iPage Website Building

Getting your site online with iPage is easy and there are several options available, but so many people don’t know what to do after they’ve purchased a domain name. Obviously, you’ll need an iPage web hosting account, first. On the order page, you can accept the free domain name offer or buy a cheap domain name at NameCheap. If you buy your own domain name, then select the ‘Transfer an existing domain’ option. Please note that this does NOT transfer your domain name away from your current registrar. It’s only referring to transferring hosting to them.

I’ll start with the easiest method.

Installing WordPress

Installing a WordPress blog is the fastest and easiest way to get your site set up. There is nothing to upload or configure because the WordPress software is already available in your iPage control panel. This happens to be my preferred method for building a website.

• Login to your web hosting control panel
• Scroll to the Software section
• Click on SimpleScripts
• Click on the WordPress link under the Blogs section on the left side
• Select the domain name from the drop-down list and fill in the rest of the fields.
• Click the button to verify your information and then click the button to install it.
• Login to the WordPress Dashboard to maintain your site: http://yourdomain.com/wp-admin
• WordPress Pages are for things that never change like About, Contact, Privacy, Disclaimer, etc.
• WordPress Posts are where you do your blogging. 

This type of WordPress installation is called a self-hosted blog. Here are some of the things you’ll be able to do that you can’t do with a free WordPress.com blog.

• Install any theme you like for a custom look. Even make your own WordPress themes with a program called Artisteer.
• Install plugins to make you blog do some amazing things like automatic backups, cool image sliders on your home page, ping blog engines so people can find your blog and so much more that it’s mind boggling.
• Selling things from your blog using PayPal. (Who needs eBay and their fees!)
• Place affiliate banners on your site to make money by selling popular products and services.
• Place Adsense ads to earn money from clicks. Many people make a living with niche marketing and Adsense.
• Export your WordPress database and take the blog with you to any other web hosting company.

Drag n Drop Website Builder

iPage has a really easy to use drag n drop website builder to create a non-blog site if you only need 1-6 web pages. Some people opt to build a small website and then include a link on the menu to a blog for posting updates and current events. Just remember to install the WordPress blog in a different folder (like one called “blog”) so the two don’t interfere with each other.

If you want to build a larger than 6-page website, there is a upgrade option for the Premium version, but truth be told, I’m not real keen on these types of builders for larger sites. I would much rather purchase some website building software to do that. 

To use the Drag n Drop site builder…

• Login to your iPage control panel
• In the Website section, click on Site Editing
• Click on the Drag n Drop site builder.
• Follow the simple instructions. See this video.

Website Building Software

You can also build a website using any of the popular website designer programs like Microsoft Expressions, Adobe Dreamweaver, Artisteer or XSitePro. You can find software at Staples, Office Depot, Office Max, Frys, Amazon and many other places. The software allows you to construct a site on your own computer and then upload it to your iPage hosting account.