Sojourner's
Web Service

Many people think that all they need to do is decide they want a Website and, presto! they build one. However, Websites take planning if you want it to look respectable. There are a number of things you need to consider before building your Website.

1. A lot of people build Websites for essentially vanity; they like having their presence available to millions of people worldwide, being able to air their opinions for everyone to see. The first thing you need to do is consider whether or not you really want and/or need a Website.

2. Do you have a logo for your Website? You don't have to have one, of course, but straight text will tend to put people off your site. Perhaps of the most important aspect of the Internet is visual; if people don't like what they see at first, they tend not to scroll down and read what comes later. If your site is for a ministry, it's best to have some sort of logo or style of title that will reflect your image. A particular style of print might suffice; it's amazing what you can do with a little thought. Look at the types of fonts available on your computer; you might find some distinctive style, like an old Gothic or something Medieval or a modern avant garde look will give the right impression. Think about it, look round at advertising and see what kind of styles you can come up with.

   The logo on my Website grew out of the idea that I'm merely a sojourner on earth -- my citizenship is in Heaven. The font used on the word 'sojourner' reflects a more relaxed style; and the feet, of course, are those of one who's on a journey but stopping for a while here. A picture such as the feet with your title is unnecessary, but you'll want the name in a style that reflects your own personality and what you're trying to say on your Website.

   Once you've decided what you want, it's usually not as hard to build as you might think. There are all sorts of programs available to help with graphics, as well as ready-made material for free on the Internet. Later on I'll give some clues as to where to look and what to use.

   And what's your favourite colour, or what colour do you think would best exemplify the tone or your site? Light? Dark? You will be able to use essentially any colour as background on your site that you might like. In addition, there are all sorts of textured backgrounds available. We'll look at these later, but it's something to begin thinking about.

3. You'll notice from the TBS site and my site that it's best to break the material down into logical sections: your homepage (the page most people will see first) will be an introduction to what you're doing and a table of contents for the rest of your Website, and the other pages will be other material -- articles you've written, information about services at your church, biographies of your pets. Therefore, you'll need to come up with an introduction; it doesn't have to be long, as you can see from my Website, but it needs to express something of what you're trying to achieve.

4. Languages can be a problem. Many Christians want to include information dealing with Scripture, and want to provide work in the Biblical languages. You'll need to be careful using Greek and Hebrew. As a matter of fact, it would probably be better if you transliterated rather than using the actual languages. The reason is that some browsers don't produce languages well. In addition, many laymen don't read the Biblical languages. Therefore, transliterate unless it's absolutely necessary to use the languages.

5. You may want to have links to other Websites which are similar to yours or that provide other information. Look round on the Internet and see what's out there (you may already know what's out there and have a list on the 'favourites' file on your browser). It's generally considered to be a courtesy that you ask before linking to other sites, therefore e-mail the Website's owner before linking, and if he says no, accept his refusal graciously.

6. You'll need to ensure that your Internet Service Provider provides Web space for subscribers. If you don't know, it should say on their Website, and should also say how much space they provide and at what cost. Here in the UK and in some other countries, you can get a good amount of space free. Don't worry if it's only a couple of megabytes -- TBS's entire site still fits on a single floppy disk.

7. You'll probably want to avoid a lot of high-tech frames and photographs, since these slow download and are inaccessible to people with older computers and browsers, which are still the norm in many areas outside of North America.

Well, that's all I can think of for the moment. So, get busy thinking and planning, and in due course I'll build Page Four.

From here you can either go





or

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If thou needest me, me.