Health, Science and Technology

Article by James Druman

These days it’s so easy to set up a website there is really no excuse to not have an online presence. The easiest way is to upload WordPress and a free business website template to your own hosted domain. You have to pay about a month to host your own site, but with all the new tools at your fingertips everything else can be free. You just have to know what to do. 1. Of course, before you can upload a theme, purchase a domain and hosting. I recommend Hostgator. Their packages go for as low as .95 a month, but for .95 you can have unlimited domains. Hostgator has 99.9% uptime, a 45 day money-back guarantee, and 24 hour live support. Furthermore, they allow customers to sign up on a month-by-month basis rather than forcing a contract. Need another reason?-Hostgator purchases enough renewable energy credits to represent 130% of the power used to run their servers!2. Now that you have some online real estate, you need to upload your WordPress software. Hostgator makes this a snap. Log into your cpanel at “yourwebsite.com/cpanel.” Scroll down to Software/ Services and select the Fantastico De Luxe program. Select “WordPress” on the left sidebar, and click “New Installation.” Follow the simple directions to upload.

3. Okay, you’re ready to find your free business website template. Go to “yourwebsite.com/wp-admin;” you’ll use this address every time you work on your page. Login using the admin name and password you selected in Fantastico. On the left side of your admin control panel you will see a list of icons. Select “themes,” one of the options under the “Appearance” icon. If you like one of the two very basic themes listed, select it and click “Activate Theme Name” in the upper right corner. Now you can view your page by clicking on “yoursite.com” in the upper left corner.

If not satisfied, at the bottom of the themes page is a heading which reads “Get More Themes.” Click “WordPress Theme Directory,” and it will present a column of themes. Scroll down, and to the left is a long list of titles for even more themes–a lot of them. Still not satisfied? Google “free WordPress themes” and find a theme that suits you.

4. Once you have located a beautiful template and downloaded it to your computer, go back to your cpanel and open the file manager again. Select your domain name in the file directory, select the file named “wp-content,select “themes,” and then at the top of the page, select the upload icon. Upload the.zip file you downloaded earlier.

5. There should now be a new.zip file in your themes directory with a box icon. Highlight the file and select “Extract” on the top right. Choose “Extract Files” to confirm. Return to your WordPress admin panel, go to your themes page, and then select and activate your new theme. Sometime your theme looks great until you actually put it on your page, so you may have to try a few times. For more flexibility, choose a theme with a custom header option so you can upload your own picture to the top of the page and really make it stand out.

You are done! You have set up the backbone of your website and learned how to find and upload a free business website template that can represent your business online. Start exploring the user-friendly admin area and you will see it is very easy to start adding content and images to your site.