Other Resources

Second Site Mailing List

Second Site has a dedicated mailing list. I monitor the list closely and I am an active participant. Subscribe today to discuss how to make the most effective use of Second Site!

Downloads

The Downloads page includes links to download the install programs for the current version of Second Site and some older versions.

Second Site Articles

Terry Reigel's Using Second Site to Share Your TMG Data includes multiple articles that describe how Terry uses Second Site.

Web Site Resources

Second Site will make web pages for you. The only other thing you need to know is how to publish those pages, but you may want to know a lot more. The resources listed here can help.

Web Site Hosting Services

If you plan to share your web pages on the World Wide Web, you will need a web hosting service. Family History Hosting (FHH) is a web hosting service dedicated to genealogy sites with special features for Second Site users. WIth FHH, you get the same great service as you get with Second Site.

There are many other web hosting options. Your ISP may provide a home page you can use for this purpose, or you may use free web hosting services. Most of the free options add advertising or other content to your pages, and in some cases the extra content can interfere with the formatting of your site.

When shopping for web hosting services, it's important to remember that if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. All web hosting services have a finite amount of resources (bandwidth, disk space, etc.) and those resources are shared in some manner by customers. Some deceptive web hosting services promise each customer oodles of disk space, etc., but when any particular customer attempts to use more than a fraction of what was promised, the company deactivates the account. Other companies simply over-sell their services and while they do not deactivate accounts, their customers are disappointed by poor response time or other problems. Caveat emptor.

Registering a Domain

If you want your own domain name, you need to register a domain. Web hosting services will often include a service to register a domain, and using that service may be an inexpensive option. Domain names are separate from web hosting services, however, and it is important that you retain control over the domain. In the future, you may want to move your site from one web hosting service to another. If your web hosting provider has control over the domain, that will complicate the process.

There are a number of companies that offer domain registration services. As of 2014, I've been recommending Namecheap. They are a reliable provider and their prices are reasonable. I have no financial arrangement with them and I receive no benefit if you happen to choose Namecheap to register your domain.

General

A guide I recommend, and one that is specific to genealogical web sites, is part of the Cyndi's List site: Cyndi's Genealogy Home Page Construction Kit.

Another genealogy specific resource of note is recommended by the National Genealogy Society: Guidelines For Publishing Web Pages On The Internet.

thesitewizard.com includes information about website design, promotion, and implementation.

The Web Design Group (WDG) provides references and tools on their HTML Help page.

The W3Schools.com site has a lot of information about web technologies, but it is more appropriate for intermediate and advanced users than for beginners.

FTP Resources

Many web hosting services allow FTP access to their servers for their users to manage web site content. Here are some free FTP clients:

• FireFTP, a browser add-on for Firefox
• FileZilla

In the past I recommended FileZilla, but in March, 2015 I learned that the FileZilla installer now includes Binkiland, a browser hijacker virus. That's unacceptable, and everyone should avoid using any version of FileZilla that includes it.

TMG Resources

Many testers said that Second Site helped them find problems with their data and their TMG sentences. If you have a question about TMG, make sure you visit the Wholly Genes web site and Lee Hoffman's TMG Tips web site. Lee's site includes links to many other pages and resources.

TMG Companion Programs

See my home page for other TMG companion programs.

Search Engine Resources

The article How to Improve Your Search Engine Ranking on Google by Christopher Heng provides some tips on improving the chances that someone using Google will find your site. Google explains how their search works on the Our Search: Google Technology page.

Thanks to John Davis, a Second Site user who identified the search engine resources described above.