More than Just Lines on a Map: Best Practices for U.S Bike Routes
How To Make Your Own Website - A Step by Step Guide
1. How To Make Your Own Website
In Less Than An Hour
For the Full Step By Step Tutorial visit:
http://www.SimpleWebTutorial.com
In this document I am going to show you how to
make your own great looking website
in less than an hour.
Building a website is actually a lot easier than
most people realize. All you need to do is follow
this simple step by step guide and you will be up
and running in no time.
So if you are looking to build a:
Personal Website or Blog
Small Business Website
Corporate Website
Information Site
Personal Online Resume
eCommerce Store
This tutorial will show you how to get your site up and running Today!
Disclosure: We receive compensation from some of the products & services we recommend.
2. There are two things that every website must have:
1. A Domain Name (Your Websites Address).
2. Web Hosting (A computer to host your website that is connected to the
internet 24/7 and has super fast access speed to keep your website
available at all times.
Fortunately for us, modern webhosts have made this technology very affordable
and super easy to setup.
Step 1 – Choose A Domain Name
The first thing you need to do is to choose a domain name for your website.
Your website visitors get their first impression about the website based on your
domain name.
This is why you want to make sure your domain name:
a) Is relevant to the content of your website,
b) Is simple & easy to remember (preferably a catchy phrase),
c) Is short and descriptive
d) Has the right extension (.com, .org, or .net)
Once you have an idea of what you would like your domain name to be, you will
need to check to see if it is available.
You can do this at any of the big name domain registrars, such as:
Godaddy.com
NameCheap.com
Name.com
Important Note: Don’t register your domain just yet, later in this tutorial I will
show you how to get it for free.
Disclosure: We receive compensation from some of the products & services we recommend.
3. Simply visit one of those websites, and enter your desired name into the search
box and it will tell you if your domain name is available or if someone else has
already registered it.
If your first choice for a domain name is not available you might like to add a word
or two to it.
So if you were trying to register DogTraining.com and it wasn’t available, you
might try DogTrainingGuide.com or MyDogTrainingGuide.com
Just keep playing around with ideas until you find something you like.
Step 2 – Set Up A Web Host Account
The second thing that all websites must have, is web hosting. A Web host account
is a server that holds the files that make up your website and makes it available at
high speeds online 24/7 for the world to see.
When looking for a webhosting company there are a few things you should
consider:
1.
2.
3.
4.
Their server location. (is it located in your country)
How much Web Space & Bandwidth they offer (preferably unlimited)
Price – Always important.
Uptime – look for a min of 99.9% Uptime.
I personally recommend a company called GreenGeeks.
GreenGeeks are an American based Web Host who offer great features and
customer service at a reasonable price.
Plus if you choose to pay for 1 year or more in advance they offer Free Domain
Registration when you sign up.
Disclosure: We receive compensation from some of the products & services we recommend.
4. Click Here to Visit GreenGeeks.
Once you get there, click on the Sign Up Now button.
Then enter your desired domain name in the box to the left and click Next.
Disclosure: We receive compensation from some of the products & services we recommend.
5. And finally you will see the Signup page, just enter your billing details, and choose
a Payment Plan that suits you.
Remember if you pay for a year or more in advance you will get your domain for
free plus no setup fees, so it really does work out a lot better.
Once you have completed this page and submitted it, you will receive an email
confirmation from GreenGeeks with your account login details along with some
other important information about your account. It’s a good idea to print this
email out and keep a copy somewhere safe.
Step 3 – Building Your Website
Once you receive your email confirmation from GreenGeeks, you are ready to
start building your actual website.
Building a website used to be a specialized time consuming experience, but over
the past few years new tools have been developed to allow anyone, regardless of
their experience to build a great looking functional website themselves.
One of these tools (and the one I recommend you use) is called WordPress.
Wordpress is completely free to use, and is easily installed in just a few clicks.
Once it is installed you can easily add content, images, text etc to your site, as
well as install custom “themes” which change the way your website looks with
just a few clicks (and thousands of designs to choose from).
So let’s get started….
First log into your GreenGeeks Account Manager using the login detailsi found in
your welcome email.
It will look like this:
Disclosure: We receive compensation from some of the products & services we recommend.
6. Once you are inside your account manager, you will see your domain name and
billing info.
Click on the Blue button that says cPanel Login.
Once you are in cPanel (Control Panel) scroll down until you see the Fantastico De
Luxe icon, and click on it.
Disclosure: We receive compensation from some of the products & services we recommend.
7. Next you will see a list of free scripts that you can install. We want to click on
WordPress:
Then click on New Installation:
Next you will see a screen that asks you for a few things to setup your WordPress
Installation.
There are a couple of things you need to fill out here, as follows:
Installation Location:
Install on domain: Choose your domain (if its not alredy)
Install in Directory: Leave Blank
Admin Access Data:
Administrator Username: Enter a username here
Password: Enter a password here.
Disclosure: We receive compensation from some of the products & services we recommend.
8. Base Configuration:
Admin nickname: You can leave blank
Admin Email: enter your email address
Then leave the others as they are
Once you have done that, click on Install WordPress
Then you will see another screen where you just need to click “Finish Installation”
And Voilà – You’re done! You now have a basic website up and running.
Disclosure: We receive compensation from some of the products & services we recommend.
9. If you now visit your domain name, you will see a basic WordPress website, with
some example content in it. Something like this:
The next job is to learn your way around WordPress and customize it to suit your
needs.
You will manage your website from a Dashboard, to login to your Dashboard, just
add /wp-login to your main domain and log in using the information you’ve just
set up. Another option is to simply follow the login link located in the right sidebar
of your homepage. Example:
www.yourdomain.com/wp-login
You should now see your WordPress Dashboard, and be able to add, edit, delete
pages and images on your website.
Get familiar with this interface – you will be using it a lot. It is the central nervous
system of your website. Every single change on your website will be made using
this dashboard.
Disclosure: We receive compensation from some of the products & services we recommend.
10. The first thing you will notice are the quick-links to posts, pages, category, tags
and comments, as well as a quick link that you can use to change your WP theme.
On the left hand side, you can see a lot of sub-menus that all serve their purpose,
but for now let’s only focus on the most important ones:
1) Posts – These most commonly used when you are running your website as a
blog. When you create posts within WP, you can decide what page they will show
up on, along with the exact date of publishing, the publishers name and an option
for visitors to comment on each post. You can also set up different post
categories.
2) Media – This menu is used for managing pictures and videos you add to your
website.
3) Links – Here you can create different links and link categories that you can later
use to form customized sidebar widgets!
4) Pages – Used for adding new, fresh pages to your website. You can also browse
the options for choosing the page slug, enabling/disabling comments, changing
the page order, modifying the page template, etc.
5) Appearance – Allows you to completely customize your website’s appearance,
starting from the theme you’re using, all the way to sidebar widgets and menus.
There are a million ways to customize your website. Knock yourself out!
6) Plugins – These can be a very useful tool if applied properly. There are tons of
3rd party plugins that enable you to speed up your website’s performance,
enhance the search engine visibility, improve visual styling & appearance and
much more!
7) Users – This section is for adding new or modifying existing user settings, such
as user passwords, profiles, e-mails, etc.
8) Settings – A place where you can set up stuff like your blog’s name, description,
date format, front page display, monitor comments and media settings, etc. You
will also be able to access and re-configure your 3rd party plugins from this menu.
Disclosure: We receive compensation from some of the products & services we recommend.
11. That should give you a basic overview of WordPress Works, for more in depth
tutorials on how to add content and customize your new website:
Visit our website at: www.SimpleWebTutorial.com
Disclosure: We receive compensation from some of the products & services we recommend.