HTML is simply an acronym that stands for Hyper Text Markup Language. It is simply a file that contains tags that tell a web server what to spit out. You can create a web page in any text editor. This includes notepad. All you have to do is save it with the .html or .htm extension. Well, you need tags in the document as well, but that goes without saying.

Okay, so you know that html is just an acronym. And you know that html pages are simply text documents with tags in them. Now, let me show you the bare bones html structure you need to use:

Everything in brackets is a tag. You have to have opening and closing tags. We use the open tag first and then close it with the slash symbol in front of the tag name, enclosed with brackets. It's the way the markup language works. You have to start and end your pages with the html tag. That just tells the web server, "Here comes my html page." The header tag contains the title of the page, meta tags (we will explain in a later post), etc. The body tag lets the server know that the main part of the page is coming. This can contain text, pictures, tables, etc. We will have to cover that at a later point. But that's really the bare bones for you. We'll also cover some free tools soon.

That's right, we offer a ton of extra stuff, including free web hosting, when you buy or tranfer a domain through us!  This includes:

• Online Photo Filer
• 25MB email account
• Free hosting
• Web Site Builder
• Quick Blogcast
• 100 Pack Email Forwarding
• ETC!

So, why not get started and register a domain name.

The first thing you will need is your FTP login information.  FTP just stands for File Transfer Protocol.  It's just how files are transferred over the internet.  You don't need to know any more than that.  You may not know what your FTP login is.  Most of the time, you can find this if you login to your web host.  You will probably find that under your hosting information.  If not, give them a call and ask what your ftp info will be.  It is usually tied to your hosting login somehow.  Okay, once you have your FTP login it's time to get a FTP client.  The FTP client program will allow you to connect to the FTP server on your web hosting account.  Let me suggest some great, free FTP clients:

SmartFTP - I love this program and use it constantly.  It's free and easy to use.  It has a familiar file and folder look.  I highly recommend this FTP client.

FileZilla - A great program with a great name.  I know many people using this FTP program.  It's easy to use, but powerful.

Now, all you have to do is enter your site name and your FTP login information into one of these programs.  This will connect you to where you can upload your files.  If you are on a shared web host, then it should connect you straight into your web server file structure.  Just remember, if you are on windows, you will need an index.html file.  If you are on linux, you will need an index.php file if you are utilizing a php environment.  That's about it.

First things first.  To install Wordpress - you have to have a linux hosting account.  You cannot install Wordpress on a Windows hosting account.

Alright, the first thing you will want to do is head on over to Wordpress and download the zip file.  You will need something like Tugzip to extract all the files.  Once you have extracted all the files, you should have a bunch of files and folders sitting somewhere.  You should see folders like wp-admin, wp-content, and wp-includes.  Okay, here's where it gets fun.

Now, you will need to download all of these files to your web hosting account.  Note, that these files should not be in a folder like "wordpress."  They should be in the root folder for your host.  This will allow Wordpress to be served up straight on your domain like http://www.mydomain.com.  If you put them in a folder, it would be served like http://www.mydomain.com/wordpress.  Okay, now you have your files uploaded to your hosting account.  Now, you need to set up the database for your wordpress installation.

Simply create a database in your hosting account management interface.  Call it something easy like "wordpress" and give it a strong password.  Please don't make the password something like "wordpress" or "password."  Hackers will guess that in 5 minutes.  Now, you have your files uploaded and your database created.  Now, we need to tell the Wordpress install where all this can be found.  To do this, open up wp-config-sample.php in a document editor like notepad.  Don't open it up in something like Word because it may mess it up.

Okay, when you open up that file you will see this at the top:

// ** MySQL settings ** //
define('DB_NAME', 'putyourdbnamehere');    // The name of the database
define('DB_USER', 'usernamehere');     // Your MySQL username
define('DB_PASSWORD', 'yourpasswordhere'); // ...and password
define('DB_HOST', 'localhost');    // 99% chance you won't need to change this value
define('DB_CHARSET', 'utf8');
define('DB_COLLATE', '');

Now, you want to put in your database name where it says 'putyourdbnamehere'  So, in our example we would put this:

define('DB_NAME', 'wordpress');    // The name of the database

Now, you will put in the database username in the next line.  You put this in when you created the database.  If you forgot, just look at your hosting account and the database details.  Now, put in your database password.  Finally, put in your host in the line that says:

define('DB_HOST', 'localhost');    // 99% chance you won't need to change this value

Of course, we fall into that 1% chance where you put something other than localhost.  It will be something like secureserver....  You can again find this in your database details.

Now, and this is important, save this file as wp-config.php not wp-config-sample.php.  Now, upload this to your hosting account.  Okay, you're almost done.

Now, go to http://www.mydomain.com/wp-admin/install.php  Obviously, replace "mydomain.com" with whatever your web site address is.  Now, walk through the installation wizard.  This takes less than a minute.  And write down your admin password at the end.  Once you login, you can go to your profile page and change that horrid password there.

*** The Lazy Man's Wordpress Installation***

Now, if this sounds too complicated, we also offer auto-installs on all our hosting accounts.  You can find Wordpress in the Value Applications package.  Remember, you need a linux hosting account for Wordpress to be available.  This auto installer will install Wordpress in just a few minutes.  All you have to do is answer a few questions and you're off.  Gotta love it