RoadDust's Web Page Design Tutorial

Build a personal or professional web site for free. Why pay for a professional web site when you can have a professional web site design for free. All the information you need to create a web site is right here so look no further. In this web page design tutorial you will find all the necessary tools to build a web site.

Make your own web site using HTML, JavaScript, CSS, PHP and more. Web page design begins with the basic bone structure of the internet, HTML, with HTML web page design is made simple. Although it is simple to make your own web site with HTML it will remain a basic web page with little functionality.

Make your own web site!

This tutorial will show you how to make your own web site. You need absolutely no knowledge and no money.

This tutorial will walk you through the rest of the process of web page design and show you all you need to know and do to have your website up and running.

Hosting your personal web page

The first step to create a web site is to find a domain name and a web host. It is possible to get your Personal web page hosted for free and a domain name assigned to you. The problem with this is that free hosts will put adds on your web pages. The following web host will give you free web hosting(braveNet.com).

Another thing free web hosts will do is give you a long domain name that cannot be remembered by anyone. It is for those reasons that most people choose to purchase their domain names and hosts.

However, the Web host I have chosen also offers paying services and methods to transfer your free content to a paying plan if you choose to invest in your web site later on.

Here is an example web page that is hosted for free using braveNet.com.
RoadDust's Free Web Hosted Page

Once you have either purchased or signed up to a free web host, this web page design tutorial will guide you through the rest of the process to build a web site.

Make your own web site host link to your domain name.

Now that you have a web site host and a domain name you have to link them together. If you purchased both your web hosting and domain name together from a single merchant you may skip this step.

To link your domain name to your web host, login to your Domain name registrar account and change the default web page to the I.P address you got from your web host. It may take a few days for this change to take effect, however you can still access your website at any time by typing the I.P address in the address bar of your web browser.

If you encounter any difficulties completing this step call the tech support number provided to you by the name Registration vendor they are the ones responsible for making the connection to your website host.

Download WS_FTP before you make your own web site.

The next step is to download a program called WS_FTP. This program is made to send files from your computer to your available domain space. Of course you may not have files to send at the moment but its a free program and the site you are about to download it from is totally safe. To begin downloading WS_FTP from Download.com simply click on the link below.

Download WS_FTP

The link above should prompt a window that says open and you should be able to download WS_FTP. If you are unable to download from that link or just don't trust this intrusive pop up download thing, try the link bellow. This link will direct you to a page on Downloads.com that has a link to download WS_FTP.

Download WS_FTP link 2

Build a web site under construction web page.

You now have all the necessary to start creating your HTML pages which contain the source code that displays what the user sees when he visits your web site. It is easy to create a web site using HTML. For now we will simply create one that says WEBSITE UNDER CONSTRUCTION. Open notepad or any other text editor and highlight the text found in this box.

While the text is highlighted hold "Ctrl" and press "c". Click inside your text editor. Hold "Ctrl" and press "v". You should now have the text you see in the box inside your text editor. You must now save your file with the .html extension. To do so select "File", then "save as..." then it should ask you what file type, select "all" instead of ".txt" then put in the name "index.html" and click "ok" or "save".

You now have an HTML document named index, you could have called it anything else but the fact that it's called index will tell the web browsers of visitors that it's the first page to display. If you build a web site with no index page, the visitor will see a list of all the files that are in the root directory of your domain space provided by your host. To test your web page before putting it on your website, double click on the file's icon and your web browser will open it automatically.

Sending your web page to your web site host with WS_FTP

You must now send the web page to your host by using WS_FTP. If it isn't installed already then now is the time. Once you're done with the installation double click on the WS_FTP icon to start it. Once you start it a screen that looks similar to this should appear (Display varies depending on version).

I filled out the blanks here to give you an Idea of what it should look like. The second box contains the Ftp address that is assigned by your web host to your web site. In general it should be "ftp.(your domain name).(domain extension)". However, if the link between your domain name and your web host isn't active yet you can use the I.P address here also. The user ID and Password are provided to you by your web host. If you fail to connect, your web host is fully responsible for giving you any information you need to connect so don't be shy and give them a call if it doesn’t connect when you click connect.

Managing your web site with WS_FTP

Once you're connected you will see two boxes(Display varies depending on version), the one on the left contains the files that are on your computer. The one on the right contains the files on your website. At this moment it should be empty except for one or two folders depending on your host. Do not touch these folders. Go into the left box and search through your hard drive for the index.html file. To search through folders you should be able to double click on them. To leave a folder there should be a green arrow pointing up. Once you've found the file, click on it once to select it, then click on the arrow pointing towards the box on the right side(HOST). You should see the file appear in the box on the right side. If you see it, then click exit to close WS_FTP LE. If everything was done correctly, you can now go visit your website. To do so, type the I.P address that your host gave you into the address bar of your web browser. Your "WEBSITE UNDER CONSTRUCTION" should appear. If it does not, feel free to redo the steps above or grab the phone and bug your HOST without mercy.

Use HTML to build a web site

You now have all the knowledge you need to update your web site at any time. Just remember the page named index is always the first to be viewed, all the others will have to be linked to by the user with the links you provide him. What you need to do now is acquire basic HTML knowledge to learn how to add links, pictures and the likes to your HTML page. Pictures must be transferred to the HOST server in the same fashion as the HTML pages. You don't need much HTML to get up and running and with a little practice you'll master HTML within days.

Create and design free professional web sites.

CONGRATULATIONS!!! you are now fully capable of making basic web pages. If you wish to perfect your skills in order to create and design free professional web sites you may want to run through more advanced HTML tutorials and eventually move on to other web friendly languages such as JavaScript , PHP or CSS. But don't be in a hurry to jump into those right away, you can make good web pages using only HTML. So relax, keep practicing and feel free to visit the rest of this site. If you need some backgrounds for your website along with a tutorial on how to include them into your HTML document, feel free to go visit the free backgrounds archive on this web site. All of the backgrounds you will find there are free for you to use.