How to Set Up Website Hosting at Hostgator and Install a WordPress Blog

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1 How to Set Up Website Hosting at Hostgator and Install a WordPress Blog

2 How to: 1. Open a hosting account at Hostgator 2. Set up a WordPress blog on your site NOTE: I recommend that you keep this PDF open for easy reference as you create your site. 1. Open a hosting account at Hostgator. Good news! I have secured a 25% discount for the 10 Week Challenge participants who choose to host their website or blog at Hostgator. You have the choice of being billed every month, or every 6 months, 12 months, 24 months or 36 months. There s a big difference in what you save according to your choice of billing cycle. If you choose to be billed MONTHLY plan, then the 25% comes off your first month only. For the Baby plan which I recommend, because you can host as many websites on your basic plan as you want a discount for your first month will be around $2.49. You will pay $7.46 for your first month s hosting instead of $9.95 USD. If you choose a YEARLY plan, you save 25% off the whole year. Instead of paying $ for a year s hosting, you pay $89.55 USD. You save $ Here s how to get your discount. 1. Click on the banner below to go to Hostgator and open an account. 2. Click on View Web Hosting Plans 10Week Challenge: Opening a Hosting Account at Hostgator/Installing WordPress.. Page 2

3 3. I recommend you choose the BABY plan the middle box. (Why? It s not the cheapest, but it s the best choice for a writer who may want to host more than one domain name on a website. Say you wanted one website for your children s books, and another one for your writing services, or your romance novels. You can host them as many as you want on the same plan, by using add on domains.) If you are absolutely sure you will only want one website or blog, then choose the Hatchling plan. Otherwise choose the BABY PLAN. Click Order now. 4. If you already have registered a domain name, fill in in the RIGHT-HAND BOX with the name of your site (e.g. If you have it registered somewhere else, you will need to point the nameservers at Hostgator you will need to log in to wherever you have registered your domain name to do this. If you don t already have a domain name, you can register it at Hostgator. It s not the cheapest domain registrar around, (at around $15 a year at the time of writing) but you re unlikely to save more than around $5 elsewhere. It s just convenient to do it at the same time if you re opening a hosting account with Hostgator. If the domain name you want has already been taken by someone else, you ll be told that in the popup message. You can then try a different one. It s a good idea to have a list of names that will be okay if the one you want isn t available. (For example, if your name is Susie Writer and is taken (which it is, because I ve got it!) then you could try SusieWriterBooks.com or SusieWriterAuthor.com or SusieWriterWebsite.com and so on. IMPORTANT: BEFORE YOU CLICK CONTINUE TO STEP 2, ENTER THIS COUPON CODE IN THE BOX: 10WeekChallenge. This gets you a 25% discount. 10Week Challenge: Opening a Hosting Account at Hostgator/Installing WordPress.. Page 3

4 5. Step 2 shows your billing information. a. First, make sure you have chosen the right plan ( Baby if you might want to host additional sites or blogs; Hatchling if you definitely want only one blog or site). b. Choose your billing cycle. Your discount will be applied over the first time period of your chosen plan. c. Choose a username and a security PIN. (Make a note of these as you type them in. It never hurts to have an extra record somewhere.) d. Fill in your billing information. e. Check your billing details. Your 25% discount should be applied off the first period of whatever billing cycle you chose. f. When you are satisfied that all is in order, click Create Account. 10Week Challenge: Opening a Hosting Account at Hostgator/Installing WordPress.. Page 4

5 10Week Challenge: Opening a Hosting Account at Hostgator/Installing WordPress.. Page 5

6 6. You will receive an from with all your necessary information about logging in, nameservers, etc print this out and keep it somewhere safe, and also store it in a folder in your program. You will probably need this information sometime. Notice that it gives you a link to get into your control panel. You will need this to install WordPress on your site. When you click on this link, it takes you to a login box that requires you to enter your address (the one this was sent to) and your PASSWORD. Your password is in this , too. It s best to copy and paste it into the box, to avoid typing wrong letters or symbols. When you type your address and your password into this box, you can enter your control panel. Here s what the box looks like: 10Week Challenge: Opening a Hosting Account at Hostgator/Installing WordPress.. Page 6

7 7. When you type your address and username into the box, you are taken to your control panel. This can look a bit confusing at first, but the main headings on the left are simply: General Details Billing Details Support Tickets Hosting Packages. Scroll down to Hosting Packages and click on view hosting packages. When you do that, you will see that there is a cpanel Login link underneath your package details. Click on this link to take you to cpanel. From there, you will be able to install your WordPress blog. When you click on the cpanel link, you will arrive at a cpanel login box. To save time accessing your cpanel in the future, BOOK MARK this page. Your username and password will be the same as the one in your . 10Week Challenge: Opening a Hosting Account at Hostgator/Installing WordPress.. Page 7

8 Installing a WordPress Blog Whew. Now we re ready to install a blog. This process is actually really, really simple. 1. Scroll down to the Software/Services section of your cpanel and click on Quick Install. 2. Click on WordPress, then click Continue. 10Week Challenge: Opening a Hosting Account at Hostgator/Installing WordPress.. Page 8

9 3. Use the drop-down box to find the domain name that you want to use for the blog. (I have lots of domains on my account, so I had to look down the list and click on susiewriter.com, the example I m using for this. If you have just registered a domain name, that will be the only one. Easy!) 4. If you want a website AND a blog on your site, then you will probably want to install the website on the main domain ( and the blog in a different directory ( Look at the picture below. Type blog in the right hand box ONLY if you want to have your blog separate from your website. If you are having a blog but no website or a blog as a substitute for your website - leave this space blank. Fill in your , your blog title, and your first and last name. Then click Install Now. 10Week Challenge: Opening a Hosting Account at Hostgator/Installing WordPress.. Page 9

10 5. It should take only a few seconds for your blog to install. Your congratulations message will contain a USERNAME and PASSWORD. Make a note of these, or copy and paste them to a word document. (You will get them in an too, but play it safe.) 6. Now let s take a look at your blog. It will be the WordPress default blog: You can play around with this one if you like, or you can install the WordPress Theme that I like for my blogs (one that many other people like, too, because it s highly customisable): Weaver II. On the next page, you can see what your default blog looks like: 10Week Challenge: Opening a Hosting Account at Hostgator/Installing WordPress.. Page 10

11 7. You will want to remove all the default posts (especially the one that says Hello World, unless you want everyone to know that you ve just installed a default blog!) and also the tag line Just another WordPress site and the footer, Proudly powered by WordPress. You will find all these things in SETTINGS, which will be in the left hand menu of your Dashboard. 10Week Challenge: Opening a Hosting Account at Hostgator/Installing WordPress.. Page 11

12 8. You will be able to login to your WordPress blog using the details sent to you via . The login address of your blog is: After you log in, you will see your blog s Dashboard and a Welcome Message. This welcome message has some useful information for new bloggers. There s a link to First Steps with WordPress, which you can read through. (right click and open in a new tab recommended) and there are also links right on the page, as follows: 10Week Challenge: Opening a Hosting Account at Hostgator/Installing WordPress.. Page 12

13 9. You can read these instructions and mess around with the blog using the theme that s already there, if you wish. OR you can download the Weaver II Theme and install that. (Installing a new theme is very easy. Most things about WordPress are easy, once you become accustomed to it.) To download Weaver II, go to and follow the instructions below. Make sure you save it to a place on your computer that s easy to locate in the next step! 10Week Challenge: Opening a Hosting Account at Hostgator/Installing WordPress.. Page 13

14 10. After you have downloaded Weaver II, go to your blog dashboard and click on Appearance on the left navigation menu. From here, click on THEMES, then click the tab INSTALL THEMES. 11. Click on the UPLOAD link. 10Week Challenge: Opening a Hosting Account at Hostgator/Installing WordPress.. Page 14

15 12. Click on the BROWSE button, and look for the Weaver II file that you just downloaded to your computer. NOTE: YOU DO NOT HAVE TO UNZIP THE FILE. (I keep my WordPress themes in my Essential Stuff library so I can always find them!) 13. When you can see that your theme has safely uploaded into the browse box, click INSTALL NOW. 14. Then, when you see the message: Theme installed successfully, click ACTIVATE. 10Week Challenge: Opening a Hosting Account at Hostgator/Installing WordPress.. Page 15

16 15. If you click on the tab Weaver II Themes, you will see lots of attractive sub-themes one of the best features of this theme is that you are not restricted to one look. Each thumbnail has a name next to it. Look for the same name in the drop-down box to select it. 10Week Challenge: Opening a Hosting Account at Hostgator/Installing WordPress.. Page 16

17 16. To see what each sub-theme looks like, right-click on Visit site under the name of your blog, and open the site in a new tab or new window. You can do this each time you change the theme, so you can just click back to the tab containing your work area. When you are happy with the look of a theme, you can start on your blog posts! 10Week Challenge: Opening a Hosting Account at Hostgator/Installing WordPress.. Page 17