Knowledgebase

A website can be something very simple that you can do all on your own, or it can be highly complex and need professional production.

This article outlines in simple language the basics of what you can do to get your own site happening.

Step 1 - Register your site name (your domain name)

You need to register a domain name to be the website your visitors will navigate to. Choose your preferred name including the extension (.com, .info, .org etc) There are many different types of extensions, and the costs vary. Some extensions indicate country name (eg .com.au is an Australian business, .co.uk is British) Generally the simplest and cheapest domain extension is .com.

You first need to check that the name you want is not registered to someone else - use our domain availability search to check this. If your preferred name is available, proceed to register it and pay via our online checkout. You can choose to register the name for 1 year minimum or longer if you wish.

Step 2 - Your website content

Create and edit the website pages that will make up your site. This will typically be a home page, with links to any other pages you might have on your site. There are many sites selling templates you can buy as a basis to build your site, and there are simple free templates available also. You will need some sort of site editing software to make your changes, such as Microsoft Frontpage. However there are also many low cost or free programs available which you can use to edit your site. If you can spend the time learning HTML (the code language websites are built from) then you can edit your site in the simplest text editor programs such as Windows Notepad.

There are heaps of high quality templates you can purchase from our "Templates / Clipart" link on our home page. Prices vary according to the level of sophistication you need. When you purchase a template, with a little bit of background learning you can modify them extensively to suit your own preferences. There are even free samples you can download before purchasing to get a feel for how you go about modifying  a template to your own specifications.

Step 3 - Get your website online so it can be seen on the net.

The pages you create must be hosted on a computer somewhere which acts as an internet server. This is the space that everyone on the internet can access by typing in your website address. You need to purchase this "hosting space" for whatever period of time you want your site to be online.

The hosting packages available from www yourwebsite.com.au are highly reliable, fast and very competitively priced. In addition our service is very personal and helpful. See our available hosting packages on our homepage. Your hosting package can be paid on a monthly subscription for as little as $AU4.95 per month.

Step 4 - organise how you will change your sitecontent when needed

You need to be able to upload your site files when you have made changes you want your visitors to see. We recommend keeping a copy of all of your site files on your own computer, and when you have made changes to these files upload all of the changed files to your hosting space, which is your online site.The benefit of keeping 2 sets of files is that you always have a backup.

There are many FTP (File Transfer Protocol) programs available for this, including some well featured free programs. Check our "Downloads" area for a free FTP program.

It is also possible to simply access your live online files with FTP, and make changes to the files directly in the hosting area.

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