3 Steps To Create Your Own Website and Host It

For years, I’ve always wondered “what if.”
What if I never started my seven figure blog, Bargaineering?

I wasn’t a personal finance expert. I wasn’t an expert on anything.

But I hoped that, maybe, just maybe, other people fumbling their way through money could join me and we can learn and grow together. So I started a blog.

Six years later, that blog would be acquired for millions and I changed the trajectory for the rest of my life. I was independent, an entrepreneur, and I learned valuable skills that were valuable in the marketplace, not just to my employer.

All because I started.

If you want to start a blog, you can. You need less than ten minutes.

Let’s do this.

Step 1. Register a Domain

The hardest part about this entire process is finding a domain that you like. Once you have your topic, you want to start brainstorming keywords that match your subject. It may be helpful to pull up a thesaurus to help you find synonyms in case your initial keywords aren’t available (if it’s a single word or two words, it will not be available).

For my scotch blog, I thought of the obvious words – scotch, whisky, whiskey, and threw on the word blog at the end. None were available. Then I thought, drop the blog and go with something like ScotchReviewer or ScotchFanatic, but both are gone. I thought about alternatives to “fanatic” (scotchfan was available but I didn’t like it) and finally settled on addict. I had a few reservations about “addict” given that it’s alcohol, but I got past it.

Some tips about domains:

• Use InstantDomainSearch.com to help you search quickly. It’ll tell you as you type whether a domain is available and even offers suggestions. You don’t have to buy through them (they redirect to GoDaddy), this tutorial will get the domain for free through a hosting company.

• Get the .com version. If you can’t get the .com, try to think of a better name. JD at GetRichSlowly.org made it work with a .org but you can bet the guy who owned the “.com” was pretty happy at all the free traffic he was getting!

• Make sure it’s easy to say and type. DON’T choose a hard to say and hard to type website name. A lot of your early traffic will be from you spreading the word… make it an easy word!

• Make sure you aren’t infringing on someone’s copyright or trademark.

Step 2. Set Up Hosting

For this tutorial, I’ll be using Bluehost.

I personally believe that shared hosting providers are technologically similar and that you should go with a company that has a good track history and a reasonable price.

WordPress, which is the blog platform we’ll be installing, recommends three hosts – Bluehost, Dreamhost, and Laughing Squid. I’ve never used Laughing Squid but I have used Dreamhost and I prefer Bluehost.

Get Your BlueHost Account Right Here*
Free domain name, unlimited data, Free blog installation, money-back guarantee
Click on the Sign Up Now button.

Type your domain into the left hand box and click Next:

On the next screen, you’ll enter your billing information.

Under package information, you have some choices to make. Setup fee and domain registration are FREE, but SiteLock Domain Security, Site Backup Pro, and Domain Whois Privacy are checked by default.

The next page is a list of upsells, you can scroll down and click the blue Complete button to skip all of these, none are checked by default. You’ll see a summary page with a link to Create your password – click that link.

The next page asks you to create a password and will not let you pass until the strength is considered Good (green). Follow their guidance, use an uppercase letter and at least a symbol, thenyou’ll be good to go.

It may take 24-48 hours for the nameservers to propagate (Bluehost set this up for you already), so if you type in your domain it may not go to your site immediately. I won’t go into the technical details but that information has to get passed to the various DNS (Domain Name System) servers throughout the world and that could take 24-48 hours. Until then, you can still install and configure WordPress but accessing your site may take a day or two.

Step 3. Simple WordPress Install

You’ll be prompted to log in again and then you’ll see this cPanel dashboard (the first time you log in you will have a big video on the screen, subsequent logins will show the cPanel dashboard pictured below):

Click on the cPanel, circled in red, and you’ll see this screen:

You’ll see an intermediate screen and then this screen:

You want to Start a Brand New Install, so click Start. Now you need to pick the domain you want to install to, in this case we’re going to install DailyGratis.com… so we need to check the domain.

Once it checks, it’ll likely see that something already exists there. But nothing exists there, so click that checkbox and it’ll move to the last step. Click “Show advanced options” because it’ll let you set up some basic WordPress settings. Type in your Site Name, your Admin Username, Password, and your Admin email address.

It is recommended that you change your Admin username to something other than “admin.” Check the terms and conditions of GPLv2, it’s just a standard boilerplate GNU General Public License. Click install… and it’ll start doing it’s thing.

This generally doesn’t take more than a few minutes, go have a cup of coffee or a spot of tea. When it’s done, you should see this:

Step 4. Done!

At this point, your blog will be set up with the default options of WordPress.

Go check it out — and let us know about your new website, in comment below.

Get Your BlueHost Account Right Here*
Free domain name, unlimited data, Free blog installation, money-back guaranteed.

Let me know what you think of this tutorial!


Source : microblogger