How to Register Your Domain with a Web Host A How To Guide By: Tom Browne
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What is a Web Host? A domain name is not the same thing as your web site. The name is simply a means to identify your site. So, yes, your domain name will bring people to your site, but you first need to establish a web hosting account and point your domain to your web host. This guide will explain how to do both. Without Web hosting, your Website would not be visible to anyone on the Internet. The whole reason you are making a Website is so that you can show it to potential customers, and have people from around the world look at what you have to offer. It is vital to your online business that you have good quality Web hosting. A web host is a company, which can be located anywhere in the world, that stores people s websites. Websites are stored on special computers called servers. These servers are specially designed to work with the internet. Web hosting is typically performed by an Internet Service Provider (ISP). These companies provide clients with online access to their computers. Clients are able to store information (images, video, data, etc.), which they want made available to the World Wide Web. These servers are a convenient and safe place to store your blog and files so that other people can get access to them 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. A hosting company typically has dozens of servers (some may have hundreds), each with dozens of accounts connected to the web at the same time. You can think of a web hosting company like a small town. Each town (web host) has several neighborhoods (servers), each with several houses (websites). A host is where you park, or place, your domain so that it is available on the internet. You link your domain name (that you created and registered in a previous How To guide) to your web host. This will allow people from all over the world to access your blog via your domain name.
In other words, this means that the website you create is stored on someone elses' computer. That computer stays connected to the Internet so that customers can visit your website at any time. Why You Need A Web Host As already alluded to, the main reason for having your own web host is to provide other people with a means to access your web pages and files from a central place on the internet. Contracting with a hosting company gives your Website up-time in other words, a continuous connection to the Internet. Most reputable hosting companies have some type of up-time guarantee, which conveys to you their reliability. They also have computer security professionals that will keep both your business s information and your customers private information safe and secure. A quality hosting company will also provide technical support. If something breaks down, or if you just have questions, having a support staff available to help is a big plus especially if you have never had an online business before. Of course you could host it all yourself using your own personal server. However, servers are not cheap, they can be very complicated to set up and maintain and you would be responsible for ensuring that your server is running 24/7. Investing money in a quality hosting company will help you to succeed. It s much easier and more reliable to use a reputable web host instead of doing it yourself. It is also much more affordable, simpler and hassle free to use a web host over the long term. The last thing you want to worry about when creating content for your blog is dealing with annoying problems with your own personal server. Can I Build A Profitable Business With A Free Web Hosting Service? In short, the answer to this question is no, at least not long term.
The old adage, You get what you pay for is also true when it comes to web hosting. Free web hosting services may be great for setting up a simple family website, or while you are learning how to create your own web pages online. However, the free services often come with an unadvertised cost that you shouldn t be paying as a blog owner - advertising other people s stuff. Most free services make their money by placing THEIR advertising on YOUR blog or website. In exchange for providing you with space (often very little), you agree to let the company advertise with banners, pop-ups, moving ads, etc. - on your site without paying you. If you plan on monetizing your blog at some point in the future, the only advertising you should have on your blog should be ads that you placed there and that pay you. The reality is, if you want to make a living online, you will need to invest some money in the core building blocks of your online business. And one of the things you really must invest in is a web hosting company. Back to our small town analogy - just as there are great places to live, and real dives that you would hate to raise your family in, you need to be careful about which web hosting company you decide to use. This decision is reversible but it s always better to get it right the first time to avoid potential headaches down the road. How To Set Up Your Own Web host Many internet marketers, myself included, use and recommend Hostgator for most people getting their blog started online because of their package of features and cost.
HostGator is a very reliable and affordable option for hosting your blog as well as web pages. HostGator s advantage over other services lies in the amount of space and bandwidth, and for its awesome price. In these areas, HostGator beats other services without question. One other key advantage for HostGator is your ability to host as many website and/or blog domains on the same account as you wish. This is important if you decide to develop blogs in other niches at some later time. HostGator provides you with unlimited domains, while others limit you to a handful. How to Set Up Your Hosting Account. Go to the HostGator website main page by clicking HERE. The main page for HostGator will open up looking something like this...
From the homepage, select and click on the Web Hosting link. The page that displays next will outline the different plans provided. There are three plans Hatchling, Baby and Business. You can scroll down to read the plan features and cost. Hatchling is the cheapest and Business is the most expensive. We're going to go with the Baby plan because it allows us an unlimited number of domain names, which could come in handy later on.
Scroll right down to the bottom of the page, then select and click on the "Order Now" button for the Baby plan.
On the next page, the Order Wizard will ask you to Select a domain option:
Make sure you select the second option "I will use My Existing Domain and update My Nameservers only". Then, in the Existing Domain: box, type in the domain name that you created in a previous How To guide. In my case it's perennialflowergarden.com. (The dot's already there between the boxes so you don't need to type it in just the domain name and the extension). Then select and click the next button.
On the next page of the Order Wizard you'll see information regarding your order. Under Select a domain option: - Existing Domain:, the domain name, which you typed in on the previous screen, and the nameserver update option that you selected. In the Select a package type: section, the account package selected for your domain name and the default billing cycle of 9.95 per month. You can change the billing cycle by selecting a different option in the drop-down box. You may find that it's a good idea just to go with the monthly payment plan, in case you need to cancel your account for whatever reason. If you have a coupon code to get a discount you can enter it in the Coupon box. If all the information appears correct, select and click on the "Calculate totals" button.
On the next page of the Order Wizard you can review your order details. Make sure the "I am a new customer." button is selected. Then select and click on the Continue button. On the next page to display, you will be asked to enter your personal details, contact information and additional information. Be sure to complete the required information.
Further down the same page you ll be asked for payment options and information regarding your credit card or PayPal account. I recommend that you use the credit card option, not PayPal, as the credit card option is much simpler.
Lastly, select the Yes option to show that you've read and agree to the terms of conditions of use. Then select and click on the "Verify My Order" button. On the next page you'll see a summary of all the details you have just entered.
Review your details, then select and click on the Process My Order button. The last page to display will confirm that your order has been processed. And that's it. You've now set up your own web hosting account with HostGator and are almost ready to move onto the next step. You will receive a confirmation email from HostGator that will be sent to the address you used when you completed the Contact Information section on the Order Wizard.
The email should look something like the following: You should print and save this e-mail. It will contain important information regarding your order, including the domain name servers in the section titled Your name servers. You will need the name server information for the next step in the process. Finally I'll show you... How To Link Your Domain Name To Your Web Host This is necessary so that when people type in your domain name in their internet browsers, they'll be able to access your blog.
There are 3 main steps to linking your domain name to your web host: 1. Have the domain name server details from hostgator.com available. 2. login to your GoDaddy account. 3. add or change the domain name server details for your domain name inside GoDaddy. First - get the domain name server details from hostgator.com. The name server information is contained in your confirmation email. Next, log into your GoDaddy account by clicking HERE, or open your internet browser and type in www.godaddy.com.
Once you're on the GoDaddy.com website, you'll need to log in, so type in your user name and password and select and click the Go button. Remember you wrote down and saved this information as you were instructed to do when you signed up for your GoDaddy account? Once you've logged in to your account, you should see a page looking something like this:
This page will show you a list of the domain names that you have purchased. You will probably only have one name listed. Select your domain name and click on the Advanced Details link to go to the details page of your domain name. On the bottom left side of the page, locate and select the Manage link in the Nameservers section.
A box will appear on the page you are viewing. Make sure the I host my domains with another provider button is highlighted. Then, delete the information in the Nameserver 1 box and enter one of the HostGator nameserver details. Enter the information exactly as it appears in the confirmation email. Then, do the same for the Nameserver 2 box. Then select and click the OK button.
On the next page, Set Nameservers, simply select and click the OK button. You can then log out of your GoDaddy account. And that's it! You have now linked your domain name with your web host and you're ready to go. Please note that it could take 24-48 hours for your domain name to get linked properly to your web host. The jargon they use in the industry is that your domain name could take 24 to 48 hours to "propagate" through the internet.
Congratulations, you're now the proud owner of a domain name, as well as a web host, and if you followed the steps inside this guide, your domain name and web host should now be connected or linked with each other. All that's needed now, is to install and customize WordPress on your web host, and then you can start adding some content to your blog. In the next How To guide in this series, you'll learn how to install WordPress (the software you'll need for running your new blog).