I have received a few requests recently for help with splash pages. While I appreciate the honor of being asked, it does get a little hectic to keep creating them for people, especially when they are so simple to pull off. At the same time, I understand that not everyone knows how to create these or what to do. So here it is, the correct way to create splash page that looks professional and is simple to put up. Keep in mind, you do not want a splash page that has to be scrolled down or is crowded, just keep it simple and it will do a great job for you, whether your an Adult Oriented Site using it for legal reasons, or just hiding the site your building until it's ready to be unveiled.
First, hop over to grsites.com and create a gradient background, this is going to make your page look much better and more professional. The gradients are free and only take a few minutes to create from start to finish. The site is owned by a gentleman Gabriel Simon who will be happy to help you if you need it.
Now, name your background: body_bg.png (extension will be dependent on file type, but most of grsites.com's gradient backgrounds are .png files, please pay attention to the extension as it will be needed later)
Now, upload the gradient from your computer into your server at:
dolphin_root/media/images/
The below is a splash page for a site under construction. Please take note of the purple sections, they will need to be edited by your, the blue should be fully removed from the file. This splash page has been designed for the purpose of sites under construction. My next post will be for sites that are adult oriented as we don't want to confuse the newbies. Grab a Twitter account and you can then use this to allow your members to track you on twitter and build your database of members before you even launch.
Now, here's your code:
<html>
<body background="http://yoursite.com/media/images/body_bg.png"> //edit the your site//
<div style="position:absolute;top:20px;left:500px;"> //editing values will move logo//
<img src="http://yoursite.com/media/images/logo.png">
</div>
<div>
<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />
<h1 align="center"> <font color="#000000"> //note & edit color code to match your site//
Welcome To Yoursite.com
</h1>
<h2 align="center">
A Site For Everything and Everyone
</h2>
<h2 align="center">
Your Word
</h2>
<h3 align="center">
This site will be dedicated to
those who want to know and see
what's going on at yoursite/town/country.
</h3>
<h3 align="center">
We will be promoting people, businesses
and local events so you know
where to go, what to do, and
when it's happening.
</h3>
<h3 align="center">
yoursite.com will be coming soon
so keep up to date with us
until launch day.
</h3>
<h2 align="center">
<a href="http://twitter.com/your_twitter"> Follow us on Twitter </a>
</h2>
<h2 align="center"> And </h2>
<h2 align="center">
<a href="http://twitter.com/statuses/Friends_Timeline/yourcode.rss"> Subscribe to RSS Feed </a>
</h2>
</body>
</html>
Again, remember to edit the purple and remove the blue so it matches up to your site specific items.
Now, log into your server and at dolphin_root locate your index.php page. Change the page to home.php
Next, log into Admin=>Builders=>Navigation Menu Builder=> and locate the Home Button, click on it and change the url from /index.php to /home.php (You have just made your home page carry the url yoursite.com/home.php
Your final step is to save the Notepad++ file you made as index.html (make sure to use the drop down box on the Notepad++ save box to set it to save it as .html
Now upload it to your dolphin_root directory as index.php and this will force visitors to load the splash page instead of the sites current home page when they type http://yoursite.com in their web browser. Now you can build and keep the sites content confidential until your ready to unveil it to the pubic.
My next post will be for the adult oriented sites to help them stay in compliance with the local/federal laws that are out there.
