In other cases, the "free" is associated with a
trial period. The number of pages allowed and features are often
quite limited, and you will not have your own domain name.
Website templates provided at these "free" site hosting services tend to be very basic.
► Paid Hosting "Starter" Packages - If you have the coded pages
required to "publish" a website, they can simply be uploaded to a hosting service. If you do
not have a website to upload, most major web
hosting services also provide site templates that can be quickly customized
for your purposes. Features are limited, but meet the needs of
most family websites. Working with the templates can be a good way to
learn about basic web design.
► Paid Hosting "Premium" Packages - These are
feature rich service packages for ecommerce, managing multiple domain
names, and are oriented toward larger business users.
Monthly fees for paid hosting services tend to range between $5 and $20+ per month depending on features needed.
Web hosting services walk you through the process of acquiring your own domain name, and may offer domain registration free to new customers.
Building a Family Photo Website With a Template
The #1 registrar of domain names is
www.GoDaddy.com.
This hosting service was an early entry in
web site hosting, so they have plenty of experience in helping people
onto the web. Many flexible templates (13 for families) help you
get up quickly. If you visit the site to explore, find your way to
"site builders", and take the product tour. GoDaddy markets in a
flashy sort of way, but their services are time tested and technical
support can be very important.
A well known site called MyEvent.com is oriented toward organizing events such as family or class reunions. However, a visit is useful to learn about the site's services and capabilities. In any case, MyEvent.com has developed a strong consumer following and, if you are serious about your own website, a visit will be informative.
If you have a need for a family website and/or a business idea
you would like to try online, another good place to explore and learn is at
Yahoo
Small Business. Even if you do not need a business
site, the site building support capability here is impressive and a
visit can be a learning experience. Building a website is now easier than ever with Yahoo! Web Hosting.
Designing a Family Website from the Ground Up.
If you have a desire to learn more about web design
and would like the ability to create web pages exactly the way you want
them, you will need to acquire web design software. Two of the most
popular are Microsoft Expression Web
There is no real magic to using web design software to create a website, and some basic templates come with the software. However, web design coding is a language unto itself, and unless you plan to develop a web presence beyond sharing images, it is likely not worth the effort. In any case, you are invited to learn more about actual web design layout and software by visiting Expression Web at Microsoft. If you are considering learning to design your own site, it may be useful to poke around the intros, and video tutorials before you purchase the software.
