Lesson 18. Putting Your Site Online

The catchphrase "If you build it, they will come," from the movie Field of Dreams notwithstanding, just uploading your site to a web server somewhere doesn't mean that you'll attract many visitors. In fact, with millions of sites online already, some of them with thousands of documents, you'll need to promote your site if you want to build an audience.

In this Lesson

So, how do you entice people to come to your site? This lesson will show you some of the ways, including the following:

• What a web server does and why you need one

• Where you can find a web server to host your site

• How to deploy your website

• How to find out your URL

• How to test and troubleshoot your web pages

• Advertising your site

• Getting your site listed on the major web directories

• Submitting your site to search engines

• Using business cards, letterheads, and brochures

• Locating more directories and related web pages

• Using log files and counters to find out who's viewing your pages