Chapter 5. Adding Dynamic Content
Static web pages (pages that are manually updated) can be good for many uses, but if you want to generate activity about your website, you’re going to need to provide new, useful, and frequently updated content. To do this, you need software that can dynamically generate the content. Typically, you’ll need weblogging or other content management system (CMS) software.
Once your site is active, then it’s time to make sure people can find your site, either via a search engine or using social media.
Creating a Subdomain For Your Weblog (or Other Purpose)
Weblogging software got its start over 15 years ago and is now ubiquitous. It ranges from more formal (and complex) CMS tools, such as Drupal, to the now very popular Wordpress. In this chapter, you’ll use your hosting company’s cPanel to install Wordpress.
Before we start, though, we’re going to create a subdomain for your new weblog. A subdomain is a domain name such as weblog.youdomain.com. It’s a way of using software, such as Wordpress, without having to overwrite any existing static front pages. We installed static web pages using a downloaded template in Chapter 4, and we don’t want to lose that effort.
To start, log into your hosting account (Bluehost for the example), and access your cPanel. In it, you’ll find a group of icons labeled Domain Management. One option is for adding and managing subdomains. Clicking this opens up a form for creating your new weblogging subdomain.
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