Five steps to building your own web site.

  1. Purchase your Domain.
  2. Purchase your Server Host.
  3. Install Content Management System (CMS).
  4. Select a web theme.
  5. Publish your content.
  6. Check out the Blog for useful tips.

Purchase Domain

  1. Visit a Domain Name Registrar such as Namecheap, Hostgator, 1&1, GoDaddy, etc.
  2. Search for domain name availability. Try different domain names until you find one that is available.
  3. Purchase the domain(s).

*(Internet word definitions)

 

Purchase Web host server space

  1. Visit a Web hosting company such as Namecheap, Hostgator, 1&1, GoDaddy, etc. Many of these also serve as Domain Name Registrars.
  2. Choose a web package plan that fits your needs.
  3. Purchase space on the web host’s server to store your web files.
    1. You have a choice to purchase both your name and space servers from one company or from two different companies.
    2. From Hostgator: “Since domain name registration is considered a separate service than web hosting, it is not required to register or transfer your domain to HostGator or LaunchPad to use our hosting services.”
    3. The easiest set up is to purchase both the domain and host server space from one company. Some purchase from two different companies in the unlikely event that if one company faults, regaining your functional web site is quicker.
  4. If you choose different a domain registrar and host server, then you must point your domain to your host server.

 

 

 

Point your Domain to your host server

  1. Open your web host server account to find and copy your domain name server(s) such as ns####.hostgator.com.
  2. Open your Domain registrar account, select your domain name link, and then select ‘domain name setup’ or ‘Transfer to another hosting DNS server’.
  3. Specify custom DNS servers by pasting the domain name server(s) information into the proper field boxes. The change can take as long as twenty-four hours, but often occurs much sooner.
    1. This procedure is usually done automatically if you register your domain name with the same host server.

WordPress example

  1. Open Appearance/Themes.
  2. WordPress includes a couple of default web themes to choose, but there are many more.
  3. Click on ‘Add New’ at the top of the page.
  4. Type in a word that is associated with your web site style, use filters, and search for themes. There are many free and premium themes to choose from.
  5. Some themes are better for image intense web sites, others for magazine formatting, and still more for just about anything design you can think of.
  6. Click on ‘Install Now’ under the desired theme.
  7. After the theme is installed, click on Activate.

Install Content Management System (CMS)

WordPress in Hostgator example

  1. Open your web host server account cPanel, Scroll to Software/Services, and select the Fantastico icon.
  2. In the left column under Blogs, click on WordPress, then click on new installation.
  3. Select the your domain name in the drop down menu install.
  4. Type your Admin username and password for the new web site.
    1. Choose to send email with access link to your subdomain page.

Publish content to your website

 

Publishing a WordPress post

  1. Open Post, and select Add New.
  2. Name the title of the post’.
  3. Add a new category called ‘All’ and any other categories that will appropriately identify your future blogs.
    1. Suggestion: Think of categories as chapters in a book; and tags as book index labels.
    2. ‘All’ will be useful for creating an index of all your posts.
    3. The ‘uncategorized’ posts will be excluded from the index.
  4. Add ‘Tags’ to make your post more easily found in searches.
  5. Click ‘Update’ to save changes.
  6. Now write content in the content space of your post, update, and view page to see what it looks like.

Publishing a WordPress page

  1. Open ‘Pages’, and select ‘Add new’.
  2. Title the new page.
  3. Write something of interest in the space provided.
  4. Click ‘Update’ to save changes.
  5. View page to see what it looks like.