Web Publishing
Putting Your Website Online

First, make sure your home page is called index.html (or index.htm or index.shtml)

Whatever file naming convention you use, you'll want to name the home page "index" because that's the page that automatically gets served when visitors type in your URL. If you don't have an "index" page, what you'll see is your hosting provider's default index page that probably says something like "this site hasn't been configured yet" and you'll think your hosting company is messed up when it's really your own silly fault.

Your website is ready for the public, now what?

First things first. When we talk about getting our website online, the process of getting your pages to the web (publishing your website) is called "uploading", as opposed to "downloading" when you get something off the web and put it on your computer.

Uploading can be done a couple ways, the simplest is usually offered on free webspace where they have a form that lets your browse your computer and upload your pages. It's easy, but it's clunky and slow. The proper way to upload your files it is by using something called FTP (File Transfer Protocol).

If you're using web design software, there'll be some kind of uploading area in the software that uses FTP, so you don't need a dedicated FTP program. That said, you'll also want to look into getting a stand-alone FTP program as it's quicker than opening your web program if you want to do a quick file transfer or other simple task.

There are several free FTP programs out there, and some that cost just a few bucks. I use FlashFXP, it's my fave. Also good are CuteFTP and if you want something free, SmartFTP is worth a Google search.

How Do You Actually Get The Files Online?

Pretty simply. Just go into your web design software or into your FTP program and set up the parameters for your website. There'll be a place to enter your website Url or IP address, there'll be another for you to put your username and password and yet another to put your "remote path" or "host directory" which you can leave blank (when you connect, it'll take you to the default directory). You'll want to check with your particular program's help files if you can't figure it out, but these are the general parameters.

Now let's talk about Promoting Your Website.