Starting a blog or website

Starting a blog or website can be incredibly fulfilling when you think of the endless possiblities you have on the internet. With a blog you can share your thoughts, opinions, stories, pictures, videos and anything else you can think of. With a website you can help more people find your business online, promote your products or services online, or just give your business a professional look. Whatever the case, there is a perfect platform out there called Wordpress.

Wordpress can be used for just about any type of website or blog your heart desires. Wordpress comes in two different forms, the self hosted Wordpress found at Wordpress.org and the Wordpress hosted on the wordpress servers. In this article we will cover just a little bit of what the self hosted Wordpress has to offer.

The self hosted wordpress means you will need to host the Wordpress software yourself. The cheapest route to go is with a shared hosting account at places such as Bluehost.com. If you look at the prices of a dedicated servers or even most virtual dedicated servers you will be paying a lot more than a shared hosting account. You really don't need to even consider a virtual dedicated server or a dedicated server unless you plan to get huge amounts of traffic or are building an extremely large complex site.

How to get started

I recommend Bluehost.com as long as your website fits within their guidelines. Before heading over to Bluehost you need to think of some domain names you would like. For example: www.yourdomainname.com. You can pick something unique that fits you or something related to your product or service. If you are planning to promote a product or service it is a good idea to try and get something with a keyword or to in the domain name itself. For example, if you are going to be selling motorcyle parts you may want to get the word motorcyle into your domain name.

Alright, so you have couple domain names picked out you would be happy to own. Now let's head over to bluehost.com and sign up. At the sign up process is where you will enter the domain name you have picked out. If the name you picked out is not available you will have to try some different variations of it until you find a name that is available.

After you have settled on your domain name and signed up you are ready to go, and only minutes away from having your very own blog or website. After signing in you will see a strange looking panel called a cpanel with all sorts of strange icons that you may or may not know what they mean. There is no need to worry or panic. Just follow these instructions and you will be just fine.

1. Click the icon that says Simple Scripts.

2. Click the Wordpress icon on the following page.

3. Click the install button on the following page.

4. The next page will ask you to specify with or with out the www. prefix in the dropdown box. It's really up to you and your preference.

5. Don't worry about the advanced settings.

6. Read and agree to the legal information.

7. click complete.

You will now be given a link to www.yourdomainname.com/wp-admin. This is the link to your admin panel. First you need to check your e-mail and get the password Simple Scripts sent you. After you get the password simply sign into your admin panel and start building your blog or website.

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Stay tuned for more articles on builing and customizing your Wordpress site.

The truth about building a website

When building a website there can be a very large learning curve. In fact, the learning curve of building a website is large enough that many people simply give up. In this article I want to give the most honest, most effective, and best money saving way of building a website.

First, let's start out by talking about just how many affiliates are pushing garbage down your throat. I was recently doing some keyword research and trying to figure out what keywords people are typing into Google to learn how to build a website. So, I found about four keyword phrases that people are using to search for this topic. I then performed a search on these keyword phrases to find that all of the websites in the top rankings in Google for these keywords are nothing but money hungry affiliates.

I would like to explain that some of the affiliates do have good intentions and are selling good products. However, many of them are selling garbage that will not benefit anyone. Why do I say this? Well, because of the keywords they are ranking for. Many of the products these affiliates are selling would be hard for even an advanced web designer to navigate and build a website with. Not only are they trying to sell you products that are nearly impossible to use, but they are selling them at ridiculous prices. The only people benefiting from these products are the people selling them.

That said, let's move on to the positive side. There are honest people out there, and you can be honest and sell a product at the same time.

To build a website you will need hosting, no matter what anyone says, you need hosting from a reputable hosting company. It does not do you or your customers any good if your website is terribly slow and is no where to be found on a regular basis. A good hosting provider only costs about $85.00 per year. Not bad at all right!

You will also have to get a domain name. Many hosting companies offer a free domain name for life when you sign up for their hosting account. By getting the free domain name with your hosting account it will save you about $10.00 per year.

That's really it, your grand total to own a website is about $85.00 a year when you choose a hosting provider that gives you a free domain name. Also, many of the top hosting companies like Bluehost, Hostmonster, and Justhost offer incredible website builders for free that can be installed in only one click. Take for example Bluehost, they have over 25 website builders you can install. Now, do you want to buy from the affiliate marketer that is offering the "Greatest website builder in the world" or do you want plenty of choices and your own chance to figure out what will work for your website plans.

As for exact instructions on how to build a website, I highly recommend watching video tutorials so that you can follow along.

What It Takes To Build A Website

Many people think that building a website consists of one skill, when in fact, it consists of many skills. Though there are many website builders out there such as Wordpress, Joomla, Drupal, and many more that can build you a great looking website in just a few clicks. However, if you like to stand out from the crowd then you need to invest the time it takes to learn some of the skills it takes to build a website.

1.) Take the time to learn a little PHP. If you are using the Wordpress publishing platform then a little PHP knowledge will go along way and save you a lot of time when setting up your website. Wordpress also has some great support forums that will have you coding PHP in no time.

2.) HTML is a must if you want to have any kind of control over your website. Fortunately, HTML is pretty easy to learn. Jut look for a real time HTML editor and get some practice in and you will learn it in no time.

3.) CSS is a great way to add some style to your website incredibly fast and easy. There are many great free tools online to help you learn CSS very fast. My favorite tool for learning CSS is an add-on for the Firefox browser called Firebug. With Firebug you can live edit any web page and watch what happens in real time.

4.) Graphic design is a very good skill to have. Nothing is more frustrating than not being able to create your own art work and get something to look how you want it to look. You don't need to spend any money on some great graphic design software either, just download Gimp, it's free and it's a very effective tool. Though Gimp can have a slight learning curve to get the hang of it so I highly recommend watching some video tutorials on how to use it.

5.) Learn your control panel of your hosting provider. Often times people sign up for hosting and they have no idea where to start. It's extremely important that you learn how to use your control panel at your web hosting provider so you are able to complete necessary tasks. Most web hosts have great tutorials on getting started with their control panel so be sure to watch as many of them as you can.

6.) Search engine optimization (SEO) is an often over looked aspect when building a website. I highly recommend going offline to learn this one as there is just too much bad information on the Internet. I highly recommend Search Engine Optimization for Dummies, 3rd Edition, by Peter Kent. It's a great book and will teach you all you need to know about SEO.

The skills listed above are only a fraction of what is used on a complex website. However, taking the time to learn a little bit about each of the six skills I listed above will put you ahead of many of the websites out there today.

Various Methods of Building a Website

There are various methods of building a website. Whether you want to build one completely from scratch or make one in the simplest way possible, you can do so. Some things you need to consider before getting started are:

• Your own level of knowledge and experience.


• How much money you are willing to spend.


• How unique and professional you want your design to be.


• How quickly you want it up and running.

Hiring a Web Designer

The most expensive method is to hire a professional web designer. This, however, can be pretty costly. Expect to pay around $500 or more, depending on the designer's level of experience and rates. The good news is that, providing you hire the right individual to do the job, you can expect your site to come out extremely professional looking! You will also have a unique layout, which means you won't have to worry about your site looking like anyone else's.

Using Software

Many people choose to use software such as Dreamweaver, Coffee Cup, or Microsoft FrontPage. The price can range anywhere from $50 to $300, depending on which program you want to use. Some people find the basics easy to grasp and some people do not. For this reason, you need to download a free trial version of web development software and experiment with it. Download free website templates from the internet and try to edit them. If you have no idea what you're doing, cancel the trial and choose a simpler method.

FTP Software

If you make a website and save it on your computer, you need to upload it to the internet in order for people to see it. You can do this with an FTP client. Some hosting providers will allow you to upload your site through their FTP client. There is also software you can download to upload your website files yourself. Check and see what your hosting company offers and determine whether or not you'll need a third party FTP client.

Online Website Builders

If you build your website online, with a hosting account or WordPress, you won't have to upload everything to the internet, since it will already be there. Many hosting accounts provide website builders at no additional costs. They include templates, add-ons, scripts, fonts, logos, and so forth. They provide step-by-step guides and tutorials on how to build a website. This is the easiest and most affordable option for most people.

“What You See is What You Get”

A WYSIWYG editor, such as the one provided by WordPress, is a website creation tool that doesn't require any knowledge or experience at all. You can actually watch what you are creating as you are creating it. Furthermore, some of these editors are free! You won't need any hosting unless you want your own domain, rather than one provided to you. Now, most people use WYSIWYG editors such as WordPress for creating blogs, but these days, blogs can contain more than just articles. They can contain images, polls, videos, contact forms, etc.

If you want your website put up quickly, your best bet is with an online WYSIWYG editor or a website builder that comes with a hosting service. The downside to these is that the results don't appear as professional as they would if you hired an expert to make one for you, or if you were to build one from scratch. Consider what you want with a website, and what you hope to accomplish, and choose the building method accordingly.

Step by step building a website

Today I'm going to show you the step by step process of building a website. We will be building the website on the Wordpress publishing platform. This will allow you to build a professional looking website in only minutes.

Step 1.) You absolutely have to have hosting, there is no way around it if you want a professional looking website. I am recommending Bluehost as I have been using them for quite some time now.

During the sign up process at Bluehost you will be asked to pick out your domain name which is www.yourdomain.com. Of course, the "yourdoamin" part being the name you pick for your website. Try to always get the .com version of the domain you would like as this is easier for your visitors to remember.

Step 2.) After you have completed the sign up process at Bluehost you will have your sign in information to log in to your cPanel. From the Bluehost home page you will see a link in the top right corner that says "Control Panel Log in", simply click the link and log in using the log in credentials given at time of sign up.




After logging in you will be redirected to your cPanel area. Simply scroll down and find the button that says "Simple Scripts".



After clicking on Simple Scripts you will be taken to another screen full of icons. On this screen you need to find the icon that says Wordpress which will be under blogs.




Yes, I know what you are thinking, your thinking, I don't want a blog, I want a website. Wordpress is meant to be used for blogs or websites and is just as effective to use either way. Let's carry on.

After clicking on the Wordpress icon you will be taken to another screen. Simply find the big green button on that screen that says "Install" and click it.




At the top of the next screen you will see a drop down box under "Step 1:", use the drop down box to pick the latest stable version. DO NOT install any beta versions or you could run into problems later on. There will be a drop down box below that drop down box. In this drop down box you will pick whether you want your domain installed with the prefix www or without the www. Either way is fine, it's mostly preference.



You can then skip "step 2:" on this screen. Now on "step 3:" you just need to click that you agree to the legal information and then click the big green button that says "Complete". After that you will get a status bar, wait patiently while it installs Wordpress. After the installation is complete you will be given a link to your actual website and another link to the admin panel of your website (Note: this link is different from your Bluehost cPanel).

Step 3.) Now you need to get your sign in info that was e-mailed to the e-mail address Bluehost has on file. After retrieving your sign in information you can now click on the link that goes to your admin panel which will look like this http://www.yourdomain.com/wp-admin. Simply enter your sign in information and you will be in the admin panel of your actual website.




If you visit your website you will see you have a very plain looking website template. This can be changed very quickly. In your left column inside your admin panel you will see a link that says "Appearance".




After clicking on the Appearance link you will be taken to another screen where you can add new themes. Simply click the "Add New" button at the top of this page and and you can start search through thousands of website templates. Take your time and pick out something you really like. After you find something you like you will simply click the "Install" link under the theme you like. Then click "Install Now" on the pop up screen, then simply click "Activate" on the very next screen you are taken to. Your done! You now have professional looking website. Stay tuned for more tips on customizing your website. Enjoy your new website!

How To Make A Website Video 1

In this video I show you how to make a website using a great publishing platform called Wordpress.

what this video covers.

• Getting your hosting.


• Picking your domain name.


• Installing Wordpress on your hosting account.


• Picking out template for your website.

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