I’ve just launched a new site (http://www.wppoke.com/) for submitting/pingging your website to help you submit your website to search engines and directories.

Please check http://www.wppoke.com/ out and if you like it, bookmark it

Enjoy

Abdul

So you are here to learn about my method of creating an easy to manage website yourself from scratch.

These steps or tutorial as you might wish to refer to it is aimed at absolute beginners, so no prior technical knowledge is required. I will try and help keep your setting up and running costs as low as possible, which is why I will try where possible to use opensource software and scripts. As a result of this I will be using WordPress as a platform for running the website and Filezilla as the FTP client used to upload the files.

I am going to split this tutorial into five parts which are:

1. Purchasing a Domain
2. Obtaining Hosting
3. Linking your Domain and Hosting
4. Setting up WordPress
5. Customisation options

Having it split like this means you can follow through from start to finish and end up with a complete website or you could just jump in wherever you need to.

I hope you find these mini tutorials useful and if you need to ask anything just post it in as a comment.

If you like what you see and want to stay updated, please follow us on twitter or like us on facebook to get regular updates straight away.

Enjoy

Abdul

So this is the fifth and final part of my guide to setting up a website where I will show you how to modify your website!!

First thing I do is change the permalinks. To do this you need to go to: http://www.yourblogurl.com/wp-admin/options-permalink.php and chose one of the options that appeals to you most. I personally prefer setting it to custom and using this: “/%postname%/“

Secondly, we need to get a theme up and running!!

To add a new theme you need to first of all find that theme, then upload it using FTP (FileZilla) to your “wp-content/themes/” folder.

To activate it, you need to go tohttp://www.yourblogurl.com/wp-admin/themes.php and activate whichever theme you want.

When it comes to free themes, I’ve found the following sites to be the best resources:

1. http://www.wpskins.org/
2. http://wordpressthemesbase.com/
3. http://www.skinpress.com/category/wordpress/

You might want to install some plugins too. To do this, go to: http://www.yourblogurl.com/wp-admin/plugins.php and search for whatever you may come to mind.

This concludes my guide to setting up a website.

If you have any questions don’t hesitate to me at any time.
If you like what you see and want to stay updated, please follow us on twitter or like us on facebook to get regular updates straight away.

Enjoy

Abdul

So now we’ve done all the hard stuff and now can move onto all the easy stuff. Here I will show you how to install WordPress.

Database Stuff

First of all, we will need to create a MySQL database.

Since we have been using Hostgator throughout these tutorials, I shall demonstrate this with cPanel. Also cPanel is a very common system used by a lot of hosting companies, so if you’re not using Hostgator but using cPanel this is still valid for you

So to create a database you need to log onto cpanel usually using something like this: http://www.domainname.com/cpanel and log in when requested using your username and password. Head towards the MySQL section. Create a new user and also create a new database and then link the new user you just made to the database.

For a better overview, have a look at this video showing you how to create a new database and linking a new user to it.

WordPress

Now that we have all the database side of things set up, we can now move on to uploading our files.

So first thing is first, we need to get you the latest copy of WordPress. So go to the Official WordPress Download Page Here and download it to your computer. Once downloaded extract the zip file and note where it’s been extracted.

We now need to upload the files onto the server, for this, we will use an FTP program. For the sake of reducing the costs, I will show you how to do this using Filezilla.

So head over to the FileZilla Download Page and download and install it.

Launch the program and when asked for server name, enter your domain name, so something like yourdomain.com and your username and password information are the same as your cPanel information that you’ve used earlier to log on.

Once you’re logged in successfully, navigate to your “public_html” folder and upload the contents of the WordPress Folder such that all the files and folders associated with WordPress are in your “public_html” folder.

Have a look here for some guidance notes on using Filezilla.

Once that upload is complete, you need to navigate to yourdomain.com and follow the on-screen installation instructions. You will need to enter the information you entered earlier for setting up a database. Leave the table prefix as “wp_” and most likely your sever name will remain as “localhost”. Create your admin account and password and setup the name of your blog.

Have a look here for the official guidance notes on how to install WordPress and troubleshooting.

And that’s IT! You now have the basic frame work of a website up and running!

Next up I’ll be showing you how to modify and edit your brand new website!!

If you like what you see and want to stay updated, please follow us on twitter or like us on facebook to get regular updates straight away.

Enjoy

Abdul

It’s great to see you still being here with us!!! So I am assuming you’re here now because you have a domain name and a hosting package and you want to link them together.

Well this is an easy part. The only problem with it though is that it could take up to 48 hours in total for it all to be working in order.

First of all, we need to get your DNS Server Names sometimes also called as NS Server Names. There is usually two of them and are usually included in your account confirmation email. So make a note of them.

Secondly, we need to point your domain name to these server addresses. So go to your domain control panel. Each registrar is different, but with GoDaddy I think the following video will be the best way to show you:

How to Change DNS Servers within GoDaddy

Now this is all done, you will need to wait up to 48 hours before you can move onto step four where I’ll show you how to install wordpress.

If you like what you see and want to stay updated, please follow us on twitter or like us on facebook to get regular updates straight away.

Enjoy

Abdul

So now we can assume you have a domain name registered and in this is part one of my series of tutorials we will talk about hosting.

The first thing we need to get is Hosting. This is the place where your website files will be stored.

There are two options for us. Free hosting or paid hosting. It’s absolutely up to you which you want, however, from personal experience I found that going with paid hosting puts you mind at ease because:

1. It’s very secure and less susceptible to hacking attacks
2. It’s very reliable so the uptime percentage is very close to 100%
3. Reliable help and support available right away

As a company of preference I use Hostgator, although there are several options out there available on the market. Other companies I’ve heard a lot of good reviews about are ASO (A Small Orange) and BlueHost. I will stick with Hostgator since it’s easier to manage, work with and uses cPanel.

I would advice with going with the smallest, cheapest package to start off with since it will most likely cover your needs, and if needs be, you can always upgrade when you feel you have to. So in Hostgator’s case, this would be the hatchling plan.

Sign up for a year or more (Make sure it coincides with however long you plan to register your domain for) and follow the steps they have on-screen.

Chose package

Enter domain and coupon

You can save 25% with Hostgator right away using this coupon code: ASG25OFFNOW

Fill in the billing details and pay up your preferred method of payment. Personally, I’ve always stuck with Paypal.

Next up in my series of tutorials is showing you how to link your domain and hosting accounts together.

If you like what you see and want to stay updated, please follow us on twitter or like us on facebook to get regular updates straight away.

Enjoy

Abdul

So you want to set up a website.. well you’re in the right place since I’ll be walking you through creating a website from start to finish!!!

First thing we need is a domain name. I’ve always used GoDaddy and it’s a habit I am going to try and get you into.

So in the form below, enter whatever domain you’re thinking of getting and we’ll see if its available to register or not and if it’s unavailable we’ll see what GoDaddy can do for you.

.com .us .biz .info .net .org .ws .mobi .me .CO.UK .IN .at .asia .com .us .biz .info .net .org .ws .mobi .me .co.uk .in .at .asia

Once you have a domain name registered, we will proceed to obtaining hosting for your website, so see you at the next step!!

If you like what you see and want to stay updated, please follow us on twitter or like us on facebook to get regular updates straight away.

Enjoy

Abdul

With this section I hope to share with you resources which I have tried and valued

So you’re new to PHP and want to learn from scratch. Well I was in your position not too long ago and I managed to kickstart it all off.

I came across this ebook when I first started learning PHP. I found it a great resource to get me started and give me an overview of how to start.

The book covers:

With this ebook you will learn:

Basic Syntax

Write and update information from a database.

Excluded

Exclude information from a database.

All these topics with examples. With this book you can start programming in few hours.

For more information go here

What do you do? Is it worth taking the risk and registering it?

This is a slightly longer than usual article, but please bear with me. You’ll find it very useful. I promise.

Over at Domain Left, I come across plenty of these domains regularly. They are published with a colour code Orange, and with increasingly improving Google technology to aiming to clamp down and remove quickly such “Expired Gems”  Orange domains will become more common.

If we look back at the process of domain expiration, let’s say asgsoft.net (which I used to own and lost due to lack of experience) it had a period of 30 days which I lost all control over DNS management, unless I renewed it. During that time it was in the hands of the registrar (such as Godaddy/Name.com etc.) and they would publish a standard parking page saying something along the lines of “asgsoft.net has expired. The owner has 30 days to renew the domain name from the expiry date.” And that is true. The owner has 30 days to renew it after it’s officially expired without any problems what so ever.

Assuming the 30 days are up and I don’t renew the domain then it enters the final phase more commonly known as “Pending-Deletion” which is a 14 day period during which I don’t have control over the domain at all. Now it’s gone, and that period is for backorder companies to allow them to place pre-orders on it, so once it drops it’s picked up straight away, which unfortunately happened with asgsoft.net.

Total time that a registrar’s parking page has been displayed now on asgsoft.net is 44 days! Now, if a domain has a PR1+ it must mean that it has an OK-ish set of backlinks. That would mean that Google’s spider (Cleverer than your ordinary spider) is visiting on a regular basis, and has most likely detected the change in the contents, maybe from a unique contents page to a more familiar parking page.

My theory is, once the parking page has been detected then the domain is ear-marked and once it remains on display for X amount of days, then the domains, which in that case is asgsoft.net is removed from the index. Yet the PageRank remains unaffected, but again, that is only for a set certain number of days say Y after it has been removed. Google is not commenting on this theory and unfortunately I don’t have exact values for the X and Y days.

I also think it’s extremely possible to convert an Orange domain to a valid PageRank domain in less than a week. Last month, I bought an expired domain PR2 I published here which wasn’t indexed in Google. I placed a small simple contents page and linked to it from a PR3 site, submitted it to major search engines using this tool and to Google itself, set up a sitemap and also added it there and also to Live and waited. Within a week it was back re-indexed and the PageRank has been validated. It now is a Valid PR2 domain which I got for $1.99

One thing I forgot to do was to add a Google Analytics code to it to monitor its traffic, so I shall be doing so in the next experiment I conduct.

As a result of that experiment I shall be altering the software I have made that creates the lists to hide fake PR domains (No one wants them) but to also include domains which are not indexed since I am sure with a tiny bit of work their PageRank can be re-instated and they are as good as new.

What are your views??

How about that! An Expired Valid PR4 domain yesterday for you. Whoever registered it must be so pleased.

Anyway I wanted to write this article for a while now and here it is. I wanted to say what you will need to do once you register a domain. This is what I think in my opinion and is what I usually do with nothing withheld from you.

So I have registered an expired domain with a Valid PR4 like the one I had yesterday. Now what?

What I would do firstly is find some hosting and add some contents, that would be several pages of unique content.

Secondly I would add Google Analytics so I can monitor current traffic and see what it’s sources are. I would also usually use Domain-Pop that gives a decent breakdown of the domains backlinks. The only problem I find with it is that it takes some time to get the PageRank of the backlinks in order.

I then would leave it alone for a week to see what current traffic is like, the sources of traffic, percentage of returning to new visitors and where I can improve them.

After the week passes I would check if it’s indexed in major search engines such as google,yahoo and MSN (Live) by entering these search queries:

Google: http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=site%3Adomain.com
Yahoo: http://siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com/search?p=http%3A%2F%2Fdomain.com
MSN (Live): http://search.msn.co.uk/results.aspx?q=site%3Adomain.com

If it’s listed then GREAT, you got indexed within 7 days, otherwise don’t worry, we’ll get there.

This step is a must to ensure constant indexing and a good SERPS for your domain. You would need to generate a sitemap for your website. What this does is generate a network of all the pages on your website and present it to search engines as if to say “Look here, I’ll save you the trouble of looking for pages, here is a list of the pages for you to index“. The best free tool I found is http://www.xml-sitemaps.com/ which to be honest is great in every aspect of the word. It’s Free, Easy to use and has a nice interface.

Once you upload it you then submit it to google by going to https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/siteoverview?hl=en which is the base google uses to communicate with webmasters.

Recently MSN launched a similar service which does the same think, but instead, just for MSN at http://webmaster.live.com/.

Once you did that I really recommend the next step. Semi-Automatic Directory Submission for FREE. Digixmas have developed an amazing piece of software that will send it to 150 directories for free. You will only have to copy the CAPTCHA code, select the category and press OK. Their link is: http://www.digixmas.com/

Finally, to let everyone know about your website I really recommend adding it to Stumble Upon and Digg as they are visited by a lot of people with wide range of interests, and if someone finds it interesting they will for sure check it out. There are other networks out there but not as big as both the ones I mentioned.

After you did all the steps mentioned above give it 2-3 days and use google analytics to monitor traffic.

Let me know what you get if you followed these steps.

Do you do anything extra? or cut out any of these steps?

I hope you like this list

See you on Monday with another list of expired domains

Enjoy