In October, 2005 the ability to host web pages was added to the services provided to EAPH members.

As a Result:

The link that appears in your Welcome to EAPH.com hosting email, instead of going directly to your EAPH LaunchPad, will land on your default web site home page.  The page that appears is a place holder which includes a link to your EAPH LaunchPad.

If and when you publish your own home page, the link to your EAPH LaunchPad will no longer be present.  So, to get to your EAPH LaunchPad it will be necessary for you to access it instead by adding ''/programs'' to the Internet address provided in your Welcome to EAPH.com Hosting email.  For example, supposing you have been using:

http://mymembername.eaph2.com

to access your EAPH LaunchPad page, you will need to change the address in your browser address line to:

http://mymembername.eaph2.com/programs

Or, you may directly access your EAPH LaunchPad via the Member Login link at EAPH.com.

• There is no additional cost to publish web pages.  However, the pages you publish will consume additional storage space both directly and indirectly.  I discuss that in ''Important Considerations'' further down in this page.
  
  
• Creation and publishing of web pages is done exclusively through FreeForm at robshelp.com.  There are no plans to provide for uploading of web pages or any other types of content directly to EAPH member sites.  Uploading of images remains unchanged, via iDrive.
  
  
• Similar to what you've become accustomed to with FreeForm for item descriptions and EAPH for image hosting, most of the technical details for creating web pages is handled for you.  Warnings and suggestions are included to help avoid mistakes and serve as guides.
  
  
• FreeForm provides for the addition of features that are necessary and popular when creating web pages.  Those features are available during the process of publishing from the selection ''Publish on EAPH'' that appears in FreeForm's Preview menu.  You may assign key words, a page description, and a title for each page you publish (information used by some Internet search engines).
  
  
• FreeForm's Input Areas and tools include buttons to click on for choosing the URLs to pages you've already published in your EAPH web space.  Those make it relatively easy to create links within your web site pages that lead to other pages in your site (such as content menus, galleries, and information pages).
  
  
• Because of FreeForm's flexibility, including the ability to use Code Input Areas, it is possible to create selling pages that make use of remotely hosted third party shopping carts such as PayPal's.  There are no plans to provide for a built in shopping cart or ecommerce system.  I have investigated PayPal's systems of accepting payment from buttons or links in web pages and the following methods work with FreeForm: ''PayPal Shopping Cart'', ''Buy Now'', ''Subscribe '', and ''Donate''.  There is no provision, however, with EAPH hosting for back-end reporting of transactions or inventory control.  So, with PayPal, you will need to set things up so you are informed by email when transactions occur.
  
  
• If you own a domain name it is possible to point it to your EAPH.com hosted web site.  So, for example, people will be able to visit your site using a URL such as:

http://www.GadgetsEmporium.com

instead of:

http://GadgetsEmporium.eaph2.com

To accomplish that it is necessary that you send an email to me containing your domain name.  I will configure the server to accept that domain name in addition to your EAPH member name and will send you back instructions for configuring your domain so that it points to your eaph.com server on the Internet.  What you will need to do is replace two ''name server'' addresses at your domain name registrar's site.

The ultimate resource for learning about how domains work, which type to choose, and how to register them is available at the ''Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN)'' web site, specifically their http://www.icann.org/faq/

• During the process of publishing web pages you may choose to have a counter added to it which will also log visits to that page.  The counter is not fancy and will be located at the bottom right corner of the page.  Choosing to show or hide counters on your pages is done from the ''Hit Counts and Logs Main Menu'' accessible through the Web Site Administration link on the EAPH LaunchPad.
  
  
• Web Site Administration includes the ability to rename and delete pages.  Revising a page is done from FreeForm by overwriting the page with a new one (publishing it with that same file name as the original).

The EAPH and FreeForm services exist primarily to help create attractive and effective item descriptions.  EAPH hosting for web sites significantly expands upon that but there are several important differences between hosting a web site on EAPH versus a service primarily designed for web site hosting.

• EAPH hosting does not include email hosting

When purchasing web site hosting you normally also obtain email hosting services.  Supposing you register a domain named mysite.com, the ability to receive email addressed to you@mysite.com through EAPH is not available.  It is, however, still possible to have such email service:

If you will be purchasing (registering) a new domain name to use with your EAPH hosting then arrange for the registrar to provide email services as an additional feature.

If you already have registered (own) a domain name and have been using it with another host, you may need to add email services as an additonal feature to your registration agreement.

• The storage space consumed by pages you publish in your EAPH web space counts against the total storage space available with your membership.

That's not as bad as it might seem because web pages by themselves do not take up much space - typically less space than even one photo.  The potential for tying up a lot of space actually results from the number of images you display within the pages.  Just like with eBay Store and auction items, you may not delete or move pictures that are used in them while they are active.  Unlike with eBay, however, your web pages will never expire automatically.  So, if you create a lot of pages that include a lot of pictures and you need to keep those pages ''forever'', you do not have the opportunity to recycle your storage space as you do when only using the storage for selling on eBay.

EAPH general policy, however, is to offer a personalized service without compromising the overall service to other members.  So, additional space will be made available to you upon request.  The cost, if any, will be minimal.

• Your EAPH member name will not automatically be hidden from visitors to your web pages when you have registered a domain and point it to your EAPH web space.

If you have set up and are using your own domain with your EAPH hosting then be sure to run the ''Domain Fix'' utility as you publish each of your web pages.  That will replace every URL that contains your EAPH member name address with your domain name address.  For example, if your EAPH member name address is ''yourmembername.eaph.com'' then the Domain Fix utility will replace every instance of that with the domain name you specify, (for example, mydomain.com).

The Domain Fix utility may also be run on all your web pages at once from the ''Web Site Administration Menu'' accessible via your EAPH LaunchPad.

The biggest difference between creating individual presentations and a web site is the need to plan and implement navigation between the pages of your site (link menus).  Such links need to be present on almost every page and consistently up along the top where people most expect them.  The challenge is incorporate those links in your pages yet not take up too much space.

Here are my suggestions for getting started:

1. Use the Advanced Builder.  The Text Input Areas in that Builder will help you assemble your pages more exactingly. The page you are reading now was created using the Advanced Builder and is available for study in FreeForm's ''The Library'' in the ''OtherExamples'' folder, container titled ''2006 EAPH Web Page Hosting''.  The ''Templates'' folder also includes sample web pages created using the Advanced Builder: Templates 15, 16, 17, and 18.
   
   
2. Learn how to use FreeForm's WYSIWYG in Text Input Areas to create links.  That means you'll need to use Microsoft Internet Explorer when working with FreeForm.  Specifically, you will need to use the ''Create/Edit Link'' feature in the WYSIWYG control menu.
   
   
3. Learn how to use FreeForm's Gallery Input Areas to create links as well as galleries.  The Gallery Input Area can also be used creatively to display side by side textual content.  And, if you will be using buttons provided by PayPal, you will almost certainly need to use Gallery Input Areas to incorporate them.  Specifically, for buttons you will need to paste code provided by PayPal into the Button Code sections of the Gallery Inputs.
   
   
4. Make a list of all the pages that you want to be accessable quickly from wherever the visitor may happen to be in your site.  Examples:  Payment, Shipping, and Contact pages.  Visit store sites on the Internet to help determine all the pages you'll need.  Then pre-assign the file names you will be using to publish those pages and keep the list handy for constructing link menus in FreeForm.
   
   
5. Before getting too far into building your site create a prototype selling page.  Work out ALL the details.  Remember, the selling page should include a set of links (navigation menu) to other pages in your site AND the item description AND the method by which the item is purchased.  The selling pages will probably be the most complicated to construct and may effect how you create other pages.  So, start with them first.  Template 18 in FreeForm's ''The Library'' is a good example to go by.
   
   
6. Save your web page work in FreeForm using EAPH Save.  Create a folder to put all your web page containers into and assign to each the file name that you will be using to publish the page on your EAPH site.  That way you will be easily able to later locate the FreeForm container in which each page of your site is stored.
   
   
7. Ask for help if you seem to be running into a brick wall.  I enjoy the challenge of helping to make FreeForm perform better for members.  The fact that FreeForm enables saving provides a wonderful opportunity for me to work with you on your layouts.

A.  Don't be stingy with your photos.  If you will be selling from your web site don't fall into the trap of trying to make it the same as typical ecommerce sites you find on the Internet.  Most of those are assembled from packages based on templates that limit the flexibility of the seller in the presentation of their items for sale.  Take advantage of the fact that FreeForm is capable of supporting layouts with many good sized photos.  In other words, instead of working to fit your photos into a particular layout, work on fitting the layout to the size your photos display best at.

B.  Don't be stingy with textual content.  The more sophisticated Internet search engines, thus the ones most often used, weigh the title and textual content of pages very heavily.  So, the most important thing you can do to help them get found by buyers interested in what you are selling is to carefully construct page titles and include keyword rich textual content in your pages.  Think along the lines of your items being subjects instead of things.  Assume those landing on your pages are interested in learning everything there is to know about what you are selling and provide that information to them.

C.  eBay is an excellent source for gaining new customers.  Carefully study eBay's rules pages:

http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/listing-links.html

http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/listing-links-describe.html

http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/listing-links-ebaystores.html

http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/listing-links-faq.html

http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/listing-aboutme.html

eBay makes it difficult, but not impossible, to communicate to those who land on your eBay listings that you also have a web site from which you sell.  The completely safe strategy is to heavily promote your eBay About Me page in your listings, then from your About Me page it is OK to link to your web site liberally.  

You may, however, also be able to take advantage of the fact that eBay allows ONE link from an item description to a web site page that further describes the item.  That's not as safe as the About Me page route because eBay depends on the policing of listings by other eBay members (sellers) who visit your listings.  Those people will not likely understand the rules completely so the appearance of breaking a rule, even if you are not technically breaking one, may lead to your listing(s) being reported.

D.  Every page you create need not fit exactly into your overall design layouts.  An important technique available to you is to create special purpose (targeted) pages.  As with the potential for ''further describes'' pages for linking to from eBay item descriptions, you may create as many other types of pages as you need designed for other special purposes.  Target those pages for use with particular promotional opportunities.  Examples:  If you are a member of an artist's group you may create special pages for sharing your work with that group.  When linking from your eBay About Me page you may want to create a special page that features your commitment to customer service on and off eBay and to explain what the difference is between buying from you on and off eBay.  When you are pretty sure where visitors are coming from you gain an important opportunity to tailor the page to their anticipated needs and interests.

E.  Find a way to embed short snippets of instructions into your pages.  Examples:  If clicking on images open new pages add something like ''(click to visit)''.  If any links open new windows be sure to include a message like ''(opens in new window)''.  Regarding new windows, do your best to stay in the same window as much as possible to avoid problems with pop-up blockers.

F.  People like to have a feeling that they know where they are in a site - the opposite of feeling like they've clicked a bunch of links and have no idea where they are or how they got there.  Naturally, you can't anticipate where everyone will have come from as they visit one of your pages but you can give them a feeling of where they are in your site.  An effective method is to include a single line of links immediately below the overall site navigation along the top of each page (except the home page).  

For a selling site you could do something like this:

Home : Category Name : Item Name

For a personal or showcase web site you could do something like this:

Home : 2005 Archives : Needlework

G.  To avoid needing to go back and revise your already existing pages as you add new ones, think carefully about what links should be available on every page right from the start (and what shouldn't be).  Examples:  If you are making a selling site that incorporates a shopping cart you do want to include a ''Checkout'' link or button in every page.  You don't, however, want to include a category listing on every page because then you'd need to revise each page if the categories change.

H.  You'll probably need several differently sized versions of your logo.  If the navigation portions at the top of your pages are taking up too much space consider using a smaller version of your logo and smaller text sizes for the navigation links.  Every individual page has a reason for existence.  Do your best to get to each particular page's purpose as quickly as possible.

I intend to add more instructions, suggestions, and tips to this page as I discover them in the course of helping members create web pages and web sites.  So, please ask questions and offer your suggestions!

Thanks,

Rob
rob@robshelp.com