Creating a website using WordPress – Part 1

Around two years ago I co-founded the music website Neonfiller.com for a number of reasons. Writing about my passion for alternative and independent music was one, but so too was the chance to  improve what little skills I had in web development.

Sadly web design and development has largely passed me by for much of my journalistic career.  I’ve used content management servers for uploading news stories onto clients’ servers before but wanted to go on to the next level and create my own site.

We started with the most basic of web hosting and content management kits, supplied by Mr Site for around £19 for the first year, about £35 for subsequent years.

Mr Site is simple to use, provides an easy to manage content management system. But as the years have rolled by so have its limitations. It does not link up with certain ad spaces, or more familiar blogging platforms like WordPress or Joomla. In fact its pretty much on its own, with  its limited widgets and layout. That’s not to say its poor, just limited.

We are now in the process of moving neonfiller.com to another host so that I can get to grips more with wordpress, a far more flexible way of creating a website. I’ve taken on this task myself, but will be ably assisted by my co-editor at Neonfiller.com should I need his help.

For the new site though I’ll be using wordpress.org, which is more complicated than the wordpress.com designed site you see before you. While wordpress.com is a simple to upload free content management system and bloghost in one, wordpress.org is aimed at providing content management while using another host. It is far more complicated and allows ads. For more on the difference between wordpress.com and wordpress.org click here.

Seeing as I’m new to this I thought it useful to share my experience, my highs and lows along the way and hopefully offer some advice and tips to others like me, who may lack experience in web development but not the enthusiasm. If you are an expert reading this please feel free to offer any further advice in the comment box below.

Here’s the first couple of stages…further updates will be up online over the next few days.

Stage 1– Select a web host.

After a google search using phrases like “top ten UK web hosts” I’ve opted for UKwebsolutionsdirect and their basic £3.99 a month web hosting package. (At the time of writing I managed to take advantage of a three month for free offer). So far I’m impressed. Before and after signing up I had a number of questions for them such as how do I transfer my domain name? They responded by email within minutes. At one point I was getting responses within a minute. Now that’s service.

Stage 2– Switching domain name.

To switch all I had to do was contact Mr Site, get them to unlock  the domain and supply an EPP code that I can hand over to UKwebsolutionsdirect. I then received an email via UKwebsolutionsdirect that I had to respond to confirming that I own the name.

Once approved it takes a few days for the transfer to be completed, or propagated as it is known.  In the interim Ukwebsolutionsdirect has given me a temporary url, so I can play around with the new format.

During the first 24 hours after applying to ukwebsolutionsdirect I’ve found my options limited until the domain name is fully transferred. I have managed to use the temporary url to download wordpress as a content management system for the site and load up this free magazine style template I’m keen on using.

Until the domain is transferred I can’t  do much else and cannot access the admin panel on wordpress on my temporary url. The script will not work until transfer is completed, UKwebsolutions direct tell me. I now play the waiting game  and hope the transfer doesn’t take too long.

What’s next: In part 2 I’ll be sharing my experience of creating the new site and moving over nearly two years worth of music news, reviews and features.