Today we’re talking all about purchasing website hosting. But first let me tell you why!
In the last post you learned about the Free DIY Website Challenge going on in the Simply Launched Facebook group. The challenge starts on Monday and I’m super excited to walk people step by step through the website creation process. *(Disclaimer, some affiliate inks are shared in this post, meaning at no additional cost to you I may receive something if you click on the links.)
One of the first things to do getting your business online is to purchase a domain and hosting. There is one source I’m recommending to the group. More on that in a second.
There are so many options for hosting, even within one hosting company. So how do you know what to choose? Shared hosting is a great place to get started. It doesn’t mean you’ll be sharing your site, just your hosting. Prices can start anywhere from $3 and go up from there.
The host I recommend, SiteGround*, is currently offering hosting at less than $4 a month for the first year. I’ve found they have great customer service, answering your questions and treating you with respect.
They also have free daily backups of your website, free email, free SSL and a quick and easy way to install WordPress!
So let’s walk through the process of getting this hosting, and a domain if you need it, step by step.
1. Choose Your Hosting Plan
Go to SiteGround’s website and choose which shared hosting plan would work best for you. If you are planning on just having one site, then choose the StartUp plan. Don’t worry, as your business grows and you start receiving more visitors or you increase the size of your site you’ll be able to upgrade. In keeping with my Facebook group’s theme, let’s just concentrate on getting your site Simply launched and keep things simple for now.
2. Choose Your Domain
You need a domain, or address, for your website to live for a website using the .org version of WordPress (often called self-hosted, because you take care of the hosting yourself, rather than relying on WordPress.)
You can purchase your domain from any number of places (like GoDaddy and NameCheap), but to keep things simple, we’re going to purchase it from SiteGround as we walk through this process of purchasing your hosting.
Enter the domain name in the field and click Proceed.
3. Make Your Purchase
Fill in all the fields on the purchase form.
You may want to purchase more than one year, in this case you’ll see the special price is applied for the duration. Normally this is an annual fee for your website, so I suggest going for the longer time at the lower, first-year price.
Towards the bottom you’ll see “Extra Services”. I always suggest purchasing the privacy, it’s worth it to not have lots of spammy emails start arriving after you buy. It also keeps your personal information a little harder to find.
4. Use the SetUp Wizard
This step is super simple. Just follow the prompts on the screen.
You’ll be prompted to choose from a list of software to install. This is the famous “one-click” or “5-Minute” install you might have heard people talking about.
Simply click WordPress, enter your email and pick a username and password. Make sure you write your username and password down or save them to a list-keeper. Any time you sign in to your site you’ll need to use these. And PLEASE do not use Admin for your username, or PASSWORD for your password. Try to make these be
That’s it!
The next steps you’ll want to take are installing a theme and plugins. But, that’s for a different post.
A good thing to know: when you want to log back in to your site after you’ve logged out, head to yoururl.com/wp-admin. Adding wp-admin to the end of your url takes you to the log-in screen.
Take Action
If you need hosting, follow the tutorial above! Create your site and then get it simply launched! Future posts may also help you in creating your site. But in the meantime, let me know if tutorials like this are helpful in your website-creation journey.
