Ed,

I've recently been learning how to post things to a website. I've been using the Dreamweaver program. I bought the Dreamweaver manual, but it wasn't that helpful because it discussed how to do everything under the sun, and I'd needed intensive help with the basics. Then I did a Google search on "simple HTML tutorial" and found some very easy-to-use guides. It also helps to get tips from someone who knows the program, which I have been fortunate to be able to do. Good luck with it!

Mark

<delurk>
I still code by hand. Never liked Dreamweaver. I like my websites to do what I want them to do, rather than what they think I want them to do.
</delurk>

One option is to use blogging software. In the olden days wordpress and blogspot were inflexible, but they're getting to be more like site-management software nowadays, and may provide enough for your needs. Some online mags are "really" blogs. The advantages are that

• it's free and easy to use (I set one up with my 13 y.o. son and he showed my wife how to create one within minutes)
• to some extent you can choose the site's name, so you don't have to fuss with registering a domain
• you can embed movies and do other cute stuff trivially
• if after an hour you don't feel you're getting anywhere you can just zap everything and abandon it.

It's no use setting up a site if no-one visits. The advantage of having a site that's a blog is that you can incite other bloggers to link/visit/follow your site. It's mainly for this reason that I started a blog last year.

<techie babble {safe to ignore}>

R.J., I admire that. That's exactly how I started, back when lynx was king. In LSE, on OpenVMS, no less! And poets, who are by definition excellent at semiotics, *should* be good at html. Oddly, though, it seems to take our colleagues a while to wrap their brains around the sense of the code. I have a feeling most will be much happier to WYSIWYG! ;)

</techie babble {safe to ignore}>

The blog suggestion is a good one to get up and running fast. Vox is a cool site, with lots of features. It won't teach you how to make a website, but it'll get you up and running like wildfire, without many limitations down the road.

Thanks,

Bill

Dreamweaver is magnificent, it was Alan's choice. But it's probably way too complex for your needs. I should think basic Wordpress would be far more suitable.

Play around with a free website builder first (yola or similar.)

Then, when you've got the design right download the HTML/PHP etc and tinker with it before uploading to a charging host.

Being a procedural programmer I think HTML is the spawn of the Devil, and life is too short to use it from scratch.

Or get a free template. There is some really sophisticated stuff on the web done for fun by HTML-heads.

Why reinvent the wheel?

Philip

Why, indeed? A good point. It seems to me that a small magazine needs certain things from a website template:

- a paypal hookup for subscriptions and donations
- a submissions form, in case they don't want to accept emails
- a way to link to past issues and featured poems
- language that preserves copyrights
- basic help with setting up the layout

Am I missing anything? Is there such a template out there?

Ed

Ed,

What you're talking about here is way beyond HTML.

- a paypal hookup for subscriptions and donations

This is a shopping cart. Tons of free or cheap ones out there. Most hosting companies will provide one for you.


- a submissions form, in case they don't want to accept emails

Upload functions are also available as packaged code. Learning to write one would take a while, and would lead you into another profession! ;)


- a way to link to past issues and featured poems

This is simple HTML, combined with a working knowledge of directory structure.

- language that preserves copyrights

Code that preserves copyrights? The best minds in the world haven't figured that one out. Do it, and you'll be famous! ;)

- basic help with setting up the layout

In general, there are artists, and there are coders. The subset of people who are brilliant at both is very small indeed. Most shops have an artist who does a storyboard of a graphical layout. She then hands it off to a coder, who does the markup.


Am I missing anything? Is there such a template out there?

Cruise around through the pages of code on this site: http://www.literarybohemian.com/

and you'll get a good idea of what it takes. Don't have any compunctions about snagging things: we've all been snagging each other's code snippets for years. It's almost always taken as a compliment... ;)

Thanks,

Bill

Thanks, Bill. That's very helpful.

Ed

... did you really just necro a 13-year-old thread in order to post a poorly-written advertisement?