Build your very own WordPress website!
easy step-by-step blueprint to start your very own WordPress website
STEP 1)
Choosing the correct domain name:
Tips and advice for finding and selecting a great domain name. When selecting a domain name for your (.com) for your very own WordPress website there are certain things to consider.
1.Brainstorm Your Keyword Subject or Topic
When you first begin your domain name search, it helps to have at least 3 keywords or key phrases in mind that best describes the subject you are trying to find a domain name for. Once you have selected 3 keywords or key phrases, you can then start to create excellent domain name ideas. Example: if you are starting a children’s safety related domain, you might start with keywords like “baby, children’s, toddlers, infants and so on”. Then blueprint ideas surrounding the main keywords with prefix words or suffix words until you zero in on a topic you would like to write about or promote.
2.Unique Is Key
Avoid confusing your audience with already established domain names. Seek a domain name that is unique to others. Do not try and copy a domain name that is branded successfully to another company or its owner. This will possibly lead people to the wrong domain name and therefore you will lose a prospective viewer.
3.Selection and Choice of Domain Names
There are 3 main domain name extensions to consider when purchasing a domain name “.com .net and .org”. These 3 are the better choice name extensions for buying a domain name. However, if you are seeking to establish a long term presence on the internet the better choice of the 3 by far is the .com extension. It is widely considered as the best domain extension for search engine favorability.
4.Make Your Domain Name Easy
One important factor to consider when purchasing a domain name is to make it as easy as possible to type and locate your domain name when searching the internet.
Make It Short – Typing a long domain name is a tiring chore for a person looking for your website. So, try to keep the domain name as short as possible.
Give Your Domain Name Value – Most important, choose a domain name with value and significance. Always relate your domain name to your websites relevance and subject. Keep your topics flowing from the domain name right on through the content throughout your entire website. This also is a key factor for search engine importance.
Plain and Simple – Avoid hard spelling or difficulty in pronouncing your domain name. Give your domain name good understanding and clarity. Don’t confuse your audience.
5.Tread Lightly
Be careful when choosing a domain name that is same as or quite similar to another well-known trademark, it may lead to legal action. The laws governing these issues are set by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN).
It’s very easy. Stay away from well known brand names in your domain name. Example: “Coke” “Pepsi” “Microsoft” and so on. Just use plain ole common sense when choosing your domain name. Avoid any problems from the start. You don’t want to put hard work into a website and find out later your site has to be taken down for copyright infringement. By all means don’t be scared off by this. It’s not as big a problem as you may think. Don’t let fear keep you from dreams of your very own place on the internet.
6.What about Numbers or Hyphens?
Hyphens and numbers equally make it difficult to communicate your domain name by way of speech and can make it very tough to memorize or type. It’s not advised using numbers or hyphens with your domain names, as both can be puzzling and misguided. This could result in leading your audience to a wrong web address.
7.Where to Purchase a Domain Name
Domain names are purchased through what is called a domain registrar. Most domain registrars have a search feature for searching and looking up domain names and checking the availability. Choose a reputable domain registrar when purchasing a domain name. There are many across the internet that come highly recommended. Look for registrars that don’t inflate the prices after your first year.
8.How much should you pay?
Make sure when searching for a domain registrar you try and find one that does not inflate the price to high after the first years registration. Some will charge you a very low fee to have you purchase only to find that the next year the price has inflated to a soaring price. You can purchase a domain name for as little as $4.00 or $5.00 dollars on up.
The key is to make sure the price does not inflate all too much and you get a surprise on the following year. Always ask the registrar. Also find out the transferring price if you ever need to transfer your domain name to another registrar.
9.Private or Public Registration?
Private Registration: offers protection for your personal information – always reffered to as (Privacy Protection). The possibility with revealing all your personal information to the domain registrar company is not really worth the risk. The use of a private registration helps in keeping your privacy and decreases the risks of threats from attacking your domain name. Spam threats are also reduced when using a private registration when registering your domain name.
Public Registration: There are several domain registration services on the internet. However, if you choose to leave your public information available when registering your domain name cannot provide you with a 100% guarantee that your privacy will be protected.
If you choose to register a public domain name, the most important thing to keep in mind is that all of the information you as the owner entered while purchasing the domain name will be readily available to everyone.
Anyone searching the “whois” database by searching for “whois” followed by any given public domain name can easily access all information for any given public domain name.
If you so choose during the purchase process for your domain name to keep your entire information private it is strongly sugested to choose “private registration” for your domain name.
10.Conclusion
Following the above tips and advice when purchasing a domain name will help with determining how successful your WordPress Blog or Website will turn out. Also, keeping your domain name in correlation to your overall content on your site will dramatically benefit your strategy with the major search engines with respect to search engine optimization (SEO).
Remember to always brainstorm ideas before you decide on your domain name for your little piece of virtual real estate on the internet.
STEP 2)
Which Web Hosting Solution Is Right?
What is Web Hosting? A web hosting provider allows individuals, companies and organizations to make their own website available via the Internet. Discover tips for finding a web hosting provider that will save you enormous amounts of time and frustration rather than pulling your hair out over choosing a web hosting service that is right for you.
1) How much will Web Hosting cost?
Free web hosting is an option. However, the first thing to understand about FREE hosting is that the actual free hosting service is not your own. Generally free hosting places forced ads that are not beneficial to you and most of all not your audience. This is how free hosting providers make their money and can offer free hosting to you. Also, most free hosting service providers make you choose a sub domain name which is not an actual domain name. It usually consists of (yourname.freehostingname.com) instead of (www.yourdomainname.com).
2) Which type of Web Hosting?
Cpanel Hosting is the preferred hosting solution as a result of numerous testing and successful results when it comes to flexibility and control over several options with Cpanel Web Hosting.
There are different types or levels of web hosting to choose from.
a) Shared
b) Reseller
c) Virtual Private Server (VPS)
d) Dedicated
Shared Web Hosting – A shared web hosting service refers to a web hosting service where many websites reside on one web server connected to the Internet. Shared Web Hosting is commonly shared amongst one ip adress and is shared by two or more websites or domains. So with this being the case there could be many websites or doamins sharing the same ip address across the internet.
Reseller Web Hosting – Reseller Web Hosting is a method of web hosting where the account holder has the capacity to use the allocated hard drive space and bandwidth to host multiple websites and or domains of their own or the choice of selling hard drive space for web hosting clients.
Virtual Private Server (VPS) Web Hosting – A increasing number of web hosting providers are offering virtual private server hosting plans. Virtual Private Server web hosting gives the account owner much more flexibility with enormous amounts of drive space usually starting around 25 GB disk space storage and with as much as 3,000 GB bandwidth on a starter plan.
This gives the owner the ability to host several domain names. It also gives the choice whether or not to sell hosting disk space to potential hosting clients as referenced with the reseller web hosting.
Dedicated Server Web Hosting – A dedicated web hosting provider, dedicated server, or managed hosting service is a kind of internet hosting in which the customer leases an entire server not shared with others. This makes it more flexible than others mentioned above, as administrators of the account have full control over the server, as well as choice of operating system and more. Keep in mind that dedicated web hosting plans or services come with the greatest cost factor.
It’s recommended making sure you choose the month to month payment structure otherwise you could see your self incurring higher payments.
If you choose a annual payment to pay for a year in advance with a yearly contract. You may find out with over time as your site grows you may find yourself incurring costs for bandwidth usage.
Conclusion: Always check your hosting plan to see exactly what it covers and what your needs will be for running your website with the goals you have in mind.
3) Hosting Company Reviews
One thing for certain is to check on reviews of the Hosting Company you are looking to do business with. My advice, do NOT check the reviews on the hosting sites reviews at their website. The testimonials on a web hosting site may be placed there to make them look good. Check on other hosting review sites outside the hosting company you are looking at to make sure what other people say first.
Don’t always look at the person that says that a particular hosting company is bad. Always look at all the reviews not what just one person says out of ten reviews. Take the time to read on what all ten say and see what the overall review is from several people. That way you can compare with a percentage factor.
4) Customer Service and Support
Before you sign up with a hosting provider always make sure to contact them with regards to how fast their customer support is with support related issues. Always send an email to their customer support to see how fast they reply to your inquiry.I recommend a 24 hour or sooner turn around time for a support ticket to be resolved. You could be having website accessibility related problems.
It’s strongly suggested that they have a customer support phone line you can contact during reasonable hours or 24/7. Strong suggestion is to call that number before purchasing with a hosting provider.
The areas outlined above are a great way to put them to the test to see how quickly they respond to your support issues when in a real bind.
5) Is the Web Hosting provider secure?
Be sure to ask about security issues and have them go over what they have in place in case of security threats from malicious attacks. You can avoid these kinds of security gaps by certifying that your soon-to-be host takes the appropriate safeguards to shield against all methods of malware. Don’t be alarmed by this so much to prevent you from your passion for running your very own website.
Owning a website comes with its responsibilities. Securing your website is one of those responsibilities you must maintain for a safe and secure experience for your audience.This is your hosting provider’s responsibility to make your web hosting experience enjoyable.
Security is without a doubt one of the most important issues to consider when selecting a web host. With so many potential dangers online, security is not something that should be taken carelessly by the end user or the hosting provider.
Always think of the consumer or visitor and their safety.
By following the tips outlined above you should end up with a trustworthy, quality, web hosting company and a trouble free hosting experience.
STEP 3)
WordPress Installation Guide Using Cpanel
Assuming you have purchased your domain name and have aquired hosting services you are now ready to move onto the next phase to actually install WordPress.
Step 1)
Using Internet Explorer or Firefox or whichever web browser you use to access the internet navigate to your Cpanel dashboard provided by your hosting provider.
The Cpanel URL should look something like this:
http://www.yourdomain.com:2082 or http://www.yourdomainname.com/cpanel
Type your Cpanel URL into your web browser address bar located at the top of your web browser. (not a search box)
Once you have administered the Cpanel login page as it appears in the image below enter your login details username and password you were given from the hosting company to access the Cpanel dashboard.
Please take the time now to write down your login details so not to lose them and save time or frustration when logging into your Cpanel at a later time.
Cpanel Login Page
Step 2)
Now that you have accessed the Cpanel dashboard it’s time to begin the actual installation of WordPress within Cpanel. On the image below you will see a similar layout of your dashboard.
It could differ a little depending on which Cpanel scheme is being used. Within the represented image below you will see the icon entitled Fantastico De Luxe. This is where the WordPress feature is located. Click on that icon.
Step 3)
Here you will see a navigation menu on the left. Click on the link entitled WordPress. Clicking on this link will be using one database for the installation.
No need to worry about configuring a database. It’s automatically done for you. No need to worry, Fantastico has it covered. 
That’s what makes Cpanel so easy to install WordPress. No technical jumbo to worry yourself about when it comes to a database. People seem to get shaken when they here that technical term.
Step 4)
In this step you will see a link “New Installation” clicking this link will start the process of installing the database and WordPress on your hosting server.
You will also note that it defines how much disk space it will take up on the hosting server. It will also define which version of WordPress is being installed.
DO NOT confuse the term disk space with your disk space on your personal computer. It’s NOT the same. This space is being used on the hosting account you purchased.
Step 5)
This step is a little more involved. You will first be choosing the location of your WordPress installation. (where your WordPress website will appear).
It can be installed within the main root directory which would be (example = www.yourdomainname.com) OR a sub directory such as (example = www.yourdomainname.com/subdirectory/).
It’s not too confusing, here I’ll explain.
Root directory always refers to your main directory. The root is always the home directory of your server (.com)
Sub Directory is a folder outside your main root directory (.com/foldername) this way you could run several WordPress websites on the same hosting account.
However, It’s strongly suggested you install a fresh WordPress website within the root directory everytime even if you need to purchase another domain name to run a seperate WordPress website.
Install In Directory
Leave this blank to install in the root directory or choose a folder name to install in a sub directory.
Next, choose a username that you would like to access the login area of your new WordPress administrative dashboard.
Username and Password:
Choose a username you will easily remember. Same with a password something you will remember.
DO NOT use the username ADMIN! It’s a known security issue with WordPress. It leaves WordPress vulnerable to hackers.
Important: I can’t emphasize this enough to write down the username and password for future reference.
Base Configuration: here you will choose a Nickname for the administrator for your WordPress website. This is different from your login username. This administrator “Nickname” will appear next to all of your own personal articles or posts on your WordPress website as the author.
Choose a administrator email you can be contacted with. I suggest setting a separate email account just for this purpose. It helps to keep your personal email box clean of any spam or unwanted users grabbing your personal email. Helps keep a clutter free email box.
Site name field is for your title of your WordPress site. This will be shown in the web browser top title bar. I suggest strongly choosing a site name (title) that is on topic and related to your chosen domain name. TIP: Keep your topic flowing within your WordPress website from your domain name right on through your entire site.
The description area is for a brief description for your WordPress site. Here you can give a little information what your site is about. Try to keep it around 50 to 150 characters long.
You can also leave this area blank. The search engines will pick up its own description from your sites word-based content.
NEXT: Click Install WordPress
Step 6)
This step is pretty much self explanatory. Click the finish installation button and the installation is now complete.
You can also see that the information on this window tells you the username (“blacked out in this demo”) for the “database” that was created and it also defines where your WordPress website has been installed during the overall process.
In this demonstration you will see that I used the “sub-directory (demo)” as the installation directory.
This was only for demonstration purposes.
Step 7)
On this step you will see the information you will need to login to your WordPress administration panel. It defines the actual location of the url to access the WordPress dashboard.
Depending on the location you defined during the installation process your login url will look similar to this:
Root Directory:
http://www.yourdomainname.com/wp-admin
or
Sub-Directory:
http://www.yourdomainname.com/sub-directory/wp-admin
(usually a sub-directory is defined as a folder name)
When you click on which ever reference link you have depending on the location of your installation directory the link will take you to the acutal login screen to login using your username and password you created during the installation.
By this time I hope you wrote these down. I had to throw that in there. I can’t emphasize it enough.
There is also the option to email this information to yourself. Just enter your email and click send-email. This will deliver all your information to you for safe keeping.
ALMOST COMPLETE!
STEP 8))
Time to login to your newly created WordPress dashboard and start in the exciting world of WordPress. ENJOY!
YOUR DONE!
