Going Through the Phases

For those that don’t know, creating a website can be quite a simple process.  Take this website for example, the process itself:

1. Took 3hrs to create, from which about 2hrs 30mins was spent playing FIFA10.
2. Cost around £10.
3. Required no coding.

In this post I propose 4 simple steps anyone could follow to produce their own website.  I have to be honest from the outset and highlight your end product won’t be an all singing, all dancing e-commerce extravaganza but more a nice website to provide information, highlight services etc.  If you’re ok with that then we’re good to go.

4 Steps to Create a Website

1. Check the availability of your name. Before doing anything it’s always a good idea to check the name you have in mind for your website is available.  To do this you need to check with a relevant service provider i.e. 123-reg, or Go Daddy.  The name of your site is referred to as your Domain Name.
2. Set up a WordPress blog. It literally takes a matter of seconds to set up a blog, all you need is an email address.  To do so, use the following form http://en.wordpress.com/signup.  The blog itself provides you with all of the functionality you’ll, probably, ever need in a nice friendly interface.  You can change the appearence, write content, manage comments and users etc. all from a user friendly dashboard.  At this point it’s probably a good idea to familiarise yourself with wordpress, it may seem a little daunting as there’s a lot of functionality available to you but it’s all very starightforward.  At this point you may be satisfied with what you have however most people don’t like to have ‘.wordpress.com’ on the end of their web address.
3. Applying your Domain Name. If you’re happy to go with a ‘.com’, ‘.org’ or ‘.net’ address then things couldn’t be more straightforward.  Follow these instructions: http://en.support.wordpress.com/domain-mapping/register-domain/.  If not you’ll have to purchase your domain name through one of the previously mentioned providers e.g. 123-reg, or Go Daddy.  Once you’ve bought your domain name it could take anywhere from a few minutes to 48hrs before it can be registered. Once registered you need to follow these instructions http://en.support.wordpress.com/domain-mapping/map-existing-domain/.  The second set of instructions are a little more complicated I strongly suggest you read each instruction carefully.  They do tell you everything you need to know.
4. Set your home page.  At the moment, technically speaking this is still just a blog.  So you’ll probably want to change the front page which you can do using the following link http://en.support.wordpress.com/pages/front-page/.

That’s pretty much all there is to it.  The hard part comes in creating the content, deciding on your design and what widgets you should include.  You can even customise your email using Google Apps for free once you’ve mapped your domain.  Anyway at such a low cost it’s worth giving it a go and seeing whether or not it’s for you before paying way over the odds for a site you have little or no control over.