How to Register a Domain Name and Make a Blog

Q. How much does it cost to make a website?
A. Actually it costs less than you might think, you can get your own domain name for under $15 a year. The biggest cost is renting space on the web to put your website and even that does not cost too much, it's called hosting and can be for as little as $4.99 a month.

Q. Do I need a lot of technical skills to set up a website or blog?
A. Again it's not that complicated, you can find all the instructions you need to get set up below, after that it depends on the type of website you want to make, a blog is very simple and looks just like a website but a static website will require some knowledge of html and css.

Q. Can I make money from my website?
A. Yes you can through advertising and affiliate programs.

Q. Can I make a Website on anything I want?
A Yes it's your website, although you should avoid making a website about something that is copyrighted.

Q. How long does it take to set up a website?
A Using the steps below you can be set up in less than an hour

Q. What do I need to make a website
A. All you need is your computer, a paypal account or credit card (to pay for domain name and hosting) and an idea for your site.

For this part I always use one company. I now own over 15 websites and run many other websites for other people and I always recommend using Hostgator. I have used other companies in the past and unfortunately I have had difficulties such as my website going offline for days at a time, being billed for services I did not have etc. After three years using Hostgator I am happy to say that I have never had any problem with them whatsoever. They are by far the easiest domain registrar and most reliable web host I have ever used. You can used any domain registrar and hosting company you like but the steps for this tutorial will be using hostgator.

1

Sign Up With Hostgator
Go to Hostgator (opens in new window) and click on the "view web hosting plans" link (see image below)

2

Choose a Web hosting plan
The choices are hatchling and baby. I recommend the baby account, the hatchling account only allows you to host one website, the baby account allows you to host as many of your websites as you like at no addition hosting cost (good for future websites you may own)

3

Choose a Domain Name
When choosing a domain name, you should choose a name with your chosen keywords, for example if you are making a site about coin collecting,instead of calling your site "joebloggswebsite.com" call it something like "collectorscoins.com" or "coincollecting.net" and so on. You may have to try a few different names until you find one that is available. Be careful with spellings etc, domain names cannot be changed later Use coupon code "URFIRSTSITE" and get a discount on your order

4

Create Your Account
Create a username and password for your new Hostgator account and fill in your billing details.

5

Review Your Order
Check over your details and press create your account.

Congratulation's you have just registered your first domain name and set up your hosting for your website. It's that easy! You will now receive an email confirming your order with information on where you can log into your website control panel. Once you have this information you are ready to build your website or blog. Read on to find out how to make your site or blog!

So now that you have set up your domain and hosting account it is finally time to put something online. This first tutorial will show you how to set up a wordpress blog on your website. This is the easiest way to get a website up and running quickly and if you have followed the steps above and signed up with hostgator then you will be able to use their easy control panel to set up a quick install of wordpress. Below are all the steps you need to follow to get set up.

1

Log in To Your Control Panel
You should have received your emails from Hostgator regarding your account. Your control panel can be found at "http://yoursite.com/cpanel" . When you sign in with your username and password you will be taken to your website's control panel. This has many features such as a file manager, email management etc. See image below.

2

Using Fantastico to Install Wordpress
Scroll down the page until you find the software/services section with the icon for Fantastico and click to open the fantastico control panel.

3

Installing Wordpress in Fantastico
Look for the link in the right sidebar for Wordpress and click it to bring up the wordpress install screen.

4

New Installation of Wordpress
Click on the link for a new installation of wordpress.

5

Installing Wordpress on Your Website
Here there are a few options for your install, firstly it will want to know which domain to install wordpress on, if you have more than one choose the one you want to install in from the dropdown menu. The next section, "install in directory" wants to know where you want your wordpress blog to be. If you want you blog to show on the home page of the site ie "http://yoursite.com" leave it blank. Some people choose to make a static website with a blog and will install it on another part of their site ie "http://yoursite.com/blog" so you would put in "blog". The next thing you need to do is create a username and password for logging into your wordpress install. Do not make these the same as your login details for your hosting account.
After that you can choose a name for your site and a description. (these can all be changed when you log into wordpress so don't worry about them here.) Click Install to install wordpress.

6

Log in to Wordpress
Once you have completed all of the steps above you should now have a new Wordpress install on your site. To see your site go to "http://yoursite.com" to log into your wordpress control panel go to "http://yoursite.com/wp-admin" and you should see your log in screen as below, enter the username and password you created for wordpress. You should now have a fully installed wordpress blog on your own domain.

Congratulation's in only a few short steps you have created your first wordpress blog on your own site. Once inside your wordpress dashboard you will see there are many different options, themes to choose from, plugins to add and much more, spend some time getting to know how the dashboard works and when you are ready, start publishing! It really is easy. Once you have some content up you can start adding advertisements and start earning from you website too.