Start your WordPress website with our easy 3-step tutorial

This will only take you about 20 minutes at the most, I promise! You shouldn’t run into any problems in this short process, but if you do, the hosting companies I recommend are available to help you over the phone if you need it.

1. Get a domain name

You can purchase both your web hosting and a domain name from the same company…  but I wouldn’t. The main reason for this is should you ever have a problem with your hosting company, it will be more difficult for you to separate the two services if you decide to migrate your site over to another hosting companies servers.

So, just “.com’s”, or what? 

I’d advise you to only consider a domain ending in .com. You could go with a “.co” or a “.net”, but your returning site visitors might not have noticed your domain isn’t a .com and mistakenly type that into the browser, you could loose some direct search traffic to your “.com” competitor.

Also, try to keep your domain name under 2 words, 3 at the most. Choose a name that your readers can remember you by, something relevant to your niche or subject.

The best domain name registrars are NameCheap and GoDaddy. Both have excellent service and I would recommend either one. A good “.com” domain name will cost you around $10-$12 per year.

Simply go to Namecheap.com or GoDaddy.com’s and you will find a big search bar right on their homepages where you can find out if a domain name is available.

2. Purchase hosting

A hosting company is where you will buy the server space where your website will be parked. Web hosting is inexpensive, running about $3-$7 a month depending on the plan you sign up for.

I’ve only had experience with 2 different hosting companies and I can assure you that they’re both very good. All 4 of my websites are hosted on HostGator servers. I’ve never had a problem or any downtime on my websites and they’ve always been happy to answer any questions I had. You can start with HostGator for $5.95 per month, billed monthly.

I don’t personally use Bluehost, but I hear only good reviews of their service from online marketers and website developers, so I’d say you’re pretty safe buying your hosting from them also. Bluehost starts at $2.95 per month, but they will bill you for 36 months up front ($106.20). You can start with the 12-month plan rate for $4.95 per month, also up front, which would total $59.40. If this is too much cost just starting out, then HostGator’s monthly billing would be a better option for you.

Both companies have an easy 1-click WordPress installation which makes it very quick to get your site up.

3. Install WordPress

WordPress is a content management software that allows you to build the website you want, without code, and best of all it’s completely free. Some of the top websites in the world run on WordPress. It’s the most versatile platform on the web for publishing content.

Here’s A 10-Minute Tutorial On Installing WordPress Using GoDaddy and HostGator

Congratulations! You are now the proud owner of your own website!

Now, there will be a few finishing touches that you’ll want to put on your new website. I found the following excellent tutorial showing you how to build out your site using the free Vantage theme. The Vantage theme is the most versatile free theme out there, you can make any kind of site from a blog to a static front page, magazine style site to a news site, an affiliate, portfolio or anything you could possibly need.

It’s a longer video but it covers everything and there are time stamps in the video description so you can jump to the parts of the video you want. you need to finish your site. Click here for the video, then find the time stamps in the video description under the “read more” link.