In my earlier posts, I explained what WordPress is and how you can use it to create your own website or blog. But in this post, I will walk you through the steps of creating your own website or blog right from the beginning. It’s even before you install WordPress. If you’re thinking to start a blog to earn money or to show off your amazing work to the world then this is the right place to start with. So without any further adieu, let’s get started!
Why Should You Have A Website Or Blog?
Before you start with the main topic let’s just discuss why you should have a website. Many people always get confused that why they should invest their time in writing a blog or designing their own website and why they should put their work online etc. There are many other questions that people ask. Well, I don’t want to make my answer complicated so I am trying to be as simple as I can.
I think one may have two reasons to go ahead and create a website. The very first is to earn money. Yes! You can earn money through your website. Although it takes time and hard work but you can earn a handsome amount of money by creating your own website. The second is just for fun! You can create a website and upload your own work on your website. This way you get a chance to show your work to the World.
Now if you are creating a website just for fun then you don’t have to worry about technicalities. Just go ahead and create a website or blog on blogger or somewhere similar that does not require you to have your own domain, hosting space, etc. Some free services will work perfectly for your fun website.
But if you are going to make money from your website then you will have to learn a little before you get started. You would never want to turn back just because you had not chosen the right place when you started. So now start from the first step of creating a website and I will also recommend you some services that you can use for your website or blog.
Get Your Own Domain To Create Your Own Website
The first step to create your own website or blog is to get your own domain name. A domain name is just like the address of a house or office. Whenever you invite somebody to your home or office you give him an address. In the same way, every website has an address and it’s called a domain name.
Getting a domain name is just like getting your own email address. Your search for the domain name availability and if that’s available you can buy it. Today there are tons of registrar that you can get the domain name from. Here are some registrars that I have used and all of them have been trusted by millions of website owners.
| 1. 2. 3. | Hostgator Godaddy NameCheap | Search for domain name availability on Hostgator Search for domain name availability on Godaddy Search for domain name availability on 1&1 | $12.95/yr $11.99/yr $10.69/yr |
For a more deep review of all of the above mention domain registrar & other domain registrars, keep visiting TheITstuff.com. I’ll review domain name providers soon. But for now, you can go ahead with any of these trusted services to find & buy your domain. Hostgator is World famous for its quick and better services. Their support is also quick and easy.
Godaddy domain name service is also worth giving attention to because they provide domain names at cheap prices and their support is also good. The reason I mentioned them on the second number is that I have been using their services for quite some time now and my website has gone down several times in the last 5-6 months. Although the downtime was just 3-4 minutes it was very annoying.
Buy Domain Name
To buy a domain name, simply search any domain name for availability, and if it is available then follow the easy process to buy and register your chosen domain name.
Get Web Hosting To Host Your Website
When you have done buying the domain name, move to the second step to buying hosting space. If you don’t know what the hosting space is then no problem. It’s simple. Hosting space is just like space on your hard drive but it’s not local. It’s the space that you buy on a server to place your website so that it’s available to the World.
Today you have tons of companies that sell hosting space at different prices. Some have costlier plans but some are cheaper. But things that you need to take care of before you buy hosting is that the server ‘uptime’. Server uptime is the most important thing that you should be looking for before you buy hosting. The more uptime the better it is. If the server you bought the hosting from goes down then your website will also go down and won’t be available to the World. Most of the hosting companies promise to provide 99% uptime but some companies fail to keep this promise.
Here I am giving you the list of 5 hosting companies that are worth checking out.
| # | Hosting Company | Uptime |
| 1. | Hostgator (Highly Recommended) | 99.9% |
| 2 | BlueHost | No mention |
| 3 | Godaddy | 99.9% |
| 4 | Bigrock | 99.9% |
| 5 | iPage | No mention |
I have listed 5 hosting providers that are worth giving attention to. I myself have used 4 of them including Hostgator, Godaddy, Bluehost, and Bigrock. I highly recommend Hostgator because their uptime is the best among all.
iPage doesn’t mention their uptime but my friends have used iPage and informed me that it has good server uptime.
Point Your Domain To Your Hosting
Now, this step is required only when your domain registrar and hosting company are different. If you purchased a domain name and hosting from the same company then you don’t have to trouble with this step. For example, if you purchased a domain & hosting space from Godaddy then they allow you to select and point the domain name to your existing hosting space. So there won’t be trouble.
But if you purchased the domain name from one company and hosting space from another company then you will require printing domain name to hosting space. You can contact your hosting provider to provide you details such as IP Address for your account and then enter that detail into your domain account.
When you contact the hosting provider ask them that how you can point your domain to your hosting. When you have received the detail then contact the domain name provider to point your domain to your hosting. They will ask you an IP address that you received from hosting. This process varies depending upon your company, so I will be separately talking about pointing the domain to your specific hosting accounts in other tutorials.
And.. You’re All Done!
Once you have pointed your account to your hosting then it’s all. Now when somebody visits your domain name he will be sent to the IP address that is your site. You now have storage and address pointed to that storage, you are good to go. You can host WordPress if you want. There are many other CMS(Content Management Systems) but I recommend WordPress. I have already discussed in detail that how you can set up WordPress and create your own website or blog.
How To Host Your Own Blog Or Website With WordPress [DETAILED]
