Tips for creating your own haunt website!

Hey everyone! I just wanted to drop a quick note and share some information that can make having your own website a reality, especially for those of you that are not very savvy when it comes to HTML, web design and all the craziness that goes along with it.

Some of you may have heard of something called WordPress, if you have not, you really should look into creating a site using blogging software. Lots of sites, including a handful that I've created are centered around WordPress technology.

So here is a breakdown of how to create your own website, with your own domain name and your own hosting for roughly 30 or 40 dollars a year!

1. Right off the bat, I'm going to save you a few bucks. Start in Google and type GoDaddy Discount. You should be presented with a sponsored link for a $6.99 Domain. It is usually about $9.99 so I've saved you 3 bucks!

2. Once on GoDaddy.com, see if the domain name you want is available. In the "Domain Search" box on the upper right hand corner of the site, type in the domain name...ie. www.johnshauntedyard.com and click Go. GoDaddy will tell you if it is available. If it is, you can purchase it!

3. While purchasing the domain name, you can also add 1 year of hosting for about 30 dollars. This will give you PLENTY of hosting space and traffic allowance! On top of that, GoDaddy offers hundred of Applications that it will automatically install for you on your server! WordPress is one of those!

4. It will take a little bit to get used to the GoDaddy hosting management interface, but it is really as user friendly as it gets!

5. Inside the hosting interface is a section called Applications. In the applications section, under Blogs, you'll see WordPress. There will be an install button next to it! You create a username and password and in a matter of about 15 minutes, it is installed and ready to go.

6. Okay so WordPress is installed and ready to go, but you will want to find a custom template for it! There are thousands of free templates for WordPress available online, and there are some very professional ones that you can buy too!

Note: This may be the hardest part of the whole process and it is actually pretty easy once you get the hang of it.

7. When you find the theme you want, you have to take the folder that contains all of the theme's files and upload it into the theme folder in the wordpress directory on your web host server. Here is a link to a two part video that should help you get it going!

http://www.village-idiot.org/archives/2008/06/13/how-to-upload-a-wordpress-theme/

8. After uploading it, it needs to be activated. Here is a link to a video that shows the uploading and activating of the theme! http://technorati.com/videos/youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3D4nrxbHyJp9k

9. So you have your domain name, you have your blog installed, you have your theme and now its time to add content.

OR (DrumRoll)

You can skip all of the aforementioned steps and have WordPress host everything for you, the downfall to this is that you won't get your own unique domain name and they will run some google ads on your page, but you can pay them a small fee to remove the ads. Some people don't really care about the ads, they just want a site. If you really want your own site and have 40 minutes to spend learning this awesome application, here is another video to get you started!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MWYi4_COZMU&feature=PlayList&p=68550BA9176BC5F8&index=0&playnext=1

If you have any questions, let me know, I'm here to help!

Oh and I'm not trying to take anything away from the GoE, I'm not saying NOT to post here, but I noticed a post for HTML help and thought I would share my knowledge of WordPress. I have a bunch of sites that I run using wordpress. here are a few:

http://www.versatechs.net (My computer business)
http://www.hauntedmaps.com (My halloween site)
http://www.svgcuts.com/blog (My craft business site)
http://www.angelospizzadg.com (I made this for a pizza place where I live)

All great sucessful sites using WordPress!