Incorporating two sites - HTML Forums

justjeni · 02-14-2001, 11:00 PM

I wasn't sure which topic to put this in so I took a chance on this one. I have two sites:
http://www.justjeni.com and
http://www.justjeni.faithweb.com

Now, the faithweb is obviously on a freeserver and was my first and my learning experience. It helped, a lot! Anyway, they are basically the same site except one I've made a Christian site and the other strictly business. I want everyone interested!! :-) Well, you know what I mean, I'm sure. I wish to appeal to all. Okay, the problem is, I would now like to somehow integrate the two sites and just use my new paid for host for everything. I've been mulling this over in my mind for weeks, but cannot come up with a way to do this. I hope I am making sense. I would somehow like to have everything on one site (gets to be a pain fooling with the two and the freeserver isn't the best thing for impressing people) but I don't really want to just put a link to "see my Christian version" on the other one. That seems tacky. Anyone have any thoughts on this? Would sure appreciate any ideas or input. Thanks in advance.

Ian · 02-15-2001, 07:50 AM

Hmmm, this is what I would do....
Create a subdomain off your main domain eg: http://www.faith.justjeni.com and upload your christian site to it. Are you allowed to do that?
Next you could create a small network and have links between each site (similar to the BR network). That way traffic will filter between each site and apart from keeping visitors on your site(s), you will benefit from the traffic of both if you promote them as seperate sites. I wouldn't promote it by saying "see my christian version", maybe renaming the site to a name that suggests your beliefs so visitors can tell that the site is a christian site may be better. This way some visitors may feel more comfortable at the suggestion and are more likely to enter the site out of curiosity.
Anyway, just a direction of thought for you, but I think getting your site off the free server and onto your own is a positive move.

justjeni · 02-15-2001, 02:35 PM

I think I followed you, but do have to check into the sub-domain issue with my server. That is something new to me, although I do know basically anyway, what that means. I'll see if I can do that. I, too, think it would be much more beneficial to get that off the freeserver although it sure was a good way to start when you haven't a clue what you're doing.
You came through for me again, Ian! I like the idea a lot, just have to see if I can do it now!
You sure know your stuff!

justjeni · 02-18-2001, 04:38 PM

I've been thinking about this a lot, Ian, and wouldn't it be better if I could incorporate this without using a subdomain? I did find out I can use, for instance, http://www.justjeni.addr.com, but I'm not clear on how I'd get people to surf over to it and not sure if another sub domain is a good idea. This is where my inexperience shows, I guess. Perhaps I'm not grasping what you said correctly?
This is a tough one. Been mulling this over for over a month now and nothing seems quite "right", if you know what I mean.
Sigh.

justjeni · 02-18-2001, 04:41 PM

Wait, I just thought of something in regards to what you said. Sorry - I seem to be making a bad habit of thinking of something right after posting...
When people would click over to the sub domain, they really wouldn't know they're doing so, correct? Because I'd be using a link for it on the justjeni.com, correct? Or is there something I'm still not getting?
Sorry, but I am pretty new to all this and it can seem pretty confusing at first.

Ian · 02-18-2001, 06:37 PM

Hi Jeni,
The reason I mentioned a sub domain was in short, a shorter url which looks more professional than a url which looks like: http://homespages.yoursite.com/~thisplace/mysite.html
if you see what I mean...
One benefit having both sites on your server is that you can make common directories that both sites can have access to. (ie: for images), this will save in bandwidth usage and will result in faster surfing as the image, once loaded can then be called from the users cache and not from your site. Having your second site located on your server in a seperate directory or directories also makes it easier to organize, manage and locate files. Over time as your site grows and you add more and more pages, files and folders all in the one directory can get very messy and house keeping gets rather hard.
This you learn from time and experience, one of my first sites had over 300 files in the one directory LOL, and it was nothing short of a nightmare to find individual files for editing/modifying etc.
When people click over to your sub domain, they would just be entering another site the same as if you clicked over to 123webmaster from here. (both of these sites are located on the same server but are in seperate directories with their domain name directed to that directory).
Does this help put some light on some of your queries?
Keep the questions coming if not.

<== Disco Smilie

webmaster101 · 02-18-2001, 06:59 PM

you can create a sub directory for your two sites
providing you have your own hosting ip address to
read as http://www.justjeni.com/christian.html. this should solve your problem and you can have as many sub directory folders
as you want.

justjeni · 02-19-2001, 02:25 AM

I think this is making more sense to me now. I copied this all and saved it to read more thoroughly tomorrow - it's almost 2:30 in the morning and I'm so tired I can't concentrate, but I get the gist of it.
Ian, I can't imagine how tedious that must have been to have over 300 files in one directory! Just adding 4 pages with a few graphics in mine and I'm getting a little bonkers! It's not that bad, of course, but it give me an idea what a mess you must have had. I sure would like to avoid that.
I'll be back if I have questions, which I most likely will. Thanks so much for the invite. You've all been a tremendous help to me already. Right now my brain needs sleep...

justjeni · 02-22-2001, 10:38 PM

I've been wracking my brains out on this and re-reading all your posts and tips and it all makes sense, but I cannot quite get a handle on what to do.
I like the idea of using a new name for the Christian site and doing like you mentioned, Ian, with BigResources and 123webmasters (great sites, btw), but I can't seem to come up with one...my creativity stinks in that dept. As you can see by the lack of originality in the site name itself. Will keep thinking on that one. One girl I partner with said maybe just integrate the Christian links, but I"m not sure I like that because that will mess up the pages way too much. I think I'm pushing it already as it is now.

I'm curious if I have a couple things right here. First, I would still promote it as a different site, right? Wrong?
Second, I would somehow link to it from the original site using the new name I would come up with? That all makes good sense to me but which do you think would be better, using the /christian.html or a sub-domain?

I'll stop there - no one is going to want to tackle this and I won't blame anyone, that's for sure! If you even read this, thank you! I even sat here a few minutes wondering if I should even post this but so many of you seem to really know your stuff, I value your input and no, I"m not sucking up!