So perhaps the problem is that you don’t know what to search for in google. Knowing what to ask will aid in getting a better answer. While it seems obvious to those of us with technical know how, beginners can get stuck with something as simple as what to search on.
So for your first question, try googling “how to set up and publish a test website for client perusal.” Here’s one of the hits from that search that seems applicable.
Also, when the client is reviewing it, they may need to see it on different devices to understand how it will look/perform, e.g. menu placement, font size changes, etc. I had a client that continually forgot that web pages are a fluid and dynamic presentation that will change based on device type/screen size.
While you can video the site you’ve created, it becomes tedious and time consuming to do so on various platforms just so the client can see what it looks like.
I have always had better luck with asking where to look for the answer rather than asking for the answer. I also generally say what I’ve looked for or where I’ve looked. That way it is known that I’m not just asking for someone else to do my work.
Publishing a test website will require some technical knowledge but this will be very beneficial because you’ll need to understand the ins and outs of publishing before the site goes live. You can’t run a bake shop without knowing how to work an oven. After you’re more experienced with how to develop and publish websites (and know your limits), you may be able to sell an idea from a drawing rather than a demo.
True… And very understandable. I do have a bit of understanding in Uploading to a website, but not too much of the know how in terms of putting up a test site or sample site etc. and Yes I always do intensive research on Google or youtube. trying different searching etc. But the thing with me is that, I have a quicker learning ability when i see how things are particularly done, other than reading step by step… I will use your idea and google.
Thank you @kevino for your input. Much Appreciated.
Do some reading on subdomains.
You create them inside of cPanel and then they can be used as completely independent locations for sites. So you can have a website in your root domain such as www.mysite.com AND another completely different site in a subdomain that would have the url of www.test.mysite.com.
For example here’s a subdomain called wsc2016 http://www.wsc2016.russam.me/ and another called sandbox https://www.sandbox.russam.me/ both of which are completely different RW projects.
Theoretically you can have as many subdomains as you wish. NOTE! Some hosts prevent you having subdomains unless you pay them more, this is a clear sign that you’ve got a shit host and need to change.
For presenting a proposal to a client you could create a subdomain with their name and publish the testsite to it. You’d then gust give them the url which would look something like www.clientname.mysite.com
I did not see a reason why you are hesitant to publish the site: is it privacy? Do you not want it indexed so it shows up in search engine results? Something else?
I can say that, for me, it is essential to publish the site to the web so I can test the look and feel of all the hard work RealMac, the theme and stack developers, and I have put into making the site I have spent so many hours on. I can offer three approaches:
Joe Workman has a stack that allows you to lock a page or site, called Page Safe. This will allow you to choose a password and you can give that out only to your prospective client. (Other developers may have a similar solution; I am just familiar with Joe’s.)
You can create a subfolder on your domain (do it from your web host service’s control panel) — something with a really hard to guess name — and publish your site to that folder. (You may need to contact your web host’s customer service, or do some research on the web, to teach you how to do this.)
Even if you do both of the above, you may want to place/create a robots.txt file in your site. This file will tell search engines not to index your newly created subfolder and all its pages/content. Here is a posting someone made describing what a robots.txt file is, how it does what it does, and how to create one for your folder. Some web hosts’ control panel will let you create the file right in their dashboard.
I’m the author of Emporter.app which makes it really easy to share your localhost anywhere. It has a built-in web server which can also serve static HTML, too.
I’m in the midst of writing a plugin for RapidWeaver so that it “just works” without any configuration. In the mean time, you can use it today by pointing it to RW’s local preview server port, or exporting a static version of your site onto your Mac and sharing it with Emporter.
You don’t need to deploy anything with Emporter. It’s magical
Awesome @mikey that’s all I needed. Other than doing all the extra stuff there should have been just one thing to do that. Thank you can’t wait to experience it. You see, I would personally pay you to teach me to code…
