Getting Started on building your own websites
for photographers and writers in Beijing, China.

This online tutorial is especially written for photographers, writers, or any foreigners who want to learn how to make their own websites. There are practically no web courses taught using English in Beijing, so when someone asks if I can help her get started, I designed this tutorial page and a 45-mins crash course.

Let’s start first with the least you should know (and do)

(1)            (How to) Get your own domain name

Check the availability of a domain name you like at any of the following
registrars
(a)            www.namecheap.com
I find this offering the best value for money. You could also get discount
coupons at retailmenot.com (googlesearch namecheap + coupon)
You could typically buy a .com domain name for US$8+ per year

(b)            www.name.com
pretty good as well.

(c)            www.godaddy.com
most popular among Americans since this registrar advertises its domain
name provider service heavily in U.S.
However, I read some unfavorable reviews about it, so buyers beware.

(d)            www.enomcentral.com
more expensive than many registrars but it’s one of the more reliable ones
around. It offers .asia , .com.cn , .cn and more “exotic” domain extensions
that others don’t offer.

(2)            Find a good web hoster

If your domain name is your virtual home address, your web hoster gives you
the space for you to keep and show your webpages. 
Apart from just server space, a good web hoster can provide you with friendly
convenient tools for  building your websites, This includes super-easy one-click
solutions that install wordpress or similar content management systems (CMS)

I use www.mediatemple.net but there are more (and perhaps, better) webhosters there.
If you decide to go with mediatemple, feel free to drop me an email ( lance (at) beijingcp.com ). There are discount coupons available online you can use for it.
Mediatemple's basic setup costs USD200/- (less if you apply those discount coupons available online) and that allows you to setup as many websites (with different domain names you own)
Additionally, since i'm very familiar with Mediatemple's control panel and user interface, I can easily help you learn how to use it better.

(3)            Decide on how to create your web contents?
Either use a CMS (easier) or use dreamweaver (more control).

You can download a 30-day trial version of dreamweaver at https://www.adobe.com/cfusion/tdrc/index.cfm?product=dreamweaver
There are plenty of tutorials online for learning how to use dreamweaver. However, most photographers and writers I come across finds there's too much to learn about using dreamweaver to be able to get into the action fast.

The easiest and most popular CMS is wordpress. Most blogs are built using it.
Download its source code at http://wordpress.org
Businesses and enterprising individuals customize its look further with templates
so their websites look less like common blogs and more like sophisticated
websites or portals.

Wordpress is good for writing lots of articles and text contents because of its blog
structure. Great for writers.

If you are a photographer who has photos to show than words to write, check out
www.indexhibit.com instead.

to be continued ... (I'll write more when there's free time ... )

Alternatively, if you are based in Beijing and like to find out more faster, feel free to get me out for lunch and I can teach you some stuff with my laptop and wireless internet connection. Lunch will have to be very near Beijing Center of Photography as I can't afford to spend too much time traveling away from my workplace.

cheers,

Lance Lee
http://lancefolio.com