How to get a custom, personalized blog site up and running with you in charge of your own domain … yourname.com or .net … that will support your business, your organization or yourself. What are the steps? What comes first?  And, how can you have your own blog on your own domain name for less than $144 if you do-it-yourself?!

Wordpress makes it easy and affordable but … it requires a bit of experience with getting files online. What it requires is stepping out of our routine comfort zones into the world of Internet tools — URL or Web site name registration … FTP or file transfer protocol … Web site hosting … MySQL databases … custom email forwarding … plugins. But, wait! Not too fast. Let’s take it a step at a time:

1. Register a Web site address or domain name or URL.  Those three terms all mean the same thing.  Visit www.GoDaddy.com to begin.  This is a time to be creative - think of possible domain names that reflect the site you want and how you want to brand the image of your site.  The cost of registering a domain name is less than $10 a year.  Enter names in the search box that says, “Start a domain search.”  
   You can select the Web site address “extension” - .com, .net, .info, .org and so on.   Once you have decided, you will find that GoDaddy and other sites that register domain names want to sell you lots of unnecessary stuff.  I always scroll to the bottom of the page and click, “No thanks,” and proceed to checkout.  You can register the domain name for a year or many years.  You don’t own the domain name but rather register or rent it for a number of years which you decide.  By the way, Lunarpages gives you a free domain name registration as a bonus for signing up for Web hosting service (see below). Once you enter your name, address, email and credit card information, the www.GoDaddy.com transaction is completed within a few minutes, and you will receive a confirmation email that will contain important account information.  Save that email because you will need to access the account later.
2. Sign up for Web hosting.  A Web hosting service, such as Lunarpages, is your conduit to the Internet, and the cost is astonishingly low for reliable service!  A year of hosting service costs less than $85.  A word of caution, however … check out where the Web hosting company is located.  If you are in the U.S., it’s best to sign-up with a U.S. company.  If in Asia, consider a company located nearby.  Those factor influence reliability and the quality of customer service. I use Lunarpages because they are located in the Los Angeles area and have terrific customer service. It really matters when you have a question.  Signing-up online is quick and easy, and you will find that your service is active in just a few minutes.  Again, you will receive important emails that confirm your service and provide details on your new hosting service.  Save them.
3. Pointing your domain name at the Web hosting service.  When you register a domain name, it is “parked” with the registrar, like GoDaddy, and remains inactive until you point it at your new Web hosting service.  Here’s how:  Sign-in to GoDaddy and click on My Domains.  You will see the domain name you have registered.  Click on it.  On the page of details, you will see Name Servers.  Click on them.  Now, refer to the welcome email your received from Lunarpages or another Web hosting service and find the two (2) DNS or Name Servers of your account.  Make note of them.  Go back to GoDaddy and click on Custom Nameservers and enter those DNS numbers precisely in the boxes for Server 1 and 2.  Click OK, and OK again on the next page, and you are finished.  It takes from a couple of minutes to a couple of hours for your domain name to hook up with your Web hosting service.
4. Download a copy of Wordpress.  Visit www.wordpress.org and download a free copy for either Mac OS X or Windows and save that folder to the desktop of your computer.  We will come back to Wordpress shortlly.
5. Select a Theme for Wordpress.  This is a highly personal and subjective choice, and I can only provide guidance.  The Wordpress download contains two very basic themes but changes are you will want something nicer-looking and with more features.  If you Google “Wordpress themes,” you will find hundreds of them and most are free.  But, as with anything free, there’s a potential downside - some free themes contain spyware or links to online dating services in Berzerkistan.  Having learned the lesson the hard way, I choose themes very carefully and only from two sources — (1) Solostream is, in my opinion, the best source of truly outstanding and sophisticated Wordpress themes.  The choice of themes that can either be use as-in or easily customized is terrific, and the Solostream site contains many helpful tips and video tutorials.  Solostream is run by Michael Pollock, a first-class creative developer who delivers outstanding customer service.  In fact, BlogStrategies.net uses his “Torn 2.0″ theme.  Solostream themes range in price from $49 to $79 and are a bargain.  For an example, the online magazine for baby boomers – BoomerCafé.com — uses the Solostream 3-column 1.0 theme with a custom banner and colors.  (2) Themes by Sadish Balasubramanian are appealing, reasonable in cost and can be customized easily with your own top banners and logos.  For an example, BahaiWords.com uses his MistyLook theme.
6. FTP or file transfer protocol.  Whether you use Mac OS X or Windows, you will need to download an FTP program that will enable you to upload Wordpress, the theme and other files to your Web hosting service.  Because I use a Mac, I use an FTP program called, Fetch.  I also recommend a program called, Cyberduck.  Both are easy to use.  My scope of experience with Windows is somewhat limited but I believe the FTP program, SmartFTP, would work fine.  One of those emails you received with your Web hosting service provides full details on how to connect with your hosting account.
7. Upload Wordpress.  All the instructions are contained at Wordpress.org and by reading the readme.txt file that is included in the downloaded Wordpress folder.  
8. Configuring the wp-config.php file and creating a MySQL database.  When I first set up a blog, I thought this essential step was a little like defusing a bomb.  First, you need to create a new MySQL database within the control panel of your Web hosting service.  Then, you need to configure the wp-config.php file.  This must be done properly in order for the blog to work.
9. Upload the theme you have chosen.  The theme is uploaded via FTP to the theme folder that is located within the WP-contents folder of Wordpress online.
10. Sign-on to your new Wordpress blog.  The address is www.yourdomain-dot-whatever/wp-admin.  You will be greeted by a Welcome page that asks for your email address and provides a password that’s generated at random.  Write down the password!  Next, you will need to sign-in.  The username will be “admin” and the password will be whatever was provided.  The next page will be the Wordpress control panel to control your blog.  I strongly suggest that you click on Users (on the right) and choose your own new password.  To activate your new theme, click on Design and Theme and then one click on your theme.

Wordpress enables you to customize your blog in many ways.  For example, Plugins (most of them free) are used to add features such as “ShareThis,” that you will see at the end of this post.

Need help?!! We can get you up and running quickly and affordably for a set-up fee of just $287 (Not inclusive of domain registration, Web hosting or theme costs.)