Publishing your website

The publish section is divided into 2 parts, First you have to upload your website to your hosting as described on this page, this is what is commonly known as publishing, Next is to get it listed on directories and search engines, this is not the Search engine optimization section, it is merrily getting your website listed, You will learn more about optimizing for search engines in the traffic section.

So you have chosen your web hosting service, once you have that you will want to upload your website to it, Although this may seem to be the last step of making your website, it is really an ongoing thing, every time you change your website you will upload it, you really have to upload only the pages that have been changed along with whatever images you have added to the page.

The method of uploading differs from hosting to hosting, you may only upload by means of what methods are provided by your hosting service, Some hosting allows you to use the same software you use to make your pages to publish them, others allow you to use FTP (You will need an FTP client) that is also sometimes bundled with the software you are using to author the pages. If not you can try WS_FTP (New window) (Note that WS FTP LE is the free one). or CofeeCup FTP (New Window) Both have free versions (other have trial versions)

Many other FREE services will disallow you to use the two convenient methods to upload your website to the server, They do this so that you buy the paid hosting service (it is no secret), You would most probably not be using one of those if you are going to go with our advice on the hosts page that you will get to later, They give you means of uploading with an applet on there website, You have to log in to your account, look for the file manager and then individually select files to be uploaded from your hard disk.

Note: A Great service that supports FTP and Front Page Publishing is

Publishing Your website with Microsoft FrontPage

If you have used MS FrontPage to build your website publishing is very easy but only with a hosting service that supports this, (Look for hosting with front page extensions).
All you have to do is point your mouse to the File menu, then chose Publish Web. Now a dialogue box will appear asking you where your website is located, Just type in the HTTP address of your website (ex: http://www.buildguide.net) Then another box will appear asking you about your username and password, Enter the user name and password you used (or have been given) at your hosting account.