WebGal Studios

In my day to day activities - errands, grocery shopping, going to the chiropractor - I often get into a discussion about how easy it is to start a blog and get your small (or large) business online. In today’s world the “rush to get there only to wait in line” typical situation can sometimes be an opportunity rather than something you just endure. As a person who likes conversation and meeting new people, I often instigate conversations that inevitably lead to “I keep meaning to write a post on how to get a blog”. So here it is!

How Do I Get My Business Online?

It’s something everyone asks at some point. And there are lots of answers on the internet, but not all of those answers are fair or even going to give you the help you need. Even worse, a typical web design company (whether a full blown firm, or a hopeful work from home out of the basement type) will eagerly charge you hundreds of dollars to get you web hosting, install the blog and design that you like. A vast majority of people looking to get their business online don’t know any better on what “fair value” is when it comes to getting a web site online. They will pay hundreds of dollars simply because “someone” said it is the going rate. When really, all it takes is a half hour of your OWN time and following these simple steps:

1. Get a domain name. You need to have a physical location for folks to go in order to see your website. So think of a domain name that has a keyword or two of the type of service or product your business is about. For example, if you are a seamstress looking to bring in more customers, a domain name suggestion might be www.seamstress-city.com where “city” is the city you live in. That way, if someone is using a search engine to find a seamstress in the city you live in, your site is going to come up as being very relevant to that search query.

I always recommend NameCheap.com as a domain name registrar. It is not so important on where you buy your domain name from - it is, however, very important to make sure you own that domain free and clear from any hosting company you may choose to use. That way, if you ever decide to change hosting companies, the domain name is yours without having to wait for someone to change DNS settings (I’ll tell you about those later on) or wait to get access to change those DNS settings. The example below about DNS settings will be shown via NameCheap.com, so if you don’t have a registrar in mind, use NameCheap.com - it’s easy to understand, the navigation is very clear and I’ve used them for years and years.

2. Get website hosting. Obviously you’ll have to pay someone to host your website. Hosting these days is pretty cheap. There are hundreds of reputable web site hosts too. Personally I have used HostGator.com for the last 6-7 years. Their prices are reasonable but the service is exceptional and for me, that’s the deal maker. I have used other services but always came back to HostGator. Their packages start for as little as $4.95 USD a month, that’s cheap! But the important part here for installing your new WordPress blog, is that this hosting company has “Fantastico”. Fantastico is a point and click way to install WordPress. NO learning curve here. That’s the whole point of this method.

After you sign up for your HostGator hosting account, you will get a welcome email with your user details, various urls and your password. The important bit here, is the DNS settings. This is the numerical internet address your site is physically located at. We need to associate this address to your new domain name. So when folks go to your domain name, they are actually being sent to this numerical physical address.

3. Setting up your hosting account. As stated above, you need to tell NameCheap.com what numerical address to associate your new domain name with. So log into NameCheap.com and browse to your domain name server set up (see below).

Enter the DNS settings HostGator sent you in your welcome email. Click “save changes”. And that’s it! Your hosting is set up.  And it doesn’t take 24 hours anymore for the changes to take effect, more like a half hour.

4. Installing WordPress. With your welcome email you will have the url (link) to “CPanel”. Click this link and log in with your login and password. Scroll down to the bottom half of the page and find “Fantastico De Luxe”, click on it. Then click on “WordPress”. You’ll see the screen below.

• Do NOT enter anything in the “install in directory” box unless you want your blog to be on a subdomain of the site (www.yourdomain.com/blog).
• Enter a username and password (wise not to use the one you already have with HostGator, but choose something memorable to you).
• Enter a nickname - this is the name you will be known as on the blog. It could be your real first name or even just “Admin” (without the quotes)
• Enter your email. You can set up an email for the domain name or use one you already have.
• The Site Name and Description can be changed later on so don’t worry about that.

Press “Install WordPress.”

Now you will see the below image. I *always* email myself the wordpress login details. So fill in your email and send it to yourself. Make sure you keep it somewhere safe!

And that’s it! You have just put yourself online. It cost you the price of the domain name and a monthly hosting fee. NOT hundreds of dollars. Log in and play around, see what the various features do. A future post will discuss on how to set up categories, regular database backups, and how to install a theme.

Any questions can be posted here!

installing wordpress