How to set up a fully functional website for $0

[auonline]

It can be done, and this is how to do it (from our forums):

Please Note: This tutorial belongs to the AHL forums, so please dont post it on other sites without prior permission!

1) Brainstorm on the type of site you want, what you want it to be called, what purpose it will hold, what domain you will get etc. Once you have got enough ideas, write them down on a peice of paper and keep it close, as a handy reference.

2) By now, you should have decided what your website will be called, what its purpose will be, and what domain you will get (http://www.checkdomain.com is a good site for checking what domains are available). First, we need to get the domain. Here you have a few choices: 1. Buy a domain (which will cost money and thus not make creating your site 100% free), or 2. Get a free domain. There are a few good free domain sites on the web, including http://www.ddboard.com/forum . This is the domain site we used to get Admin Helpline | Welcome to Admin Helpline!.

3) Signup to ddboard, and read your way through the rules and all the topics about associated with getting domains. If you want a .com , .net or .org domain, you will need 3000 "ddpoints" , or if you want .info , you need 1500 ddpoints.

4) This is the hardest part in the domain process, getting the ddpoints. For every post you make on ddboard, you get 5ddp's, 15ddps for creating a thread, 1ddp for voting in a poll, and 1 ddp for rating threads. By now you are probably thinking "5ddps a post? It'll take ages to get to 3000 then!". There is one last saviour- incentives. Go to the incentives forum, and you can get ddpoints for signing up to sites, making comments etc. and also check out some of the stickied topics- in one offer, for getting 1000 hits on a page, you will get a whopping 2000 ddpoints! Of course it will take a while to get this 1000 hits as none can be from you, and there is a limit of 1 hit per IP address per day.

5) Once you get your required ddpoints, it is not time to get the domain. If, in the comments of the domain registration area it says "DOMAIN REGISTRATION WILL RESUME ON 24TH JANUARY" (or any other date) then you will need to wait until that day arrives. This can take anything up to a month of waiting!

6) Once the special day arrives, post your request in the domain registration area (and make sure you have signed up to DomainRightNow Low cost domain names, domain transfers, web hosting, email accounts, and so much more. and note down your username), and wait again. Because of the $250 domain monthly registration limit that ddboard has, if that quota is reached, your registration may be bumped to the next month! But if you get in early on the day registration, you will most likely get the domain. Remember: before requesting, donate 3000 ddpoints to user "weblord" on ddboard!

7) Read the instructions for the domain registration push to your account, and follow them. Once it arrives, make sure you put your CORRECT information in the domain owner fields, as if you put in fake data, ICANN (the domain authority) can cancell your domain.

8) Now that you have your domain, you can get hosting! This is usually pretty quick, depending on which host you choose. There are heaps of free domain sites out there, including stonerocket.net, vlexo.com and the one we use (and recommend): http://www.***********! Some of these hosts may be post for host, so you may have to make some posts on their community forums to request hosting. In your request, make sure you put down your domain not a subdomain (yoursite.*********** etc.) and change your nameservers in domainrightnow to those of the hosting company.

9) Login to your hosting admin panel (normally yourdomain.com (orwhichever domain you chose)/cpanel or :2082 , enter in your username and password and your in! The domain registration and hosting process is over, untill 9 months time when you will need to get another 3000 points (or 2500 for .info) to renew your domain for another year, usually done in the same process as the registration was.

10) Now the fun part begins: The Site creation! Whip out that piece of paper you made before you began the process, and refresh your memory by rereading through your notes. If you want a forum (for free) you can use phpBB2 or SMF (both available in the cPanel Fantastico) and also the newly released phpBB3 (available at phpBB • Creating Communities Worldwide , not yet in cPanel Fantastico). If you want an image gallery, there are quite a few in Fantastico, as well as portals. On Home - OpenSourceCMS there is quite a good list of forums, portals and image galleries you can use for your website, as well as demos for them all.

11) You can also go for the traditional way and design your website in programs like Dreamweaver and FrontPage, and upload them via FTP to the web.

The possibilities are endless once you have a domain and hosting, but remember that once you have finished creating your site, you should tell all your friends about it, and put your links on signatures on forums you visit (if its allowed by their rules) and do link exchanges.

So that ends our HOW TO on making a fully functional website on $0. Feel free to tell your friends about this guide (and about this forum too ). If you have any questions, feel free to ask.

Thankyou for reading, and please comment
Lachlan

[CriminalulX]

thx for post this , is useful ...

I will read carefully later. It may be useful for all newbie webmaster.
thank,