Starting A Self Hosted Website From Scratch Is Easier Than You Think

Have you ever thought of starting a website but it could be very hassle as what told by your friends and family members? As contrary as it seems, starting up a self-hosted website is relatively seriously easy. Of course, you can expect zero rocket science thinking and technology for sure. In this hub, I will explain to you everything you should know about self hosting website and how to get it up within 30 minutes or less. Question mark here is "Are you ready?"

Through my experience, self hosting can be relatively easy but of course, you can't expect the site to be 'ready-out-of-the-box'. It would need a little time to understand and get everything fixed up properly before you can actually go into first gear.

Number question here is are you ready for a full time job (or close to it)? Maintaining a website is different from maintaining a blog in many ways. Since you are basically in charged of all the HTML codes etc in a website, you got to be really devoted if you want to make good use of the website.

In a nutshell, this is what you would definitely need when you are starting up your own self hosted domain:

1. Choosing the right hosting provider and the right package for yourself
2. Choosing the right blogging platform
3. Starting up the website from scratch
4. In charge of maintaining the website
5. Getting the website to be indexed and searched by search engines e.g. Google

For me, this is vital. In fact, this is extremely important. If you want to have your own website, you need to know which is the best hosting provider that suits you. Without a hosting provider, your website will be offline and visitors will not be able to access the site. In a business point of view, you will easily lose sales and traffic if this always happens to you. Who doesn't feel irritated when the website they are trying to visit is always down and not available? Not sure about you but I will definitely be irritated...and that's for sure.

I had used quite a number of hosting providers and thankfully, I found one which has good customer service, affordable and with a good uptime. You can have a look at here:

Recommended hosting solution

Tips and tricks to start up a self hosted website the right way

Many people actually has big issue when it comes to choosing the right platform to use. Honestly, some are superb easy to use while others would need a higher learning curve and in return, you will be able to maximize your customization ability for your website. Why this step is important is because you will be using the platform you choose for a long period of time. Remember that changing platforms is not like changing clothes. It takes a lot of time and effort to move the data from one platform to another. Here's are the two types which I feel is best for all website owners and webmasters.

1. Wordpress

• Learning curve - easy
• User friendly - high
• Customization - moderate

The almighty Wordpress is one of easiest to use and you can start up your website within 10 minutes after installing the platform. No rocket science needed in this and you can basically start immediately! This is in fact very simple to use and this will never be a wrong choice if you are new and have limited information on which platform to choose from. Wordpress is user friendly and you have access to thousands of plugins that can improve your Wordpress experience. Honestly, there are so many plugins to choose from such as SEO plugins, links plugins and even moderation plugins for example.

2. Joomla

• Learning curve - moderate
• User friendly - moderate
• Customization - high

Joomla is what I call a 'rather professional' platform. Don't get me wrong as anyone can use Joomla and that is not a problem at all. Compared to Wordpress, Joomla has a higher learning curve but it also has it advantages compared to others. If you would consider Wordpress as a good platform to customize, then you will consider Joomla as the God of Customization! during my time using Joomla, it was great fun honestly. The only problem about Joomla is that for newcomers and those who do not have high level of tech-savvy knowledge will experience some difficulties.

Now, you have got yourself all the materials needed to start a website. What are you waiting for? Let's roll it out immediately! The trick here to have a wonderful start up is easy: Always plan ahead.

You are dead right here. You are not going to 'simple' add and remove anything you like. Instead, do it step by step and know what is your priority. I am not going into superb detail or wall of text/information for this matter. Instead, I had placed them in 8 key points. Now, dig in!

1. Everything visible to the naked eyes (title, tags, categories etc)
2. Make sure all the permalinks are working
3. All categories installed are correct
4. Plugins installation
5. Put in Adsense banners etc
6. Publish your first article
7. Recheck to see all the formats and alignments are correct
8. Share with the world (Facebook, Twitter, Google+)!

This reminds me of the hub I wrote recently, "How To Blog and Maintain A Website Like A Professional ". This is one common mistake for all of us (writers). We always assume that by just blogging, we will be able to rank well on search engines. However, this is really not the case! Writing is always just part one of the whole picture and the second part is where maintenance comes in to play.

Maintenance is important as we would need to 'adjust' and update the information stated on the article from time to time. There is absolutely no article that is considered evergreen. Everything need to be changed and updated from time to time. Readers including you and me love to read something that is new and updated. How many times do you actually refer back to an article that is dated back to 1997 or so?

Therefore, if you want to improve your website and make it professional blogging or writing, maintenance is always apart of it.

Getting indexed by Google could be one of the hardest part here. If you are having your own self hosted website, you should not just sit down and wait for Google to index for you. This would definitely take months if nothing is done. However, you can always speed up the process when you register yourself and the website at Google Webmaster Tool. At there, you can also check if your website is running at the optimal speed as everyone of us hate slow loading sites.

Another way to increase the indexing process is to use the right plugins. There are multiple types of plugins to choose from especially when it comes to getting yourself indexed well by search engines. Always make sure you are using the latest (updated one) and do read up a little of that particular plugin before you install it. The main objective here is to make sure you know what you are installing and how you can use it towards your advantage.

What you have to remember when it comes to quick indexing is:

1. Always backlink whenever you can.
2. Write and post more. Search engines love updates.
3. Use the right plugins to boost your 'visibility'.
4. Write great articles with each about 400 words or more.