In this how to make a website guide I will show you exactly how to setup your own website from start to finish.
Creating your own website doesn’t cost thousands of dollars. By completing this tutorial you should have your own website up and running within about 2 hours.
The cost to you will be $11 USD for a domain name and $5.95 per month for website hosting. All the information provided on this site is free of charge.
Thousands of people visit this website every day and you can be the next website success story.
For the purpose of this tutorial we are going to use one of my websites as the example. The site we will setup is called www.makeawebsitesample.com
So let’s get started!
1) You need to register your domain name. The best place to do that is namecheap.com. Click this link to be redirected to http://www.namecheap.com so you can register you domain name.
On the home page in the middle there is a search box that looks like this:
2) Enter the domain that you want to register and click search.
The results will look something like this where there are many variations of the same domain name.
We are going to selected the .com version of the domain because that is the best one to choose.
3) If your domain is available, click the add to cart button.
NOTE: if you don’t have an account with namecheap you will need to register an account with them. You need to do this before you can pay for your domain.
4) Click the checkout button at the bottom and fill in your details (note you may have to create an account with namecheap at this stage)
Select the registration for a 1 year period and follow the checkout process until payment.
Once you have paid you domain should instantly appear in your account and a recept should have been sent to your email.
Don’t worry about accessing your domain just yet we will cover that in a few steps time.
Now that you are the new owner of a brand new domain for your website we need to work on setting you up with a hosting account.
After testing many of the popular providers we now only recommend Bluehost.
Bluehost is one of only four recommended web hosting providers for wordpress (our recommend website building software). They are safe, secure and reliable with 24/7 customer support and fast servers for good website performance.
- Here’s how to set up a web hosting account with Bluehost:
1) First you need to visit the bluehost website by clicking this link: www.bluehost.com.
When you vist there site on the home page in the middle there is a green button that says “Sign Up Now” click that.
2) Since you have already registered your domain then the next step is to enter that domain in the “I have a Domain Name” box on the right hand side. You can see that step in the image below. Once you have done that click Next.
3) Fill in the account and billing information into the Sign Up Now form. (see below)
Don’t select the options at the top about buying extra domains.
Do select Site Lock Domain Security and Site Backup Pro, they are your website insurance policies if things go bad and you need to get a backup or fix a problem.
Then enter in your credit card information and click Next at the bottom to complete the order.
4) At the same time it is going to ask you to setup a new password for your account. Go ahead and do those steps.
Make sure that you remember this as you will use this to login to your account at a later date.
5) Your hosting account should be setup within about an hour (usually about 10 minutes) and bluehost will send you an email that confirms the setup of your account.
In that email it will talk about welcome to Bluehost and how to get started.
Now that you have your domain and hosting it is time to build your website.
1) Go back to where you registered your domain: http://namecheap.com
Go to the top right hand corner and click my account. Then go ahead and login.
2) Once you are logged in your account you will see the list of domains in your account. This should be the domain name that you registered in step one. The next step is to click on your domain name in your account panel. For demonstration purposes I have highlighted an example domain below. The other domains in the account have been lurred for privacy reasons.
3) Once you have click on your domain you will be taken to a new page where you need to select ‘Transfer DNS To Web Host’ which is located in the top left hand corner of the website. See the image below for visual instructions.
4) In this step you need to add the name server information (GPS coordinates).
Please enter:
ns1.bluehost.com
ns2.bluehost.com
Into the corresponding 1 and 2 slots.
Then Click Save Changes.
5) You’re done!
Congratulations! – you’ve successfully linked a Name domain to a Bluehost account!
If you run into any trouble the namecheap and bluehost support will help you solve any problems you may be experiencing.
WordPress is a free website building platform that has been commonly used by web designers for many years. It is probably the most used website building platform for individuals, small business and large corporate websites.
It allows you to build a website very quickly and is simple to use and customizable if you choose. It saves you hiring expensive web designers and programers. It is also search engine friendly so people can find your website.
However manually installing wordpress can take about 1 day to complete.
That is why we recommend bluehost.
Bluehost has a built in, one-click, wordpress installer. Which saves you lots of time.
This wordpress installer comes free with every Bluehost hosting plan.
To install wordpress follow these steps:
1) Go to Bluehost.com and in the top right hand corner Click ‘Control Panel Login”
2) Enter your domain and password to login to your ‘Control Panel’
3) Once you are in your cpanel for your website scroll down to the bottom of the page to the Software/Services section and select the wordpress icon.
4) In the next screen select install
5) The you need to make your installation preferences.
Leave the sectiosn in step 1 as is.
Ignore the advanced settings in step 2
UN-Check both boxes in step 3
Select that you have read the displaimer in Step 4.
Click Complete.
6) Save your information.
Once your blog has been setup you need to copy the login information that is produced for your website.
This information will also be emailed to you.
You need this information for Step 5 and 6 to configure and customize your website.
If you go to your domain now you should see the default wordpress installed and the start of your new website.
DONE: If you have completed all the above steps correctly your should have now setup your website.
NOTE: It may take up to 48 hours for the bluehost system to register your account get it setup and turn it on.
Don’t panic if you go to your domain name and you dont get your wordpress blog. To confirm it should look something like this. Just sit tight, there is nothing that you can do that will speed the process up. It should be up and running within that time period and then you can complete the next step.
Once you have setup your site you will want to login and add content, redesign it and make some changes. To do this you need to access the wp-login of your website.
www.makeawebsitesample.com/wp-login
You do this by typing into your address bar you domain name then /wp-login. You will use the username and password that you saved from the final step of setting up your wordpress site.
Once you have logged into the site you you should come to your dashboard which looks like this:
This is where you control your website from. All changes you want to make can be done from here.
If you look down the left hand side you will notice a bunch of menus like posts, pages plugins etc.
Here is an explanation of each.
1) Posts – used mainly for blogging. You can create a post which will show up on the blog page of your website. This can be tagged, categorized and organized how you choose.
2) Media – Managing video and pictures on your website.
3) Links – Add links that you can put on the side of your website.
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) Comments – managing comments people make on your blog posts.
5) Appearance – Allows you to customize your website. Starting with the design, then also the layout and structure.
6) Plugins – Used to improve your websites functionality and usability.
7) Users – Managing the administrators of the website (who can login or not)
Settings – Allows you to edit the general settings of your website.
You basically have two options.
1) Get a pre designed template and add it to your website.
2) Get a custom design specifically for your site that includes all the design and colour elements that suit you. We offer a service like that and you can find more about that here:
Firstly the two pre done template sources that we recommend are woothemes and diythemes.
Woo themes is a website that has a collection of ready made templates
Advantages
Creating your own website doesn’t cost thousands of dollars. By completing this tutorial you should have your own website up and running within about 2 hours.
The cost to you will be $11 USD for a domain name and $5.95 per month for website hosting. All the information provided on this site is free of charge.
Thousands of people visit this website every day and you can be the next website success story.
What Will You Need ?
To setup a website you only need these two things- A domain name
- A web hosting account
For the purpose of this tutorial we are going to use one of my websites as the example. The site we will setup is called www.makeawebsitesample.com
So let’s get started!
Step 1 – Register A Domain Name
It is important to get your domain name right. Here are some tips on choosing the right domain:- It is brand-able (like facebook.com)
- Or it has something to do with what your site is about (like dogbreedingtips.com)
- Its easily memorable
- preferably ends in .com
1) You need to register your domain name. The best place to do that is namecheap.com. Click this link to be redirected to http://www.namecheap.com so you can register you domain name.
On the home page in the middle there is a search box that looks like this:
2) Enter the domain that you want to register and click search.
The results will look something like this where there are many variations of the same domain name.
We are going to selected the .com version of the domain because that is the best one to choose.
3) If your domain is available, click the add to cart button.
NOTE: if you don’t have an account with namecheap you will need to register an account with them. You need to do this before you can pay for your domain.
4) Click the checkout button at the bottom and fill in your details (note you may have to create an account with namecheap at this stage)
Select the registration for a 1 year period and follow the checkout process until payment.
Once you have paid you domain should instantly appear in your account and a recept should have been sent to your email.
Don’t worry about accessing your domain just yet we will cover that in a few steps time.
Now that you are the new owner of a brand new domain for your website we need to work on setting you up with a hosting account.
Step 2 – Set Up A Web Host Account
Now that you have your domain you need somewhere to store all your website files. That is why you need a web hosting account.After testing many of the popular providers we now only recommend Bluehost.
Bluehost is one of only four recommended web hosting providers for wordpress (our recommend website building software). They are safe, secure and reliable with 24/7 customer support and fast servers for good website performance.
- Here’s how to set up a web hosting account with Bluehost:
1) First you need to visit the bluehost website by clicking this link: www.bluehost.com.
When you vist there site on the home page in the middle there is a green button that says “Sign Up Now” click that.
2) Since you have already registered your domain then the next step is to enter that domain in the “I have a Domain Name” box on the right hand side. You can see that step in the image below. Once you have done that click Next.
3) Fill in the account and billing information into the Sign Up Now form. (see below)
Don’t select the options at the top about buying extra domains.
Do select Site Lock Domain Security and Site Backup Pro, they are your website insurance policies if things go bad and you need to get a backup or fix a problem.
Then enter in your credit card information and click Next at the bottom to complete the order.
4) At the same time it is going to ask you to setup a new password for your account. Go ahead and do those steps.
Make sure that you remember this as you will use this to login to your account at a later date.
5) Your hosting account should be setup within about an hour (usually about 10 minutes) and bluehost will send you an email that confirms the setup of your account.
In that email it will talk about welcome to Bluehost and how to get started.
Now that you have your domain and hosting it is time to build your website.
Step 3 – Point Your Domain To Your Hosting
Although this step sounds complex it is very simple to achieve. You are going to update your DNS (domain name system). In laymen’s terms this like the GPS instructions you input in a car.1) Go back to where you registered your domain: http://namecheap.com
Go to the top right hand corner and click my account. Then go ahead and login.
2) Once you are logged in your account you will see the list of domains in your account. This should be the domain name that you registered in step one. The next step is to click on your domain name in your account panel. For demonstration purposes I have highlighted an example domain below. The other domains in the account have been lurred for privacy reasons.
3) Once you have click on your domain you will be taken to a new page where you need to select ‘Transfer DNS To Web Host’ which is located in the top left hand corner of the website. See the image below for visual instructions.
4) In this step you need to add the name server information (GPS coordinates).
Please enter:
ns1.bluehost.com
ns2.bluehost.com
Into the corresponding 1 and 2 slots.
Then Click Save Changes.
5) You’re done!
Congratulations! – you’ve successfully linked a Name domain to a Bluehost account!
If you run into any trouble the namecheap and bluehost support will help you solve any problems you may be experiencing.
Step 4 – Install WordPress On Your Site
Why install wordpress?WordPress is a free website building platform that has been commonly used by web designers for many years. It is probably the most used website building platform for individuals, small business and large corporate websites.
It allows you to build a website very quickly and is simple to use and customizable if you choose. It saves you hiring expensive web designers and programers. It is also search engine friendly so people can find your website.
However manually installing wordpress can take about 1 day to complete.
That is why we recommend bluehost.
Bluehost has a built in, one-click, wordpress installer. Which saves you lots of time.
This wordpress installer comes free with every Bluehost hosting plan.
To install wordpress follow these steps:
1) Go to Bluehost.com and in the top right hand corner Click ‘Control Panel Login”
2) Enter your domain and password to login to your ‘Control Panel’
3) Once you are in your cpanel for your website scroll down to the bottom of the page to the Software/Services section and select the wordpress icon.
4) In the next screen select install
5) The you need to make your installation preferences.
Leave the sectiosn in step 1 as is.
Ignore the advanced settings in step 2
UN-Check both boxes in step 3
Select that you have read the displaimer in Step 4.
Click Complete.
6) Save your information.
Once your blog has been setup you need to copy the login information that is produced for your website.
This information will also be emailed to you.
You need this information for Step 5 and 6 to configure and customize your website.
If you go to your domain now you should see the default wordpress installed and the start of your new website.
DONE: If you have completed all the above steps correctly your should have now setup your website.
NOTE: It may take up to 48 hours for the bluehost system to register your account get it setup and turn it on.
Don’t panic if you go to your domain name and you dont get your wordpress blog. To confirm it should look something like this. Just sit tight, there is nothing that you can do that will speed the process up. It should be up and running within that time period and then you can complete the next step.
Step 5 – Configuring Your Website
Once you have setup your site you will want to login and add content, redesign it and make some changes. To do this you need to access the wp-login of your website.
www.makeawebsitesample.com/wp-login
You do this by typing into your address bar you domain name then /wp-login. You will use the username and password that you saved from the final step of setting up your wordpress site.
Once you have logged into the site you you should come to your dashboard which looks like this:
This is where you control your website from. All changes you want to make can be done from here.
If you look down the left hand side you will notice a bunch of menus like posts, pages plugins etc.
Here is an explanation of each.
1) Posts – used mainly for blogging. You can create a post which will show up on the blog page of your website. This can be tagged, categorized and organized how you choose.
2) Media – Managing video and pictures on your website.
3) Links – Add links that you can put on the side of your website.
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) Comments – managing comments people make on your blog posts.
5) Appearance – Allows you to customize your website. Starting with the design, then also the layout and structure.
6) Plugins – Used to improve your websites functionality and usability.
7) Users – Managing the administrators of the website (who can login or not)
Settings – Allows you to edit the general settings of your website.Step 6 – Customizing Your Website
Now you have the basics of your website up and running you may want to customize the design of your website.You basically have two options.
1) Get a pre designed template and add it to your website.
2) Get a custom design specifically for your site that includes all the design and colour elements that suit you. We offer a service like that and you can find more about that here:
Firstly the two pre done template sources that we recommend are woothemes and diythemes.
Woo themes is a website that has a collection of ready made templates
Advantages
- Cheap
- Ready to go now
Disadvantaves
- Same look as other people
- Not cusomization
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