First thing you need to do is to register your domain name, and set up your hosting account, which will allow you to install the WordPress platform on your website.
The domain name is basically the unique web address, which people will type in their web browsers to access your website. The cost of the domain name is around $13 per year, which is pretty reasonable.
The web hosting is a service that stores your website and all the data that you upload to it, on a high-powered computers called web servers. Those servers are also connected to a very fast network, and they all stay on 24/7 which gives the ability to anyone using the Internet to visit your website at any given moment.
The hosting company that I am using and strongly recommend, is called HostGator. They provide a very reliable and affordable hosting plans, which will cost you between $8 and $12 a month, depending on the plan.
To get started, open a new window in your web browser, and type into the address bar: www.hostgator.com
Click on the View Hosting Plans button to see the web hosting plans.
They are three plans to choose from. The first one is called the Hatchling Plan, which is the very basic and the cheapest one, but only allows you to host one website at a time.
The second one is called the Baby Plan, which I am currently using. It cost a few more dollars, but includes the most valuable options, which are: unlimited websites hosted, unlimited disk space, or the amount of data uploaded to those websites, and unlimited bandwidth, which refers to the amount of data transferred from a website to its visitors, not the speed of the transfer which the term bandwidth originally refers to.
The last one is the Business Plan which is the most expensive one, but it also includes private SSL, IP, and free Toll Free Number. This plan will be useful for a company which will be running bigger than the average online business. Company that serves thousands of customers will need secure encrypted connection to protect its customers’ information. A site of that scale will also need to have a toll free number for its customer support, sales or any other department related to the business.
Another option is to choose the billing cycle for your hosting plan. If you click on the little arrow, for the plan you chose, you will see a drop menu that will let you select either 1 month, 6 months, 1 year 2 years or 3 years for your billing cycle.
I personally prefer the 6 months option, because it saves me money and time in a long therm. However, if you are on a budget, or decided that the monthly payment plan is fine for you, then select that option from the menu and click the Order Now button.
You will be sent to the Order Wizard page, where your first option is to either choose the domain name that you want to register for your website, or if you already have a domain name you can choose “I already own this domain” and type it in the field below.
In case you are registering a new domain name, you will notice that there is a drop menu next to the field were you type in the desired domain name for your site. By default .com is selected, because that is the most popular domain extension. If you click on it, you will see that you can also choose either .net .org .info or .biz from the list of extensions.
All of the domain extensions on that list are considered Top-Level Domains, and they are all unrestricted, which means that they can be purchased by any person or company from any country in the world.
I suggest that when choosing your domain name, you include your business name in it.
However if the domain name you chose is already taken for the .com extension, you might be able to find it under one of the other extensions. In case you really want to go with the .com extension, you just have to experiment with different word combinations till you find available name that satisfies your needs. For example if my business name is Van's Surfboards I can try vanssurfboards.com and if this is already taken under .com, it might be available under another extension. And if I really want to have .com extension I can try vanssurfboardrentals.com, vanssurfboardsforrent.com or something else till I find combination I like. In general you want your domain name to be combination of two to three words, and be easy to remember.
Next section will ask you to confirm the plan and the billing cycle which you already selected, in the previous step.
Below that will be the section where you can choose your user-name and security pin code for your hosting account,so make sure you write that down somewhere for future reference.
Next you will be asked to fill out your billing and payment information. It is important to enter a valid email address, because you will receive an email with information regarding your hosting account.
After you fill out your billing information you can choose to either pay with your Pay Pal, debit or credit card.
The next section will offer you three hosting Addons.The first two will be selected by default, which you can uncheck unless you really need to purchase those Addons for your website.
The section below will display a coupon code which will discount 20% off of your hosting purchase.
If you chose to go with the 6 months or longer for your billing cycle, I have a coupon code which will save you 25% instead of 20% . Simply type in: “MoreThanTwenty” into the coupon code field, and you will save 25%. instead of 20%.
In case you decided to go with the monthly plan, I also have a coupon code, which will give you the first month of your hosting plan for only one cent.
Type in “OneCentAway” into the coupon box and your first month of hosting will only cost you a penny.
So it doesn't really matter which plan or monthly cycle you selected, because you are receiving credit whichever way.
The last step is to check the box that's next to “I have read and agree to the terms and conditions of use.” and click on the create account button.
You should receive an email from HostGator, where you will find a link to your Control Panel, and underneath will be your User-name and Password. Make sure you save this email.
When you click on your Control Panel link, a new window will pop up where you can copy and paste the user-name and the password from your email.
