Below are a compilation of various questions that people seem to keep asking. Feel free to browse the FAQs below, and if you can’t find the answer to your questions, just drop us an email or contact us using this form. Click Here
How Can I Build My Own Website For Free?
It is possible to build a website for free, but you will need to be prepared to have an ugly url, and ultimately not have full control over your website.
You can build sites like this on other people’s domains, sites suchas Weebly.com, Squidoo.com, Blogger.com and many others, all allow you to setup a website on their own domain, and run it like it’s your own website. They will not charge you at all for this service, but you will need to be content with using a url such as: www.weebly.com/mywebsite/
If you want to build a website with your own domain name, then there really is no way around it, you need to pay a few dollars a year for the domain registration and web hosting.
” title=”Do I Need A Web Hosting Account For Every Domain I Own?”
There are various types of web hosting that you can purchase, for people who only ever want to host a single website, they can generally just buy the cheapest web hosting option, (which will cost you around $5 to $10 per month. You can add more domains to this type of account, but they will all point to the same website.
If you think there is any chance you may want to build more websites in the future, then your best bet is to get a “reseller” web hosting account.
Reseller accounts can be used to “resell” hosting to others effectively building your own hosting company, but most webmasters just use these reseller accounts so they can host multiple domains of their own on the web host account.
Reseller Hosting will generally cost you $20 to $30 per month, and you can host an unlimited amount of domains each with their own website.
“How Much Does It Cost To Setup A Website?”
The basic needs for any website are:
- A Domain name (which will generally cost you around $15 per year)
- A Web Host (Which will generally cost you around $5 to %10 per month)
That’s all you need to get started with a basic website. Of course you can upgrade your account with other things suchas premium themes (design) and plugins (functionality) but they are not necessary to build a basic website or blog.
“Why do I need web hosting and a domain name?”
Web hosting is necessary to support your website’s data. Think of it as a frame on which the entire website is built upon. The prices range from $5-$15 per month, depending on your needs and preferences.
A Domain name is your own unique website URL. It tells the browser where your website is located, in other words, it “points” the visitors to your hosting server.
The bottom line is, all website need a domain name and a web hosting in order to exist on the internet.
“How long does it take to have my site up and running?”
Most web hosts today (such as Hostgator) offer an automated setup which makes installing process a breeze. It usually takes no more than 15 minutes to configure your web hosting/domain settings and an additional 5 minutes to install WordPress.
“Do I need any web developing/programming skills?”
No. Everything can be done by using the simple built-in graphic user interface.
“How can I track visits to my website?”
There are a couple of ways to do this, but the easiest one is to install a free product from Google called Google Analytics. You can read more about it in our free tutorial.
“Can I link my website to social media platforms?”
Yes, this can also be done thanks to plugins. Should your visitors decide to share your content with their friends on Facebook, Twitter or Pinterest, they can do so with a push of a button.
“Can I have a multi lingual support for my visitors?”
Yes, there are free plugins (such as qTranslate) which offer a multi-lingual support for your website.
“What are “meta tags” and how to use them?”
Meta tags are generally used by webmasters to alert search engines about the content of their website. With attributes such as “description” or “keywords”, webmasters can describe what their website is all about and in turn get ranked for appropriate search queries.
“How Can I Change The Look Of My Website”
Changing the look and feel of your WordPress website is as simple as uploading and installing a new theme. There are literally thousands of themes available for wordpress, both free and paid ones.
“What Is WordPress?”
WordPress is a world renowned CMS platform which enables people from all walks of life to quickly set up and launch a personal website with very little or no previous experience.
“Why Should I Use WordPress For My Website?”
WordPress was constructed with the absolute beginner in mind, as it offers a simple-to-use, yet extreamly powerful graphic user interface which makes it easier for beginners to build a great looking, functional website.
“Why is WordPress known as a “blogging” tool?”
Because the structure of the WordPress CMS is built to support the needs of bloggers, as it makes is extremely easy to write, organize and publish posts on a daily basis.
“What if I don’t want a blog?”
Many people don’t care about blogging and just want a normal, professional looking website. That’s perfectly fine because WordPress is not limited to blogging thanks to an astonishing number of customization features, themes and plugins.
If you want to have a normal looking website, you can simply create pages instead of posts.
“What’s the difference between wordpress.org and wordpress.com?”
There are several key differences between these two variations of WordPress. Most importantly, they differ in hosting solutions. WordPress.com provides its users with free and automated security upgrades, backups, etc… but offers zero control over hosting.
On the other hand, WordPress.org is a self-hosted solution which offers way more flexibility, ability to upload custom themes and plugins (.com version only has about 200+ that you can choose from) and complete control to edit the code any way you want.
However, you are responsible for backing up your own data and eliminating security threats.
“How can I add new content to my site?”
Adding new content is as simple as navigating to the content management menu, and clicking add new page/post, which opens a very familiar WYSIWYG (what-you-see-is-what-you-get) editor similar to Microsoft Word that most of us are already well accustomed to.
“What are “themes” and where to find them?”
Themes are an integrated part of WordPress platform and there’s a whole menu dedicated specifically to browsing, installing and configuring WP themes. You can filter the results by colors, number of columns, features, etc. Each theme can be pre-viewed before installing.
“What’s the difference between free and paid themes?”
Paid themes are usually much more flexibile and offer significantly better customization features than the free ones. They’re also more secure and include regular updates.
“Is it possible to add custom features to my site?”
Yes, most features are already covered by a large variety of freely available plugins and the others can always be outsourced to freelance coders on Elance or Odesk.
“What’s the difference between posts and pages?”
Posts are dynamic website elements generally used by bloggers. The post count usually goes up very quickly and there is a need for appropriate post categorization and management.
Pages, on the other hand, are static and are used to make ordinary websites.
“How do I maintain my WP site and make sure it’s up to date?”
Each time a new WordPress update is released, you will be notified in your admin control panel. The update process takes a couple of seconds at most.
“How can I make money with my WordPress website?”
If you’re building a website with an intention of making profit, you should read more about affiliate marketing and adsense, which are two very easy methods of monetizing your site.
“Can I schedule my posts to be published automatically?”
Yes, when you write a post you can schedule it to be published at any given time without any further effort on your part.
“What are “plugins” and how to install them?”
Plugins can be seen as “add-ons” and enable users to add various additional features (such as contact forms, spam blockers, loading speed enhancers, etc) to the site. The installation process is very similar to changing a theme (choose-upload-activate).
“Is it possible to modify sidebars?”
Yes, the sidebars can be completely modified using widgets which can be installed, configured and removed using the built-in widgets control panel.
Where can I get additional help and support?
For any additional help and support, don’t hesitate to post a question under the corresponding page or tutorial. You can also email me any questions by using the contact form here.