Overview

Most people who need Internet support services are already professionals in their own fields of expertise and haven't the time or interest to acquire a second profession in Internet technology. Neither do they expect a million visit­ors per day at their websites. In fact, they may be interested only in reaching friends and neighbors in their home towns or others in their professional specialties. If this sounds like you, then read on and consider retaining Internet support services here.

Website hosting

Think of a website as pages collected into chapters, with a table of contents at the front and an index at the back of a book. The book needs a shelf to sit on so that you know where it is when you need it. An Internet website hosting service corresponds to the shelf—a physical location known not only to you but to many others as well.

When looking for a book, nobody scans a shelf looking for a book named "Shelf" (i.e., "AlOlmstead.com"). Instead, they look for a specific title (i.e., "PetsGalore.com"). There is no need for others to know that you host your website at AlOlmstead.com. They need to know only the name that you decide upon for your website (e.g., "BigSpringAutoRepair.com").

So that others can find your website "book" on the "shelf" at AlOlmstead.com, you must register your chosen website name with a domain name registrar. Registration with a legitimate and ethical domain name registrar typically costs about $35 per year. AlOlmstead.com does not provide domain name registration services, because that is a highly specialized activity that imposes high front-end costs and many legal and contractual requirements. For many years, I have used NetworkSolutions.com for domain name registration. They are the original service provider in the United States and they are still the best in my opinion. Once your domain name is registered, I will show you how to "point" it to AlOlmstead.com's "book shelf", as well as how to set up from 1 to 1,000 email addresses at your new domain name (e.g., "Me@MySite.com").

Since email accounts require storage space; and because AlOlmstead.com does not provide domain name registration services; you will need at least some storage space at NetworkSolutions.com, for which they currently charge about $13 per month. The good news is that the same space can be used to store very large files, such as music and movies, for rapid "streaming" to your web pages. But, if you already have an email account and do not plan to include music or movies in your web pages, then you do not need to rent storage space.

Most web pages contain only text and pictures. For that reason, your "shelf space" at AlOlmstead.com currently costs only $12 per year. There are other charges, depending upon what you intend offering at your website. However, the most expensive services (e.g., generating a true index for a non-fiction book) are provided on a royalty basis and so with little or no front-end payment required.

Free web page templates

AlOlmstead.com is heavily oriented toward book publishing in both print and encrypted electronic formats. In order to eliminate need to typeset each book twice, the page that you are now reading illustrates free page templates that you are encouraged to use in order to eliminate additional charges. These templates control only organization and operation of your pages. You have complete control over colors, images and fonts.

Sales support services

These days, selling online is as simple as signing up for easily incorporated services, such as Google Checkout. However, keeping track of orders, deliveries, customer histories, inventory levels and back-orders can require much burning of the midnight oil or even hiring a clerk and thereby reducing profits. All of these activities are entirely "procedural", which means that they can be programmed for performance by a computer with no need for "understanding" in a human sense. Use people where understanding is needed and use machines where it is not.

Software engineering tutorials

For individuals learning in their free time, or for high school and junior college classes studying for credit, tutorials are available in basic Internet languages (HTML (Hyper-Text Markup Language), CSS (Cascading Style Sheets), Javascript and PHP). Each student receives his or her own fully functional website on which to experiment and learn by doing, all for only the standard website fee (currently $12 per year). Advanced courses in audio, graphics and video are slightly more expensive and require knowledge of basic language skills except PHP.

Software engineering libraries

Computer programming is a "procedural" activity, which means that the same activities are performed in exactly the same ways every time. Especially when procedures are quite complicated and require special knowledge, they can be collected in library modules, which are invoked by supplying the few variables that change from one use to the next.