Building your website using WordPress, Joomla, b2evolution, ExpressEngine, or any of the other amazing Content Management Systems or tools out there can take the trouble out of designing your dedicated server’s website. WordPress, for example, is one of the best resources available for websites, blogging, and even business web hosting. Many businesses are catching on that not only does WordPress look nice but it’s also easy to understand, even for a technological newbie, and it works hand in hand with Google and the SEO search engines.

With that said, here are some WordPress design resources to help you get started on your dedicated server site.

Free WordPress Themes

If you are looking for quality free WordPress themes, this link from Lunarpages Web Hosting Blog is sure to do the trick. These contests have accumulated hundreds of free WP themes for you to choose from and customize to your server’s unique website look.

Free Webmaster Tools

Need to learn a bit more about SEO and keyword analysis before you are done with your WordPress website? Well check out these amazing free webmaster tools from Lunarpages, which can not only help you research keywords and check out competitor data but submit your website to the search engines as well. This is a very, very useful site to have handy.

300 Tools for Running WordPress Blogs

This is by far the biggest resource for free WordPress tools you will ever find. Check this out for helpful URLs to plugins, comment assistance, removing NOFOLLOW tags for SEO, and more.

WordPress Web Hosting is one of the most popular choices for new webmasters these days, but it is also a viable choice for large enterprise bloggers and popular websites for affiliate websites, ecommerce, and more. As most bloggers will eventually outgrow Shared WebHosting, customers often upgrade to a dedicated server to host their WordPress website.

Even though WordPress is a blogging platform, most users these days use it as a content management system, as it easily integrates pictures, text, videos, ecommerce, and more into your site. It’s also incredibly easy to learn. It’s biggest competitor, Joomla, is best-suited for larger websites, while WordPress is easier to learn and adapt to. Both Joomla web hosting and WordPress webhosting are valuable choices if you are new to the website hosting world, as content management systems are becoming more and more popular.

The good thing about WordPress Web Hosting is that you have literally millions of incredible templates to work with and there are endless WordPress Theme Design contests that showcase the entries and even offer Free WordPress Themes for download.

Joomla web hosting is becoming a very popular choice for novice and experienced users alike due to its incredible power for maintaining and editing websites. With Joomla, users have an easy way to create websites, because Joomla is a content management system (CMS), a tool that assists in managing your website. CMS web hosting puts you in control of your website’s features, content, etc.

Because Joomla is a CMS, you are able to login to one simple interface to manage all aspects of your website. You can add images, polls, chat scripts, content text, advertising banners, links, music, video, blogs, and more, all from the same easy-to-understand control panel.

Because Joomla is open source or free software, web hosting providers can provide it to you for free via the Fantastico Script Library. With one click, you can install Joomla into your website in any location you’d like – from yourdomain.com to joomla.yourdomain.com, etc. If you have a dedicated server, you can download Joomla from their website instantly and download it yourself in several very simple steps. Once installed, you can immediately start using it.

With Joomla web hosting, you can maintain your website with ease.

There are many ways to self-manage your dedicated server, and using a content management system is one of them. While a content management system (CMS) will not take care of the server-side development aspects of your dedicated server, using a CMS for web hosting management can assist you in keeping track of your website content and can simplify the editing and implementing process.

So what is a content management system and why is CMS web hosting important?

A content management system is very simply exactly what it states – a system that assists webmasters in maintaining and editing their content on a day-to-day basis. In the web hosting realm, using a CMS to manage your dedicated server is what many webmasters do to minimize effort and outsourcing technical support. Content management systems are designed to be as user-friendly and effortless as possible, as they are designed with the new and inexperienced webmaster in mind. So you can be sure that when you are using a content management system with dedicated web hosting that you will be able to fully maintain your website and implement new changes, add text and photos, blog and links with ease.

Some of the most popular content management systems for web hosting are Joomla, Mambo, WordPress, b2evolution, DotNetNuke, Drupal, Moveable Type, and Typo. Joomla web hosting has become extremely popular recently due to the many free Joomla extensions available, and WordPress Web Hosting is arguably the easiest CMS web hosting platform available for novice webmasters.

CPanel is arguably the most powerful control panel on the planet when it comes to dedicated server hosting. This is why it’s also the most popular choice for webmasters these days. If you’re unfamiliar with cPanel’s web hosting technology, you should definitely research this amazing control panel before you add it to your dedicated server. But cPanel works with a variety of really cool programs, not the least of which is the Fantastico Script Library.

What is Fantastico?

Fantastico is a fantastic script library, which is a fancy of way of saying it automates the process of installing really cool software on your server, like blogs, CMS, photo galleries, and more.

Why Fantastico?

Fantastico simplifies the process of installing a blog or other popular software extensions onto your website. Instead of downloading the necessary scripts, then uploading and installing them to your site, then configuring them based on your system, Fantastico allows you to click on a button and the rest is done for you automatically.

What does Fantastico web hosting include?

The better questions is what doesn’t Fantastico web hosting include, because it literally comes with everything you’ll need to get your website up and running in no time. Here’s a brief rundown of what comes with Fantastico by default:

• Blogs – including WordPress!
• Content Management Systems – including Joomla, Mambo, and Post-Nuke!
• Ticketing Systems
• FAQ Systems
• Chatroom Software
• Forum Software – including SMF!
• Ecommerce Software – including osCommerce!
• Image Galleries
• …and more!!

As two of the most popular and powerful control panels for dedicated server hosting on the market, cPanel and Plesk can support a wide variety of scripts, programs, installations, and server requirements. It is almost essential for every new dedicated webmaster that you choose to install some kind of control panel on your dedicated server, because it will help automate the process of installing scripts and deploying them properly. If you choose to work with SSH/Shell access, you will have to memorize and use shell commands. For an advanced webmaster, this is perfectly fine, but if you’re new to the dedicated hosting realm, there are many advantages to using a control panel on your dedicated server.

Automated Configuration

This is the biggest advantage to using a control panel. Within cPanel or Plesk’s administrative interface, you can simply click on a button that says “create email account” and five seconds later, you’re done. If you’re working in the shell of the server, you’ll need to know the specific shell commands that will allow you to do this.

Automated Installation

Another awesome advantage is if you have the Plesk Power Pack or cPanel’s Fantastico Script Library on the server. If you have either of these additions to the control panel, you can install blogs like WordPress, content management systems (CMS) like Joomla, or many other convenient systems like forums, chatrooms, FAQs, and more with the click of a button. Again, this means you don’t have to go through the trouble of installing the systems yourself – simply find the appropriate button, click it, and you’re done.

Affordability

There are so many web hosting tutorials out there that can help you work with cPanel, Plesk, or the control panel of your choice. This makes the learning curve incredibly easy, because it may only take you a day or even a couple hours to learn how to build your site and install the necessary scripts. Compare this to hiring another webmaster or a programming tech who specializes in what you need to do. This can save you hundreds if not thousands of dollars in the long run.