Most websites and pages are for public use. However, one way to make money with a website is to establish a private area for members or information buyers. Web hosting services provide password protection for web pages or directories. Web owners who learn how to use the “password protect directories” feature can create a web page password and start a private membership site or sell information products or reports. Friends who want to share private information online can also use password protected pages to share secret information. They can then just give the password to members, buyers or friends. The members then log in at the private web page or directory to view the content.
Step 1:
Log in at your cPanel control panel of your web host. Most, but not all, web hosts use cPanel. If you have not yet bought a domain to run a website, choose a hosting company that has cPanel. Search for “cPanel web hosting reviews” in a search engine to find review sites that list cPanel web hosts. It is probably the most user-friendly control panel out there for web hosting.
Step 2:
Find the “Security” section in the cPanel control panel. You will find a link called “Password Protect Directories” in that section (see Sources). Click on that link to start setting up your web page password and username.
Step 3:
On the next page, you will see all the directories (folders) on your website. If you have not already created the folder, then you need to create the directory first before you can password protect it. See the Notes section below on how to do that.
Click on the directory you want to protect. Note that the whole directory will be protected by a private username and password. You need to put any content you want to to share in individual web pages within that directory. See the Notes below on how to put web pages inside directories.
Step 5:
Enter a name for the directory on the next page. This does not change the name of the password-protected directory. It is just a name that people see when they try to access the page and are prompted for a username and web page password.
Step 6:
Create login information for the private web page. Create at least one username and password. You may want to change the username and password for the protected web page/directory from time to time. Some people may give out the username and password against your wishes.
Step 7:
Your private directory and web pages are now ready. Just give out the private login details to the friends, members or customers to whom you want to give access.
Notes:
You need to first create a web folder (directory) before assigning it password protection. Click on “File Manager” in the cPanel control panel. You will then see a “New Folder” link in the file manager. Click that to create a new folder.
You will also need to create individual pages within the directory, as a directory is just a folder for web pages and does not have web content unless you add individual pages. Click on the folder that you will password protect. You then click on “New File” to name and create a web page. Having done that, you then click on the folder to see the web page. You check it and then click “Edit” or one of the other web page editing tools to add your content to the page.
