[HOWTO] Make A Website For A Guild

**Gummibär** · 01-05-2008

If this tutorial was hard to understand please let me know. Feel free to ask questions. It would be best if you posted here, but if you must PM me please do. Yes, This tutorial was created by me for some people that asked.

HOW TO MAKE A GUILD WEBSITE
New Guild?
No Website?
Keep Reading!

The main ingredient to a guild is a professional website that will make people want to join your guild. A website that will make people say "Wow, this is a serious guild". Through my years of playing Warcraft, I have noticed guilds that do not have a website. What does this tell me? Well, it tells me that the guild will not stay alive for long. Most popular guilds on your server have a website to recruit new members, and for communication. This guide will explain how to create a good looking website with basic skill.

Questions/Answers
What is a template?
A template is basically referred to as a pattern or the layout of the website. Templates are used
in many programs such as Power Point Presentations, Excel Spreadsheets, HTML emails, and much more. Today we will be using a simple, but professional template(layout) that will be used for our guild website.
What skills do I need before beginning this tutorial?
The only two skills you need is the be able to follow directions, and be patient. No others skills will be required for this tutorial.
How can I create a template?
Many templates are designed in a program called Adobe Photoshop. In my opinion this is the best program to design websites with. This program has all the tools you will need to design anything. The only downside is that is costs money! Although, you can download the 30-day-trial which I would really recommend.
Download:
Adobe - Downloads
How can I code my website so that it functions properly when I upload it?
I am pretty sure that the best program for coding is Adobe Dreamweaver. This program has the tools to code your website. It does not require a very high skill in order to operate it. Many tutorials can be found that teach you how to use the program. This program also costs money but you can download the free trial.
Download:
Adobe - Downloads
Do I need any of these two programs to make a website?
Of course not! You can always make a great looking website without spending a penny.

Tutorial

1) Finding a Template
Website templates can be found all over the internet. Google would be the best way to look for them. There are actual websites that give out free templates. First, there is a high possibility that you won't find a template that will be the best for your guild. Second, these templates that you find might not be the best looking ones. At least its something for now until you get more members. I would really suggest visiting Free Clan Gaming Templates - ClanTemplates.com and register. After registration is complete visit Free Template Category List - ClanTemplates.com. Many talented people create templates for this website and upload them for people to download and use them. Just click on a category you are interested in. If your guild is for World of Warcraft, obviously scroll down to either Warcraft or World of Warcraft and download one of the templates. Once you find one just download it onto your desktop. Unzip the file and take a peek inside of the folder, make sure all of the buttons are there! Such as Index, Home, Downloads and whatever else was on the front of the page when you previewed it. If your template does not have these files, either find another template that does or google a tutorial on how to add them.

Image 1

This is what I have in my folder.

2) Finding a Host
Host can also be found all over the internet. Some are free, and some are not. Free hosts are just fine for a guild website. If you plan on uploading things such as movies, music, file etc. you might want to think about a paid host. Just do some research and you should find a cheap host that you will be proud of. For this tutorial we will be using Hostultra.com. Why? because you can upload multiple files at the same time. Most free hosts do not allow this because they want to force you into buying this "great" feature. Go to Hostultra.com, and register for a free account. Make sure that you input the correct information. If you wish, you can create a fake phone number. Just make it something similar to yours. Make sure that you input everything else correctly or it will be rejected. If you have been accepted, visit your e-mail and accept the verification link. It should automatically send you to your account page.

3) Uploading Files

Start off by clicking on "File Manage". Once the page loads you should be able to see “File Upload” on the bottom left corner of the page. You should see 5 upload spots. This means that you can only upload 5 files at a time. Click on “browse”, locate the file that your template is in. Now, click on one of the .html files, click “open”, click on the other browse button under that, select another .html file. Keep doing that until you have 5 of them and click “Upload Files”.

Image 2

This is how my file manger looks like so far.

Go back to the bottom left corner of the page and upload 5 more .html files. Keep doing that until you upload all the files EXCEPT the “image” folder. Once you upload all the files, go to your “File Manager”. On the bottom right you should see “Create a new folder”. Type in “Images” and click create. This should create a new folder in your “File Manager”.

Image 3

This is how my file manger looks like so far. Refer to Image 1 if you want to compare what was in the File Manager and the folder.

Now, in your “File Manager” click on your “Images” folder. Do the same thing you did before but instead when you click on “Browse” click on the “images” folder that’s inside and upload all of those files.

Image 4

This is how my “images” folder looks like.

Look at the top of the page. You should see Your Website URL: click on that URL and see if it works. If you can see all the images, text, and colors than all should be good. ALMOST DONE!

4) How To Edit The Text

Click on the “File Manager”. This should take you back to your file manager where you can see all of your uploaded .html files. If you want to edit text on any of the pages, just click on the icon that has a notepad and a pencil. A window should open with a whole bunch of coding. Just look through it until you find actual sentences, delete the sentences, and edit it to your liking.

4) How To Edit The Banner

Simply go into a program that will let you edit text such as Paint, Photoshop or even let someone do it for you. Open up the banner image that can be found in your “images” folder. Edit it to your liking and overwrite it. Go back to your File Manager, delete the existing one, and upload it again.

5) How To Get a Domain

Domains are actually sold pretty cheap these days. I would suggest using http://www.godaddy.com because domains are sold cheap there. I can’t say that I purchased from them, but I have been hearing some good things about them. If you are looking for free ones, visit dot.tk. I don’t know any other reliable ones.

Woot! Congratulations! Your website is now complete. I am glad that’s over! I hope you liked the tutorial. If it was hard to understand, don’t hesitate to tell me on the forums or PM. If you would like me to create another tutorial for something other then this just feel free to tell me. I hope this helped you guys/girls to understand uploading in some ways. It wasn’t easy for me to understand at first.

**Messages** · 01-06-2008

Very nice, I work with web design myself..

But, Tag your Images with BBCode so they appear on the forum instead of a link.

2+rep.

Edit also: You wrote something that guilds with a website will last longer? Yeah they will, but guilds with a own domain such as .com, .org will last even longer after my experience and my become quite serious.

**Gummibär** · 01-06-2008

Yeah true, I didn't want to tag them because I thought they would take up a lot of the page. I guess I will go ahead and tag them. Thanks for the rep. I am glad that you liked it!