With 26 letters you can make endless words and a never ending amount of sentences. Emotions can be expressed. Points can be discussed. All from those same letters. When you know what you want to say and where you want to say it next its time to think of how to say it. What tone will you set? Will you write with humour, in essay style or a personal journal. Some people use freeware online such as the weblogs from Blogger to do most of the formatting work on their site. Another good method for making the work simpler is the html editor that comes with the two main web browsers. I like FrontPage Express but you might prefer Netscape's Composer. There are many other html editors around most aren't free.

Before you start to write, look at the basic rules of grammar and punctuation. If there is something you didn't know or have been doing wrong just make a note of it. Learning from your mistakes is all part of being a writer. It seems to be a trend online to forget to use punctuation. It looks sloppy, as if they don't really care about their writing or what they have to say. Writers who value their voice take care of it and want to make a good presentation.

One part of writing that computers and technology have made easier is proofreading. Just use a word processing program to check for spelling, typos and grammar mistakes. You can also find a spellcheck feature in other programs like email. Don't rely on only spellcheck, its a back up for your own proofreading. Spellcheck doesn't catch everything. Its best used to check your writing after you have gone over it yourself.

Once you've written some great content you're ready to load it onto your web space, create a layout and add graphics. Graphics aren't essential but they do add colour, character and interest to the text. Start with a white background and black print or experiment a little. Don't go too far. Text needs to be easy on the eyes and easy to read. You can enlarge and colour titles while leaving the body of your content in plain black and white. These are easy things to do and they don't take much longer to load than the plain text.

Adding graphics is where you need to use caution. You can add small graphics, small in file size not in dimension. Smaller files use fewer pixels and load faster. If you want to use more graphics don't put them on your front/ index page. Let the first page be fast loading and an introduction to your site and a simple index of the contents.

Layout is made fairly simple with the use of tables. Tables are made of cells, rows and columns. These can each be moved around, deleted or added as needed. You may have an html editor which lets you choose from templates where the layout is already set up for you. Unless you want something unusual these templates work well, especially when you are just beginning and have a lot to figure out. If you don't have a template you can look for some online or make one of your own. Pick a website where you like the layout, the way everything is displayed and how the navigation is set up. Then, in your web browser, right click the page and click "View Source". This lets you see the html for that page. Cut and paste this into a text file. Put this html into your html editor and use it like a frame to create your own site and layout. You can even give the site credit for your layout. This could benefit you too, if they link back to you.

Make sure all the links to your content pages work and each page links back to the index or onto the next page of content. Linking pages gives your readers a choice of how they want to navigate your site's content. At the bottom of every page on your website consider having a bar with a short version of the index. Make links to your index, a biography for yourself, a way of contacting you (email address) and whatever else seems relevant or important to you. Navigation is very important. Its worth the time it takes for you to check every link on your pages. Make sure none have a typo which will give readers an error message.

Last of all, load your content to your chosen web space. If you are using one of the big free space providers like Geocities or Tripod this is fairly easy. Instructions are on their site, basically you find the file on your computer and send it to their site. If you are doing things with ftp you will need software for this. If you have a problem help is never too far away on the Internet. Many people will know ftp (file transfer protocol).

So now you are all loaded and ready to go. Your page is online, everything works and it looks pretty great. You'll probably make a few changes here and there, twitch that and move this. There are always small things you notice or second guess as you go along. One thing is still missing, readers!

Next time I'll write about website promotion. Post questions to the message boards. I'll be glad to help

One of the best things about the Internet is how it gives all kinds of people a voice. Whether they use that voice for good or ill is up to them. The Internet is full of voices to choose from. Would you like to add your own to them? Its not hard and you can do it for free.

First thing you need is a website. The best, in my opinion, are Tripod or Geocities. Register for free space which gives you an email address also. The hard part is finding a user name. These sites have so many people using the service almost all the easy names are taken. Get creative, see what you can come up with. If you get impatient just add some number to your user name of choice. When you choose a name and a password write them down in a place they won't be lost. You can email them to your family or friends if you don't mind them having that information. I think the best thing is to write them in your diary, if you have one.

Now you have the space to display your voice, what will your voice be? Brainstorm, write a list with your interests, hobbies, the sort of person you are, whatever comes to mind. Then take a look at what you have written. Choose which are the most important to you or which you would most like to write about and have read by other people. Try to narrow it down to five or less. This gives you a focus which is important if you want to find an audience for your voice. People want to have some idea of what you will be writing about. If they like it they will be back for more.

Maybe you will only write for a small audience, just family and friends. That's a good way to start. A newsletter with interviews, news, a feature topic and links can be sent out once a month or weekly if you really have the time and ambition. Once you have settled on your content its time to think of your layout, how you will present the content. One of the most important things for any website is navigation. Think of how people will go from one part of your site to the next. Remember to link each page back to your main page or whatever index you have for the publication you are creating. When you pick out colours and graphics they should be easy on the eye and easy on the web browser. How long do you usually like to wait for a webpage to load? Likely its not more than a few seconds. Another thing to remember is that not everyone has a really good Internet connection. One other thing about layout, make sure its easy to read. Colours for background and text need to be contrasting and not colours that make your eyes water. Try a white background and a dark text to start with. Later you can try different combinations and get reader feedback about them.

Now its time to write. How will you start? Here is where you really use your voice. What do you have to say?

Next week I will write about writing for your personal website or ezine. Take this time between to plan out the contents and layout for your site. Use the message boards to ask questions or share information with others. Good luck.

The big news today is actually two things. First: ThemeStream is closing down. All the writers need to pull out their content before it goes bye bye. I think its a good thing for all the ezines out there. Now all those writers can give their articles to ezines who will appreciate it more and give better promotion to the writers. Its just a good thing all around.

The other news is about Yahoo. They are now aspiring to be the porn capital. Really makes they look like idiots (a nice word for it) after all the years they have deleted sites for having adult content. Even sites which were Wiccan/ Pagan or sites which wanted to give information about sexual fetishes to keep people from being hurt. The real question now is: will Yahoo change their policies for sites on Geocities. Or will Yahoo be afraid of the competition?

I just posted to never never land, I guess, its gone at any rate. This time I'm going to paste it into Notepad before I hit that Post button.

I was at About.com today, the Screenwriters topic is open but it doesn't interest me. I sent it into InkSplatters for someone else to step into, hopefully. I like to hear I helped someone on the list.

I did find an interesting topic available at Suite 101. Its not a big payout site, but the topic is interesting and doesn't sound like a huge time commitment. Its Websites for Women with a monthly article and a database of links. The past manager left in December so its been available awhile. Likely I will be accepted. I think the topic has a lot of potential. I frequently find sites run by women who are doing interesting things online. Some with home businesses and some in creative pursuits, others starting up an offbeat club or a club based on a personal interest.

I was just looking around at WebSeed Publishing. Its kind of an odd site when you look at the scatterings of topics. Some topics like writing are so covered they overlap to the point where you really can't tell one from another. I've applied for one topic but didn't get in. They said they weren't opening that area at the time. Yet, now I can see there are a few near misses. I've sent in another email and will see what happens. Today, I thought about going for an ASCII Art topic. But the focus may be too narrow. Besides, there just aren't any books and gadgets to sell related to ascii art. Blogger was down this morning. Lets see if its up and at em now. :)

Just lost the entry I made. I had the editor open too long and I guess my login to Blogger died. :( Basically I said HerPlanet is tossing DialTone as the new server. They must be pretty incompetent after two weeks of paid overtime and still not getting the HerPlanet sites loaded and working. Now we are transferring to a new server which is through one of the HerPlanet network managers. I'm even going to try loading up my own site. I'm not an ftp novice but I'm hardly an expert. I learn from my mistakes but that means you have to make plenty of mistakes to learn from.

This is kind of neat. Make your own license plate.