How to Start / Create Your Own Website: The Beginner's A-Z Guide
by Christopher Heng
- Detailed information on getting a good domain name can be found in the article Tips on Choosing a Good Domain Name.
- After you read that, you will need to know the steps to registering a domain name and the things you need to look out for when registering.
- There are many issues involved in finding a good web host. Read up on the various things you need to look for in searching for a good web host in the article How to Choose a Web Host
- After you have an idea of what to look for, you can search for one from the Budget Web Hosting page. You can also find out which web host I'm currently using from the Which Web Host Do You Recommend? page.
- Although there are many considerations in web design, as a beginner, your first step is to actually get something out onto the web. The fine-tuning can come after you've figured out how to get a basic web page onto your site. One way is to use a WYSIWYG web editor to do it. There are many commercial and free web editors around. If you don't mind spending money on a commercial web editor, one of the most highly-regarded WYSIWYG web editors is Dreamweaver. Thesitewizard.com has a tutorial on how you can use Dreamweaver to create your website: Dreamweaver Tutorial
- After you have followed my tutorial, and are on the way to designing your website, you might want to read the article Appearance, Usability and Search Engine Visibility in Web Design as well. The article takes a brief look at some of the real world issues that every web designer must deal with.
Although thesitewizard.com contains guides for a wide variety of issues faced by a webmaster, new or old, none of them provide a step by step A-Z guide for getting started with your website. As a result, I'm often asked by people who are absolute newcomers where they should start. Having an encyclopaedia in your hands is not much use if you don't know which articles you should read first, and which next. This tutorial attempts to fill in the gaps by providing you an overview of the web creation process from the beginning, linking to selected relevant articles on thesitewizard.com that you will need to read.
The Essential Step-by-Step Guide to Starting Your Own Website
1. Get Your Domain Name
The first thing you need to do before anything else is to get yourself a domain name. A domain name is the name you want to give to your website. For example, the domain name of the website you're reading is "thesitewizard.com". To get a domain name, you have to pay an annual fee to a registrar for the right to use that name. Getting a name does not get you a website or anything like that. It's just a name. It's sort of like registering a business name in the brick-and-mortar world; having that business name does not mean that you also have the shop premises to go with the name.
Choose a Web Host and Sign Up for an Account
A web host is basically a company that has many computers connected to the Internet. When you place your web pages on their computers, everyone in the world will be able to connect to it and view them. You will need to sign up for an account with a web host so that your website has a home. If getting a domain name is analogous to getting a business name in the brick-and-mortar world, getting a web hosting account is analogous to renting office premises for your business.
Designing your Web Pages
Once you have your domain name and web host, your next step will be to design the web site itself. In this article, I will assume that you will be doing this yourself. If you are using a third party web designer to do it for you, you can probably skip this step.
If you prefer to use free software, you can find a complete tutorial on using Nvu, a free WYSIWYG web editor, in the article How to Design and Publish Your Website with Nvu. The tutorial takes you through the steps to creating a website that has a home page, an about page, a site map, a links page and a feedback form. It also teaches you some of the basic features of the Nvu software so that you can go on improving and updating your website on your own.
There are many other web design software around. If you prefer not to use either of the above, you can find some others listed on thefreecountry.com's Free HTML Editors and WYSIWYG Web Editors page.