Every so often I get an email from somebody asking why I don't have any pages on my site dedicated to a particular actor, actress, or director. Often it's somebody I have on my list of future tributes, but more often than not it's simply somebody for whom there are no pages on the Web that I can link to! Here's a solution: Why not create your own page, either a brand new site or as a part of your existing home page?

You say you don't have a personal home page? Well, you've come to the right place, because I'm about to offer all kinds of resources to help you, starting with this step-by-step checklist for getting started:

• After you've decided what you want your page to be about (amazing how many people skip that step), the first question is where to put the page. Unless your company or an organization you belong to offers home pages for its employees or members, you'll need to find your own location. Your Internet Service Provider probably offers free space, but they usually just give you the space and trust you to know what you're doing. You can buy your own domain name and host it fairly inexpensively. I recommend the company that hosts this site, ICDSoft.

  You can also build a free page on AOL, Geocities, Tripod, Angelfire, and many others. AOL gives everybody who signs up a certain amount of space for each screen name; with five screen names, that's potentially 10 megs of space (that's a lot, believe me)! But assuming you don't have AOL, or don't want to get it (and I can't blame you), your best bet is one of the others. All you'll need is Web access and an email address. Geocities has an amazing number of personal pages on its site, and offers both basic and advanced site creation. Tripod is similar, though with a smaller number of sites. Both offer up to ten megs of space, however, as well as lots of other goodies. Angelfire offers less space, but is probably the easiest of the three to use. There are others, but I can't personally recommend them. Why are they giving it away for free, you ask? Because they're selling advertising space, just like we are!
  
  

• If you go with one of the "easy" or basic methods of building a page, they'll lead you through the process, and you won't need to know much HTML (Hypertext Markup Language), but you also won't be able to do as much with the space. It's worth it to try and learn a little about HTML, and a good place to begin is About.com's HTML Guide. You can choose to purchase what is known as WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editors such as Macromedia Dreamweaver and Microsoft FrontPage. Many people I know swear by them, although I've always preferred to do my html code-writing by hand. Finally, you could try this HTML Code Tutorial. Trust me -- if I can learn it, so can you.
  
  
• You're going to want some graphics for your site, and there are a lot of great places to get free Web clip art. Start with About.com's Web Clip Art page. But be sure you don't fall victim to any of the "Web Page No-Nos" that often plague beginners.
  
  
• Once you have your page in place, with all the text and graphics you want, you'll need to let people know about it. Aside from telling us (do that first) and all your friends and relatives, you'll need to "submit" your site to some directories and search engines. There are lots of easy ways to do this, at no cost (so don't pay anybody to do it for you).

  In most cases (except Yahoo), the major search engines require only a URL (that's the address of your site -- and it's pronounced "You Are Ell," not "Earl") and an email address. There are also lots and lots of "free" directories. While most of them are worthless or worse (just a way to get your email address for spam), some can help you. For links to the search engines and directories, I suggest either Beaucoup or About.com's Web Search site.
  
  

• You'll find all kinds of helpful resources on my WebPicks listing. Other good free resources for Webmasters include Search Engine Watch and NetMechanic.
  
  
• Finally, if you just don't want to have to deal with all that, I can offer my services for a small fee, since in addition to running this site, I also create Web pages for companies and individuals. Go HERE for more information.

That's the quick tour. If you'd like some ideas, of course, just take a look at any of the pages on our Classic Actor and Actresses pages. Some are pretty elaborate and high tech, but others are simply well written and tastefully designed, neither of which are beyond the reach of a person who truly cares about his or her subject and is willing to learn.

You'll find there are a lot of things to learn on the way to creating a page, so don't hesitate to use the resources of sites I mentioned, or any others that have to do with your interest areas. Finally, don't forget to submit your URL to us. And even if you don't have a home page, I'd still like to encourage you to send me the URL of some other site you think we should include, or just send me an email and tell me what you think. Thanks!