You’ll WASTE years of passive income, if you don’t create a website today.
Dead serious.
The #1 mistake in this industry is putting off building your own site.
Hate to be the bringer of bad news. That’s the reality.
… Please don’t shoot the messenger!
The GOOD NEWS is that creating a website is easy.
There’s loads of options. Lots of freebie tools. And editors so easy, your grandma could use them.
Where Should You Start?
The first step is to register a domain name.
My personal favourite website for domains is NameSilo.com (no affiliation)
Another alternative is www.namecheap.com
For this tutorial, we’re going to be working with NameSilo.
Go to this website, and set up an account. (2 mins approx)
Step #2 is finding a domain name.
If you’re struggling with this take a look at LongTailPro.
It’s a keyword tool that makes it easy to find keywords that get lots of searches.
However, I do not recommend picking a domain name based on the keyword. The idea here is to find a site topic that will have lots of search potential.
Nobody wants to create an entire site, and then find out that nobody cares.
Which is the reality that many of us run into with niche sites.
It may even be worth your while to dive in to an industry.
A site based on:
- Make Money Online
- Health
- Fitness
Is never going to struggle for potential viewers or customers.
The challenge is to get these eyeballs to YOUR site.
We’ll cover this later…
For now, head to NameSilo.com and use the Domain finder tool and pick something.
Here’s what it’ll look like:
You can find this tool right at the homepage.
Very easy to use.
Once you search for a domain name, it’ll take you to the next page.
Here’s what you’ll see:
In this case, I chose to search for “picksomething”
The tool is now telling me that:
- picksomething.com
- picksomething.net
But… PickSomething.org is still available.
This is where you should make a judgement call.
There is no SEO benefit for having a “.com” website.
As much as everybody loves having one. Although, there might be branding benefits to having a “.com” domain extension. So I completely understand when people NEED TO HAVE a site with a com ending.
In my case, I like having a “.com” or a “.net”
So I’m going to pick something else.
Instead, I’ve decided on SimpleToBuild.net
That’s the domain we’ll be working with for the remainder of this action guide.
Step #3 is Getting Hosting for your Domain
Trust me – there’s no way around this one.
Yes, you can get a free site set up with Blogger, Wix, Weebly, etc.
But let me ask you this…
Have you seen anyone make good money from a free website?
I’ve been online since 2005, and I’ve yet to see anybody do it.
Hosting your site is going to cost you about five bucks per month. If you can’t do that, I question your dedication. Or any intention to actually make this work.
You need hosting – get it!
But where?
My favourite place to get hosting is from HostGator
Don’t buy it yet!!
Seriously.
First you want an explanation for why to pick them as a host. And then I have a nice HostGator coupon code that’ll save you a good slice off the final bill.
When I started online in 2005, I tried many different hosting services.
From everything I tried, HostGator was the best:
- for site speed
- up time (almost never down)
- overal reliability
Another really good touch is that HostGator support is world class.
They respond nearly instantly, and really help solve any issues.
Having that support could be CRUCIAL if something happens to one of your sites.
And you have to imagine, an issue will probably come up at some point.
HostGator will deal with it for you.
What’s the coupon code?
The coupon: get25offyourbill
Copy that code, and get ready to use it pretty quick.
First, sign up to a hosting plan on the homepage:
I usually recommend the “Baby Plan”
The Hatchling Plan is too limited. And the Business Plan is unnecessary.
You’ll just need to fill out some basic information, and then check off some boxes.
In the next section, they’ll ask you about “additional services”
It looks like this:
Never fear – you don’t need any of these add-ons.
Uncheck all the boxes and move to the coupon section.
Now you can throw in your coupon code and save 25%
Looks like this:
And boom.
That’s it.
You now have website hosting.
You’re only a couple minutes away from having your own site up and running online.
The LAUNCH – Connecting Your Domain to Hosting
At this point, we have purchased two separate services.
We bought a Domain Name + Web Hosting
Our next step is to connect these two services together.
Log in to NameSilo
Then click on the “Domain Manager” button.
You can find that on the right sidebar.
That will take you to a page with a list of your domains.
My looks like this:
Notice that most of these domains are hosted with HostGator.
If you pick the Baby Plan, you are allowed to have unlimited sites. So go crazy.
I recommend focussing on one site at a time. But it’s really easy to add more sites to your hosting. And it won’t cost you a single extra penny. Unlimited is included in your package.
Do you see those boxes on the left side of each domain.
Click on the box that’s associated with the website you want to host.
For you – it’ll be easy. You probably have only one site right now.
Then you just want to click on the “Change Nameservers” button.
It’s right above your domain list. Here:
See it between “Renew Domains” and “Park Domains?”
Exactly.
Clicking on that button will take you to this page:
Just enter in your name servers, and everything will be smooth sailing.
Where the heck are your name servers?
Good question!
You can find your name servers in the Welcome Email from HostGator.
After you buy your web hosting, HostGator will send you this information instantly.
It’ll look like this:
See how those name servers match up with my NameSilo account.
That’s how I connect the two services together.
There’s just one more step, and then we’ll start our new WordPress site.
We need to add the domain to our HostGator C-Panel.
This is easy.
In your control panel, scroll down to the “Domains” section.
You want to click on “Add-On Domains”
Right here:
Click on that Addon button.
Remember, you have to scroll down to find this section. If you don’t see it, then you’re either:
- not in your c-panel
- not scrolled down the page
The important part is that you enter the domain you just registered.
It’ll look like this:
And there you have it.
A domain that’s 100% connected to your hosting.
What’s next?
Click on the “Get Started with WordPress” button at the top of your HostGator C-Panel
Looks like this:
Follow a few easy steps, and you’ll have a WordPress site you can call your own.
That’s it.
Congratulations!!! You have a website!
