What is a "Web site?"

A web site is a usually, but not always, a collection of WebPages related to each other and linked together either in a linear or hierarchical fashion. The purpose of the page can be as simple as a personal page displaying and itemizing your bottle cap collection, espousing your views on a particular issue or event, or as sophisticated as to inform and educate the public on the history or cryogenics, provide a service such as a directory to other sites, run a computer program from a remote site, provide a source for shareware/software, be a cyberspace shopping mall, or provide information about your companies offerings or services.

Why a Web Site?

A web site can be almost anything you can imagine. Some have great value to the general public, some, a specific segment of the public, and some offer little value to anyone but the author. Whether the site has broad value or no value, it is available for Internet users from around the world to view it's content 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, with very few exceptions. It is a low cost method of distributing information to a large audience, and the audience that is viewing your information generally already has a vested interest in the information you can give them or they would not seek your web address, also called a URL (Universal Resource Location.)

What is a "WebPage?"

A WebPage is a computer text file with special instructions included that tells a browser (software installed on a computer that is capable of interpreting these instructions) how you would like your information displayed.

What kind of things go into a "WebPage?"

Many things make-up a WebPage and many more things are being thought of and implemented everyday! Most people would say that fundamentally a WebPage includes text, i.e.information. This WebPage is primarily text. This text can be a list of items, an essay, instructions, business addresses and phone numbers, etc. It can be in black and white or be in color, the text can be bold or italic, large or small.

A WebPage can include much more than just text, such as photos, graphics (a map or logo, perhaps) sound, interactive features, polling capabilities and small "movies."

So why a Web Site/WebPage and what can it do for me?

Almost everyone has a telephone and a mailing address. You wouldn't have a business or try to sell something without a phone number or a place for customers to contact you, would you? Certainly you would have at least your phone number published in a phone book, and you'd probably even take out an ad, in the yellow pages, a newspaper, a magazine...maybe run a radio or television ad, too, right?

Your WebPage, or more likely your web site, large or small, is your advertisement to the world that you have a place, business, service or information. Like a phone book to the general or local population, at your fingertips anytime, the world wide web is a directory with your information day or night, Eastern Time, Pacific Time, or Greenwich Mean Time; from Australia to Norway, California to Japan; your page (and you/your business/product/service) can be found at the fingertips of a techno-savvy generation, and even technology novices. Your web site can be your first impression on a new customer, or an important follow-up to an established client relationship; contributing to and building on an existing business or launching a new career or enterprise.

My Cottage Web Studio designs web sites.

We offer "hosting."

Hosting, is a service that makes your pages accessible to browsers.  Your data (text, photos, etc.) is uploaded to a "server."  The server stores data and is connected to the Internet.   When someone types in your domain/web address the call goes out for information matching that request.  The server, when located, delivers the pages to be viewed in a browser.  Need hosting?  Check our hosting plans!