You must have a VodaHost
account (paid $$) to publish a website using the (free) BV Web Builder. http://www.vodahost.com/
You can only publish to a Voda Host server.
You must have a domain name. https://vodahost.com/modernbill/order/orderwiz.php?v=4 You
receive a free domain name (for 1 year) with the purchase of a Voda Host account.
An existing domain name can be hosted
with any company, however you must point the domain name to your Voda Host account IP#’s http://www.vodahost.com/tut_dns.htm
You will receive a “Welcome” email from
Voda Host with all the info you need to set up your
site and to publish to your account/IP
SAVE THIS EMAIL for future reference. I
would suggest also printing it and storing it in a safe place.
You can submit a support ticket for
help @ http://support.vodahost.com/index.php
Plan your site: http://www.vodahost.com/vodatalk/web-hosting-pre-sales/665-getting-started-how-plan-your-website.html
Go
to (http://www.vodahost.com/tut_bluevoda.htm
) for tutorials
on just about anything a Newbie web builder could think of.
You Must
view all of the tutorials before beginning. Your work will go much
faster/easier.
Read this entire primer BEFORE
starting.
The
BV software will be placed in your My Documents folder by default.
Inside
of the BlueVoda folder you will see an Images folder.
Copy
that folder and then delete it.
Add
a new folder with your website name added (no .com) or a name (red widgets,
i.e.) that is easy for you to associate with your website inside the BlueVoda folder.
This
will save a lot of hassles should you choose to have another website.
Paste
the Images folder inside your red
widgets folder.
BV
supports jpg, jpeg, gif and png image formats.
All
graphics/images/whatever that will be used to build the website should be
inside the images folder or another folder that you create inside the red
widgets folder.
Images
should be saved and named using terms to associate the image with your site.
(i.e. redwidget_close_up.jpeg)
When placing images/graphics do not use the “handles”
on the edge of the boxes to resize.
This causes distortion and poor quality.
Any graphics/images should
be sized (http://www.vodahost.com/vodatalk/bluevoda-tips-tricks-shortcuts/21698-photo-image-resizing-naming-tips.html?highlight=resize
) using an image editing software and optimized to web usage. http://www.vodahost.com/pix.htm http://www.webdevelopersnotes.com/design/optimizing_web_pages.php3
No
spaces or symbols are allowed in the names and try to keep the name short and under 25 characters.
This
will help with organization as everything used to build the site will be in one
location and easy for you to find later on when you make changes.
Anytime
you see text between “ “ (quotes) in this Newbie Tips document ignore the quote
marks. This is for emphasis only.
Start
with your home/index page.
Lets
say that your main agenda is to sell “Red Widgets”
Open
a blank page, right click on an empty area:
Page
Properties/General Tab:
Title:
Very Important !!! The title (not page name) MUST
reflect the content to be entered on the page using keywords/key phrases.
“Red
Widgets for Home & Office” could be the page title. Note that if I am
selling red widgets the page title begins with the red widget phrase.(keywords)
I’m
sure you can come up with a title that is more creative.
Page
Width: No larger than 1000 (this as an area of ongoing debate) A width of 780
will ensure that no user will have to scroll left/right to see your page.
File
Extension: html (php will be used for special pages
talked about in the Single Page Menu Option.
Check=
Center in Browser
There
is no point in entering “blue widgets” if blue widgets are not in text on the
page.
See
the logic?
Page
Description: A short concise description of the page content using keywords.
(25 words max)
Meta
Tags, Page Title, Page Description must be changed to pertinent content for
every page.
Here
is an excellent source for SEO info. http://www.vodahost.com/vodatalk/bluevoda-tips-tricks-shortcuts/6937-search-engine-optimization-marketing-tools.html
Build
your home/index page with all navigation buttons/text links, logos, and/or graphics
that will be on EVERY page.
Here’s an excellent place to
make sure that you are using a pleasant color theme. Bright, neon colors should
be avoided. http://www.hypergurl.com/colormatch.php
Your
Navigation Menu should be able to take you to any page, from any page on the
site.
Text
Links are very Search Engine (SE) friendly and make it easier for the SE’s to
find your site.
Let’s
say you will have several pages. One would be an About Us page.
The
link to that page would be http://www.yoursite.com/aboutus.html
No
spaces are allowed in the page name.
It’s
best if you use all lowercase characters.
Your
link must be EXACTLY
as you saved the page name.
You
can change the appearance (style) of links in your Insert Hyperlink window
under “ Edit Style”.
The
style change will not appear in the web builder. You can see the change in
“Preview”
Make
sure that you leave the “Target” option empty (not _blank) unless it is a link
going to a site outside of yours. Then use the “ _blank
“ option.
Do
not add any text or graphics that will not be unique to the home page.
“Save
As” any name that will identify this page as your web template. You should also
File/Save As Template. I recommend doing both.
OK,
we are ready to go!!
File/Open
Existing Page/ ”redwidgettemplate”
(or whatever name you saved as)
Add
all of the unique content to the page.
Your
content MUST reflect what your site is about. Use keywords (search terms) that
you think others would use to search for a site like yours.
This
is the most important step in having a website that can actually be found among
the millions of sites already out there.
Make
sure you choose a web friendly font.
File/Save
As
index Nothing
else…not index.html or Index or Index.html…. just plain old……. index
Save
the index page to the “red widget” folder inside the BlueVoda
folder.
Preview
Publish
(If your IP address does not appear in the drop down selections you will have
to download the newest version of BV. You WILL NOT lose any files already
saved)
This
should get you well on your way.
Good
Luck.
CarbonTerry
[c] Terry Whitford, 2008
All rights reserved