Setting up a good-looking, functioning website can be a daunting task for someone who has never done it before. There are quite a few things that you’ll need to familiarize yourself with so that you get get your first site set up in no time.

First of all its important to know about the components of a website and how it actually functions. If learned in the proper context it will make a lot of sense and you wont have to go through the frustration of trying to figure it out on your own.

To set up your first website you need to take care of two basic technicalities. First you need to get hosting. Hosting is provided by a hosting company and they essentially house all the files that you want displayed on the internet. Any computer can be a host but we pay hosting companies because they make sure that your website is always online and that their computers never have any issues. Its very cheap and usually very cheap. Anywhere from $5-$10/month.

The second technical requirement you need to take care of is your domain name. The biggest domain name registrar is GoDaddy and is the company I always go with because they have great service and its easy to use. The domain is the www.domainname.com part of your website.

To connect your hosting account with your domain name you’ll need to get a hold of your nameservers from your hosting account. The hosting company will usually send you those in their welcome email. Take those and plug them into your domain name account and then wait a few minutes. Soon enough they’ll be connected and you’ll be nearly there.

The next step is install your content management system (CMS). Go into your hosting account and find the “fantastico” button. Open that up and you’ll be given a list of a lot of different CMS’s. These are programs that let you manage your websites really easily and many of them without having to deal with code. I usually go with WordPress but it really depends on what kind of website you’re going for.

After you have your CMS installed you’ve done it! The last thing to do now is to simply add content!

Learn more about Thrive Learning Institute. Stop by Terry Roper’s site where you can find out all about Thrive Institute of Learning and what it can do for you.