Creating A Blog – Part Three: Registering Your Domain Name & Web Hosting
Author: Jim | Filed under: Blogging Tricks
It’s Part Three of “Creating A Blog” brought to you exclusively by theNetFool.com. By now, you’ve got your domain name and blog concept all worked out, time to pay the piper! I’m here to get you the right deal, at the right price, with the right company. 
First things first, in order to run a blog, you will need both a domain name and some web hosting space. Often, you’ll get a free domain name along with any purchase of web hosting. If you are going to go for the free hosting option, you’ll need to buy a domain name yourself. I’m going to take this post from the assumption that you are buying both of these separately.
Now, you could order your domain name first, but without anywhere to point it… it’s going to be mighty useless. So let’s knock out web hosting first! In any web hosting account, both paid and free, make sure that the plan offers the following features:
- MySQL Databases (at least one)
- FTP Access (for uploading files)
- All Major Scripting Services (PHP 4 and/or 5, CGI, Perl, etc.)
Free Web Hosting
If someone is going to give you free hosting, you need to be skeptical. These can be utter rip-offs and a waste of your time. However, many are actually great deals. You need to make sure there won’t be any ads run on your website to compensate the provider. Also, be sure that there is no size cap on uploaded files (what a pain!) and that you are allowed to edit your “.htaccess” configuration file. Let’s have a look at some of my favorite providers:
- Zymic (5,000MB Space, 50,000MB Transfer) Jimvesting Favorite!
- FreeHostia (250MB Space, 5GB Transfer)
- AwardSpace (200MB Space, 5GB Transfer)
You should be safe to go with either of those hosts, and I know some people that paid for hosting will be shaking in their boots when they see what they offer. Still, it’s really essential to make the move to paid hosting once business picks up… so plan for that move later on after you get your feet wet. 
Paid Web Hosting
Looking for the professional setup from the get-go? It’s a pain to switch hosts, so I would definitely recommend starting early with paid web hosting from one of these great providers. Any of these hosts will get you what you need at a budget price, and you can rest easy that your website isn’t going to see any downtime. Here are my favorites:
- HostGator (“Hatchling” Plan) Jimvesting Favorite!
- Top Hosting Center (“Speedy” Plan)
- Go Daddy (Economy Plan)
- BlueHost (Professional Hosting)
- Host Monster (Professional Hosting)
- 1&1 Internet (Beginner Hosting)
All of these hosting companies are top-notch, and will get you the hosting you require, and the price that fits your budget. I recommend getting the smallest packages available… you shouldn’t be paying more than $10 a month for hosting unless you have a whole network of website you are running. You need about 200MB space per blog, and you should bank on having 5MB bandwidth (traffic) for every 1MB space for maximum efficiency… that’s my general rule of thumb.
Registering Your Domain Name
Web hosting is out of the way, and assuming you didn’t register through your hosting client, you still need to grab a domain name. You should always get a private registration for security purposes… trust me, it’s worth it. This may cost extra, maybe $5 on top, and I’d recommend it above all else.
It really doesn’t matter where you register your domain name, I would just go for a more reputable registrar that offers you the best bang for your buck. Here are my favorites:
- 1&1 Internet ($6.99 + free private registration) Jimvesting Favorite!
- Go Daddy ($9.99)
- Name Cheap ($9.29 + free private registration)
- APlus.net ($7.40)
Now, and this is very important, the domain name registrar (if they are smart) are going to try and get you to order all of these extra features that you absolutely do not need. Most of the stuff is either useless “bonus” software that you don’t need, or things like SSL Security Certificates that you could just purchase later if you needed. Don’t forget, it is still possible to get a free domain name if you have time to explore and put in a little work.
Putting It All Together
You’ve got your domain name. You’ve got your web hosting. But how do you get the domain pointed to your hosting? Well first of all, if you registered your domain name and web hosting with the same company, there should be a way to link your purchases together with relative ease through their control panel. Otherwise, we have to get smart.
I’m a bargain hunting fool, so I register hosting and domain names separately for the most part. To link them together, log into your domain managing page (through the website you registered with), and navigate to your DNS Management page. We are looking to modify the “nameserver” settings, changing them to your hosting account.
So what the heck is a nameserver? Well it’s essential a unique mapping device that is registered to your web host, and your hosting account. You can find out what your hosting’s nameserver is through their support website, or FAQ section. The format is typically “ns1.website.com” and “ns2.website.com”. You usually will need to input two nameservers (primary + secondary) so make sure you have both addresses!
By default, your domain name will be “parked.” What this means is that they are setting your nameserver’s to point to their default page. We need to get this changed so that your domain name is forwarded to your web hosting account. This may take a few hours to one day for the effects to take place, so be patient!
We’ve got our website all configured, just like we need it. Everything is ready, all we need to do now is build & launch our website to the public! Stay tuned to Part Four of the “Creating A Blog” series when I will explore different blogging platforms and installing them on your server.
-Jimvesting
Related Posts
- Creating A Blog – Part Two: Finding a Great Domain Name
- Build-A-Blog Workshop Day 2: Registering Your Domain Name
- Build-A-Blog Workshop Day 4: Linking Your Domain Name to Hosting Account
- Build-A-Blog Workshop Day 3: Purchasing Web Hosting and Finding the Best Deal
- Looking for an Alternative? Check Out Web Hosting Hub!
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hey hey, this is indeed a very useful information here!!
i have been always wanting to create a domain of my own but just dunno where and how to get it started…now at least i have a clear idea of it…thanx for sharing this idea
Great work again. I like how you update every day, thats a great way to keep visitors. I’m definitely hooked.
Bluefur.com is also a great hosting service. It’s what I use.
Flimjos last blog post..How to Create a Product
I don’t recommend getting free hosting man. Because you get all the readers, then if you switch, you gonna lose them all.
My favorite is Go Daddy web hosting.
Agent 001s last blog post..Tips and Updates for My Blog Contest
Twitter: @jimvesting
May 24, 2008 at 1:06 pm #
@ Klajdi: I don’t believe that’s correct. If you switch hosting, your feed count doesn’t go to zero
, your URL should remain unchanged regardless of where you host your website so long as you have a domain name. If you don’t have a domain name, you will need to change the path for your RSS feed… but still wouldn’t lose your readers.
If you are interested in a more “under the hood” description of the domain name process, please take a look at my recent article, Master Of Your Domain, at InternetNewcomer.com.
GregFs last blog post..What’s In Your Browser?
I would recommend hostgator for hosting and name.com for domain registration They are both cheap and good.
Husseins last blog post..What Motivates You To Blog?
Very interesting post. It will definitely help beginners a lot!
I use HostGator and they are awesome! I pay 25 dollars a month though because I am on the reseller plan with all my blogs hosted on it. (in a way I am my own host lol)
EmmaBs last blog post..Thou Shall Blog
wow great post been looking for this kind of blogs that i can learn after i read it. it will truly help us beginners. thanks.
Always check to see if your competition places display ads. If not, that’s a pretty strong indication that it is not necessary to spend the money to attract callers.