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Girl Geek Speaks Newsletter

Welcome to the October 2004 Issue of our newsletter for the technically challenged and web site wannabe's. We feature articles to help guide you through the process of designing, building, and promoting your business or personal web site. If you know someone who may like getting these newsletters, feel free to forward it to them in its entirety, or have them sign up for their own copy below.

In This Issue
Featured Article: Static or Dynamic Websites and the “Magic Oven”

Static or Dynamic Websites and the “Magic Oven”

I build static websites. The computer programmer (the “Guy” in “Girl Geek and a Guy”) builds dynamic sites. No, it doesn’t mean his sites have a winning smile and more personality and my static sites cling to you like socks on a sweater in the winter. It means that there is a difference between how the sites are created and generated when you see them on the Internet. Oh, and price. More on that later…..

For a static website, the pages are created on my computer. I see how the final version will look as I build it. Those files containing your finished website are then sent (or uploaded) to a special computer called a “server” which holds your website for the Internet to find. Then, when someone looks for your site on the Internet, the server sends the pages just as I created them. Nothing changes from the way I made them look. Thus, they are called “static,” meaning fixed, sites.

Static sites are more like online brochures, sometimes with a payment gateway or PayPal shopping cart attached. The designer can change content and images, but that’s about it.

Now static sites are wonderful and appropriate for small businesses and professional services that need a basic web presence and some interactive capabilities. However, if you need the BIG GUNS and a lot of functionality, you will need a dynamic site with a database underlying it.

A good example of a dynamic website is Ebay.com. Look at a recent auction for any item and the pages of the search results will change from day to day, or they can be reorganized by date, price, or searched by item name, etc. All that is what I call “functionality.”

Dynamic websites are written in any one or multiple codes (computer languages), which look like hieroglyphics to me. Usually dynamic sites also include a database that contain the various text and images of your website. Both code and database are uploaded to the server. Depending on what a site visitor asks your web page to do, the server then creates or generates the layout, content, and looks of the page from the elements you put into the database. You can change content and images yourself from an administrative panel that is built for your site.

The difference between the two types of sites is kinda like baking dinner rolls in a “magic oven.” A static site would be like putting frozen dinner rolls into the oven (server) and getting the same hot rolls out. A dynamic site would be like putting all the ingredients into the “magic oven” and telling it you want cinnamon rolls for breakfast, crescent rolls for dinner, and muffins for a late night snack. Thus the site is “dynamic,” meaning changeable on the fly.

Well, it's a metaphor...don't know if it's a good one. You tell me.

A final word: Dynamic sites can do just about anything – e-commerce, info-preneuring, inventory management, depending on your needs and budget. Fees for dynamic sites start in the thousands of dollars. When you want magic, you pay more for it! Static sites, unless you want lots of pages and additional features, are usually in the hundreds of dollars range.

DISTRIBUTION RIGHTS:

The above material is copyrighted, but you may retransmit or distribute it as long as not a single word is changed, added, or deleted, including the contact information. However, you may not copy it to a web site. Copyright 2004. All rights reserved.

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