Making your own website

Making your own website can be great fun. It is an excellent way for you to share information or opinions with other people around the world. It can also help you keep in contact with international friends and family. You can put text, images and video on your website and make them accessible to people all over the world - or you can restrict access to a smaller group of people.

Getting started with your own website is easy. You will need three things:

• Somewhere to host your site. You can talk to your Internet Service Provider - often they will provide you with a place to put your website as part of their basic service. You can also search the web for companies that will host your website for free or for a fee.
• The tools to create the content for your site. There are a great range of tools available that make it easy to create web pages and put them on your site. Websites like Tucows and Download.com provide a listing of tools that you can download for free or purchase.
• Some information to put on your site. You can put almost anything you like on your site (providing it does not violate any laws). Common examples include information about yourself (but be careful to protect your privacy), about your hobbies or interests, about travel you have undertaken or about your family history.

One thing you will want to avoid is creating a 'time capsule'. We've all seen them - websites that haven't changed for years. They look terrible and they are less interesting for people to look at. You should regularly update the content on your website so that it remains current and interesting.

One of the best online resources for making your own website is the American site Virtually Ignorant. The site provides easy to follow tutorials that show a beginner everything they need to know about making a website. Your local computer club or computer group will often be able to help you out as well.