Build Your Own Website: A Comic Guide to HTML, CSS, and WordPress
6 The Big Launch 217 There’s No Place Like Your Web Host 219 Kim’s Portfolio Finds a Home 228 A Network of Friends 234 So You’re Ready to Set Up Your Website 237 Setting Up Hosting A Home Online 239 Getting a Basic HTML and CSS Site Up and Running 240 Setting Up WordPress 242 Conclusion 244 Index 245 Contents vii
About the Author Nate Cooper is a writer and consultant in New York City After working in retail marketing at Apple Inc Nate has established himself within the New York tech and entrepreneurial commu nity writing on the subject of business strategy His company Simple Labs consults with businesses on WordPress implemen tation and content strategy and regularly draws audiences for events on the topics of communications and technology Photo credit Amanda Ghanooni About the Illustrator Kim Gee is an illustrator and graphic designer currently living in New York City with her boyfriend and her pet dog Tofu In 2010 she created her eponymous web comic and has since self-published a graphic novel and mini-comic collecting her work
A Note from the Author When I started my consulting business I anticipated a demand for basic web skills in the design community Graphic designers who’d been able to get by knowing just Photoshop Illustrator and InDesign would tell me that their clients started expecting them to know how to write HTML and CSS As companies started shifting over from proprietary content management systems to general CMSs like WordPress the need for designers to have basic tech knowledge grew Today designers must be able to create content both for print and for the Web and that means knowing HTML and CSS When seen against the media’s transition from print to Web perhaps this shouldn’t be shocking What surprised me however is how much interest in these skills has spread beyond the design and media communities If you’re as old as I am you might remember a time and place when office desks didn’t always have computers on them I remember visiting visiting my dad’s office at a community college while I was still in high school He was considered forward-thinking because he not only had a computer on his desk but he actually read his own email which was unheard of by certain college administrators We don’t live in that world anymore It didn’t take very long for the Internet desktop computers word processing typing skills and email to become standard tools for nearly every single job in existence Now not only designers but all sorts of professionals are required to produce content for the Web using basic HTML and CSS The Web is taking over but that doesn’t mean learning about it has to be a pain My hope is that this book will appeal to those people feeling left behind as well as those who want to get ahead We live in an ever-changing world where the skills you learn today aren’t guaranteed to carry you into the future To succeed in the jobs of the future you’ll have to learn not only what’s needed for the task at hand but also how to adapt and learn new skills Learning shouldn’t be a chore Once you figure out how to make learning a fun experience you’ll crave it Whether you’re a designer writer student or anyone else who’s new to website design I hope you find this comic funny and interesting but I also hope it inspires you to adopt the mantra learning is awesome Looking forward to the future Nate Cooper July 2014
Acknowledgments This book started as a Kickstarter project Though the project has evolved quite a bit since the original plan I wanted to express my sincere thanks to those who initially supported me in my goal of writing an educational comic book These early adopters proved that people want this book to exist and put their money where their mouth is I thank them for believing in me and in this concept A special thanks to my top funders Matthew Bergman Dwight Bishop Dean Cooney James Cropcho Sue Maisonneuve Steven Morrison Edward O’Neill and Johan Uhle Thanks also to Gail Amurao Angie Hall Anderson Ari Arsyadi Tony Bacigalupo Stephen Bennett Claire Burns Nicole Calasich Luke Chamberlin Sara Chipps Ernie Cooper Jessica Cooper Katrina E Damkoehler Colin Deeb Martha Denton Amy Donnelly Danny Dougherty Tarynn Farmer Edward G George Haines Steven Hodas Jim Hopkinson Bill Johnson Raygan Kelly Mitch Kocen Marissa Levy Lerer Jonathan Levin Anna Lubrecht Michelle Mazzara Colette Mazzucelli Brenna McLaughlin Lura Milner John Murch Stefan Nickum Jason Nou Paul Orlando Eric Pan Craig Plunkett Julie Roche Seth Marny Smith Shakti Andrea Smith Kimberly Ann Southwick Bobby Stoskopf Erica Swallow Harrison Swift Kara Szalkowski Sean Talts Sophia Teper Jennifer Tzahi Jeremy Wadhams Joe Watkins Stefan Wehrmeyer and Katy Zack I would also like to thank Shay Howe for his valuable feedback throughout the writing process and everyone at No Starch Press who helped to turn this book into a reality
