How To Upload Websites To Your Hosting Provider

One thing I think many of us with a background in technology or a bit of development experience take for granted is that everyone understands how to FTP (File Transfer Protocol) or upload files to web hosting providers. For many of use we have been doing this for years and it is something we do not even think twice about. So, before I go any further, I apologize up front for this basic tutorial, but as more domain investors look to do some level of development this is an important skill for people to have.

After launching the beta of EzDevelop.com I received questions from 3 different people on how to upload files to a web server. I was shocked at first then realized not everyone that is a domainer has a technical background. Although the next version of what we are releasing will have an option to use our hosting I thought it may be a good idea  to do a how-to for those that are both using our services or, really anyone that just simply wants to know how to upload their site to a web server using FTP.

So, for all you domainers our there with no tech background, here is a quick step by step. It may not be all inclusive but it should help point you in the right direction:

1) Download an FTP program - The program I use is FileZilla, you can download it by clicking here.

2) Install FileZilla. It is a very easy point and click installation, just download and then double click the file that you have downloaded.

3) At this point it is assumed that you have created the account on your hosting provider to upload the files too. You will need the username and password that you configured for this account. In many cases you create the account through cpanel/WHM.

4) Since it is likley that you will want to upload more than one file make sure all the files for the website you are uploading are in one directory, this way you can upload all at one time without having to upload each file one by one. Here is an example:

5) Now open FileZilla by clicking on its icon on your desktop. In my case I see this after doing so:

6) Now you will want to login to your server using FTP with FileZilla, to do this you will type the domain name into the host field below the menu bar at the top of the FileZilla app, you will then type the username and password into the fields allocated for those, this is the username and password that you would of created in your hosting account (i.e. on HostGator.com or another). After filling these fields in press the quick connect button to connect to your server using FTP. NOTE: You will of needed to change the DNS on your domain name to point to the web server before doing the above steps.

7) An example of what you may see after connecting through FTP is shown below:

After doing this you will want to switch to your public_html directory on the server, in my example you will see it in the directory listing box for the remote site. To switch to that directory on the remote server I double click on public_html and it then gives me a listing of the files in that directory.

9) You will now want to upload your website to the public_html directory. To do this I will simply drag and drop the files from the folder that I opened earlier with my web site files in it and then highlight them by first clicking on the top folder or file and then moving my cursor over the bottom file in the list and pressing my left mouse button (assuming you are using Windows and not a MAC).

Here is an example of the files being selected:

10) After selecting them you will want to drag them either to the bottom box with files listed in FileZilla or to the public_html directory in the top box of directory listings on the remote site side of the FileZilla app window (you can see the sides of FileZilla are defined as local site or remote site, left side is local site, right side is remote site).

That is it, your site is now ready to go, BUT, one thing I should note, it is my preference to do it this way but for many it may be even easier to do the following, since you can also list your files that you want to transfer on the local site side of FileZilla and then select them all and then hit the right mouse button and hit the upload button and it will just the same as what I did before by selecting them in a different window. For many this is probably the easier way but for various reasons I use the drag and drop method.

Although I am sure there may still be some questions, this should help at least point many people new to file transfers and just getting into domain develop in the right direction. Sorry for boring the tech folks in the crowd.