How to Host a WordPress Website with FTP and Colorado Springs
WordPress is one of the most popular content management systems (CMS) around today because of its flexible nature and high productivity. More and more people are realizing the advantages of using WordPress to launch their businesses. It’s an excellent choice because if you build it, they will come. But, often times, that means you’ll have to host it yourself. Learning how to do this can be a daunting task, especially since there are so many options when it comes to hosting a WordPress website. Which one should you use? What are the benefits? What is the downside?
Many people choose to use a service like Bluehost to save them the trouble of figuring out how to set up a WordPress website and allow them to focus on creating content for their blogs. Using a tool like this can be convenient because it takes the stress out of choosing a hosting plan and figuring out all the configuration details. Additionally, having a platform like Bluehost allows you to use their managed WordPress hosting, which gives you a professionally-looking website with all the features you could need without having to worry about the technicalities of hosting your own website.
While Bluehost is an excellent choice, it’s not for everyone. If you’re looking to host a personal website or blog, then you probably don’t need their services. In this article, we’ll discuss how to host a personal WordPress website with FTP (File Transfer Protocol) access so you can upload and download files directly to and from your site. This is an essential step in ensuring the functionality of your site and keeping your content fresh. Let’s get started.
Choose The Right Domain Name
One of the first things you’ll want to do once you’ve installed WordPress is pick a good domain name for your site. Preferably, you’ll want to go with a.com extension so it’s easy to remember and you can secure the domain with a company like Bluehost.
Additionally, you can use tools like GoDaddy’s Free Domain Search to find a suitable domain for your needs. This way, you can focus on creating content and not on finding where to host your website. Keep in mind that you’ll need to point the domain to your hosting account. So, if you want to use a free domain name, make sure you register it with your hosting company first so it can be automatically pointed to your site.
Hosting Plans And Configurations
Once you have a suitable domain name, you’ll need to evaluate different hosting plans from Bluehost to find the one that suits your needs best. As a starting point, you can go with their standard plan and pay $2.95 per month to have a professional-looking website with the features you need. If you want, you can upgrade to their premium plan for $5.45 per month and gain more features.
As for configurations, you can choose from a variety of settings depending on how you want your site to look. You can install WordPress into a lot of different templates and choose from a variety of plug-ins to enhance the functionality of your site. Additionally, you can use their advanced hosting features to install a custom wordpress theme and to integrate WooCommerce for retail sites, Bitrix24 for business sites, or any other tool you might need.
If you don’t need a lot of functionality, but just want a simple, basic blog with a few posts each month, then their basic plan should work just fine. The important thing is to find a hosting plan that suits your needs. If you want, you can register multiple domains and use their free service to automatically update your blog with a fresh post when one of your other blogs updates.
On the other hand, if you have a more demanding need and want a fully-featured, professional-looking blog with lots of functionality, then look for a hosting plan that offers you more advanced features. This way, you can focus on creating content and not on having to figure out all the technical details of hosting your website. Remember: all web hosts will ask you to configure your site with a unique set of credentials, so be sure to choose a host that is not going to ask you to reveal this information to them.
How To Install WordPress
Once you’ve found and selected the perfect domain name and hosting plan, it’s time to move onto the next step and install WordPress. To do this, click on the link provided by Bluehost and you’ll be taken to a simple installation page. From here, you’ll just need to follow the onscreen instructions to install WordPress onto your hosting plan. Once you’ve finished, you can log in to your WordPress dashboard to begin using it.
WordPress is a fairly easy CMS to use, and it’s very intuitive. You’ll discover that many people who use and recommend it to other. Even if you’re not a tech-savvy person, you’ll have no problems using WordPress. Just make sure you follow the instructions carefully and don’t make any unnecessary changes to your server settings. Otherwise, you might end up with an error message when trying to access your site (which you can correct by simply following the instructions again).
Secure Your Website With A Password
One of the first things you’ll want to do after you’ve installed WordPress is to create a password that you can use to access the admin area of your site (the area where you can configure settings and make changes to content). This is particularly important if you’re sharing your website with others or if you want to allow your friends and family to read or contribute content to your blog. The reason behind this is simple: if someone gets access to the admin area of your site, they can change the content and mess things up (such as your blog posts or social media accounts).
To secure your WordPress site, click on the Settings tab on the admin area of your dashboard and enter your desired password. Alternatively, you can use their built-in security features from here to set a simple one-time password that you can use to access the admin area of your site. This way, even if someone gets access to your server, they won’t be able to change your content unless they have your permission (which you can easily give them through an admin panel).
Create A WordPress Installation Script
Another way to protect your WordPress site is to create an automated installation script that will install and configure WordPress for you. As the name suggests, an automated installation script is a program that will install and configure WordPress for you, saving you the trouble of manually entering the required information.
These scripts are usually quite handy because they can be used to install and configure WordPress for multiple sites, with only a small amount of information needed (such as the domain name and the login details).
To create an automated installation script for WordPress, click on the Tools tab on the admin area of your dashboard and then click on the Create a button (it’s located under the section titled “Tools”).
From here, you’ll want to provide the information requested on the first screen (the script will use this information to locate the WordPress files and upload them to your server). Once you’ve finished, click on the Create button to save the script.
You can find and use a variety of automated installation scripts for WordPress. Some of the more popular ones are WP-CLI, WPSC, and Simple WP Tool. Keep in mind that not all of them are created equal, so make sure you read the user reviews to get an idea of how others rate their services and whether or not they are suitable for your needs.
Curate A Readable Menuset For Your Site
Another important aspect of having a professional-looking site is creating menus that will make it easy for your users to navigate around your site. You don’t need complicated menus with lots of options because sometimes simpler is better.
Many people don’t know how to make readable and usable menus for their site, so they end up with lots of options that don’t mean anything to them. These complicated menus lead to more errors and a less-than-professional appearance.
To avoid this, make sure you follow the instructions carefully when creating your site’s menus. One way of doing this is using WordPress’ built-in menus system. To create a menu for your site, click on the Settings tab on the admin area of your dashboard and then select the menu location you need (top-level, header, footer, or sidebar).
Next, you’ll want to create a menu item for each of the posts, pages, and custom posts you have on your site. Doing this will not only give your site menus that mean something but will make them easily accessible from any page on your site.