Setup Domains and Hosting

For most people venturing into the world of owning a website, it is unfamiliar ground when they setup domains and hosting. This articles focus is to demystify that process

Step 1. Setup

For most users, a self-hosted WordPress.org site is the perfect solution. It comes with thousands of designs and addons which allow you to create any kind of website you can think of.
WordPress is free for anyone to download and use to build any kind of website without any restrictions. It is whats known as Open Source Software. It is maintained and regularly updated by thousands of developers all over the world.

A domain name
is your website’s address on the internet. This is what your users will type in their browsers to reach your site (For example, google.com).
Website hosting. All websites on the internet need hosting. This will be your website’s home on the internet. A domain name typically costs $14.99/year and generally hosting costs start from $7.99/month.

This  can sound like A LOT for many people who are just starting out. But when you think about it, that is $111 per year.
Many of us are paying that much per month for our Smart Phone plans. So maybe a website is relatively cheap investment.
And yes there are deals out there that will reduce that cost even further.

Bluehost is one of the largest hosting companies in the world. They are also an official WordPress recommended hosting partner.

Note: We believe in transparency. If you purchase hosting using our referral link, then we will get a small commission at no additional cost to you. In fact, you will get discount on hosting.
Let’s go ahead and purchase domain name and hosting.

First, you’ll need to go to the Bluehost website in a new browser window. Click the ad below the link will open in a new window. Then click on the green ‘Get Started Now’ button in the new window. Keep this tab open to guide you:-

This will bring you to a pricing page where you will need to choose a pricing plan for your website. Basic and plus plans are the most popular choices for general use, Prime are a higher end premium product. Go for the basic for now, it has plenty of scope for most users.
You’ll need to click on select to choose the plan that you like and continue to the next step.

On the next screen, you’ll be asked to select a new domain name.

Ideally you should stick to a .com domain name. But if the name you desperately have to have is already taken as a .com it may be available as something other than .com. Have a think about whether this will cause confusion in future. Make sure that it is related to your usage, easy to pronounce and spell, and easy to remember. Anything complicated is harder to type and makes you harder to find. If you are primarily promoting yourself, try versions of your name but not too long. Lots of people try to invent Gucci names for their website but remember, you are the Brand, so why hide? Put yourself out there.

After choosing your domain name, click on the next button to continue.
Now you’ll be asked to provide your account information such as name, address, email, etc.
 If you have multiple email addresses, choose your main one, the one you always check, maintain and have access to.
On this screen, you will also see optional extras that you can purchase. Leave them out for now. You can always add them later on, if you decide that you really need them.

Next, you will add your payment information to finish the purchase.
After completing your purchase, you’ll receive an email with details on how to login to your web hosting control panel (cPanel).
This is your hosting dashboard where you manage everything like getting support, setting up emails, etc. Most importantly, this is where you’ll install WordPress.

Step 2. Install WordPress.

You will find tons of icons to do different things on your hosting account dashboard (cPanel). You’ll never need to use 95% of them, so you can safely ignore them. Scroll down to the website section in cPanel and then click on the WordPress icon.

You will now see Bluehost Marketplace Quick Install screen for WordPress. Click on the ‘Get Started’ button to continue.

On the next screen, you will be asked to select the domain name where you want to install WordPress. Choose your domain from the dropdown field and then click Next.

Now you’ll need to enter your website name, admin username, and a password for your website. Don’t worry, you can change them later in WordPress settings if you need to. It is good practice to have pen and paper beside you to jot them down now anyway.

You’ll also need to check all the checkboxes on the screen and then click on the ‘Install’ button to continue.

Quick Install will now start installing WordPress on your website. Meanwhile, it will show you some website templates that you can install on your site.
You don’t need to do that right now because we’ll show you how to find and install free WordPress template on your website later in this guide.
Once the installation is over, you’ll see a success message in the top header.

Now you need to click on the ‘Installation Complete’ link, and it will take you to the screen with your WordPress login URL and password.

Congratulations! You have created your first WordPress website. It lives.
You can now head over to the WordPress login page. Your login URL will look like this:

Home

You can login to your WordPress site using the admin username and password you entered earlier.

We now have a pristine new live website waiting for your personalisation. Wasn’t that easy?
Now let’s move on to the next step, a quick walk around, and also choose a design for your website.