Question:
http://sororitylifetrain.blogspot.com/
that's my website, not my own domain but it'll due until i have success in this web business.
i've got about 60 hits so far but it's not going to go anywhere unless i can have everything functioning correctly on that website. for example i can't figure out the html to use to make that id form process into that table of icons i have there. those were'nt processed, i added them myself because i thought it might help the hit count until i figure out how to work the id train. this is my first website idea coming even close to success, yet, i can't go anywhere with it because im not competent to figure out how to process an id form for sorority life. what's your honest opinion on the website? can i make the form process on blogspot? if i can, how?
if you can help me, i'll owe you an infinite amount of gratitude (:

My Answer:
First, you cannot. The only thing that HTML does is tell the web browser what to display. To "make that id form process into that table of icons" (quoted what you said), you will need PHP or Perl scripts. HTML and javascript won't be enough. You need to have the PHP or Perl scripts host somewhere in order to send the correct instruction.


My Honest Opinion: I hope you don't mind, but I suggest that you should close down that website of yours for a while. When you open a website, you want it to be near perfect when you open it to public. As of now, I highly doubt that any of your visitors will visit your website again.

Also, the fonts on your layout is too small and too hard to see. I have to focus for a second in order to read it. You want to use web-safe fonts with at least size 11 or 12. Not smaller than that. And the color has to be standout from the background. You want it to look easy on the eyes, not fancy.

What exactly is that website about? It took me almost 20 minutes to figure out what exactly are you trying do there. You need to have a page that tell the visitors the purpose of your website--what your intentions are.

Overall, that website require major fixes and additional features. As it is now, none of your visitors will visit your website again.


Blogspot: Blogspot is not a really good place to host a website. It's a good place for a blog or a simple website where what you mainly want is just to give out the information. But what you are trying to do here is more like a website where visitors can participate in the activities and earn points, right?

For websites where you want the visitors to be able to participate, you want to host it on web hosting services that are designed for that purpose. This can be decide based on your knowledge about web scripts (PHP, ASP, Perl, CGI, MySQL, etc.) If you have no idea what I just talked about, then it's probably a good idea to find a web host that does the "drag and drop" type of thing.

If you want to build a social network, you want some sort of a content management system, a social network software.


Web hosts (free):

Webs.com: http://www.webs.com/
Great for webmasters who want to create a simple website but have no knowledge or experience about website building whatsoever.

Ning.com: http://www.ning.com/
Great for webmasters who want to create their own social networks but have no knowledge or experience about website building whatsoever.

50Webs.com: http://www.50webs.com/free_plan.html
For webmasters who have some knowledge about web scripts and FTP transfer but don't want to spend any money on their website.


Web hosts (commercial):

1and1.com: http://www.1and1.com/
Offers one of the cheapest web hosting packages as of today. The load time of the admin control panel is kind of slow, but that should not be a problem. Easy FTP access and domain management. I have a website hosted on there.

GoDaddy.com: https://www.godaddy.com/
I haven't use it so I can't comment on this. But many users are satisfy with it.


Free Content Management Softwares (for social networks):

Elgg: http://www.elgg.org/
It's among the best (if not the best) open source social network softwares as of now. Elgg operates in a LAMP environment and it is easy to install and configure, require very little PHP knowledge.

LovebyLess: http://lovdbyless.com/
Unlike Elgg, this one uses Ruby on Rails. It is easy to use and contains most of the applications that you need. If you don't like PHP, then this is a good choice.

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