Start a Blog on HostGator !!

So you want to learn how to start a blog? Great! I’ll teach you how to start a WordPress blog with HostGator using some simple steps that I followed to make this very blog.

No matter your reasons for wanting to start a blog, I can tell you from my experience that it’s worth it. Whether you want to express your thoughts through writing, increase traffic to your business, help people out, or anything else, you should start a blog. It’s cheap and it’s fun — not to mention it’s a great learning experience!

This tutorial will teach you how to start a blog with HostGator. Don’t want to use HostGator? I also have a tutorial on How to Start a Blog with Bluehost if you prefer Bluehost.

These steps should have you up and running with your own blog in about 15-30 minutes.

HOW TO START A BLOG WITH HOSTGATOR IN 8 EASY STEPS:

STEP 1 ⋯ CHOOSE YOUR HOSTING PLAN

Go to HostGator’s main page (the link opens in a new window so you can follow along), and click on the “Web Hosting” tab or choose Get Started Now!. You’ll get brought to a page where they show their different hosting packages as shown below.


You have the choice between a Hatchling Plan, a Baby Plan, or a Business Plan. If you’re not a business, then you will most certainly be going with the Hatchling or the Baby Plan. The difference between the two is that the Baby Plan allows for unlimited domain names whereas the Hatchling Plan only allows for one. So, if you only want one website and don’t plan on ever making multiple websites, then you can just go with the Hatchling Plan. However, if you ever think you’ll make more than one website, then just go with the Baby Plan. If you’re just getting started learning how to start a blog, then choose the Baby Plan which is what I’m using for this tutorial. Hit Sign Up Now! on the plan of your choosing.

STEP 2 ⋯ CHOOSE A DOMAIN NAME

Once you hit the Sign Up Now! button, you’ll be taken to the HostGator Order Wizard. The first box you’ll be filling out is your domain name. This is whatever you want your website name to be. For example, mine is crambler.com but you may want your website to be yourname.com or whatever your heart desires. Keep in mind that if the domain name is already taken, you cannot use it, and it will tell you that it is unavailable. It has to be one that no one has claimed yet. Make sure the “Register a New Domain” tab is selected.

Most domain names (especially if you choose .com) cost $12.95 per year which gets added onto your total at the end.


Looks like SomeRandomSiteName.com is available as of the writing of this post 😉

TIPS FOR CHOOSING A DOMAIN NAME

• Make it easy to remember. People are going to have a hard time remembering a super long and confusing domain name unless it’s some catchy phrase.
• Use .com instead of .net, .org, .biz, .info, or others. It is by far the most commonly used and people will remember it easier.
• Shorten your domain name if possible. For example, crambler stands for “Constant Rambler” but I shortened it into a nice 8 letter word. Say you are making a blog for your photography business that you run which has a name of {FirstName}{LastName} Photography. Instead of making your domain name JohnathonSmithPhotography.com you could shorten it to something like JSPhotography.com although you would have to be more unique because that’s taken unfortunately! But you get the point.

STEP 3 ⋯ ENTER YOUR HOSTING INFORMATION

The next section is for you to fill out your hosting package information. Whatever package you chose in Step 1 should be filled in for the first box, but you can change it here if you would like. The main thing you need to focus on here is the “Billing Cycle”. The more months that you pay for up front, the cheaper your rate per month will be. For example, I paid for 36 months up front which gives you the cheapest rate per month. However, if you want to pay for a shorter period of time (1 or 2 years) to start you can, but keep in mind that you’ll pay more per month, too.

For example, with the Hatchling plan, if you want to pay for 1 year up front, it will cost about $5.50 a month or about $66 total for a year (plus the cost of the domain name and Domain Privacy if applicable). If you choose 3 years with the Hatchling plan, it will cost about $3.95 a month or about $48 per year, but you will be paying for 3 years up front so it would be around $150 (plus the cost of the domain name and Domain Privacy if applicable) but you would have hosting for 3 years before having to pay again.

**Hint: Entering in the coupon code CRAMBLER25 at the end will give you 25% off rather than 20% off which saves you some extra money.

Also in this section, you need to create a username and a security pin in case you were to ever forget anything. This will be the username that you will use to login to your HostGator account which is the back end of your site.

STEP 4 ⋯ ENTER YOUR BILLING INFORMATION

Fill out all the boxes for your billing information. This includes things such as your email, name, address, state, and whether you are paying with a credit card or PayPal.

STEP 5 ⋯ CHOOSE YOUR HOSTING ADD-ONS

There are some extra add-ons that you can put on your site. Of the add-ons that you can choose from, only one of them is worth getting in my opinion which is the “Domain Privacy Protection” one because it will protect your personal information. All of the features that the rest of the add-ons provide can be achieved by downloading free plugins for your WordPress once you get your site up and running. The extra features include things such as daily scans of your site, regular backups, and increased Search Engine Visibility. There’s no point in paying extra for these add-ons so uncheck all of the boxes except for the “Domain Privacy Protection” one and the cost of the unchecked add-ons will be deducted from your final total.

The “Domain Privacy Protection” add-on protects you from a WHOIS lookup on your site. If you’re unfamiliar with what a WHOIS lookup is, I’ll try to explain it. You can go to a number of sites that have a WHOIS lookup and plug in a domain name such as “somesite.com”. If that domain is registered by someone and they don’t have Domain Privacy, then their personal information will be shown to the person looking it up. However, if you have Domain Privacy Protection and someone does a WHOIS lookup, then it just shows generic information and none of that information can be tracked to the person who actually owns the site. See the example below:

WITHOUT DOMAIN PRIVACY

John Smith
5548 Wildberry Ln
Chicago IL
US
john.smith329582392@email.com
Tel +1.608-555-1923

WITH DOMAIN PRIVACY

Domain Admin
ID#12345, PO Box 16
Nobby Beach
AU
contact@privacyprotect.org
Tel +45.36946676

STEP 6 ⋯ ENTER YOUR HOSTGATOR COUPON CODE

Almost there! Before you confirm the payment and create your account, enter in the HostGator coupon code CRAMBLER25 and this will give you 25% off rather than the 20%that they offer. Hit “Validate” on your coupon code and you’ll notice an additional 5% gets deducted off your total at the bottom.

STEP 7 ⋯ REVIEW ORDER DETAILS & CREATE ACCOUNT!

After you have completed all the steps, review your order details. Notice that you get 24/7/365 Phone, LiveChat, and Email Support for free and you get a 45 Day Money Back Guarantee if you decide blogging isn’t for you!

Your other amounts will vary based on what you chose in the previous steps, but you will be paying for 3 things:

• HostGator Domain Registration – Yearly fee to own the domain name you chose.
• HostGator Hosting Plan – 25% discount applied at checkout with the CRAMBLER25coupon code.
• HostGator Hosting Addons (if applicable) – In this tutorial, it’s the Domain Privacy Protection for $9.95 per year.

Once you are happy with all that, read the HostGator Terms of Service and check the box that says “I have read and agree to the Terms of Service, etc…” then hit the Checkout Now!button. You will receive emails to your provided email address that should give you some URLs to access your Control Panel (something like https://gatorXXXX.hostgator.com:XXXX) and a password to get in. KEEP THIS INFO!

STEP 8 ⋯ INSTALL WORDPRESS

Now, it’s time to move on and learn how to install WordPress onto your site. Go to HostGator’s main page and click on the “HostGator Billing Login” button in the top-right. Or just go to HostGator’s Customer Portal. 

Fill in your billing information in the login. Your username should be the email address that you got your billing information sent to, and your password would be included in one of the emails you received after you created your account in Step 7. 

Once logged into the portal, you will see a number of tabs on top such as “My Account”, “Billing”, “Hosting”, etc. Click on the Hosting tab. Once that loads up, you should see an option below under “Special Offers” that says Get Started with WordPress Today. Click on that link. 

You’ll be brought to a page called “QuickInstall”. Click on the “Continue” button under the explanation of WordPress, and then you will be presented with a few text fields to fill out. 

Make sure your domain name is chosen in the “Application URL” section. Leave the box after the slash blank. Check the box that says “Enable Auto Upgrades”. Then fill out your “Admin Email”, your “Blog Title” can just be your domain name for example Crambler, then whatever you want your “Admin User” to be. NEVER EVER make your Admin User be “admin”. Make your Admin User something unique. Lastly, fill in your first and last name, then click the “Install Now” button. 

You’ll see a progress bar as WordPress installs. Once it is completed, you will see the above screen. There, they give you information for where to access your WordPress login, your username, and a randomly generated password to sign in. Your WordPress page can be found at http://yourdomain.com/wp-admin. Go to that URL and sign in.

Congratulations! You have now successfully purchased your own domain and are up and running with WordPress. Not so bad, was it?