How To Make A Website

How To Make A Website

Thanks for taking the time for going through our tutorial on making your own website. This is the simplest tutorial you will find online because hey we were all beginners at some stage and if I was able to find a site like this when I started it would have been so much easier. I have put together this tutorial to make it easier for you when starting out. I have tried to make it as simple as possible but if you are having any problems just contact our team and don’t worry we will get you there.

So there are 3 simple steps to run through and they are fairly basic, but I will stress that the first step is the most important part, that is choosing a domain and then hosting your website. Choosing the right host will determine the least amount of downtime your website will experience. Don’t always assume that the cheapest host is the right choice, there maybe a reason that they are cheaper than the rest. Ask yourself questions like: Do they offer great service? Do they have a low downtime record? Do they offer round the clock support? These are important questions and we are more than happy for you to research as many companies you like.

In your tutorial today we will recommend Hostgator for your domain and also your hosting. We host all our sites with Hostgator and to be honest have never had any kinds of issues I have heard about with other companies so that’s why I recommend them to all my friends and now I will recommend them to you in our tutorial, it saves you doing the research yourself really.

Are You Ready To Get Going? Great!!

1 – Registering Your Domain and Hosting Your Site

So firstly lets head on over to Hostgator to run through the domain purchase and hosting process.

Click Here To Go To Hostgator.com

Hostgator is one of the most trusted and respected hosting companies on the internet, they offer domain names and hosting and when you purchase them both from them it makes the process a whole lot simpler.

Then click on “View Webhosting Plans”

You should see a page like this:

To start with I would recommend “Hatchling Plan”, it’s one of their best deals and because we are just starting off its your best option so hit “Order Now” for the hatchling plan.

Hot Tip – If you sign up for 2 years you will instantly save 35 dollars

So firstly choose a domain by entering your options in the first box. It will tell you if the domain is available or not so just keep trying until you get one you like and is available. In the coupon section if you enter in “MAKINGAWEBSITE” (like the pic below shows) we have secured a 25% discount off your purchase so remember to use it.

Once thats done hit “Continue To Step 2″

Choose your billing cycle, I recommend to start with a 6 month payment but it is entirely up to to pick something you are happy with, the more time you choose the cheaper it is.

Then you just need to enter in all your billing and payment information and you are good to go. They do also offer you some hosting addons you can purchase but at this stage I don’t recommend any of them so make sure they are all unticked and then scroll to the bottom and hit “Create Account”

Once that is complete wait a few minutes and you should receive an email from Hostgator containing all your information. Keep this in a safe place you will need it.

Great work you’ve done it, you’ve just built your very own site. Now to the exciting stuff – adding content and pics and videos to your site. But firstly we need to install wordpress so we can manage all these things.

You will probably need to wait an hour or so before we can install wordpress as hostgator will setup your hosting from their end before we can continue, you may need to verify your details with them but they should email you if they have any questions.

2 – Installing WordPress

WordPress is a CMS (Content Management System), In other words its a system which allows you to manage your articles, videos and pictures without having to know too much about programming your own website.

Firstly you will need to go to your websites control panel (cpanel) on your hosting account. If hostgator has completed their setup then you will just need to enter in your domain and then at the end put/cpanel.

Example: choosingyourveryowndomain.com/cpanel

Your username and password will be in the email you received from hostgator so just enter those details in and you should see your control panel.

Scroll down to the bottom of the screen and under the headingSoftware/Services click on the fantastico deluxe option.

Now click on the wordpress option and then you will see the tab new installation click on this as this will install wordpress onto your site.

Next there will be a range of options but all we need to fill out is the admin access data, so enter a username and password you wish to use and then hit Install WordPress.

Great Work!!

WordPress is now installed on your website and you are ready to add content, pictures and videos and more.
Great Work!! Only one more step and we are done guys!!

3 – Setting Up WordPress

Now we should have the default wordpress theme installed and it should look something like this:

Now we will just go through some basics of the wordpress dashboard but there is an endless amount of things you can do with your dashboard its just a matter of spending some time with it, make some mistakes, learn how to fix them. Honestly the opportunities are endless it just takes some time and some research to learn. To get to your dashboard enter in your domain then at the end enter in /wp-admin.

For example www.mytutorialexample.com/wp-admin

Enter in your login details from step 4 and your dashboard should look like this:

What you’ll see immediately are quick-links to posts, pages, comments, tags and change WordPress theme. Get familiar with the dashboard. On the left hand side of the screen, you’ll see the sub-menus. They have a purpose but place your attention on the more important ones for now. These include:

A – Posts – You can create your blog posts inside wordpress, you can also when you want them to be published, the name of the publisher and say whether you want people to comment on your post or not. You can post as often or as little as you like it’s entirely up to you.

B – Media – This tab will allow you to upload and manage all your pictures, videos and audio files you want to have on your website, you are able to upload them to your media library without them having to be live on your site.

C – Pages – You can use this section to include new pages to the website. The difference between a post and a page is: Posts are entries listed in reverse chronological order on the blog home page or on the posts page if you have set one and pages are static and are not listed by date. Pages do not use tags or categories.

D – Appearance – This part will allow you to customize the look of the blog including the theme, sidebar widgets and menus. There are a range of things you can do to customize your website.

E – Links – Here, you’ll be able to produce a number of links and links categories to use in the creation of your customized sidebar widgets.

F – Plugins – When used correctly, plugins can be quite useful. They are tools used to extend the functionality of the WordPress platform. They are additional programs you can install to make the manouvering of your website easier.

G – Settings – With the settings section, you’ll set up the websites name, description, front page display, date format, etc. Here, you can mess with the third party plugins.

H – Users – This section is about the changing of or addition of existing user settings such as emails, passwords, profiles, etc.

So that’s basically it guys, if you have run through those steps above you should be up and running. Now it is time to add some content to your website and search around for some great themes you could use to bring it alive even more. If you are having any issues just double check your work first and then if you still can’t find your error you can contact us anytime and we are more than happy to help you out. Our goal is to get you up and running with your own website as soon as we can.

Best of Luck and Happy Website Building!!!!!!!