Step 2: Purchase Hosting and Set Up Your Domain

In our process of creating our photography website, so far we’ve registered a domain. Now it’s time to sign up for a web hosting account.

I’m going to move forward with this guide assuming that you chose to create an account with HostGator.

Do you have to? No. Are they the only host that will fulfill your needs? Probably not.

But, they do have a few things going for them.

You can get your first month for a penny (Coupon code FALL2k11PENNY), and you can pay by the month. You’re not stuck with them for a year or two if you decide that your project isn’t working out.

You can install a WordPress website right from your account’s control panel. No FTP, no phpMyAdmin, nothing like that. Nice and simple.

You can get a free voucher good for $100 of Google AdWords advertising. Great for getting some traffic, especially if you’re trying to launch a portfolio page to sell some photographic services.

So, let’s go through the process step-by-step…

Go to HostGator and Choose a Plan

First, go to the HostGator website.

Click on the big orange button in the middle of the page that says “View Web Hosting Plans.” This will show you the three different types of plans you can sign up for – hatchling, Baby, and Business.

Which Plan?

You will likely want to choose either the Hatchling or the Baby plan. Both plans get you unlimited disk space and bandwidth, and either would be fine for starting a photo website. The major benefit to choosing the Baby plan is that you can host multiple domains on the same hosting plan. In other words you can create multiple websites, and the only thing you’d have to pay extra for is to register the domain name.

If you think you might want to host a second website (maybe a friend’s website, for example), then go ahead and choose the Baby plan. It’s not much more per month. If, on the other hand, you know that you’re only going to be hosting one website, then stick with the Hatchling. No need to pay for features you won’t use.

How Long to Sign Up For?

I would advise that you start with a monthly subscription. You may find out after a month or two that this isn’t working out – your website isn’t performing well, HostGator hasn’t lived up to your expectations, you have other things to worry about. Whatever. You can cancel and move on with your life.

Sure, you do get a discount if you pay for 2 or 3 years in advance. But, if this is your first web hosting venture, how do you know you’ll still be doing this 2 years from now…? After you get started, you can e-mail HostGator at any time and switch to a new payment plan. If you prepay for two years, you’ll get the same discount that you would have gotten if you signed up for that length of time.

So start with one month, and switch to a longer subscription later if you want to. The other advantage to the one month subscription is that, using the FALL2k11PENNY coupon code, you can get started for free. If it doesn’t work out, you paid a penny and you lost it. If you commit for 6 months, then you made an investment out of pocket.

Personally, I have a “Baby” plan. For my money, I’d rather pay an extra dollar and change per month to have the ability to leave if I want to. I don’t want to make a down payment for three years and be locked in, just to save a few bucks.

Choose the payment schedule that’s best for you and then click the “Order Now” button.

Enter Your Domain Name and Coupon Code

Once you click “Order Now,” you should end up on a page that looks like this.

On this page, you need to enter two things: your domain name and your coupon code.

In the previous step, you registered a domain name with a registrar (1and1, Moniker, etc). Type that domain name into the box labeled “I Currently Have a Domain Name.”

Then, enter “FALL2k11PENNY” in the Coupon Code box. If you signed up for 6 months or longer, you could instead use the “25OFFFALL2k11″ coupon. This well net you 25% off the subscription, which is slightly better than the standard 20% discount HostGator is offering to all new customers.

Enter Billing Information

On the next page, enter your billing information.

At the bottom, you will see a summary of your order. At this point, double check that you received a coupon credit.

If you chose a one month payment and used the FALL2k11PENNY code, you should see a $9.95 credit, and you should see that the total due is $0.01. If you chose a longer subscription method and you used the 25OFFFALL2k11 code, make sure that it credited you for 25% of the subscription.

Finally, double check that the “Existing Domain” is the correct domain name.

If everything checks out, hit “Create Account,” and wait for an e-mail from HostGator with your log in details.

Set Up Your Domain

You should receive an e-mail from HostGator with important information about how to log in and access your account.

Your email should look something like this – although this one has some bogus information for the purposes of illustration. If you click on the link labeled “Your Control Panel,” that’ll let you log into your site and play around. However, we’re not ready to do that yet. First, we need to go back to the Registrar and tell them where to point your domain name.

Look down the e-mail for the two lines labeled “1st Nameserver” and “2nd Nameserver.” Now go back and log into your registrar.

If you used 1and1, then log in and click on the “Domains” link in the menu.

Check the box next to your domain name, click on the “DNS” menu, and choose, “Edit Settings.” Scroll down to where it says “Primary Nameserver” and “Secondary Nameserver.” In the “Primary Nameserver” box, type in the value that HostGator set you labeled “1st Nameserver.” In the “Secondary Nameserver” box, enter the “2nd Nameserver.” Click “OK” and you’re good to go. [Note: It takes a little while, sometimes a day, for these nameservers to update. You won't be able to access your site through its domain name until that happens.]

If you registered your domain with Moniker, when you log in click on “My Domains.” Check the box next to your domain name, and from the list to the left choose “Name Server: DNS.” Click on the domain name, and you should see a form you can fill out. Make sure you choose “Custom Name Servers” and then enter the two nameserver addresses that HostGator sent you.

Any other registrar will have a similar process. You’ll just need to poke around the menu for a second to figure it out.

At this point, you’re all set. You have a hosting account with HostGator. You have a domain name. The next step is to actually create your WordPress website.