Regularly I see online, in learning forums, in Q and A’s on coding sites and on all social media, questions from newbies asking predominantly: “I know HTML, CSS and JavaScript, can I get a job now? “How can I share my new knowledge? How will anyone know that I have these new skills?” Well, the obvious answer may be a portfolio, and hopefully, you’ve been building a great portfolio as you’ve been learning, but the bigger question is what extra subject matter do you need to know to get your brilliant portfolio in front of the rest of the world’s eyes?

The good news is that there’s not much more that you need to know to get your first site live. In fact in 3 steps, you can go from stressing about how to get your portfolio live – to flexing your skills as a published developer.

Step 1 – Purchase a Domain name How can you get your files onto the internet if you don’t have a domain or a URL to show? Well really, it is a case of purchasing a name from the likes of Domain.com, Bluehost or GoDaddy In fact, you’ll probably find that the hardest thing about getting a domain name is probably coming up with the name for your portfolio site.

Step 2 – Hosting Once you have your Domain name purchased, you’ll need to look at hosting your site. This is when a company, such as HostGator, greengeeks.com, Hostinger to makes sure that your site is online and visible to anyone who wants to see it. You can get your domain registration and hosting from the same company, or you can choose to separate them out. If you choose to go with different companies, then you’ll need to know a little about the DNS setup, but all hosting companies will have videos and documentation on how to configure your DNS so don’t overthink.

Step 3 – File Transfer Protocol (FTP) The last thing you’ll need to know about is FTP (or SFTP if you’ve added the secure layer to your domain hosting) and how to upload your files so that you can publish your website. Most hosting companies will have FTP built into their c-panel but you can always go through the likes of FileZilla if you want to try something different. FTP might sound a bit daunting, but I promise that it’s easy and once you’ve got the FTP sorted – that my friend is it – you are now officially a published developer!! Go you!! Onwards and upwards on that journey now!!

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