Abstract
I recently overheard a woman in a coffee shop remark, "If I see one more dot com ad I'm gonna scream!" She is not alone in her frustration, but a person can avoid the future of commerce and entertainment for only so long. It reminds me of when my parents were the last people on our block to trade in the black & white 1V for a color set. They could not understand what all the fuss was about. Their little black & white television set worked just fine, thank you.
Welcome to the 21st century!
The Internet is not part of the future of business - it is the future of business. Why should those whose business is aviculture be left behind? The Internet has been set up in a way that makes it one of the most egalitarian forums on the planet. Anyone can buy a domain name for a mere $70 (prepays two years) and upload a web site to either a free or relatively inexpensive web hosting service. Imagine having a storefront for about $20 a month! Now imagine that this storefront has a nationwide audience.
Having a 'web page does not necessarily have to be a chore. It can be a fun, rewarding challenge. When I started with a little free site hosted by my ISP, I had no idea that I would end up with multiple web sites on various topics and as a guide at a major portal (About.com). Now it is not only a hobby, but a side business that I thoroughly enjoy.
At the end of this article, I have listed numerous other resources, such as good examples of quality web sites, free and low-cost web hosts, and other tools of the trade that you can find on-line.
The Nuts & Bolts
First things first - get on the web.
Surf; play around; and check out the
other sites related to yours. See what other people are doing and how they are doing it. I run a guide to bird sites at About.com that lists about 700 sites on a variety of bird-related topics: http:/ !birds.about.com. Start clicking through the sites listed and find out why the web is so hot these days.
Reserve Your Domain Name Now
If you have a very common name for your aviary, chances are it is already gone. Sometimes you can do a variation on that name. For instance, if Aworldofbirds.com is already taken, you might be able to reserve Aworldofbirdsaviary.com. Be careful when you reserve a name that it is not protected by a trademark. Remember that if someone has trademarked a name and you reserve that for yourself, the rightful owner will not be happy and will have legal rights to the name. There is no point in putting work into building a brand that you do not have a legal right to promote as your own.
If you want to reserve a name but do not feel that you are ready to put up a web site yet, there are many companies that will "park" your domain name for free. This means they go through the tedious process of registering your name then put up a page that says, "Future home of appleyardaviaries.com." Many of these services will also give you free email forwarding with unlimited aliases. This means your new email address can be anything@appleyardaviaries.com and the service will forward your mail to your regular email address (such as you@mindspring.com). I have listed these places in the resources section at the end of this article.
You also can get free sites without a domain name, but it looks much more professional to have your own domain.
First of all, a long sub-domain address such as www.freesitesforall.com/bamyard/birds/ appleyardaviaries is very hard to remember. A few free hosting services will give you a name such as appleyardaviaries.freesitespace.com, which is a little better. However, appleyardaviaries.com certainly is the easiest to market and gives you a brand name that can quickly become well known on the web, especially if the quality of your site is high.
Web Hosts
If you are ready to fly into cyberspace, there are both free hosts (the trade off is usually a banner ad or popup ad appearing on your pages) and paid hosts who will register your domain name for you then open your space on their servers, often within 24 hours. Beware of hosts that are just a little too cheap. Generally, you do get what you pay for and web hosts that charge very little will often have the problem of hosting too many sites on a single server. This means delays, too much down time, and frustrating "404- Not Found" messages when people try to go to your site.
Building Your Site
There are many simple-to-use "WYSIWYG" (what-you-see-is-whatyou-get) programs available that make building a web page as easy as following a recipe. Everyone stumbles at first. Sometimes it can be frustrating. I remember the first time I uploaded my web page and I could not figure out why my graphics and photographs were not showing up. I spent hours analyzing the page I made, reading the instructions, re-uploading the page to no avail. Finally I emailed a friend and got the answer in a few minutes - not only did I need to upload my basic page, I had to upload my graphics and photographs to the server as separate entities. I help many people with their sites these days, and this is one of the most common issues when people first start building pages. You will be delighted by how many experienced webmasters are willing to give you a hand with great time-saving tips and advice.