Learn How To Make Your Own Website In 5 Simple Steps
Would you like know the steps you have to take to create a website all on your own? Really, there are just five simple steps you need to follow to design one easily and effortlessly.
What five steps do you need to take to make your own website so that others may see what you have to say or even sell?
Step 1 – Register Your Domain Name
Step 2 – Setup Your Hosting Account
Step 3 – Set The Domain Servers At The Registrar
Step 4 – Installing WordPress In A Few Clicks
Step 5 – Configuring WordPress and Making Your Website Your own
Yep its pretty simple, just by following these 5 steps we will have your site up and running in no time.
Step 1 – Register Your Domain Name
It doesn’t matter if you’re building a personal or business website, you need to have a good domain name. For example, if your business name is Freelance Writer Mom, then it’s best to register your domain name as freelancewriter.com or freelancewriter.net. If that’s unavailable, then you could add something to the end of it. Or, if you want, you can add in your town or state to the end of it such as freelancewriterArkansas.com or freelancewritermomArkansas.com… or something like this.
There are heaps of concepts and designs out there. All you’ll need to do is have a few ideas and then test them at the relevant websites to see if those domains are available.
Of course, you can always get an unrelated website domain such as www.mywebsiteishere.com or mywebsiteisthebest.com
There are many websites that can help you register a domain name, although one of the best domain registrars to choose is Godaddy.com
. You can simply register and secure your domain name for under $12 sometimes cheaper depending on the deals they have.Simply go to www.GoDaddy.com
and you will see a screen that looks like the picture below; enter your desired name into the box and press GO!
If your domain name is available there will be a screen that looks like this, simply press the ADD button and it will continue onto the registration process. If you choose a domain that is already taken just keep trying until you find one that is available.
You will be presented with a bunch of offers throughout the process, I would recommend to decline them all at this stage as you can come back at a later stage to add the different things if you like, Godaddy is a really good domain registrar but I would recommend also to try a different company for web hosting (you will see why later). Once you have purchased the domain and everything is processed you should receive an email with all your relevant info.
Great work, you have now purchased your domain!
Step 2 – Setup Your Hosting Account
Ok now that you’ve got your domain name registered and ready to go, you’ll need to host it somewhere. To get your website published on the web, you’re going to need to purchase a web hosting account and then upload it to the internet. How do you pick from all the different ones available? It’s actually really easy, there are 2 main rules you should follow when deciding on the best hosting company to use.
1. Avoid cheap offers from non reputable companies
2. Pick a well established, highly regarded company
We recommend our customers use a well priced and established company called Hostgator.
They are extremely dependable and provide users all kinds of hosting plans to choose from. They offer 24/7 support which is good because they are available anytime of the day to answer your questions or concerns. Whatever you do be sure you pick a dependable hosting company. After all, if the web hosting company goes down, it means your website will also go down. Thus, your visitors will not be able to find you. Avoid cheap companies because, while they sound good in the beginning, they could end up costing you money and time in the long run.
Setting up your Hostgator account.
Firstly you will need to go to the hostgator website by clicking this link: www.Hostgator.com.
When you get there click on “View Web Hosting Plans” and then you will see a screen like this:
We will use the “Hatchling Plan” to begin with as we only have the one domain to host, so decide how long you want to run for and hit the “Order Now” button.
As we have already purchased our domain use the box on the right and enter our domain we just purchased and press “Continue to Step 2″.
Hot Tip – If you sign up for 2 years you will instantly save 35 dollars
We have secured a 25% discount code for all our customers so enter the wordsWEBSITECREATION like the picture shows below to secure your immediate discount.
Fill in all the account information and once you are done hit Create Account and you are ready to roll. You should receive an email with all relevant information in it, keep this in a safe place as we need the detail in step 3 and for your future reference.
See how easy it is to do, it took you about 10 minutes or so to do these first 2 steps. Well Done!
Step 3 – Set The Name Servers At The Registrar
Next, you’ll need to alter the Domain Name Servers at the domain register. Once the Hostgator sends you the Account Login Information email, you’ll find those name server specifics, which usually begin with “NS1, NS2, NS12, etc. If you can’t find this information, be sure to talk with them either by email or phone and they’ll provide you with the information associated with the hosting account.
So go to godaddy.com and log in with your details.
1 – Once logged in, hover over the Domain tab and then click Domain Management. There, you’ll have a list of domain names that you registered with the company.
2 – Highlight the Domain name and click on it.
3 – On the next page (see pic), where it says name servers, click the tab that says Set Name Servers
4 – Click the tab that says I have specific nameservers for my domains
5 – In the boxes named Nameserver 1 and Nameserver 2 enter the details that were sent to you when you signed up for your Hostgator account then click ok. (It should be in your email)
That’s it, your are done for now it may take some time to become active, sometimes up to 48 hours but usually its a lot quicker.
If you’re having difficulties changing your Name Servers, get in touch with Hostagor so they can walk you through the process. Their support system is fantastic for people wanting some assistance or use our contact us page and we will be happy to assist you at any stage of the process.
Step 4 – Installing WordPress
WordPress is a blogging platform that allows you to effortlessly choose the design and theme for your website. It also allows you to create pages for it and publish them online with little effort. To get WordPress installed on your website, you’ll need to go to the cPanel on the hosting account. Bear in mind that you have to wait until after the 48 hours at the most (it’s usually sooner) of changing your Name Servers to do this. Once you can, open cPanel through the URL. (Ex. www.yourdomainnamehere.com/cpanel).
If you have successfully changed the Name Servers, you’ll get a popup that will ask for a username and password for the cPanel. Refer back to the account information email you received from hostgator, all your relevant details should be in that email.
1. Once you can log into the cPanel using the URL, head to the Fantastico De Luxe option by clicking on it.
2. When it opens, find the WordPress option under Blogs.
3. Choose WordPress and then on New Installation.
4. On the next page, choose the domain name you’ll be installing WordPress on. Be sure you type in your email address, powerful password and any information that’s requested. Keep in mind that you can change these later on using the WordPress Admin panel once you’ve installed it. Now, press “Install WordPress” to see the last page.
5. Now, choose “Finish Installation” so that WordPress will be entirely installed onto the domain.
6. That’s it great work, when you visit your website, you’ll find the default WordPress blog page with a greeting.
If you see that, you know you’ve installed it correctly. It’s not uncommon for a delay in WordPress showing up; it all depends on the server configuration of hostagtor. If you still can’t see it, be sure to clear out your browser cookies and cache but if you have followed these 4 steps correctly you should be all good in 24 hours at the latest. If you are having any difficulties send us an email anytime and we will assist you, our aim is to get you up and running as fast as we can with your own website.
Step 5 – Setup WordPress and Publish Your Website
After you have installed WordPress, you’ll need to do the following things:
– Configure WordPress
– Select Design
– Contribute Content
- Publish
A – When you need to configure WordPress, you’ll need to log into the admin area by typing in your actual domain name and then after the .com, type in /wp-admin. After you do this, find the “configure various settings” button using the Settings option.
B – When you’re ready to choose a design, do the following things: Appearances, Themes, Install Themes. When you get to the Install Themes option, you can pick a variety of things for your website. If you need help, choose “Find Themes”.
Just choose the theme you like best and hit install. Once it’s done, activate it. If you don’t like it, continue doing this step until you find one you like. Go to Appearance, Themes and Manage Themes to keep track of all of them.
C – Once you have your theme, go to “Pages, Add New”. Here, you’ll be able to give a page its heading and page content. You can alter the font, colors and whatever else from the toolbar. Once you’re happy with what you have laid out, hit the PUBLISH button to publish the page. Be sure you design your other pages in exactly the same way.
D – Once this is done, go to option front page and adjust the radio button choice from “A Static Page” from “Your Latest Posts”.
E – Choose the “Page Name” from the “Front Page” selection. This tells the program want to show as the homepage. Now, hit the Save Changes button and voila! Your site is now available for all to see!
Whenever you want to alter your pages, you can do so anytime you want. Everything about your site is under your control so you can update it anytime you feel the need to. Keep in mind that WordPress is extremely popular with thousands of designs, features and plugins. Just remember to play with it and you’ll learn something new each time you do.
There are a multitude of things that can be done within the WordPress admin area and additional help will be available soon. If you have any problems, be sure to ask. If you have questions regarding what to do after you’ve done the five steps above, check out the other tutorials offered. You can also speak with us about any problems or questions you have regarding the creation and publication of your website.
Filed Under: Website Teaching
Website Design Agencies
If you want to create a website in a few steps, your best bet is to use a free online site builder because these tools are very easy to use and offer good results if you find a good builder. But if you need those websites that have a more professional look with interactive features, a web design agency may be able to do the work for you. Every agency that is committed to serving clients has a dedicated team that can work on your project in full time. This not only gives you faster results but it ensures that the professional quality is there. But there are agencies that might have different standards of quality so it is important that take some time in finding a good web design agency rather than finding the first web design agency that you see with attractive advertising. Use these tips in finding an agency that you can trust in delivering a quality output.
See How the Agency’s Homepage is Designed
You have every right to judge the web design agency by its official website because the web design team should work hard to give those visitors a good first impression. If you are not very satisfied with the look of the website, the agency might not be worth hiring especially if you need a website that looks more out-of-the-box than this. The only exception is if the agency is more focused in building websites for businesses.
View the Sites that the Agency Designed in the Past
If the homepage looks generic but acceptable, you can give the agency another chance by checking out the portfolio. Any agency that has been around for a few months should showcase some of their best works. If you are happy with what you see, you can be confident that the web design agency will serve you well.
See How Competitive their Pricing Is
There are a lot of web design agencies that are very flexible in making designs for different kinds of clients. Therefore, the only way to stay competitive is to make the pricing scheme more reasonable. Some groups cannot keep their prices too low because they have larger teams. This is a good thing if you want a big project to be done very quickly. Find any sites that have good portfolios and analyze their pricing schemes so you can figure out the best choice. It is also important that you understand exactly what you get when you hire the web design group. Some web design agencies might be more expensive because they offer free marketing assistance.
If you have a hard time choosing from a number of very good companies, compare their portfolios once again or do some additional research using your favorite search engine so you can find some positive feedback.
