Your Own Web Page
I have been asked many times about my web page. How I made it and how I host it. I've had a web page since 1998 and I've moved it from one server to another five times for various reasons. Mostly because the server went out of business or my page outgrew it. Finally, I have found a hosting service that seems to have great tech support, offers me the services I need for an active website, and is easy and extremely affordable.
This link is for the person who wants to have total creative control when making her website or has already created a web page and just wants IPower to host it on their servers. It has the bandwidth necessary in case your page gets lots of hits, like mine, and has lots of pdf files to download. That's why I outgrew the other servers. Because so many people were downloading files from my site, I was going over quota and I needed more bandwidth.
Click on the picture to view or click here.
The software program that I use to design my page is no longer available, but there are lots of other affordable, easy-to-use web building softwares available. I recommend Serif's WebPlus 5, which you can purchase for a discount on Amazon.com. They are much like using Word or Publisher. I design my page on my home computer and upload it to my domain name on the host server.
Now, the following information is ONLY for those who have clicked on the link above and have signed up for iPower and gotten a domain name. Don't even bother reading it if you aren't doing the other, as it won't pertain to you, and it will seem overly technical, and I don't want to be responsible for brain overload!
However, if you have chosen to create your own website, then, you'll need a good program to "ftp" or "upload" your pdf files and other documents that you want your consultants to be able to download. FTP stands for "file transfer protocol." You will be transferring your files from your computer to your web server (IPower--the $7.95 per month thing you're paying for!). Don't panic. Your files will remain on your computer...you're just sending a copy to the server. It's great to have them out on the server, because you can access them from anywhere and they are safe if your computer crashes!
The following program is the one I've used for years to FTP my files. It is simple to use. When you install it, it will ask you if you're an educator. Say yes. If you say no, it won't allow you to install it. I figure we are in the business of educating our consultants, which is why we have a website in the first place, so I'm an educator, how about you?
Download and install the program. Click here Once it is installed, open the program, and the first thing you want to do is click the delete button and delete everything in the window. There are several profiles to delete.
Then create a new profile (click the new button).
In the first window, name it (mine is named Donna's Dynasty). The 2nd window is where you put your ftp address--probably ftp.yourdomainname.com (your hosting company will give you this info)Leave the next window saying automatic detect.Put in your user ID (from your hosting company--you may have selected this or they gave you one)Your personal password (that the hosting company knows about)If you are using Ipower as your hosting company, then you'll click on the startup tab and enter public_html/ into the initial remote site folder window. (You can also enter the address in the initial local site that takes you to My Documents on your computer. For my computer the path is C:\Documents and Settings\Donna Bayes\My Documents)Click OK (nothing else goes in the other windows)You are now connected to your website (if you have entered everything correctly. If you haven't, you can contact your hosting service for the correct things to enter.) You should see your files which are on your own computer on the left side (that window has all the files that are on your entire computer). And you'll see your web page, which is out on the hosting server, on your right side. To upload a file from your computer to your web page, first find the file on your computer by double clicking the folders (the little green arrow takes you up one level), and when you've found it, then click it once to highlight it and "send" it to your web page by clicking on the arrow between the two windows that is pointing to the right.
I make a link to the file on my web page, which is the file name that I sent over. Example: I have a file sent to my web page that is named sample.pdf (the extension is very important...it must be accurate) The link I make on my web page would be www.donnabayes.com/sample.pdf. If it is a publisher file, it would be .pub; if it is a word file, it would be .doc. Ipower is also case sensitive. So you can't send over Sample.pdf and then have the link be sample.pdf. If the file is capitalized, then the link also must be capitalized. That's why I always try to use lowercase on everything. If you send a file up, you can use the rename button to change the case, if necessary.
Hope this helps you ftp.