How to Manage Your Hosted Website

Want to manage your own website? Like anything else, it takes a little bit of planning, but don't worry, you don't have to be a rocket scientist to own a your piece of the world wide web. This article, is geared towards people that are getting a website hosted and that have already or will be paying for the hosting service. There is a difference between that and the free websites out there.

1. Step 1

   The first step is that you need a domain name and a hosting package. If you already have this then you can skip this step. We all know what a domain name is; it is what we type in the top bar to get to a particular website. (Also known as a URL) There are many domain name providers that also provide hosting. I recommend GoDaddy.com (Link is in the resources section), but there is also NetworkSolutions.com , and 1and1.com.
   1and1.com is the cheapest by about 1 dollar per year however I like the support and standard of working with GoDaddy.

2. Step 2

   Once you purchase your domain name and hosting package it is time to decide what you want to use the website for. Actually you probably already decided the reason for making a website anyway. Gone are the days where you needed to know how to program. Now there are application that can make it much easier to layout your website. Here is a list of common applications that can making managing your hosted website much easier:
   
   Blog website = WordPress, Drupal
   Community or Family Website = Joomla, SiteBuilder
   Elearning website = MediaWiki
   CRM website = vTiger, SugarCRM
   Forum website = SMF, PHPbb
   Gallery website = Gallery, Coppermine
   Hobby website = WordPress, Joomla
   Nuke and Clan website = PHPNuke, PostNuke
   Online Portfolio website = SiteBuilder
   Online Shop website = CREloaded, ZenCart, osCommerce
   Wiki website = MediaWiki
   
   Most, if not all, of those are free to use. I use Wordpress, it's free, pretty user friendly, and has many free pluggins to enable you to do anything.

3. Step 3

   Instructions for installing most of those applications are actually on the GoDaddy and Network Solutions Websites. They really do it for you, you just tell them what you want. (either by phone or on their website) Takes less than 10 min for them to get up a skeleton website for you. From there you can change the themes and add content yourself.
   
   Also, be sure to read on how to setup your own email addresses and receive emails and also how to setup an FTP (file transfer protocol). An FTP is like having your own disk space on the internet. You can access it from anywhere in the world.