Your Own Website

The Congo Cookbook is a collection of African recipes and information about African cooking and food that grew out of an RPCV's (Returned Peace Corps Volunteer) continuing interest in African cooking and culture. Along the way, we have gained some experience with amateur websites. Here are some tips for beginning webmasters.

Books

Even when the subject is the World Wide Web, it's hard to beat a good book on the subject. We've found lots of food for thought in Don't Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability by Steve Krug.

HTML Code

You need to know something about HTML to write webpages. HTML is the computer language that tells browsers how to display the content of a web page: what goes where, how big, what color, what links to what, and so on. To see HTML in action, select "Source" (or "Page Source") under your browser's View menu. You should see a text file that contains all the text on this page, plus lots more text in < > brackets. That text between the brackets is the HTML code. The HTML code plus the content are the page's source code. There are plenty of books and websites about HTML. One good website is Sizzling Jalfrezi.

HTML Editor

You could write HTML code in any word processor or text editor, but it helps to have a text editor made especially for HTML editing. The Congo Cookbook web design team is not impressed with HTML editors that allow users to make changes via a what-you-see-is-what-you-get display, like a word processor. Rather, it is preferable to edit the source code itself and have a what-you-see-is-what-you-get display only for verification. One very good HTML editor is Allaire HomeSite. Another good one is EZpad and it's free and can be downloaded from the EZpad 3.0 Official HomePage.

Webspace

You need to place your webpages on some webspace where they will be accessible to the world. Geocities provides free and paid webhosting services and usually works quite well. Read the fine print.

Content and Design

A website is mostly content. If you want anyone to notice your website you have to provide content that can't be found elsewhere. What is your passion? What can you share with the world? Once you have some content, find a design or "look" for your website. Clean, uncluttered web design looks best. For the most part, flashing and animated things are to be avoided. Less is more. Here are a few things to keep in mind:

Correct spelling and grammar are a must. How can you expect to be taken seriously if your spelling and grammar make people laugh? (For example, make sure it's and its, and then and than are used properly).

Music or sound effects that automatically play when as the page is viewed are usually a bad idea. They often take too long to load and are not appreciated.

Pages that consist of nothing more than a graphic saying, "This page is under construction" are worthless. Don't put a page on the web until there's something on it worth reading.

Frames are basically evil. In most cases they take up more space than they are worth. More importantly, they violate the basic premise of the Web, namely that every page should have a unique URL address. The Congo Cookbook uses no frames.

Links should lead to other webpages. It's plain stupid to have a webpage with a link to that same page. The link itself implies that it leads to some other page. If the visitor is on the homepage, why have an active link that says "home"?

Navigation through your site should be obvious and easy.

More on this topic: The useit.com alertbox.

Hits, Search Engines and Directories

One way to start visitors coming to your site is to find websites containing links to websites like yours (for example, in the case of African Cuisine, the African Studies Association's Africa South of the Sahara). E-mail the webmasters of those sites and suggest your site be included in their links collection. It takes a long time (i.e., months) for visitors to find your site and spread the word about it. Be patient. You should adopt a if-you-build-it-they-will-come approach. Improving your website's content is the best way to make your site stand out, be noticed, and (eventually) receive hundreds or thousands of hits a day. Submitting and re-submitting your site to every search engine on the Web is a waste of time; paying for your site to be submitted and re-submitted to every search engine on the Web is a waste of money. The best way to spend your time (or money) is improving your site: create more unique content, improve navigation, make it better looking. If you have three hours to work on your website: two hours and fifty-five minutes should be spent making your site bigger and better, the remaining five minutes could be spent submitting your site to search engines and directories. To learn more about search engines and directories, see Search Engine Watch; it contains a wealth of information on this topic.

Making money

Don't quit your day job. You can earn some money from a hobby website, but don't expect much. Here's what The Congo Cookbook does:

Provide digital content. The Congo Cookbook Recipes in a single downloadable PDF file are available for download via The Amazon Honor System.

Affiliate with Amazon.com. If you need a book, video, or anything else Amazon sells, please click through on the links to make your purchase. Doing so supports this website and does not cost you anything more.

Sell advertising. The Congo Cookbook is affiliated with fastclick.com. If you have a webpage, click through and sign up.

If you click through, we thank you -- and don't worry, we're not getting rich.

Search this website:

Congo Cookbook recipes using Coconut Milk

Also see: Recipes by Ingredient

It takes time and money to keep The Congo Cookbook on the world wide web. You can help via the Amazon Honor System. Amazon.com forwards your gift to The Congo Cookbook; you remain anonymous. As a thank-you for any donation you will be able to obtain the downloadable Congo Cookbook PDF file, which contains all of the recipes displayed on the website. For more information, see the Frequently Asked Questions.