Step 1:  Learn the Lingo!
Step 1: Learn the Lingo Step 2: Master the Mental Step 3: Gather the Goods Step 4: Ace the HTML Step 5: Find the Free Sites Step 6: Spread the Spiel Step 7: Reap the Rewards	Browser A computer program that allows a user to "browse" the Internet. Netscape and Internet Explorer are popular browsers and they are available for free!   Email Electronic mail used to send electronic messages to others.  Anyone can now get free email and it only takes minutes to set up.  The most popular web site to get free email is at Yahoo!®.  See?  Even a yahoo can get free email!   HTML Hypertext Markup Language.  Any old "text" file that gets "marked up" with simple codes that allows browsers to add special formatting and allow for "hypertext," i.e., clicking on a link brings one to another point in the document or in another web site.  Actually, HTML is a piece of cake that can be learned in a few hours.  No kidding.  Don't be intimidated by thinking it's a fancy computer language.  It's not.  I teach HTML at a local college that charges a $125 class fee, but you go right ahead and take a few hours to interactively learn HTML for free!   Internet An interconnected network of computers, millions of them worldwide, where one can get information on almost anything.  The World Wide Web is a part of the Internet.  How does one get access?  All that's needed is a computer with a web browser and a connection via an ISP (see below).  But even public libraries have such access now.  So anyone can have free access.  Even computers can be had for free these days!   ISP Internet service provider.  An ISP provides the service that allows one to connect to the Internet.  Now anyone can be a part of the Internet if they have thousands of dollars for various hardware and software, but ISP's take care of that for you and allow you to connect for just a few dollars per month.  For example, I get America Online for only $4.95 a month but some services such as AT&T WorldNet® have superior service!   URL A Uniform Resource Locator is just a uniform way to locate a resource.  Your web site is a resource.  How is it located on the Internet?  With a URL.  Almost everything available on the Internet has a URL.  All those commercials you hear about www dot this, www dot that, well those are just URLs.  Any of the links on this web page are URLs.  The URLs tell the computer how to find a resource, where to find that resource, and what to retrieve once that resource is located.  For example, in http://www.homestead.com/ToastmasterDan/index.html, the http: says to use the hypertext transfer protocol, the //www.homestead.com says to find a particular computer uniquely named www.homestead.com, and the /ToastmasterDan/index.html says to go to the Toastmaster directory, then get the index.html file and display it as a web page.  It's simple as that.   Web Site A location on the World Wide Web, also considered a "site," where people can point their browsers to see anything anyone is willing to show.  For Toastmasters, a web site is used to inform members about current activities and nonmembers about potential membership.  Toastmasters International provides "Internet Helps and Guidelines" to specify what should and should not be on a Toastmasters web site.

	Step 2:  Master the Mental!
Step 1: Learn the Lingo Step 2: Master the Mental Step 3: Gather the Goods Step 4: Ace the HTML Step 5: Find the Free Sites Step 6: Spread the Spiel Step 7: Reap the Rewards	Let's face it.  The biggest problem that exists in building a web site is attitude.  Perhaps you're saying to yourself, "I can't do this!" or "Sure, that's easy for you, but I'm just a mere mortal!"  Forget about that.  This stuff is a piece of cake.  All you need is a Positive Mental Attitude, PMA.  With PMA, you can do anything.  With what you'll learn here today, you can build an effective web site, all for free.  Combine your PMA with the hints and tips you're going to learn and there's almost nothing you can't do.  So open up your mind, right now, relax, have a positive mental attitude, and pay attention.  Remember the Little Engine that Could?  Remember how that little engine pulled all those toys over the hill for the children?  The engine said, "I think I can, I think I can."  Now let's all say that together.  "I think I can, I think I can, I think I can...."

	Step 3:  Gather the Goods!
Step 1: Learn the Lingo Step 2: Master the Mental Step 3: Gather the Goods Step 4: Ace the HTML Step 5: Find the Free Sites Step 6: Spread the Spiel Step 7: Reap the Rewards	First, let's collect the material that should be on your web site.  Quoting the "Internet Helps and Guides" from the Toastmasters International web site: Club web pages should contain information useful to current and prospective members and officers.  Useful information includes, but is not limited to:  the Club name, the Club's meeting time, location, and a contact telephone number; the features and benefits of Toastmasters membership; membership promotion ideas for the Club's members; a calendar listing appropriate information about Club events or events the Club's members should attend; the mission of the Club, and a published or "last updated" date to identify the timeliness of the information.  Club web pages may also include an on-line version of the Club's newsletter or information appropriate for publication in a club newsletter. That's great but it's really much simpler than that.  All you need to do is to make believe you're publishing a newsletter.  Whatever goes in a newsletter can go on a web site, and often in the same format!  So there's really no need to write for a web site, particular if that idea intimidates you.  Just imagine you are writing for or preparing a newsletter and the rest is easy!  [This is another part of Step 2: Mastering the Mental!] Two articles come to mind as a source for tips on newsletter writing.  Consider Fry, CTM, Patricia L., "Tips From Award-Winning Editors," The Toastmaster, March 1999, p.24, and Boehm, Michelle, "Do You Have the Newsletter Blues?," The Toastmaster, March 1999, p.27.  In the latter article, the author details four steps to beating the "Newsletter Blues":  1) Get more members involved.  2) Develop a newsletter committee, [or in our case, a web site committee].  3) Request material from your entire club.  4) Create a newsletter [or web site materials] binder.  I highly recommend the reading of these two articles.

	Step 4:  Ace the HTML!
Step 1: Learn the Lingo Step 2: Master the Mental Step 3: Gather the Goods Step 4: Ace the HTML Step 5: Find the Free Sites Step 6: Spread the Spiel Step 7: Reap the Rewards	Don't be intimidated by the computer coding; this is the easiest part!  After learning HTML in a few hours from an easy interactive web site written in plain English, I quickly and easily built my very first web site.  Not bad for a first try, huh?  Well you can do it too!  Look how easy it is.  Here's a sentence as it appears on a web page and how it appears in HTML:   To use bold, color, or a graphic such as , just add certain characters to any old text file.  Easy? <center>To use <b>bold</b>, or <font color="red" size="+2">color</font>, or a graphic such as <img alt="Sample Showing Embedding of Graphics!" src="question.gif" height="15" width="17">, just add certain characters to any old text file.&nbsp; Easy?</center> Now go to that web site and start learning HTML!  When you are ready for more advanced information, see STARS or Web Site Resources. Even an excellent and easy-to-use graphics computer program is available for free!  From Jasc you can download a free 30 day trial of Paint Shop Pro.  Another cool free graphics program is called IconSucker that allows you to suck the icons out of various computer files.  Click here to download the IconSucker. Finally, here are more juicy tidbits to make HTML a piece of cake.  First, open a browser window above an HTML editor window, such as Notepad, so that both can be seen at one time.  Make only a few changes in the editor, then save, then refresh the browser.  If too many additions at one time are made in the editor, it becomes impossible to find the mistakes in the browser, so make a few changes then check them immediately. Second,if you don't want to add any HTML at all, no problem!  Just write what you want in a word processor such as Word then "Save as HTML"!  That's it!  It's that easy!  Third, if you make HTML errors, who cares, just submit the web site to an HTML validation checker like Doctor HTML and it will tell you exactly what's wrong!  And it's a great way to learn what to do in the future!  Finally, remember our disabled friends and get the web site checked for web accessibility.  For example, see Bobby.  For the last two points, the Technical and Miscellaneous Hot Links below have more links.  HTML and accessibility checking are both so easy to do that after you make your corrections based on the suggestions, people will think you're a genius!  By the way, to add two spaces after a period at the end of a sentence, use the nonbreaking space code then press the space bar once: "&nbsp; ".

	Step 5:  Find the Free Sites!
Step 1: Learn the Lingo Step 2: Master the Mental Step 3: Gather the Goods Step 4: Ace the HTML Step 5: Find the Free Sites Step 6: Spread the Spiel Step 7: Reap the Rewards	Believe it or not, plenty of web sites give you free space on their computers to build a web site.  You also get free email.  For example, try www.Angelfire.com, www.Delphi.com, www.FortuneCity.com, www.GeoCities.com, www.Homestead.com (which is rated the best by far by various magazines), or www.Tripod.com.  Some people even get several free email addresses and web sites!  Here's a web site devoted to listing and rating free web site hosts: Now this article is about everything being free, but if you really wanted a vanity web site name (domain name) such as www.ToastmasterDan.org, then get an "IP" address from your ISP; submit this IP, along with the domain name you want and some technical and billing information, to Network Solutions.  If the domain name is available (if nobody else has registered it), Network Solutions assigns it to you.  The current fee for registering a domain name is $70, which covers 2 years of use.  After that, you are billed $35/yr to maintain the name.  For more information, see the Help web page at Network Solutions.

	Step 6:  Spread the Spiel!
Step 1: Learn the Lingo Step 2: Master the Mental Step 3: Gather the Goods Step 4: Ace the HTML Step 5: Find the Free Sites Step 6: Spread the Spiel Step 7: Reap the Rewards	If a tree falls in a forest, does it make a sound?  If you have a beautiful web site but no one knows about it, does it make waves?  No.  Your web site must get noticed.  How?  Try to get listed in your club's newsletter (until it goes online).  Try to get publicity in general circulation newspapers.  Have all club members add the web site's link to their automatic email signatures.  Link to other Toastmaster web sites in exchange for them linking to yours.  Send an occasional short and sweet email to coworkers advertising your Toastmasters site and providing the web site link.  Try to choose an easy-to-remember web site address. Finally, get listed on various Internet search engines.  Search engines allow users to find web sites by searching for key words.  Take advantage of "meta tags."  Meta tags tell search engines what you think are the key words and site description.  One free service that adds your web site address to multiple search engines is Submit-It.  Here's a link to detailed info about search engines.

	Step 7:  Reap the Rewards!
Step 1: Learn the Lingo Step 2: Master the Mental Step 3: Gather the Goods Step 4: Ace the HTML Step 5: Find the Free Sites Step 6: Spread the Spiel Step 7: Reap the Rewards	If you keep that PMA and use the information provided, you can build and promote an effective web site.  If you have an effective web site, your current members and potential new members can quickly find information about you, and your club can more effectively get out the positive message about Toastmasters International and what it can do for anyone!  Plus, it's just plain fun to build the site then get feedback from visitors and fellow webmasters.  Who knows?  Maybe you'll get webmastering experience that will help you in job hunt or your current career!

	Hot Links!
Step 1: Learn the Lingo Step 2: Master the Mental Step 3: Gather the Goods Step 4: Ace the HTML Step 5: Find the Free Sites Step 6: Spread the Spiel Step 7: Reap the Rewards	There are so many excellent hot links, they all live on a separate page!  Please go there to see the excellent links conveniently arranged by subject matter:

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