If you don’t have a home for your Web site, the following sections give you some ideas for where to find space for your Web pages.

Internet service providers

If you access the Internet through an Internet service provider (ISP), you probably already have space set aside to set up a home page. Most ISPs give each user a small amount of server space for Web pages included in their monthly service. The space may be limited to a few megabytes, but that should be enough to set up several pages. You can probably get additional storage space if you need it for a modest charge. You may also have to pay additional fees for any type of commercial use on your site. Your ISP can give you step-by-step instructions for copying your Web pages to the ISP’s Web server.

Online services

Some major online services CompuServe and America Online among them let you publish your own Web pages. America Online (AOL), for example, lets you publish your own Web page in the AOL Hometown (hometown.aol.com). Each AOL member is limited to 12MB of storage space. Unfortunately, the domain name you’re assigned when using these services may not be easy to remember or type. Write down your domain name and be careful when you’re typing it.

Free Web servers

If you can’t find a home for your Web page at your Internet service provider or your online service, consider using a free Web server to host your site. The best-known free home page service is Yahoo! GeoCities, which hosts more than 1.2 million home pages. Each free Web site can use up to 15MB of server space. The only limitation is that you must include a banner advertisement at the top of your Web page and a link to the GeoCities home page at the bottom of your page. For more information, go to www.geocities.com. Many other free home page services are available, although most cater to specific types of home pages, such as those for artists, churches, chambers of commerce, and so on. To find a good directory of free home page services, go to Yahoo! (www.yahoo.com) or Google (www.google.com) and search for Free Web Pages.

Elements of Web Page Design

This article presents a primer on HTML techniques for adding commonly used elements to your Web pages, such as headings, backgrounds, links, tables, and navigation bars. As you read this article, keep in mind that you can create Web pages without inserting HTML codes on your own. Microsoft Office FrontPage 2003, Dreamweaver MX 2004, and other popular programs for creating Web pages permit you to use formatting commands to lay out pages, place graphics on pages, and format text. If you aren’t comfortable with HTML codes (who is?), seek the aid of a Web site creation program to create your Web site.