Why I need a portfolio website in the first place right? Why can’t I just use Instagram or Facebook page? Well, in this day and age, not having your own website, where you can customize everything and have complete control is just being lazy and having excuses. Also, you can properly showcase your body of work to potential customers and don’t say them something like “yeah go to my Instagram page”, which is not very professional to say the least. Also, it is a single place where your visitors can find everything about you, for example, your about page, your portfolio, your blog, shop and so on.
In this Part 1 post I will show things that you will need and how to prepare everything to build your website.
Things you will need:
- Domain name – it is a name for your website, think like google.com or youtube.com – these are domain names. In my case it is grimsoulart.com. You can buy it through my hosting provider called Serveriai.lt(It is the Lithuanian hosting provider)or you can use any of your choice. It costs roughly ~10 EUR per year, but depends a bit on the domain name you choose.
- Hosting service – it is a server where you will be holding your website. Think like it is a hard drive where you put your website files, just it is online, not on your computer and that makes the website available on the internet. You can buy it through my hosting provider called Serveriai.lt(It is the Lithuanian hosting provider) or you can use any of your choice. It costs a few euros per month, in my case I am paying 2 Euros every month.
- WordPress content management system – In simple words basic frame to build your website upon. it’s FREE!
So how do I create a website when I have a domain name and a hosting service? Follow these steps below to install WordPress content management system.
Here it is shown how to do that with my hosting provider, but you choose any hosting provider and it should be similar procedure, because every hosting provider should have Installatron these days.
1. Log in to your server control panel with DirectAdmin and add your domain name to your hosting server.
2. Then go back and select “Installatron” menu:
3. Choose a WordPress content management system:
4. Click Install this application to continue the installation:
5. Write down the basic data. Important: The “Directory (Optional)” line specifies which directory to install the site on. Leaving blank will install to the root (www.mano-source.com) and after saving to that directory, for example: typing “test” will have the address www.mano-site.com/test. We recommend that you set the database settings automatically the first time you install, and choose the most up-to-date one.
Once done, click the Install button:
6. Installation complete. The content management system installed in this window can be updated, deleted, and key data can be viewed, such as the administrator password.
Press to read original hosting provider tutorial in Lithuanian language.
In the Part 2 post I will show you how to actually add some content on your website using WordPress content management system (remember that’s a frame upon which we will build our website). Don’t worry, you don’t need to know any programming or web design for that. WordPress is very visually oriented and simple to use!