Like I just said, setting up your own website involves following a short series of steps, and the first step to building your own website is choosing and registering your own domain name.

There’s no shortage of domain name registrars in the world, but the one that I have been using the most often is GoDaddy.

One of the nicest things about GoDaddy is that they have customer service that’s just a phone call away – and they’re American, native-english-speaking customer service people.

There’s nothing more frustrating than calling a customer service number for a technical problem and getting a non-native-english speaking customer service representative.

Since I want you to have the easiest time possible setting up your own website, you’re going to want to use companies that use native-english-speaking customer service representatives whenever possible.

GoDaddy Home Page

Once you’re at GoDaddy.com, bring up another window or tab and go to BustAName.com.

BustAName Homepage

Now in my humble opinion, the first domain that you should register is a domain that contains your name.

Why?

Well, whenever possible, you should own your own “brand.” This means that whenever someone searches for your name on the internet, you can control or craft what the top results are for that search. You don’t have to put a website up on your domain name, but it’s nice to have the option to do that at some point.

So go to BustAName and check to see if your name is available as a .com.

Allen Selby Should Register His Name

At this point, anyone could register Allen Selby’s name as a .com and do something horrible with it. As an object lesson for the rest of you, that is exactly what I am going to do.

Searching For Domain On GoDaddy

So after signing into GoDaddy on my account, I type the name into the box and click “Search now!”

Yes The Domain Is Available

Oh good, the domain name is available. So, I click on “Add and Proceed to Checkout,” and get this screen:

Example Of A GoDaddy Upsale

GoDaddy is very good at upselling. They obviously want you to register the .net, the .org, and as many other extensions of the same domain as possible. Depending on what you intend on doing, this might be a good deal. It’s always a good idea to see what kind of upsale deal GoDaddy will give you on a domain. You can save a decent chunk of change by waiting to see what they’ll offer you on their next screen.

For now, however, we’re going to decline their offer and go to the next screen.

Choosing Private Registration And Registration Length On GoDaddy

That screen will change, depending on how many domain names you have in your checkout cart, but it will have the same options on it, generally. The default setting for registration length is 5 years, but you’re going to be pre-paying for that entire length of time. Usually people register a domain for 1 or 2 years, so that’s what I’m going to select here.

Checking Out Is Hard To Do On GoDaddy

Now, you’re going to want to select private registration, but don’t do it here. Once you’ve selected 1 or two years from the drop down menu, scroll down, select the “No thanks. I’m ready to checkout.” radio button and click “Continue.”

Selecting Private Registration On GoDaddy

On the above screen, I can change the amount of years I want to register the domain for and select the private registration option, if I want.

Why would you want to select private registration?

Well, if you go to WhoIs, you can look up any website you like and, unless it’s been registered privately, see the contact information (including name, address, phone number and e-mail address) of the person registering the website. So if you want all that information out there for scammers, spammers and identity thieves to take, by all means, don’t select private registration and save yourself 9 bucks.

Where You Put GoDaddy Promo Codes

Before you check out, you need to search for coupon codes to drop the price a bit. So hit Google, search for “GoDaddy coupon codes” and find yourself something that is current. It can sometimes take a bit of searching before you find something that works, but it can potentially save you a good amount, especially if you’re registering a lot of domains.

Coupon Code Applied And A Little Money Saved

Once you have that done, and you’re happy with your order, scroll down the page, check off the Terms Of Service agreements that go with private registration and go to the checkout page. Once there, put in your credit card information and buy your domain.

The next step in the process is selecting a web hosting company and setting up web hosting, which I will walk you through just like I did here with the domain selecting process.

If you have any questions or current GoDaddy coupons, use the comment section below.

Domain Selection Tips:

In general, when picking a domain name, you want to follow these tips whenever possible:

It is better to get a longer .com than it is to get a shorter .net – but if you can, get all three. When anyone goes to an internet site, they go to the .com first. It’s the extension that everyone associates with the internet. Any other extension, like .org or .net is just going to confuse people.

When you’re selecting a domain name, leave out dashes and numbers. If you have a choice between good-domain.com, gooddomain1.com and gooddomain.net, take the .net. Nobody remembers to put dashes or numbers into the address bar on their browser. Besides, domains with numbers and dashes in them just look spammy.

Pick a domain name that describes what you do, with the fewest letters possible. If you’re a plumber in Omaha, register omahaplumber.com if it’s available, along with your business name. If not, go with omahaplumbingservice, bestomahaplumber.com, or emergencyomahaplumber.com or any number of combinations. This is why BustAName is such a good tool to use – it shows you available combinations so you can compare them and find the best name. The shorter the name that you register, the easier it is for people to remember and type in. Every additional letter is a potential typing error.

If you can’t come up with a descriptive domain name, go the other way and focus on branding. Depending on your site’s focus, pick a memorable short name that will stick in people’s minds, get a great logo and include the name prominently in your advertising and marketing. Branding is more complicated than that, but if you ask your friends and relatives if a domain name you’re thinking about sticks in their head and they say “yes”, you’re on the right track.

The Guide:

Building Your Own Website

Registering a Domain Name
Choosing a Web Hosting Company: Hawk Host or Liquid Web
Pointing Your Domain Name to Your Web Host
Using cPanel and Fantastico to Put Up Your First Website
Changing The Default WordPress Settings On Your First Website
Locating, Loading And Activating Useful WordPress Plugins For Your First Website
A List Of Useful WordPress Plugins

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