
Ask HN: How do I set up my own simple website on a domain I buy? - ghrifter
This is pretty noobish - but what is everyone&#x27;s recommendation for setting up a new website? Mainly this will be a personal blog of sorts... so do I buy a domain, then get another service like Heroku to put(publish) my application there?<p>Any good current tutorials? I&#x27;m thinking of working with the MEAN Stack or just in general javascript tech stacks.
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kylex
Wordpress is you best bet. Most hosting companies have a "one click
installation" through CPanel. Hostgator is one of them, i've learned a lot
since building my first Wordpress website. It's a fun experience.

I recommend buying your domain and hosting from the same provider.

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nostrademons
For a personal blog, just go to wordpress.com and sign up. You can buy the
domain through them, it will host on their servers, they give you dozens of
themes to choose from, you can publish via a WYSIWYG editor, and it'll give
you traffic analytics as well. Also can setup static pages for them - most
small businesses you see on the web are actually Wordpress sites.

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funkyy
The best way for a newbie would be to buy a domain, then buy a proper hosting
with Cpanel. You can get Hostgator for 1c for first month or get Hawkhost for
$3/mo. Cpanel is quite easy and auto-install scripts provided by Softaculous
makes it breeze when it comes to installing common scripts and cms.

You might also explore simple website building companies like Wix or
Squarespace.

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voltagex_
Why not a static generator like Ghost, Jekyll or Pelican? That way it can be
hosted on GitHub Pages.

Can't beat $0/month.

[https://pages.github.com/](https://pages.github.com/)

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funkyy
For newbie CPanel is the easiest way to get a hold of web hosting and web
design imo. Since you are in hosted environment there is not many things you
can screw, support is always there for you and you can quickly start.

With static websites and github you need to have at least proper basic
understanding of html, hosting and programming. Also simple mistakes can cause
big damage and since there is no live help, you need to spend a lot time
searching for answers online.

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voltagex_
IMO CPanel hides too much. You can git commit && git push an index.html to
GitHub and be up and running very quickly. That way when you get your first
real job you're already going to have some basic Git skills.

~~~
funkyy
If you are looking for job like that.

Yo are talking like a programmer, not sure if OP is one. From a programmer
point of view - your option is much better. From newbie - absolutely not.

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voltagex_
From the OP:

>Any good current tutorials? I'm thinking of working with the MEAN Stack or
just in general javascript tech stacks.

I think they're a programmer.

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ghrifter
I am a programmer - junior as CS in college - I know html and css very well
due to my job (in additon to C# and other knowledge) - but I have little to no
idea on how to create my own "website"

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saluki
Since you know html and css . . .

Buy a domain at any registrar . . .

Buy hosting from some place like hostgator (even for a month just to play
around with it). When you purchase your hosting set your primary domain to the
domain you purchased.

At your domain registrar point(chanage) the A record to your hostgator hosting
IP address this is in the cpanel DNS.

Create a simple html page, name is index.html

Now FTP your html and css in to the public_html folder on your hostgator
hosting.

So enter your domain in a browser and it should display your html page you
uploaded.

It might take some time for the DNS to resolve but usually it's ready pretty
fast.

Now you have your feet wet with setting up a basic website you can look in to
hosting a MEAN stack. For that I'd recommend hosting on Digital Ocean.

Another recommendation is to connect with classmates already doing this stuff.
They can make recommendations and give you some one on one assistance.

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brudgers
Like anything, it depends. I several orthogonal axes in the question:
writing/blogging, domain ownership, and learning new technologies. The best
approach depends on what priority you assign to each as well as the specific
objectives within each.

Amazon Web Services has a free tier and tutorials on hosting a static site on
S3. That's great if the technical interests include cloud services and the
content is static and the domain ownership isn't about running a bunch of web
ads. On the other hand, Godaddy will sell, host, and install a Worldpress blog
and keep it updated...this might fit a different set of interests.
Wordpress.com will host a Wordpress blog and let you focuos on running
Wordpress and writing. Heroku offers a different balance.

Which brings the obvious question, what are your goals?

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edelweiss22
I'd recommend a flat-file CMS like Grav
([http://getgrav.org](http://getgrav.org)).

It can run on any shared hosting, plus it does not even need a database, which
makes managing a website super easy. Think making the site locally and
updating it with a simple git push.

I don't think a simple website needs Heroku or another PAAS or even needs to
run on Node.js, which introduces unneeded complexity.

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twelvedesign
Looks very promising. I'll give it a try.

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twelvedesign
Most hosting providers offer domain services, and one click installations of
apps like Wordpress. It might take 10-15 minutes to set it all up.

I am using Media Temple. It is not the cheapest, but it works like a charm.
You can use my referral link to save 20%
[http://bit.ly/1OV1Mw9](http://bit.ly/1OV1Mw9)

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Mz
You can do this with BlogSpot. You also do not have to purchase aa domain to
have a BlogSpot blog, but you can add one, if you wish.

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sideproject
How about HelloBox? [https://www.hellobox.co](https://www.hellobox.co)

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dpeck
If you want it to look nice and you're ok with a bit of a premium for that
squarespace has some really good themes. Drop in a few photos and you've got a
top notch brochure page with just a few hours of time dragging and dropping.

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notahacker
Assuming you're writing your own HTML and CSS and use a command line,
deployment doesn't get any easier than [http://surge.sh](http://surge.sh) ,
which is free

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meir_yanovich
for me the best way to start is to buy domain and connect it to
[https://www.blogger.com/home](https://www.blogger.com/home) see my blog :
[http://www.gamedevcraft.com/](http://www.gamedevcraft.com/)

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anonfunction
GitHub pages is free.

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bootcat
I recommend using wix

