Setting Up A Website
Most domain owners take it for granted that everyone knows how to set up a domain but this isn’t true it can be very daunting for someone who’s using a free host such as webs to take this step.
1. First of all you need to decide on a name for your website. Once you’ve done this you need to register this name with a domain registrar which you will need to pay a small fee for depending on which extension you choose. For example a .com website is more expensive than a .info. You can register your domain name at websites such as Namecheap Go Daddy or 1 and 1
2. Next you need hosting space for your domain so you can actually have a website not just a name. There are numerous free hosts as well as ones you can pay for as well. Hosts offer different packages with varying amounts of space. It is important that you don’t pay too much for space. Generally you will not need a lot for your website so you wouldn’t need 80GB of space, you would probably only need 3-5gb for your website.
You apply to be hosted and once you are accepted the host will send you your details.
Some hosts I know are Bubble
3. When you receive your details you will see something called nameservers. You need to use these to make sure your hosting space is associated with your domain name. You can do this by going to your account you have with whoever you registered your domain and then finding domain options or management (it varies with different registrars) and change the nameservers to the ones you’ve been given. It may take up to 48 hours for it to propagate so if it doesn’t work straight away don’t panic!
4. You will also need to download an FTP program. FTP is basically an easy method of uploading files from your computer to your website. It’s easier than a file manager because you can upload lots of files very easily. Some good examples of FTP programs are Filezilla and Cute FTP
Once you’ve downloaded them and installed them, you need to enter the details your host has given you and click connect.
You can then simply upload files from your computer to your website by dragging them across.
5. You can then log in to your Control Panel. There will be various options and the best place to start is to create an email address which you can do by clicking on the email accounts link and follow the on screen instructions. You can also go to your File Manager by clicking on the file manager link.
6. You will need to then decide what blogging system you are going to use. Most new domain owners opt for FanUpdate but you could decide to install WordPress, it isn’t that hard to be honest.
To find out how to install Fanupdate click here and to find out how to install WordPress click here.
7. Once you have installed a blogging system you will need to create an index page. You can either create this as a new file in your filemanager or you can create one in Notepad++ (Note: you cannot create .php files in Notepad)
Once you’ve done this you can create other pages for your site and you have set up a basic website.
