Using ftp from the command line can get tedious after a while. There's a client for Ubuntu called gFTP that gives you a GUI based ftp experience. Much easier. To install the gftp client, open up a terminal and use the following command:

sudo apt-get install gftp

Once the application is installed, you can find it in Applications \ Internet \ gFTP To connect to a server, just fill in the fields, and connect. Uploading files is as simple as dragging and dropping them. It's really a great application. To save a bookmark to the site, you can just click the Add Bookmark link

It's a really easy to use client, but also extremely powerful. You can even use it to change file permissions.