Synopsis Options available for publishing your website, including tips for making your life easier.

Chapter Contents Getting Your Website Online Domain Names Web Hosting Recommended Providers Uploading Your Website

Uploading your website

Once you have a place to host your new website, you must upload your content. This means you must transfer the files that make up your website from your personal computer to the computer that will host your website (from now on we will refer to this computer as your "host").

You are probably already familiar with the concept of downloading. When you copy a picture or music file from the Internet, you are downloading files from a location on the Internet to your personal computer. Uploading is the opposite of downloading. It is the act of transferring files from your computer to another computer, in this case your host.

Options for uploading

There are several options available for uploading your website.

1. If you sign up with a web hosting provider that offers online website creation and publishing tools, you don't need to worry about uploading your website. The software offered by iPowerWeb will publish your website in a few simple clicks.
2. Commercially available software, such as Microsoft's Front Page, include features for publishing your website.
3. You can upload your website manually using an FTP program.

Uploading manually with FTP

If you choose the manual approach you will need to use a File Transfer Protocol (FTP) program to transfer files to your host. Your options among FTP programs range from those that are built into Windows or MacOS, to others that require purchase or downloading. Your computer should already come equipped with at least one FTP program capable of doing everything you will require, but it will likely lack some features of a more advanced FTP program that are nice to have.

We have included a description of a few of the most popular FTP programs, along with links to resources on how to use them.

Click here for more on FTP programs

Make your life easier

Use the latest tools available
We highly recommend you sign up with a web hosting provider which offers online website creation and publishing tools. These tools will help you to quickly create professional websites, and can save you lots of time and frustration.

Make use of customer support
If you encounter problems uploading, or viewing your website, be sure to utilize your web hosting providers customer support services. These services are usually included with your service, and in most cases they will be able to solve your issues quickly.