Start a Blog – Picking Your Domain Name and Hosting Account

Now that you’ve picked your blog’s topic and chosen it’s CMS (hopefully WordPress), it’s time to talk about selecting a domain name and hosting account.

First, you need to decide which company you would like to use for your domain registration and/or hosting account.

You don’t have to go with the same company for your domain registration and hosting needs, however, I’ve found it to be much easier to just go ahead use the same company for both.

While there are plenty of great companies out there, personally, I use GoDaddy.com. It’s cheap, easy to use, and whenever I’ve had a question, I’ve received very prompt customer support.

In fact, I frequently get calls from GoDaddy with offers that have ultimately helped me save hundreds of dollars on hosting.

Enough with my sales pitch; let’s get into how to select a domain name and the best hosting service for your needs.

Domain Name

You’ll want to pick a domain name that’s relevant to your blog’s topic and key words. Doing this will help to establish the legitimacy of your site, as well as help you when it comes to search engine optimization (SEO).

Unfortunately, because there are so many websites already up and running – not to mention domain squatters – finding an obvious domain name will be pretty tough, if not impossible, to do!

Assuming you have to be a little creative in coming up with your domain name, try your best to not make the name too long. You’d probably like to develop a loyal audience that comes back to your site frequently; it’s a lot easier for them to remember and type a short domain than a long one!

Finally, try your best to stick to a .com URL. It’s the most popular and search engines tend to give it the most weight. However, if you have to “drop” to a .net, it’s not the end of the world. I wouldn’t, however, purchase a .info name. If it gets to that point, you’ll need to revise the words you’re targeting for your domain.

Let’s take a real world example, and say you want to have a blog where you write about recently released CDs.

In order to get an idea of what’s available out there, you decide to check GoDaddy for MusicReview.com. As you suspected, that name is already taken.

However, since GoDaddy has a feature that shows you available alternatives, you might check that out and see what’s available. Maybe something like MusicReviewBlog.net, or TheMusicReviewBlog.com would be something you’d be interested in? Just play around with your keywords and you’ll come up with something.

Once you find your name, lock it in for at least two years – I recommend 5 or 10 – and you’re good to go.

Hosting

Assuming your blog will be text based and won’t have much streaming audio or video, you will likely be able to get by using an “economy” (read: cheap) hosting plan. However, make sure you choose a hosting provider that will allow you to grow over time and easily upgrade to faster, higher bandwidth servers.

Since (hopefully) you will be using WordPress, I recommend that you use GoDaddy’s economy Linux hosting. You can sign up for month-to-month service, but since you’re already locked in to your domain for at least two years, you might as well save some money and go for one of the longer term hosting plans.

Because this is your first time around, I recommend you sign up for a one-year plan. If after a year you’ve sold yourself on continuously updating your blog, it might be worth considering an even longer term plan, which will allow you to save even more money.

In order to maximize possible discounts, I recommend purchasing your hosting plan and your domain at the same time.

After you’ve purchased both, it will take a few hours to access your new hosting account, so relax and pat yourself on the back because you’re well on your way to starting your own blog!

Per the new FTC regulations, the above GoDaddy links are affiliate links, and should you purchase anything from GoDaddy after clicking these links, I will receive a small commission.