How to Create a Self-Hosted Blog
In my previous post “5 things to consider before starting your blog”, I suggested you to start off a free blog with Blogger, learn how blogging works, then only switch to a paid-posting blog running Wordpress. Therefore, I’m assuming you to have already created a free blog with Blogger and had some experience on blogging. Right now, I’m assuming that you already feel comfortable with blogging and ready to move on to the next level ie getting a domain name for your blog hosted with a web host company. In this post, I’m going to show you how you can create a blog using Wordpress and host it on your own domain, and you will also learn how to create a self-hosted blog with Blogger and host it on your own domain for as little as $8.88 per year.
Before showing you the steps, there are two things that you will need to do prior to creating the blog:
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Purchase a domain. First of all, you will need to purchase a domain before getting a web host. I know most web hosts offer free domain if you purchase their web host package, but it’s always advisable to purchase your own domain from a domain registrar, and then only host it with your preferred web host. Why? Because, you need to plan for the future. If you get the free domain given by any web hosts, the web host company will be the registrant of the domain, not YOU. If your domain becomes hot and popular one day, your web host can simply sell off your domain and make billions, you won’t get a single cent from it, because they are the legal registrant of the domain. Or, maybe one day, if Google is interested in acquiring your blog or website, you are not gonna get the million or billion dollars from Google, because you’re not the registered owner. Therefore, it is imperative to make sure that you are the legal registrant of your domain name, and the only way to do it is to buy it from a domain registrar. There are many established domain registrars on the market, but personally I prefer NameCheap. Not because they are selling cheap domains, but their service is satisfactory, and the user interface is brilliant. NameCheap offers a yearly rate of $8.88 for a .com or .net domain, I’m having more than 8 domains with them. So, go to a domain registrar of your choice, or simply go to NameCheap to purchase your preferred domain name, I’m not going into details about how to purchase a domain, as I believe you will be able to figure it out by following the instructions on the domain registrar’s web page, it’s pretty straightforward.
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Subscribe a web hosting plan. Next, after purchasing the domain, you need a web host for your domain. Again, there are hundreds of web hosts out there offering different web hosting packages at different prices. Established web hosts like BlueHost, HostGator, Lunarpages, DreamHost, Globat, StartLogic and IXWebHosting are highly recommended. I’ve been using BlueHost, and they are offering a standard one-year web host package at $7.95/month (about $95.40 a year). The server’s uptime is 100% so far, I am certainly a happy BlueHost’s customer. Frankly speaking, BlueHost is one of the best web hosts on the market and I will definitely recommend it to everyone. Of course, you can choose other web hosts too as long as they support Wordpress or Blogger blogging platform. Besides, make sure you are getting a Linux server if you are planning to use Wordpress, and Blogger can ride on both Windows and Linux server. Finding a web host is like finding your new house, you will need to choose carefully, don’t simply grab a web host, always buy from a well-known web host, you can Host Unlimited Domains on 1 BlueHost Account $6.95 Per Month. If you can’t afford that, then I will suggest you get one from IXWebHosting, the Top Rated Web Hosting - $3.95/mo.
By now, I believe you should have gotten yourself a domain and a web host. Now, let me show you how to create your blog using Wordpress and Blogger on your own domain.
For Wordpress users:
How to create a Wordpress blog on your own domain with paid hosting
Step One - Point your domain to your web host
After purchasing the web hosting service, you will need to point your domain to the web host. For BlueHost and NameCheap user,
1. Login to your NameCheap account, select Manage domains and click on your domain
2. From the navigation bar on the left, select Transfer DNS to Webhost
3. Enter ns1.bluehost.com into the first field and ns2.bluehost.com into the 2nd field, and click Save Changes. *Note* (For non-BlueHost users, you can use your preferred web host’s ns1 & ns2 addresses, please check with your web host to get the correct ns1 & ns2 addresses)
Now your domain is pointed to your BlueHost web hosting account. It may take up to 24 hours for the domain to be hooked up to your BlueHost hosting, but normally the changes take effect within minutes. The longest that I experienced was only for 15 minutes.
Step Two - Install Wordpress on your domain
While waiting for the changes to take effect, you can take your sweet time to install Wordpress on your domain, follow the steps below:
1. Log into your BlueHost control panel
2. Select Fantastico De Luxe from Software / Services section
3. Select WordPress under Blogs — a WordPress info screen will load
4. Place your mouse over the bold text New Installation and click the link
5. Follow the prompts given by Fantastico, then complete the installation
Fantastico will populate the default files and databases for a brand new installation of WordPress in whatever location on any domain attached to your account which you specify. You can choose to install wordpress on http://yourblogname.com or http://www.yourblogname.com or http://www.yourblogname.com/blog etc whichever you like. But I will advise you to install it right on http://www.yourblogname.com , you will know why in my future posts.
You are done! Go to your blog at your domain http://www.yourblogname.com, and you can see your blog is up and running on Wordpress platform. Now you can start your blogging career by logging into your Wordpress account at http://www.yourblogname.com/wp-admin. Enjoy Wordpress’ing.
For Blogger users:
How to create a Blogger blog on your own domain for as little as $8.88 a year
For those who have limited funds or simply not willing to fork out a hundred bucks for web hosting service, you may choose to use Blogger on your own domain. As promised in my previous post, I’m going to show you how you can create a Blogger blog on your domain that you just purchased for $8.88 without paying additional charges for the web hosting.
Step One (The only step) - Point your domain to Blogger
Yes, instead of pointing your domain to a web host, you can point your domain to Blogger and Blogger will host your domain for FREE. For NameCheap user,
1. Login to your NameCheap account
2. Select Manage domains and click on your domain
3. From the navigation bar on the left, select All Host Records under Host Management
4. Enter ghs.google.com into the “www” field and change your “Record Type” to CNAME (Alias). This step is to point your blog url (with www) to your Blogger blog.
5. Enter http://yourblogname.com/ into the “@” field and change the “Record Type” to URL Redirect. This step is to redirect your blog url (without www) to http://www.yourblogname.com when people key in http://yourblogname.com.
6. Click Save Changes. It may take up to 24 hours for the domain to be hooked up to your Blogger blog, but normally the changes take effect within minutes. The longest that I experienced was only for 10 minutes.
*Note* For those who purchased domain from other domain registrars, you may refer to this self-explanatory instructions by Blogger.
Congratulations, you’re done! From now on, you can continue logging into your Blogger account via Blogger website as usual, but all your posts will be published to your domain, meaning that, your blog is now live on your own domain hosted by Blogger for FREE. You only pay $8.88 for the domain, and Blogger host it for you at no additional cost to you. Now go to your blog at http://www.yourblogname.com and check out the wonder.
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2 Responses to “How to Create a Self-Hosted Blog”
I followed these instructions using Blogger and NameCheap but Firefox and IE still do not accept testthisblog.com. They only accept http://www.testthisblog.com. Any ideas?
Chris: Reply emailed, thank you