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Build Your Own Website!

The "Build Your Own Website!" guide was put together a few months after Penny Rollo [who builds the whole Project HappyChild site] built her first webpages.

A complete novice to begin with [literally no pagebuilding experience whatsoever] Penny had no-one to ask for help when she first took over what was then about a 40-page website [Martin Lockey, who had built the first pages free for Project HappyChild, had been offered a high-powered job out of the blue and gave her two weeks' notice that she would be building it from 1st June 1998 .....]

So it was really a case of "sink or swim". The gift of Corel WordPerfect Suite8, earlier that month, on 7th May 1998 from Channel MarketMakers, was to tip the balance - Penny found she could create webpages she liked the look of and whilst she struggled to make sense of the software at times, simply made notes as she went along so that she could remember whichever ways were successful for building different areas of the site. These early notes [plus a few additions later] form the basis of this guide.

Six years or so down the track, there are some 10,800 pages on line and the Project HappyChild site measures around 360Mb in size. Penny finally made the transition in late January 2001, to working entirely in html [programming language] - except for when she's creating an entirely new area, for which she still does the initial set-ups in WordPerfect Suite 8 because this is still such a visually-dynamic program to work with.

Charities and schools should be able to get this software very cheaply (Ł39 + VAT/carriage when last checked) and there are details of how to obtain major discounts on Corel (and Microsoft) software in the "Shop" area at Project HappyChild. Along with a sample of a very early page built [only a few days after starting to use WordPerfect Suite 8] - and a link to Corel Corporation Canada's profile of the Project HappyChild site in July 1999.

Corel Corporation in Canada have been incredibly supportive of Project HappyChild and have sent a number of free software packages which have furnished the high-quality graphics across the site.

Pagebuilding-wise, though, Penny has always found there's nothing to match the original WordPerfect Suite 8 [despite its idiosyncrasies!] for sheer visual appeal and ease of use for initial pagebuilding - Project HappyChild certainly isn't conventional in format (and no frames!) but is an example maybe of what someone with no formal training whatsoever can do with this package.

Every webdesigner should have their own individual "style" and WordPerfect Suite8 allows total freedom of design. One person's use of it will be totally unlike another's. Project HappyChild is "different" from other sites on the Internet - maybe that's why so many people remember it and come back - but your site can be equally unusual, once you find your own unique design style. If you can obtain this package at the Academic Rate this should be an investment you won't regret. The many pages of notes on line in the "Build Your Own Website!" guide should make it easier for schools and charities to use this package to establish an Internet presence - and maintain it easily.

In response to many requests, Penny has finally written a summary of traffic-building tips to supplement the original pagebuilding guide offered here. The "Traffic Building Guide" [Part 14 of the guide to building your own site] includes detailed notes on the strategies used along the way, that resulted in the Project HappyChild site reaching 10,000 visits in its first year, 250,000 in its second, 2,000,000 by 27th April 2001 and 4 million by 23rd March 2002 [and another 10 million since then].

No advertising budget whatsoever! - and the whole website built and maintained on a shoestring, right from the outset. *Total* internet and telephone costs averaging maybe Ł20 a week over the whole period, with these outgoings and other incidentals [postage, stationery etc.] being funded primarily from advertisers in the Shop (thank you!) and some very generous donations when things got tough [see our Sponsors page].

If you're embarking on your first steps in pagebuilding, you too can build a site that people will enjoy browsing around. Maybe not commercial, maybe not very high tech - Penny never learned anything about java or frames and only just enough about .cgi to upload the scripts Mike Ridyard kindly provided for the visitor count! - but maybe you'll build something that will make a difference. There's plenty of "commerce" on line [and much else!] but the Internet's for more than that, a privilege humanity hasn't experienced previously.

Schoolchildren across the world can interlink, tiny projects helping kids in isolated pockets of the world can be as visible as huge charitable organizations, and even if you aren't involved with a school or a charity you can build a website about something you care about - be it flower arranging or woodwork, or whatever else. You can pass on the tips and techniques only you know, to untold numbers of people across the world.

"Build it and they will come", says the legend - and it is true, they will.