Do-It-Yourself: Setting Up Your Website

Don't Pay Us If You Could Do-It-Yourself!

Advanced: Installing, Developing & Transferring Your Website

So you’ve decided to re-do your website? Great! This is an easy, step-by-step guide for those of you brave enough to do a lot of the grunt-work on your own. This will save you the hourly fee we would otherwise charge you. On the other hand, you can see how we do things here at First Time Online. (aka: Solid proof we’re not ripping you off.) You’re more than welcome to ask us to do any or all of the steps for you, but that wouldn’t be as fun.

There’s no catch. When you get to the final stage, you’ll probably want to call us to say “Thank you…now can you help me customize a few things”.  This is our way of helping companies save even more money on their website costs. Enjoy!

STEP 1: DOMAIN NAME ($15.34)

Before you can get started, you need to purchase a domain name. (IF YOU ALREADY HAVE A DOMAIN NAME SCROLL TO THE BOTTOM OF THIS PAGE) I prefer GoDaddy, simply because I use promotional codes from LiveCodes.BlogSpot, which makes the domain names cheaper. Self promoted as the Largest Godaddy promo code/coupon list, they guarantee to check them manually at least three days. I’m not here to help you decide which domain name to choose, but please, avoid the following: Long Names, Hard To Spell Names, “-”, and most importantly, keep it relevant to your business.

*TIP: Purchase the domain name for 2 years and it will help with SEO. Apparently Google likes to see sites purchased with longevity in mind. A 1 year purchase, to them, may be spam.

STEP 2: PURCHASE HOSTING ($83.40)

There are hundreds of thousands of web hosts out there, the vast majority of which meet the WordPress minimum requirements, and choosing one from the crowd can be a chore. First Time Online has dealt with more hosts than you can imagine, and in our opinion, the hosts below represent some of the best and brightest of the hosting world. If you do decide to go with one of the hosts below and click through from this page, some will donate a portion of your fee back— so you can have a great host and support WordPress at the same time. We 100% recommend Blue Host. Installing WordPress is a few clicks away and  they’re affordable, scalable and tons of perks. Their IT support picks up within minutes and unlimited e-mails and unlimited bandwidth is just way too hard to pass up.

[*Note for those of you hosting on go-daddy, click here to see how to Install WordPress on GoDaddy. Then Skip to Step #5.]

STEP 3: POINT THE DOMAIN NAME TO YOUR SERVER & ASSIGN IT

PART 1 - Log-In to GoDaddy (or wherever you purchased your Domain Name) and go to the Domain Manager. Find the Name Servers (DNS), and decide to point them to a custom name server. If you went with BlueHost, then type in the following 2 servers:

  • NS1.BLUEHOST.COM
  • NS2.BLUEHOST.COM

Once you click save, it should take up to 24 hours to propagate (but between you and me, it’s more like 30 seconds.

PART 2 – Log-in to BlueHost and go to the Domain Manager. Select “Assign a domain to your cPanel account”. The instructions are all there. If you did PART 1 correctly, it should go smoothly.

Simply refresh your browser and BAM, go to your domain name. For more assistance, contact your server IT support.

STEP 4: INSTALL WORDPRESS

Within BlueHost, you’re just a few simple clicks away from installing WordPress. Watch the BlueHost WordPress Installation Tutorial.

STEP 5: DECIDE ON A THEME ($9-$100+)

The #1 benefit to using WordPress? You don’t have to pay $1,000 for a custom theme. There are developers/designers building themes for you that cost $0-$150. Skip that boring, annoying, frustrating design stage and simply choose a theme that closely represents what you want and install it. Check out the Free WordPress Themes directory. If you’re looking for “Premium Themes”, check out our Premium WordPress Theme list.

Once you’ve decided on a theme, log in to WordPress (http://www.yourdomainname.com/wp-admin), go to Appearance>Themes>Install Themes and upload the .zip file. It’s just that easy!

STEP 6: CUSTOMIZATION & OPTIMIZATION

Customize…Optimize…and go live! Okay, so it’s not that easy, but that’s why we’re here. If you’ve made it this far, contact-us for more information regarding the final stages in perfecting your website.

*DEVELOP ON A TEMPORARY DOMAIN:

You already have a domain name and want to develop on a temporary domain? This is easy to set up, but be warned, this is advanced. All pictures and link URL’s done using the temporary domain name URL will need to be changed once you go live. For more information, contact-us.

  1. Get your Domain Name “Authorization Code”. It’s on the Domain Manager, in your domain name. (Click Here For A Picture)
  2. Locate the code in your e-mail
  3. Log-in to BlueHost and go to the Domain Manager.
  4. Select “Assign a domain to your cPanel account”.
  5. Enter the Domain Name you want to use
  6. Under “Verify Ownership”, the 3rd option is as follows: “You may also verify ownership of the domain “your domain” by entering the EPP authorization code, which must be obtained from your current registrar.” This is where you put the activation code.
  7. Add Domain and proceed to STEP 4 (above).

Once you’re ready to finally point the domain to your server, refer to STEP 3 – PART 1. and skip PART 2. For further assistance contact your server IT support.