Join IndieWeb, Zero Experience

A quick guide on claiming your corner of the Web and stepping into IndieWeb

Claiming your splace on the Web and entering the IndieWeb is easy. You even don’t need to know how to code. All you need is a piece of virtual land for your site - that is what hosters are for. Also, an address - a unique domain name. Plus some labor and money, because freedom comes at a cost.

Head to Porkbun - a provider for both hosting and domain management. I personally recommend it, having only positive experiences with their services since 2023. It’s affordable, user-friendly, well-documented, and fun (the name, the mascot). No affiliation or sponsorship is involved.

Choose a domain name and then sign up for the Secure Static Hosting. It will cost arond $11/year for the .com domain and $30/year for the hosting. After the checkout, expect a confirmation email with registartion details and instructions.

In Notepad or TextEdit, create a plain text document:

Hi!<br>
Мy name is [YOUR_NAME] and this is my place on the Web.<br>
To get in touch, email me at [YOUR_EMAIL].

Edit to your taste, save as index.html.

Open the email from Porkbun and find there FTP server address, username, and password. Open ftp://FTP_SERVER ADDRESS/ in Windows Explorer (CMD+K in Finder for Mac) and log in using provided credentials. Drop the index.html file to the connected folder.

That’s all. You should be able to open your website.

If you need help, contact Porkbun’s support, ask your artificially smart assistant, or search for knowledge generously shared by strangers on the Internet.

It’s a start off. Your website depends on you, and that’s what being independent is. Continue to learning the basics of HTML. Update the content, add more pages, images, florishes, whatever you feel into. Treat it as your digital garden. And, of course, have fun.

If you’ve settled with this guide, please drop me a line, as kind neighbours do. I’ll be happy to get acquainted.

Reply via Email or Mastodon