Hi,

I have some time on my hands for summer. I'm interested in making my own website. I've been doing some research but I'm having a hard time finding good information.

Can anyone give me advise if they have and run their own website?

Start off with something simple like dreamweaver until you get a hang of html and css... then try to improve on it.

I've heard a lot about dreamweaver. What exactly is it? I was thinking of using wordpress.

What type of website are you interested in creating? If you have absolutely no knowledge and haven't created your own website before then I suggest HTMLDog as a starting point. That's what I did. I created a very simple personal website using pure HTML and CSS to get a solid understanding then I moved on to create a more complex site which is all on the content management system Joomla (think WordPress but gives you a bit more control).

A personal site. Basically showcasing my talents, mostly for photography. That's for starters. Later I would like to create something that can potentially give me some extra income.

Originally Posted by Scuderia

A personal site. Basically showcasing my talents, mostly for photography. That's for starters. Later I would like to create something that can potentially give me some extra income.

If you want to be hosted by wordpress.com it is free , but your site will be mysite.wordpress.com
If you want your website to be formatted like "mysite.com" you have to pay for hosting but this time it uses wordpress.org . I personally use bluehost.com for hosting and I buy my domain name from domain.com! You can also purchase a domain name from bluehost. When you buy a bluehost account , you can open a website using the wordpress appliciation in blue host. Do these steps and I can help you after you begin with the basics

Also after making you website look for themes on themeforest.net

Buy cheap webhosting from hostgator or something, a domain from namecheap.com or something similar, install wordpress, buy a nice portfolio theme from themeforest.net and it should be pretty easy to figure out from there

awesome thanks for the advice. I'm seeing a lot of different prices though. From $13 for the year to $13 a month. For example on GoDaddy it says $12.99 for the year. I like what hostgator is offering. Which of these providers would you recommend in terms of beginners that would help the most?

Originally Posted by Scuderia

awesome thanks for the advice. I'm seeing a lot of different prices though. From $13 for the year to $13 a month. For example on GoDaddy it says $12.99 for the year. I like what hostgator is offering. Which of these providers would you recommend in terms of beginners that would help the most?

You can grab a free month of hosting from Hostgator with the coupon "FIRSTMONTHFREE20 12" I believe, but they will still require your credit card on file. Either Hostgator or Bluehost are good choices for starting out as both are the biggest brands around and have a lot more money and customers to be able to offer you greater service for the price. In terms of technical help, both of these hosts have outsourced help centres so the support you will receive should you need any questions answered will be mediocre at best. There is plenty of guides outlining most anything you'd want to do in cPanel on YouTube though.

In terms of the prices, the $13/month fee is likely for hosting and the $12.99/year fee is likely for a domain (although both bluehost and hostgator offer starter plans for shared hosting which begin at around $5/month). You will need both a domain and hosting in order to create a website. I'd recommend purchasing your domain from either Namecheap or Godaddy, as both are giants in the industry and can offer more benefits to their customers. Personally I go with Namecheap because it is a little bit easier to get things done with them and there is less upsells, Godaddy will try to slap extra things on to your bill. You can also use the coupon code "DEDOMAIN" to get a discount on .com/.net/.org/.biz domains from namecheap. I would advise against purchasing your domain from the same place as your hosting.

I also suggest that you use a cms like Joomla or Wordpress. It is extremely easy to learn how to use and you don't need any css or html knowledge . I am currently only using Joomla to run our society's website - www.maclss.com.

In terms of buying a domain or hosting , i recommend you avoid GoDaddy. The hosting company i am using is Daves Network - http://www.davesnetwork.ca - Costs only $20 a year including taxes for Hosting.

Originally Posted by sud28

I also suggest that you use a cms like Joomla or Wordpress. It is extremely easy to learn how to use and you don't need any css or html knowledge . I am currently only using Joomla to run our society's website - www.maclss.com.

In terms of buying a domain or hosting , i recommend you avoid GoDaddy. The hosting company i am using is Daves Network - http://www.davesnetwork.ca - Costs only $20 a year including taxes for Hosting.

Ugh so much to choose from. Okay so I found this site: http://lawchristopher.com/. This is similar to what I'm looking for. I believe he uses wordpress. So I think bluehost might be the best option but they don't seem to have .ca domains and it's a little pricey.

Dave's network says it's $30 Annually. How do I get the $20 deal and just to get things clear, once I get my domain how do I go about editing it and making the actual site? Is this where Joomla comes in? Would there be an additional cost?

Register a domain from godaddy, and for hosting, check out redflagdeals - there are a few people that have FREE monthly hosting offered (with reasonable bandwidth and data limitations)

Originally Posted by Scuderia

Ugh so much to choose from. Okay so I found this site: http://lawchristopher.com/. This is similar to what I'm looking for. I believe he uses wordpress. So I think bluehost might be the best option but they don't seem to have .ca domains and it's a little pricey.

Dave's network says it's $30 Annually. How do I get the $20 deal and just to get things clear, once I get my domain how do I go about editing it and making the actual site? Is this where Joomla comes in? Would there be an additional cost?

I'd strongly suggest that you purchase your domain from Namecheap or Godaddy, purchasing a domain name from your webhost leaves room for potential issues.

Here is essentially what you will have to do:

Step 1) Buy a domain (Namecheap or Godaddy are great options as there are a lot of tutorials out there on how to use their interface)

Step 2) Buy a shared web hosting plan (use any of the web hosts mentioned above, they should all work fine - all of them operate from cPanel as far as I can tell)

Step 3) Forward your domain's DNS to your web host, here is a video outlining how to do it from the Namecheap interface:



Step 4) Go into cPanel and create a mysql database so that you can use wordpress, here is a video that outlines how to do that:



Step 5) Install wordpress to your server, here is a video outlining how to do that:



From there you will be able to configure your website from the wordpress admin panel, which can be accessed at www.yourdomain.com/wp-admin


If you are still confused, I've found this video that outlines everything here step by step but it is a bit dated (from 2008) but you should still be able to follow it just fine: