4 Easy Steps to Get Your First Website Online in One Day
Having your own website is surefire way to build your own solid online business. A website is an asset to the owner just as land is to an owner.
This is not to mean that you can’t make a lot of money online without your own website but a website allows more opportunity to earn on autopilot than the other models that don’t require a website. Furthermore you can liquidate or cash out on your website any time in the future and who knows maybe make triple the amount that it is worth. I hope that whets your appetite.
Getting a website online takes three fundamental steps and one equally important extra step as follows:
- Get a domain name
- Get a hosting account
- Update the Domain Name Servers
- Sign up with an autoresponder service (this step is not a must but is vital to your long term success online)
Now let’s go through each one of them in more details:
1 Register a domain
The first thing you are going to do is to register a domain name for your website. Did I hear you ask, “Kevin, what is a domain name?”
Well every website is stored under a domain name which is basically a unique address on the internet that allows web surfers to access the files stored under the website. For example internetwealthlab.com is my domain name, facebook.com is the domain name for Facebook and imageeditor.net is the domain name for the online image editor.
To register a domain name you need a domain registrar. I always use Namecheap.com. They are cheap, reliable and above all, flexible. They also have a good user interface that is easy to navigate. Registering your domain name with namecheap costs you only $9.98/year.
To choose a domain name, go to namecheap.com and search for the domain name you want to register by typing it in and then clicking on “search”. button
Tips:
- Consider having your domain name keyword-rich. For example, if your niche is “acne”, you’ll want to have the word acne in the domain name of your site.
- Consider also going for either a .com, .net or a .org extension as they are the most popular. Overall, however, .com looks more professional and is most memorable. Again, most people tend to enter .com by default when visiting a website.
- You can register your own full name or the name of your business
- Consider doing away with hyphens (-) and underscores (_)
Now, you will not always find the domain name you have in mind as some of them will already be registered. If that is the case, continue searching until you find one that you like, and then proceed to register it.
To register your domain, click on the “Add to cart” button
To continue for now, click on the Express Checkout button.
You will be prompted to create an account with namecheap if you don’t have one. Once you have created an account with namecheap and you are logged in, click Express Checkout button and then choose to pay by credit card or by funds available in your account.
Yes, the funds available in your account. Namecheap allows you the option to deposit money through PayPal into your namecheap account for faster checkout. This is particularly helpful for people that register lots of domain names such as professional domain flippers. For now, just pay by credit card and let’s move to the nest step.
NB:
Don’t take the offer for web hosting from namecheap. Just register the domain name and set up your hosting account with hostgator
2. Set up a Hosting Account
Once you have your domain name, you need to host it on a server somewhere online. While it is easy to find free web hosts that promise some quality features, they will be more than likely strict limitations to what you can do with your hosting space.
If you don’t want some third party banners on your website distracting the sale process or costing you subscribers and customers, then you must stay away from free hosting. I tried one and I promise it was one nasty experience; eventually I had to move my entire business to a new location (hostgator).
You’ve been warned. What you really need is a reliable web host with good customer support 24 hours a day. Again you don’t want to have your site going down three times a month.
If I ever have to give recommendation for a reliable web host, then it has got to be Hostgator. It is my absolute favorite (from my own personal experience) and is preferred by majority of online marketers. I host all my sites with them and here is one practical example why I like them:
“Some two months ago, I accidentally deleted my blog some minutes before midnight and within two minutes, I was chatting live with a hostgator technical assistant. About three hours later, the blog was restored 100%. That is what is in my opinion, reliability”
Although hostgator will offer to register you a domain name, don’t go for the offer. They will have control over your domain making it difficult to transfer it to a new registrar should you ever decide to do it for whatever reason. Go for their hosting package and register your domain at namecheap. I hope you remember that.
The “Baby” package ($9.95/month) allows you to host unlimited domains on the same package as your online business grows. But if you are on a tight budget, just go for the hatchling package ($8.95/month). It allows you to host only one domain but you can always upgrade when the need be.
Tip: You can knock off the monthly hosting fee to as low as $4.95 by choosing to pay on 3 years intervals.
3. Update the Domain Name Servers (DNS)
After setting your hosting account, hostgator will send you an email containing the Domain Name Servers for your hosting account. They will be similar to:
NS1.HOSTGATOR.COM
NS2.HOSTGATOR.COM
What you now need to do is to login to your namecheap account and click on “Manage Domains” from the top navigation tabs. Then click on your domain name
Next, click on “Domain Name Server Setup” from the left hand menu. An empty form will appear you asking you to change the existing Domain Name Server Information. Simply coy and paste the Domain Name Servers in the order NS1 and NS2 exactly as they appear in the email you received from hostgator as follows:
Click Save and that is it. You’ll now only need to keep checking to see whether the changes have taken place. After about 24 hours, login to your hostgator cpanel (Account Control Panel) and check it out. If your domain name has appeared, you are ready to build and upload your website files.
You now have two options:
If you want to create a wordpress blog, you can create it automatically using a feature called Fantastico Autoinstaller available from your hostgator control panel.
If you want to build a regular HTML website, you can use a free website builder called NVU. You can get a free completely illustrated NVU guide here.
4. Get an autoresponder account:
While it is very easy to overlook the importance of an autoresponder account, it’s one of the most important assets to an online business owner. It is the easiest way to drive traffic to any website on demand.
A list of subscribers is so important that many A-class marketers will swear it was the single most important factor to their huge success online. One marketer I know even claims that “if you are not building a list, you are not building a business but rather building some other peoples’ businesses
There are many autoresponder services out there but none beats Aweber in terms of deliverability and reliability. It is also the number one choice for most internet marketers. That’s all there is to getting your first website or blog up and running.
Wishing you success with your first website,
Kevin Njoroge.
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So many sites online get so technical. They seem to forget that terms they use that are like second nature to them may not be understandable to the new person. Thanks for these basics. You are doing a great service as information like this with basic explanations are not that easy to find. Bookmarking you.
Gwenrule62 recently posted..Movie Star Costumes
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Hmmm. Having a problem reading the captcha and trying to tell you I like your site but when I try to enter the captcha again your blog thinks its duplicate content. So changing content. anyway, like your basic info.
Gwenrule62 recently posted..Movie Star Costumes
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Thanks Kevin for yet another informative post. I am in the process of getting my own website up online when I get over the dilemma of the topic of my website. I believe that the information I have been gathering from your site will be of much help to me.
All the best and happy blogging
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Lots of really good information in this post. I think one of the most important things I learnt when I started building my websites, was that deciding on the keywords you want to target, and building your site around them really helps give you a head start. Getting a domain name with the main keyword in, is a must, and then it’s a case of good content, and getting some good links to it. And they said SEO was hard
Matt
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Twitter: cheapskate_mate
says:
Woah, loads of useful info for newbs like me but not too easy on the eye!
I’m a really new blogger, and I’m still at the stage where I’m doing it for fun and to build my skills and trying not to worry about profit, but this is a great resource, should i ever have to worry about that. The free hosting info was particularly helpful and I’ll stay from those.
And happy blogging from me, also!
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Than you so much for that great information… I keep on researching on that easy steps… Thank I found your blog… This will truly be big help to me… Thanks… More power…
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Very good informations you gave! For me, the most important step is to choose a domain name, we need to make a lot of research to know which keywords to use in our domain name. When we did all these steps, i recommand to build backlinks to get indexed on Google!
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This post consists step by step information. Nice for sharing this information.
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Great post Kevin. I use Namecheap and HostGator for all of my websites although I have yet to dive into autoresponders. Aweber will be the one I plan on using, I just need to go forward with it.
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I agree
For technical people everything seems easy but we have to remember that even simple task like registering a domain can’t be difficult for someone without technical background
Giochi Divertenti recently posted..Polar Boar
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I actually use Godaddy so I can purchase all of my domains and all of my websites are hosted under hostgator.
Dont forget that if you want your site to go live on Google you need to index it with them
Chris@Gold Miners recently posted..Investing In Gold During A Recession
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This is really a great post because it explains exactly what needs to be done in great detail. Step by step instructions are perfect for us newbies. Thanks!
William@Make Money Online recently posted..Make Money Online With Clickbank
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Thorough post, well, done. It is SOOO important to choose the right host – especially for a beginner. You need a host that has great support, because chances are you\’ll probably need it a lot. Cheapest isn\’t always best, but cheaper is good. A website is very important though and putting one up in one day might be a little too much for a beginner. But, then again, the sooner the better.
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The right hosting can make a huge difference. If you run a large site like mine, the bandwidth transfer is very high, and having limits just doesn’t cut it. Good post.
James@Make Money recently posted..Clickbump Engine
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Yeah I can totally vouch for the support at host gator. In all my incompetence I’ve had to use there support on several occasions and each time they were professional and capable. They always managed to solve whatever issues I had. NIce and clear walkthrough of what it takes to get your first website setup. Though I think depending on people’s preferences you might also want to discuss the platform that they create their website on, for example wordpress come to mind. Ofcourse you may end up posting that later on for all I know lol.
Gabriel Mendoza@makecashontheinternet recently posted..Online Business Models- Part 2
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Building a website is so technical nowadays it gets even more complicated than ever before. Good thing that I found this post it helped me a lot in setting up my first website. Thank you so much for sharing this informative post and nice site you have here.
Poker Online recently posted..BLANCA GAMES ACQUIRES CEREUS NETWORK
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name cheap is a site i never came across before. THat one is helpful.
Another commenter said that it may be hard for people to register domains and point them to their server. Hostgator has a few videos that will show you exactly how to do it step by step.
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One thing that is important to use source code. I think WP is good start blog or you can use blogspot it very good too.
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What a great guide! I am completely newbie to these things, and this is one of the best guides I’ve found so far!
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I agree that HostGator may be one of the most popular and liked by most marketers and owners of websites.
Yet always be safe. In general, don’t immediately sign up for the Yearly contract. Go for the monthly package first then have a feel of how the hosting service appeal to you.
Also have to time to check out their customer service and how reliable they are.
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Good post. It helps to beginners. Most of the things depends on the objective of the required website otherwise i prefer blogs wordpress or blogspot. This my opinion.
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Just a day? That’s really fast. Cool.
miami moving companies recently posted..Miami Moving Companies
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After about 24 hours my site still have problem. How I can do?
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Thank you for the good information.
Davi
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hi, thanks for the tutorial.. i’d like to use namecheap for buy a domain name but beside hostgator anything else you can recomended for best hosting service?
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Very nice post. I like your article. It is very informative and useful article.
Thanks for sharing this useful information.
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You are such a good tutor. You really did a great job for giving us step by step procedures on how we could get our first website online in one day. The steps are very clear, apprehensible and comprehensive. Thank you so much!
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Twitter: http://www.handsomejobs.com
says:
Hi! Excellent post. A lot of online business ideas you have there. and I really like this and it helps me a lot so stay tune with us and keep post continue.Thanks a lot for sharing.
HomeJobStop Review recently posted..HomeJobStop Review
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For beginners it is best to use Blogger, because it is easy to use. Blogger has an option to host your blog with them and to buy a domain from someone else.
rock t-shirts recently posted..Thatsmyshirt Model Contest Info
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Interesting article… Thanks for the information…
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What I do like about namecheap is the fast turnaround time.
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I agree with some of the comments. When you are planning to earn online, the first step is to use free blogging account and apply for adsense. You must have a great content together with fresh articles (will give you more love from google) and proper SEO (no black hat!). Thanks for sharing though, nice read!
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Great tips. I also use hostgator for my websites. Maybe you should add another step: seting up wordpress
Paul@earn money online recently posted..Earning Money Online With PayDotCom
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Awesome article, very thoroughly written! Also I’d recommend newbies to use WordPress. It’s the best IMO
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I prefer Bluehost as my domain hosting sites because it has a good control panel (cPanel) with a few nice extras, plenty of space and bandwidth, good support and fair pricing.
log cabins recently posted..Log Home News
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Four very basic steps but very important for beginners. Being able to share ideas and express it in laymans term is important. I’ve learned it the hard way though
salt lake web design recently posted..Welcome
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It’s a very interesting thought regarding auto-responder account, frankly speaking, I have not paid that much attention to that till now.
Regarding domain name registering, perhaps it’s better to do without hyphens, but if you want to register a site that would correspond to the name of your company, sometimes you will have to use that. Moreover, nowadays people very rarely enter the address of the website into the browser, they get to it either via Google or via bookmarks, in the browser or in their social sites account.
Stacy @ Research Writing Blog recently posted..4 Extremely Easy Exercises to Deal with Writers Block in Just 15 Minutes
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Twitter: ElisabethKuhn
says:
That’s a great article. Excellent step-by-step instructions. Others would make you pay for this information, or at least give up your email address.
Wish I had found that website a couple of years ago — it would have really shortened my learning curve and saved me lots of time and trouble.
If all your articles are as good as this one, I’m going to be a regular here! I’m definitely going to check out the rest of your stuff too.
Thanks!
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Twitter: ElisabethKuhn
says:
P.S.: I just wrote up a comment asking you how people did that with putting their anchor links in the name field, along with their names…
And then… I just saw it — it’s the KeywordLuv thing! Cool!
I’ll try that now! And of course I erased my original question and wrote this instead.
Thanks for using keywordluv! I’ve read about it but this is the first time I’ve seen it in action!
Elisabeth
Elisabeth@Favorite Web Stuff recently posted..The Best Giveaway EVER!
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Really fantastic article on getting your site online in a short time, especially the tips and how you have layed them out. I really think that Hostgator is the best hosting service because they are reliable and the customer service is outstanding. Godaddy is good for hosting too but you can also register your domain with them for about $9.99.
Sarah@Underarm Sweating recently posted..Home Remedies To Stop Sweating
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Great post on getting your website up and running fast. I wish that I would have read this a long time ago. Excellent step-by-step instructions.
Scott@Ideas To Make Money recently posted..Make Money Selling Carburetor Kits
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Agree. Hostgator is by far the best hosting company in terms of service, support and price, Have used atleast 6 different companies and always ended up switching to HG. Interesting post.
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Kevin Njoroge
Twitter: kevoh99
Reply:
December 7th, 2010 at 5:27 pm
Pavan, six hosting companies are quite a lot buddy, but it is great that you have finally settled on hostgator as it is one of the most reliable hosting services out there from my own personal experience. All the best
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If you didn’t have all your information for your site ready, would you recommend taking it live? Or should you wait until you have more information to best advertise your company/views/products?
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Always had great experiences with Hostgator. The best thing i love in them is, they’re always fast in responding to your problems. I remember i had a server issue one year back. They helped me to fix it within 1-2 hours, which i can’t expect anywhere else. They are always Over-staffed and quick. If HG is there, i won;t signup any other hosting company ever.
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very details to show us how to set up a website, it is very helpful for a new webmaster to run a website.
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Great post. If you’re new to setting up a website and are looking to make a little money, this author hit it on the head. You set up a website, create great content like this that people want to share are refer back to and then include affiliate links to helpful products so that you get a commission.
Rob recently posted..What Types of Sites Can You Setup
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i believe that to earn money online , that not necessaries that you need a website. But no harm to get one while it may able to double up your sales because it able to help to bring in more traffic and higher conversion rate.
If you have a blog, social network and website that on top of PR. I’m sure you will get a fabulous income and traffic.
It easy to get a website now, what you need is get a domain name that show your ip adress and your brand name. Then get a hosting for a place to conduct your website and a system that allow to boost your website online and run smooth. I would suggest you get a domain and hosting together from a hosting provider so you will not mess up.
After that you can work on your hosting and create your website. Get a website within one day is possible right now. Template is ready, shopping cart is ready, support system and , email and billing are all ready in your hosting control panel.So do not hesitate to get your website now.
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To get a website up it’s the easy part… but the truth is that you need it on the first page with google in order to get traffic/costumers… When you design the website this should be the first thing you need to think about… SEO onsite is the tool
Many think that they put a website up and then the pay for the SEO but in most cases it’s not working like that since you need to make loads of changes. I do SEO for more then 10 years now and looks to me that way to many people are not thinking about SEO before the website is up… bad move!
Cheers, R.
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Probably for someone who has a technical background, these information are piece of cake, but for me and i bet a lot of many others, this article is really useful. I appreciate that you’ve created a step by step article, so that it makes a lot easier to understand it and to put it in practice. I will definitely follow your advice and i’ve already bookmarked your blog.
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This is really a goldmine of information for those who are just starting to create websites. When I was just starting to get my first web site online I took to hard road. During the early days of the internet information’s like this are not that readily available not like today.
Gary Riding recently posted..| Gary Riding’s Internet Marketing Blog
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