DIY Website creation in simple steps

How to setup a website for about $100.
An easy guide that will have your site up and running in less than a day.

1. How to purchase a domain name
2. How to purchase Hosting services
3. The best DIY Website Software to use
4. Uploading your files using FTP software
5. Setting up and Managing Business email
6. Using and Understanding web statistics

1 How to purchase a domain name

In Australia you are best to have a .com.au domain becuase they are regarded higher in local Google searches.
Choose your name carefully and consider :-

• Ease of remembering
• Your brand
• Keywords that searchers will use (Offer a slight benefit in Google)

In Australia use a reputable domain reseller I personally use Netregistry.com and will base most of this article on Netregistry's services so that anyone can get up and running.
It costs $45 for a com.au domain name for 2 years.
Domain names in Australia are managed by ausregistry and you must have a connection to the name for it to be approved.

2 How to purchase Hosting services

Netregistry are a good reliable host and have phone support with servers based in Australia which is an advantage.
They are not the cheapest but offer substantial benefits and reliability especially for local Australian based sites as this will be faster than US hosting.
Hosting on an Economy package for $ 15.95 per month includes

• 100mb web space 5 gb transfer
• 20 100 mb email accounts
• Web statistics (allows you to know details of searches visitors and popular pages)

If your site grows you can upgrade your hosting without moving hosts.

Important step your domain name must point to the hosting servers - hence from your Netegistry console enter the DNS settings for your domain name to point to Netregistry's servers.
Sounds technical but it simply requires typing 2 addresses into the right place and its done.

3 The best DIY Website Software to use

I use Blueframe web US DIY Website Templates»

• Website software
• Update yourself (no ongoing update fees)
• Easily add images to pages
• Search Engine friendly
• Comprehensive Help Manual

4 Uploading your files using FTP software

FTP stands for File Transfer Protocol and is software that connects to a web server from your PC and allows you to upload your website. A good free FTP to use is called FileZilla.
All you need to know is

• The Host (e.g. ftp.yourdomain.com.au)
• Your FTP username
• Your FTP password
• Your FTP port usually 21

With Blueframe web you can set these in the software itself and not even need FileZilla.
The screen is as below :-
The above files are simply placed on your webserver and your site is uploaded.
The software steps you through uploading to your server.
Getting the FTP details above is also easy using Netregistry's console - and if you are having a problem give them a call.

5 Setting up and Managing Business email

If you are up to here - well done! Because you now have a website up and running with nice functional software on your own PC.
Netregistry also allow you to manage your emails. I recommend reading Business Email Tips.
In short you can easily have emails like info@yourdomain.com.au actually (ALIAS) to your normal email and you can also send emails from info@yourdomain.com.au from your usual email client software (Outlook, Outlook Express or my favourite Thunderbird)
Alternatively you can create a standalone (POP3) email account for info@yourdomain.com.au - again just call Negregistry if you are having problems.

6 Using and Understanding web statistics

Search Engine Optimisation Experts use web statistics to analyse how effective thier pages are in Search Engines like Google.
Your Blueframe web software is uniquely created to enhance your search results in Google. The creator has worked with Search Engine Optimisation Experts to ensure the software is easy to use and reacts well in Google. Just click on the meta tags area of your project and enter

• Title
• Keywords
• Descriptive Paragraph

Again Netregistry offer different statistics packages that record infomation on visitors to your site.

W here to from here

If you need help on this setup you can optionally pay an extra $100 for over the phone support by me personally.
That means your site is costing around $200 and is setup in one day.
I will also advise you on improving your ranking in Google.
For a couple of hundred dollars you could easily out rank sites that have had $ 1000's spent on them.

Web Templates and other options

One option is to use a pre made web template. You can save on design costs.
Check the templates at Template Monster

An example of a site created from a Template is this Face Painting Melbourne site.
In this case we added our content management system so the client can add images and news items themselves.

Phil Hoile - GoldCoastLogin.com.au programmer
Griffith University Lecturer in industry courses
- e Business & advanced e Business
Email Me