View source for How to make a website

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''(Note: this is the fundamental page on this website. Everything starts here. But this page is still only half-finished, and most of the other pages it refers to are [[red links]].)''

Making a [[website]] can be very simple, or it can be very complicated. One should start with something simple and work up to complicated, but most of us start with something overly complicated because we are unaware of all the possibilities.

==Developer-hosted versus user-installed==
The simplest way to make a website is to sign up for a free [[blog]] on a [[developer-hosted platform]]. The website software is operated by the developer for the benefit of the blog authors. It is very easy to create your own personal blog using a default format. If you want to configure your blog to a personal format, most of these platforms will let you do so, but you will generally have to know [[HTML]] and [[Cascading Style Sheets|CSS]]. So this "simple" solution can rapidly become quite complicated.

It is somewhat more difficult, but much more rewarding, to learn to install your own websites. This is generally done by using a [[web hosting service]], which provides space on a [[web server]] that they own (or lease) and run, as well as the Internet connectivity. A still more ambitious alternative is to rent your own web server from an [[internet hosting service]], which may be either an entire server rented from a [[dedicated hosting service]], or a [[virtual private server]] produced by partitioning a single server so that it appears as multiple servers, each with its own operating system and capable of being independently rebooted.

For more information on intalling a website on a [[web hosting service]], see [[How to install a website on a web server]]. For information on running your own web server, see [[How to run a web server]].

==Static websites versus dynamic websites==
(To be written)

==Installing your website on a web hosting service==
(To be written)

==Installing a test website on localhost==
(To be written)
:See [[How to install a website on localhost]].

==Wikipedia Links==
*Developer hosted platforms: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog_hosting_service#Developer-hosted_platforms
*User Hosted Platforms: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog_hosting_service#User_hosted_platforms
*Web hosting service: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_hosting
*Static website: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Website#Static_website
*Dynamic website: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Website#Dynamic_website

==Other External Links==

[[Category:How-to]]
[[Category:Draft]]