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How To Set Up Your Website Initially
By Staff Writer
Expert Author
Article Date: 2010-04-21
All right beginners pay attention and I'll instruct you "How To Set Up A Web Page Free"!!! There are a lot of sites out there that make you believe that they are going to give you free website or free web addresses or free something or the other.
What you don't understand is that once you have given them your name and e-mail address, they have you on their list and you will get bombarded with stuff they want you to buy. I have seen sites out there that promote free website designs and guess what? When you begin entering your personal information to open your account, they ask you for your billing information! For what! Some of these so called free software websites are paying as much as $8000.00 per day on pay per click advertising. Just how to you think they pay for that?
If that doesn't get your attention - It Should. But let me show you there is a way to get a website online absolutely free and without any strings attached. There probably is a little learning curve involved, but hey, you should know how to do this anyway. So let me teach you one step at a time how this is done.
Step #1. Go to Wordpress.com and open up an account - it is free! Now before you go too far, you will have to have a domain name. The reason you need a domain name is that is the address (ie the URL) where your website will reside. Ok, I lied, there is a little cost involved in obtaining a Domain Name. I know that you can get a domain name from most hosting sites for about $10.00 per year. GoDaddy and HostGator are two that I use and recommend because they are very reasonable and very reliable. You need to own your own domain name and have your own site hosted by a reliable hosting service. Ok it costs a few dollars per month to maintain, however if you are going to do business on the internet, it is vital. Go with the minimum charges to begin, as you can upgrade later if needed. Step #2. Once have your own hosted domain name, you are ready to go back to wordpress and get started. I use GoDaddy as my server so I will show you how to install "Wordpress" in the Hostgator back office. Go to your domain (http://yourdomainname.com) and add forward slash cpanel. (http://www.yourdomainname.com/cpanel) Scroll down to Software/Services category and click on a program called Fantastico De Luxe. Once inside Fantastico, then click on " wordpress" . Open it up and locate the domain that you want to install it on from the drop down menu. If this is your first time there will be only the domain name that you set up. Leave the "install in directory" blank as you want to install it in the root directory of your domain. Fill in the user name and password. I use "admin" for a user name. Fill in other info and click "install" wordpress then "finish". Voila! You now have a website. Right now it is a pretty basic website but we will change that in a few minutes. Test out what all it will do Next scroll down to the "Meta" category and click "log-in". After you have entered your user name and password it will take you to the back office of your wordpress site called Dashboard. We'll come back and change the look and feel of your website by adding a new theme and some pluggins in a minute, but first we need to upload some files to your site.
Step #3. Uploading and transferring files to your website using "filezilla" a FTP or file transfer protocall software program. Open your domain back office (cpanel) http://www.yourdomainname.com/cpanel and under the files folder look for the the "FTP Accounts" icon. Create a new ftp account by entering a user name and password, leave the "directory box" blank and keep "unlimited" in the quota box. Click Create FTP Account. Store the info that shows up when your new account is created as you will need it in a minute. You will need a ftp software program to operate the transferring of files and photos and videos to and from your website. The program that I use is called "Filezilla". Go to http://filezilla.com and download the "filezilla Client" program to your desktop. It is a free program that is very easy to use. Download the program and then double click the Icon on your desktop to open it. Fill in the required information and your are all set to transfer files to and from your new website.
Step #4. Once you have opened "Filezilla" the screen that opens looks intimidating at first, but it's not. The |top left quadrant shows folders exactly the way they are on your computer.as they are on your computer. The bottom left quadrantshows the files that are in the folder that you have highlighted in the quadrant above. The two right hand quadrants should be blank because we have not made the connection to your website, yet. Next click on the "new site" button and it will ask you for your host. Find the information that you saved when you created your ftp account and enter the data that you find there. The host will be the server and should look like: ftp.yourdomainname.com . Now change the "logontype" from anonymous to normal and enter the same username and password from the information saved above. Click connect. Now there should be in the top right hand quadrant and the associated files within the highlighted folder beneath that in the lbottom right portion. Now we are in a position to transfer files from your computer to your website.
Step #5. Downloading a new theme to customize your website. Search "wordpress Themes" and you will find a bunch of free themes to make your website unique. If you can't find a free theme to use, there are endless choices on ithemes.com that you can buy. Find one that you like and download it to your desktop. If the file is zipped, you will need to double click and unzip it. Next open your "filezilla" program and connect with your server. There should be a drop down menu where your domain shows up and all the connection information has already been entered in step 4 above. Once connected to your server, go to the "public_html" folder in the top right corner. Click on the "public_html" folder to open it and then open the "wp-content" folder that you will find. Wp-content stands for wordpress content. That is where you want to install the new theme that you downloaded. Just find the theme on your desktop (look in the upper left quadrant under desktop) and drag it over to the public_html file on the bottom right quadrant. That's it! Your new theme has been installed on your website.
Step #6. Return to your website and login to your own back office. http://www.yourdomainname.com/wp-admin Enter your username and password and now the dashboard for your new wordpress website is open. Over on the left hand side, click on the "appearance" button then click themes. This will show you which themes you have that are available for you to use. There should be the default theme, a classic theme and also the theme that you just uploaded from your computer. Activate the new theme and click visit site at the top to see what your new website will look like. Play around, have fun with it. If it doesn't look or work the way you want it to, just download another theme and activate it. Once you are in the wordpress back office, you can download themes, and pluggins that change the way the themes work from within your website. Before you know it you will become an expert at making websites.
About the Author:
Staff writer for the ientry network
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