If you have got here you have access to the Internet.  Most ISPs (Internet Service Providers) throw in some free space for you to put up a web site.  You could write about yourself, your dog ... or create a site devoted to promoting your cine/video club.  (Actually you can do all of them if you wish.  People looking at  your doggy pictures need not know that the club site is right next door, and vice-versa.)

What they give you may be known as "freespace" or "home pages" … and you can put whatever you want there in the way of words, pictures, links, sounds etc. so long as they are within the law and do not break copyright. If you don't fancy doing it yourself maybe one or more society members could setup and run your web site, enjoy doing it and become fresh committee fodder!

It’s free?!!?

In most cases the web site space is provided free by the company which links you to the net. If yours is an exception do some searching for places which give you a little free space in return for having adverts on the pages. At the time of writing you can get space without advertising at www.brinkster.com.

It does take some time and effort to prepare the pages of information on your site but the tools to do so need not cost a penny.

As usual in the computing world you can pay a fortune for fancy programs or get others for next-to-nothing which do almost the same things. I use:

• You can find free programs using any search engine ... or buy an Internet magazine and get one from their cover disc.
• It also helps to have a program which can manipulate images, change their size and reduce their filesize. I use the superb shareware product PaintShop Pro which is always on the .NET magazine cover discs. The magazine is a good one for new web masters to read since it has useful beginners' guides.  (If you try the program and like it do pay the authors their fee - it is reasonable for such an excellent piece of work.)
• A file transfer program to send the files you create on your computer to your ISP's computer. I have been pleased with WS_FTP LE which is free for non-commercial users.  (To download it, click here, choose download and remember your "area code" is 44.)

What would you say on your site?

Start by planning your site as a series of pages, each of which is quite short. The first page should explain what the site is about and have links to the other pages. Do not put too many graphics on that page because they take a long time to come down the wire and potential readers may not wait for them. On the other pages give details of your programme, venue, membership arrangements, special events and so on. Don’t forget that the net is world wide so make sure you indicate which country as well as which county your society is in.

Add lots of useful links to other web sites. Always link to the IAC site!

Odd Points To Watch

Internet addresses can be very confusing - and very hard for people to write down. For a modest fee you can get a simpler address by a process known as buying a domain name. Bargains in this field change rapidly but a good deal at the time of writing is with OneAndOne for domain names.

TechHead Notes

Use a search engine to look up "META tags". These tags help search engines find your site. Put in keywords such as "movie", "film", "pictures", "video", "DVC" … and a few versions which might be mistyped by searchers such as "flim", "filum", "vido" etc.

Submit the site’s full address to your own favourite search engines — check their front pages for details of how to do this.

Keep pictures to the gif or jpg formats, keep them small so they download quickly and consider using a cheap service such as GifWizard which shrinks them by up to 50%.

Encourage any sites to which you link to reciprocate.

Check out how David Bathurst created the WACC web site. Click here.

- Dave Watterson

"I will never be an old man. To me, old age is always fifteen years older than I am." - Bernard Baruch

Page updated on 21 March 2008

Authors' views are not necessarily those of The Institute of Amateur Cinematographers

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