How to become a dotcom millionaire

Matthew Bacon asks, "Who Wants to be a Millionaire?"

We all dream of winning the lottery and becoming millionaires. Imagine never having to worry about how you're going to pay this month's rent or afford this year's holiday. Unfortunately, the chance of this happening to either you or I are millions to one! If only there was an easier way.

Well, after a great deal of research, I am pleased to say I've found one! I'll give you one guess... no, the answers not appear on a well-known television game show. It's become a dotcom millionaire of course!

When internet sites like lastminute.com and amazon.com arrived offering everything from computer games to luxury holidays (at really cheap prices), the media proclaimed the death of the traditional high street store. All of a sudden, consumers no longer needed to go to the shops as they could buy everything they needed using their computer and credit card.

Once banks and venture capitalists realised that money (and more importantly, profit) could be made from these dotcom sites, they began investing heavily in any site that had a catchy domain name and received several thousand hits per day. The owners of these sites were usually paid very large sums of money, so large that they often became millionaires overnight.

If they can do it, so can we!

All you need is; 1) an Atari ST or compatible with access to the web; 2) an original money making idea that will attract lots of visitors and potential investors; 3) some empty web space to upload your site into; and finally, 4) some HTML authoring software to enable you to develop your site. Easy eh?

To help you decide which Atari software to use when developing your dotcom site, I have put the following freeware HTML utilities to the test.

Homepage Penguin by Matthias Jaap
Homepage Penguin is an easy-to-use GEM application that uses a friendly wizard interface to guide you step-by-step through the process of creating a web page. As a result, no knowledge of HTML is required. In fact, Homepage Penguin is so easy-to-use, you'll be creating web pages within minutes of installation!

The Homepage Penguin wizard consists of the following:

• Before you start...
  Here you are asked, "Do you want comments in you HTML source code?" While experienced HTML users will have no need of them, novice users may find them useful as they explain the HTML tags generated by Homepage Penguin.
• The title
  Here you are asked to provide a title and an optional sub-heading for your web page. They can be justified to the left, right or centered on the page and optionally followed by a horizontal line.

• The background
  To make your web page a bit more interesting, Homepage Penguin allows you to define the background colour of your page. Alternatively, a GIF or JPEG image (which you've prepared beforehand) may be used instead.

• Colours
  Here you can select the colours used for text, links and visited links.
  
• Pictures...
  To spice up your web page, Homepage Penguin allows an image to be included. It could be a picture of yourself, your ST... in fact, anything you want!
• Text
  Here you may import a text file to provide the main content of your web page, so it's a good idea to prepare something beforehand.
• Links
  If you wish to link to other pages within your site or to another web site such as MyAtari magazine (www.myatari.net), it can be done here!
• Contact
  Finally, Homepage Penguin asks for your name and e-mail address which it can place at the bottom of the web page so your visitors can contact you.

For the purposes of this article I used an early version of Homepage Penguin which is freeware, however, a commercial version is also available that includes many new and improved features. One of these features is the rather cool "Freestyle" mode that allows the user to decide how the final web page should be structured (see screen shot above).

Check out our example web page created using Homepage Penguin 1.x here.

Web.Wizard by Cadenza Software (alias Matthew Bacon)
Like Homepage Penguin, Web.Wizard enables Atari users with little or no knowledge of HTML to quickly and easily create web pages. Although initially released as a commercial product, the Web.Wizard suite is now available from Cadenza Software as freeware.

The Web.Wizard suite consists of:

• WebPage.Wizard
  An easy-to-use wizard (similar to Homepage Penguin) that guides the user step-by-step through the process of creating a web page.
• Frame.Wizard
  A powerful tool that enables the user to create complex HTML framesets using a point and click interface. No HTML experience required!
• Table.Wizard
  A useful utility that enables the user to create complex HTML tables without any HTML knowledge using a point and click interface. 
• HTML Link Ripper and Stripper
• Collection of royalty-free images
• HTML tutorial series
• A to Z of HTML tags

WebPage.Wizard consists of the following:

• General
  Here you are given the option to include comments in the HTML source generated by WebPage.Wizard. The comments describe in plain English the HTML tags used by WebPage.Wizard which is great if you're learning how HTML works ;-)
• Title
  Unlike Homepage Penguin, the title string entered here is not displayed at the top of the web page but used along with the keywords entered to improve your pages search engine placement. By including keywords relevant to the content of your page, the chance of internet users visiting your page increases!
  
  A MIDI or audio file may also be selected here which will be played when your web page is viewed - cool eh?

• Colours
  Here you are able to define the colours used for the headings, text, hyperlinks, links and visited links on your page. A background colour or image may also be selected ;-)

• Heading
  To capture your visitors' interest, WebPage.Wizard allows you to create eye catching headings. Not only can the size, style and justification of the heading and sub-heading be chosen independently, a horizontal line may also be included after them.

• Text
  Here you may import a text file (which you have prepared beforehand) to provide the main content of your web page. Not only can the text be split into more than one column, the font, justification and styling (bold, italic, underlined) may also be defined.
• Image
  Like Homepage Penguin, WebPage.Wizard allows you to include an image on your web page. The image can be placed almost anywhere on the page (above, between or below the body of text - left, right or centered) and be linked to another web page or site.
• Links
  If you wish to link to other pages within your site or to an external site such as MyAtari magazine (www.myatari.net), it can be done here!
• Author
  Finally, WebPage.Wizard requests your name and e-mail address so it can provide a way for your visitors to contact you ;-)

Check out our example web page created using Web.Wizard here.

Atari HTMLGen by Hector Facundo Arena
Atari HTMLGen is the result of a spot of GFA BASIC programming on a rainy day by Hector Facundo Arena. Based on the author's Linux HTMLGen and Perl HTMLGen, Atari HTMLGen is simple web page development tool.

Unlike Homepage Penguin or Web.Wizard, HTMLGen uses a text-driven interface. While this means that it is extremely fast and ideal for Atari users with standard machines, it isn't particularly user-friendly ;-(

HTMLGen works by asking the user a series of questions. It first question asks the name of the HTML file that should be created, followed by the date, users name and e-mail address. After the web pages title has been entered, HTMLGen's main menu is displayed.

The main menu provides the user with six options; Enter main title; Enter subtitle; Insert image; Insert text; Write footer and exit and finally, Save 'as is' and exit.

The options can be selected in any order and as often as required (this determines the structure of the web page). It is therefore a good idea to work out the structure of the page you wish to develop before running HTMLGen. Come to think of it, it's also a good idea to know what images and text you'd like to include as well because HTMLGen does not include an undo function or means of importing text which is a shame.

HTMLGen is also let down by its poorly generated HTML code. Therefore, when compared with other freeware HTML utilities like Homepage Penguin and Web.Wizard, it simply cannot compete. However, the good news is that the author intends to continue development (by adding support for background images, audio files, image alignment and project management), so could be worth keeping an eye on!

Check out our example web page created using HTMLGen here. If you'd like to learn more about Atari HTMLGen, a full review of it is available in this issue of MyAtari.

Conclusion
Well, that concludes our whistle stop tour of Atari freeware HTML utilities, I hope you have enjoyed it. Whether you choose to develop your dotcom site using one of the HTML utilities above or decide to take the plunge and learn HTML from scratch (check out this month's 12-part tutorial series here), myself and MyAtari wish you the very best of luck!

Of course, no guarantees are made or implied... but, should you become a dotcom millionaire, please don't forget all the poor folk here at MyAtari magazine HQ ;-) But seriously, if this article has inspired you to create an Atari web site of your own, please send us the web address so that it can be featured in a future issue.