Things which exist on one's personal computer are referred to as "client side", and on the web host as "server side". The average internet user might have first heard "client" in the context of applications installed on the personal computer, such as "email client". Those mail systems which can be used from anywhere are "web mail", and exist on the server side.

In practical terms, all your office suite programs, media players, programs to edit images, most games, and so forth, are probably client side, although "utility" type functions are evolving on the server side. For example, users can now share data on server side spreadsheets and word processors.

Most browser function is defined on the client side, perhaps with some JavaScript add-ons for interaction, calendars, multi-level menus, animated graphics, et cetera.

Business enterprise level content management, databases, store systems, and much more are on the server side. Server side programming can range from simple CGI scripts ("Common Gateway Interface") written in a variety of languages, such as Perl. Large databases can be built in the popular open-source MySQL, and accessed through interfaces programmed in PHP.

First embodiments of such CGI functions started a new copy of the executing module for each command request. To avoid server shutdown from excessive workload, host programmers have evolved better ways, but these need not concern us ordinary mortals.

Fortunately for this author, a web site builder does not need to be an expert in all those server side tools in order to use them. Most hosting companies now offer access to pre-installed modules. Persons wanting better features can purchase modules from third parties to upload and install, such as shopping carts, which are backed by support staff, user, or similar.

If the site builder lacks a very fast connection to the server, s/he can install client side copies of operating systems for SQL, PHP, other... to emulate behavior on the host. Sometimes the emulation is less than perfect, such as with different release generations, so adjustments may be needed after upload.

Why would anyone bother to do this? One reason is that PHP can take over parts of HTML coding, such as with "include files" which represent often used sections of header, footer, body, or serve more robustly than JavaScript for interactivity and utility functions.

If the connection is fast, however, present day "shared hosting" and "virtual private/dedicated servers" make it very difficult for one domain owner to break the system for other users. And only privileged employees have access to the power switch. VPS allows power users to get more behind the scenes than can the SH customer.

Caveat: Whether your HTML writing is done directly on host account or on personal computer for upload, keep an off-site copy against the day your hosting company drops or back levels your content. It will happen.

What ever the approach a person uses for working on the internet, all these elements are examples of "distributed processing", a concept which some large mainframe computer manufacturers had hoped would never be realized. Now that the small guys and gals have forced the issue, by using ever more powerful personal computers in place of dumb terminals, the big dogs have learned to love and profit from it.

Millions of websites being launched year after year can only signify two important things. One, the importance of being on the net, regardless of whether yours is a small business website, a home page, an ecommerce or even a portal, and two, easy availability of variety of free templates which make website building a child's play.

In this article, let us try to explore whether templates, free or paid, offer suitability and ease of working and why they are taking the newbie web owners and builders as well as professionals by storm.

Website templates are pre made web designs into which you can start filling in your information straight after downloading. Easily, this eliminates the cumbersome task of having to design an appealing layout and more than that, it does not want you to have any knowledge of HTML at all.

At this point in time, you might be tempted to ask, if this is all, how good it is over HTML editors which don't require a template to be downloaded for every time you are building a website? True, they don't require you to possess knowledge of HTML but they still rest the task of creating an appealing layout upon you, juggling with color schemes, and placement of different sections on your page etc which are really not your job. It is precisely here that the website templates fill the void- import web templates into your favorite HTML editor and get-set-go with site building.

Conventional method of web designing is out of date as it takes a lot of manual labor a web entrepreneur can hardly afford to waste. When web presence matters to you for reasons beyond passion, you would never want to waste time and efforts on designing your own templates or even purchase them in bulk.

Free templates are in no way inferior to paid templates but you have to be choosey about your source. They do not limit your aspirations; instead you can have a variety of them such as free CSS templates, PSD templates, besides the plain HTML types. The very reason these templates are a matter of big business today is their aesthetics, functionality, easy of use and of course, the huge demand.

Free templates also make business sense considering the number of websites the ordinary people launch every month. To get your business off by launching hundreds of websites you know what makes sense and what not. Choose your templates without compromising on your needs and let the cost be condoned by the world.

So you decided you wanted to build a website and now you are faced with all this information and you do not know where to start. Everybody online is promising the moon and stars and it's almost impossible to tell which ones are genuine and which ones are not.

A lot of these sales pitches make it sound like you can build a site go to sleep wake up in the morning to thousands in your bank account. So its time to step back from it all and take stock of your position as this will help clear your mind. What are you prepared to do? What are your strengths and weaknesses?

Often times we run off and buy stuff and never think out how we can practically apply it. Remember information is one thing it is the application of information which becomes knowledge and this will provide you with a real experience. A real experience will provide real results. The speed of implementation will bring about these results sooner rather than later.

Where to start? Note down your interests and then visit article directories and forums and see how popular your subjects of interest are. From here you will get keywords and then you want see how often those keywords get searched. Keywords are your sites building blocks. If the building blocks are weak the overall structure will be weak.

Take your time in the research phase as this lays the foundation. Don't be afraid to deviate from your central idea especially if you find that a particular topic under the main subject seems to generate more searches and interest.

In other words be flexible. When it comes to building a site you can use a site builder. Just make sure they can build webpage's that are structurally sound in terms of code and keyword density. Take care of the basics, keep it simple and your odds of success will be vastly increased.