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Hostgator&WordPress PDF
Hostgator&WordPress PDF
and
Install a WordPress Blog
How to:
1. Open a hosting account at Hostgator
2. Set up a WordPress blog on your site
NOTE: I recommend that you keep this PDF open for easy reference as you
create your site.
Good news! I have secured a 25% discount for the 10 Week Challenge participants who choose to host
their website or blog at Hostgator. You have the choice of being billed every month, or every 6 months, 12
months, 24 months or 36 months. There’s a big difference in what you save according to your choice of
billing cycle.
• If you choose to be billed MONTHLY plan, then the 25% comes off your first month only. For the
Baby plan – which I recommend, because you can host as many websites on your basic plan as you
want – a discount for your first month will be around $2.49. You will pay $7.46 for your first
month’s hosting instead of $9.95 USD.
• If you choose a YEARLY plan, you save 25% off the whole year. Instead of paying $119.40 for a
year’s hosting, you pay $89.55 USD. You save $29.95.
If you are absolutely sure you will only want one website or blog, then choose the “Hatchling”
plan. Otherwise… choose the BABY PLAN. Click “Order now”.
4. If you already have registered a domain name, fill in in the RIGHT-HAND BOX with the name of your
site (e.g. www.susiewriter.com). If you have it registered somewhere else, you will need to point the
nameservers at Hostgator – you will need to log in to wherever you have registered your domain name
to do this. If you don’t already have a domain name, you can register it at Hostgator. It’s not the
cheapest domain registrar around, (at around $15 a year at the time of writing) but you’re unlikely to
save more than around $5 elsewhere. It’s just convenient to do it at the same time if you’re opening a
hosting account with Hostgator.
If the domain name you want has already been taken by someone else, you’ll be told that in the pop-
up message. You can then try a different one. It’s a good idea to have a list of names that will be okay
if the one you want isn’t available. (For example, if your name is Susie Writer and
www.susiewriter.com is taken (which it is, because I’ve got it!) then you could try
SusieWriterBooks.com or SusieWriterAuthor.com or SusieWriterWebsite.com – and so on.
IMPORTANT: BEFORE YOU CLICK ‘CONTINUE TO STEP 2’, ENTER THIS COUPON CODE IN
THE BOX: 10WeekChallenge. This gets you a 25% discount.
Notice that it gives you a link to get into your control panel. You will need this to install
WordPress on your site. When you click on this link, it takes you to a login box that requires you
to enter your email address (the one this email was sent to) and your PASSWORD. Your
password is in this email, too. It’s best to copy and paste it into the box, to avoid typing wrong
letters or symbols.
When you do that, you will see that there is a cPanel Login link
underneath your package details.
1. Scroll down to the ‘Software/Services’ section of your cPanel and click on ‘Quick Install’.
4. If you want a website AND a blog on your site, then you will probably want to install the website on
the main domain (www.susiewriter.com) and the blog in a different directory
(www.susiewriter.com/blog) . Look at the picture below. Type ‘blog’ in the right hand box ONLY if
you want to have your blog separate from your website. If you are having a blog but no website –
or a blog as a substitute for your website - leave this space blank.
Fill in your email, your blog title, and your first and last name.
6. Now let’s take a look at your blog. It will be the WordPress default blog: 2012. You can play around
with this one if you like, or you can install the WordPress Theme that I like for my blogs (one that
many other people like, too, because it’s highly customisable): Weaver II.
On the next page, you can see what your default blog looks like:
After you log in, you will see your blog’s Dashboard and a Welcome Message.
This welcome message has some useful information for new bloggers. There’s a link to ‘First
Steps with WordPress’, which you can read through…. (right click and open in a new tab
recommended)
To download Weaver II, go to www.weaver.com and follow the instructions below. Make sure you
save it to a place on your computer that’s easy to locate in the next step!
(I keep my WordPress themes in my ‘Essential Stuff’ library so I can always find them!)