Simply go to the VIEW menu of your browser (Internet Explorer, Netscape, Opera, etc) and select SOURCE. From your browser, you may print out the source code and you may save it to a file on your hard drive. Edit the file with a simple text editor like Microsoft's NOTEPAD (under ACCESSORIES in your program list). Simply replace the existing text with information about your church. Give them the basic 4 W's - WHO, WHAT, WHEN, WHERE. Do NOT use fancy web software that teaches you nothing. You really don't need it. We suggest you create a folder called WEBSITE under your MY DOCUMENTS folder and save all your web files to that folder. If you do not know how to use the basic functions of your operating system, learn. Go to your help menu, go to your library, take a course, ask a ten-year -old. Do something and learn the basics. You can do it. Anything between a < and a > is a instruction to your browser software. These are called tags and should be left alone. For example, the p-tags define where a paragraph starts and stops.
Go to a search site and look up "web hosting reviews". Check out a few & make a choice. A basic plan is all you will need for now. Don't pay more than $60 per year. You do NOT need Windows hosting (that refers to the type of server you are hosted on, not the computer you use). We use IXWebHosting.com, but there are many choices. Don't lose sleep -- it is not that big a decision. Pick a URL (domain name, web address) for your site, that is short, easy-to-spell AND not already taken. This is the most difficult thing you will have to do because the first million best names are already taken. Choose wisely. The people you want to reach will have to key this in and they will try to make every mistake they can. Choose an extension - com or org. Many churches prefer org because com stands for 'commercial' - however, people generally key in com regardless - so choosing com will make your site easier to find. Best bet is to register both and use one address as an alias to direct people to the other address -- ask your web host to help you set it up.
Get yourself some FTP Client software. We use ftp Commander , but there are many of them and some are free. Your web host will provide you with a URL, a user name and a password (which you may have chosen yourself when you signed up). You will feed that information to your FTP Client software so it can log onto your web host. You will then copy your files to the host. It takes about a minute and your done. That's it. It is that simple.
You do not need someone to hold your hand. Ask God for help. Take your time. Expect some trial-and-error. Use the brain that God gave you and work it out. Don't try to complicate it. Don't try to do too much at once. Just follow the steps and you will have a web site. You can do it.
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Copyright © 2006 HiH Ministries of Connecticut
Copyright Permission
Source code for this site may be freely used by any church or place of worship that honestly seeks to glorify God.
Personal vanity sites and sites that preach hatred or harm are outside the limit of this permission.