Yep, creating a template is a good idea. Perosnally I think you'll be better off going with a set of tables, so you have a rectangular one at the top for your links and suchlike.
I use Geocities for my own interest group website actually, although I have registered a domain for it to, to go on our posters and suchlike. The company I regiesterred it with give you a control panel so you can set it to redirect to your geocities page when someone types it in. Doesn't cost too much to register the domain so may be worth looking into at some point. I'll look into what you asked in more detail later - I need to go eat right now
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-- Richard