Hosting, Nameservers and Addon Domains
Dec 09
- Image by telex via Flickr
Today is a big day. Today you have to make a decision. It’s an important decision. It’s a decision about what direction your business is going to take.
Are you going to host your own sites ~ or are you going to keep using free platforms?
Understand this. Either one will work. But hosting your own sites is much better.
1. You have total control over your content, ads, everything else about your site.
2. No one can arbitrarily decide your site isn’t good enough and delete it.
3. You have sooooooo many more options.
4. You can do a much better/easier job with onsite search engine optimization.
5. It’s yours. No one can take it from you, and later on down the road you can sell it if you want/need to.
While free sites will work (blogger probably being the best option for this), the pros of hosting your own sites FAR outweigh the cost so I am going to continue the tutorials from here assuming you are hosting your own site.
What the heck is hosting?
This was a huge step for me when I took it. I had no idea what hosting was, how to do it, what it entailed. I had no mentors or friends that were doing this, the only friends I had with hosting had a hosting company that didn’t even have fantastico so I had no help.
You have help. It’s gonna be much easier for you. 
Hosting is a place where your sites/content live. While thus far we have “hosted” our content on free platforms like squidoo, and blogger, this hosting is a place you own, where all your stuff lives.
Hosting is quite inexpensive these days ~ it was MUCH more when I got started. You can get a hosting plan for around 10 bucks a month now. Your hosting company choice is really important. You want to choose someone who is very reliable. If your hosting goes down ~ ALL of your sites go down. Luckily there are hosting companies who can boast they have over 99% up time. ~ which is a good thing.
The other thing you want to look for in hosting is good customer service. You want to be able to get ahold of a real person, day or night if something goes wrong with your sites, and at some point in time something will go wrong ~ be it small or big. It’s nice to be able to get help from a real person.
I personally use Lunarpages (disclosure: affiliate link) for most of my hosting needs. This site and all my niche sites are hosted with Lunarpages. I find they have an excellent up rate, and the customer service has been stellar. (and yes, there have been problems along the way, and they have quickly helped me get them corrected, whether the problem was my fault or theirs).
I pay my hosting bill annually. I hate to pay monthly fees for stuff. This year my hosting cost me $107.00. For this I can host unlimited sites and it has been great. Lunarpages offers 3 month, 6 month and annual payment options.
I do have one project that is hosted with Hostgator. (disclosure: affiliate link) They are another excellent option when it comes to hosting. There have been some problems with that project along the way and the customer service has been excellent as well. Hostgator also offers a monthly rate, and several different packages. When looking at packages at hostgator you will want to get the “baby” plan ~ it offers you unlimited domains, bandwidth and diskspace. The Hatchling plan ~ w hile a little bit cheaper only allows you one domain, so you will soon need to get another hosting account. (trust me, as soon as you start doing this you are going to want to put up more than 1 site, so save yourself the hassle). The Baby package 9.95 a month ~ whether you pay monthly or annually. If you decide to buy a year or two’s worth of hosting at once your price goes down.
Those are the two hosting companies I use and recommend, and believe they will serve you well.
** Task one. Order a hosting package.
You will need a domain name to put your hosting on. It doesn’t really matter what it is. So understand they will ask you for a domain name when you go to order.
Once you’ve ordered your hosting you will receive an email from them. This email will have a LOT of information in it. It’s very important. Star it, highlight it, save it somehow, somewhere where you can find it when you need it, because you will need it.
Nameservers
In the email you receive will be 2 “nameservers”. These will be letters and numbers and that is the “code” that points to your server. You will need those two numbers for the next step in our niche blogging journey.
If the domain on your hosting account is different than the domain name you’ve chosen for your niche site you will have to change your nameservers. If your domain name was bought through your hosting company you won’t have to do this step this time.
You have bought a domain name at Godaddy. Right now as it is it points to Godaddy. You want it to point to your hosting company.
To do this we are going to go to GoDaddy. Take with you the two “nameserver” numbers you got in your welcome email.
Steps to forward your nameservers:
1. Click domain manager at Godaddy.
2. click the box next to the domain name you want to work on.
3. click the “nameservers” box along the top navigation bar.
4. Choose the last option ~ host yourself.
5. Enter your namerservers (there will be two)
6. Click ok.
Now when you install wordpress you will be able to see your site. yay. good work.
*** task 2: Forward your nameservers.
Adding an Addon domain to your hosting account.
The last step we are going to do today is add your domain to your hosting account. Again ~ if you ordered your domain through your hosting account when you ordered hosting you won’t have to do this part. If you ordered your domain somewhere besides your hosting company you will.
ie. if your hosting is with hostgator and your domain is at godaddy you will need to add it to your hostgator account.
Go to your hosting account and log in. (this information was sent in your welcome email.)
Once you are logged in you want to look around for “add on domain”.
If you have hostgator hosting it will look different than my images ~ the icons are all the same, they just have used a different template to show them to you, so just look around and find the one that says “add on domains”
Once you click the addon domain button you will see some boxes to fill in.
Fill in your domain name ~ no http:// or www. just the name. Then you will need to create a password for yourself. My hosting fills in the username/directory part and I believe hostgator does too.
Once you’ve filled those in just click “add domain” or ok or whatever it is that says do it, in your hosting account.
That’s it. Once you’ve done that you will receive a message and it will show you your FTP access address, and your password. This is your hosting password you will need to keep track of this. Make sure you save the information in that message.
*** task 3: Add on your domain to your hosting account.
That’s it for today~ Good work.
Tomorrow we are going to install wordpress!! You won’t believe how easy it is
As always ~ feel free to ask questions in the comment section. Please understand, hosting is not really my strong suit. You may be better off calling your hosting company’s customer service and asking them to help you. I’ll do my best though.
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MJ, I’m not sure what the problem is. You do have an account with hostgator right? I suggest you get on hostgator chat and talk to them. They have helped me with tons of things ~ I’m sure they’ll be able to help you. It may be that your account can only have 1 domain? Did you get the smallest account available ~ because I’m pretty sure you can only have 1 domain with that. Chat with hostgator and see what they say.
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Each time I try to ad a domain with hostgator, I get an error message. “can’t park your domain.” What could that possibly mean?
I will desire to switch hosting company’s soon but I want to know which one makes it easier to get up and running. You said Fantastico is good. Which service throws that in to their basic progam?
Pat M karate blog´s last blog ..Hello world!
Pat you can go with hostgator ~ their baby account includes everything you need and will have excellent customer service as well.
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IF you have specific questions about doing this the first time call your hosting company ~ that’s part of why you pay them.
I had to have customer service at my hosting place walk me through it the first time so don’t worry about it, and just call them so they can walk you through the process at their hosting system.
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all you’re doing is telling godaddy that you are hosting this domain at hostgator ~ (for example) it has nothing to do with your old site.
Your new site will just be http://www.yournewdomain.com ~ nothing to do with your old one. 
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I found it by going to another one of my domains. However, now that I am doing an add on with a new domain (for new niche), it shows it on my control panel as newniche@oldniche.com
I know you say in the tutorial that we will have to change this, but how do I change it so that it doesn’t affect anything on my old niche??
Sorry for so many questions,
C
One more question, what if I can’t find the paper with host gator that has the 2 sets of names/numbers, how do I find that in the cpanel?
Thanks,
Carole
yes, once you do an add on domain it will be separate.
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Hi Jackie,
It has been a while since I set up my site at Host Gator, it is for a different niche than the one I am going to work on now with your tutorials. When I do the add on domain for my new niche, will it be separate from my healthy-eating-to-lose-weight.com, they don’t overlap in some way, right????
As always, thanks
Carole
really useful site for beginners. looking forward learning from your site.
I sure will work on doing that ~ are there terms right now you’re confused on?
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Hi Jackie,
Thank you for your emails – I know they are automated but thanks anyway.
I’m learning a lot from you.
However, the internet is full of jargon and abbrieviations which I just don’t understand and it often makes it very difficult to follow explanations.
Would you please consider writing a glossary of jargon and abbreviations to help new people like me? There must be other people who would appreciate that too.
JuneMary
Hey Russell,
It appears lunarpages has really changed their packages since I got mine a few years ago. I would NOT recommend that package ~ in fact, I can’t find a package I would recommend for what you’re going to be doing at Lunarpages. I suggest you go to hostgator (disclosure: affiliate link) , and get the baby package. It will give you everything you need.
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Hey Jackie, Sorry to bust in OT but I just wanted to say hi. I just saw you over at potpiegirl.com (commentluv is awesome ain’t it?), looked around a bit, and have now subscribed.
I’d love to chat sometime about your experiences with physical products.
Could you please install a subscribe to comments plugin ASAP? I love to know when there are responses.
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Hi again Jackie
I went to the Lunarpages site to sign up and saw the options. Is the one you suggest the WINDOWS HOSTING @ $9.95 pm? This offers 1st 3 months free, but only 1 Add-On Domain, although unlimited Sub Domains.
Before I sign-up, could you let me know if this is the right one.
Thanks
RUSSELL
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Thanks Jackie….I didn’t explain myself well BUT you actually answered the question that was in my mind but I couldn’t explain! LOL I was trying to ask how to use subdomains….and your answer was great and helpful for those of us who need to save money.
BTW I use bluehost for my hosting and domain names. So far I’ve had good luck with the service.
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hey Collette,
Glad to hear you’re having luck with Godaddy hosting ~ I’ve heard some horror stories lol.
Are you trying to rank your site for your name? Are there lots of people searching for your name in reference to utah mortgages?
If not ~ you’d be better off using your keywords in the name field and then your url in the url field and you’ll have a nice keyword anchor text link to your site. Then just sign your name at the bottom so I know who the comment is from.
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I purchased my domain from GoDaddy and I am using GoDaddy to host my website as well. GoDaddy’s customer service people are wonderful to work with. I am also using WordPress for my blog which I consider as my website. It is a very powerful program. I love it.
Collette McKee
Nice post! I use hostgator as my hosting and its great.
woo hoo. Congrats on the sale! If you can make one you can make many. Glad the tutorials are helping.
Make sure to ask questions if you have them ~ no better way to work through things than to ask when you get stuck.
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Hi Jackie,
I have been reading your blog for a while now and just wanted to say thank you for these outstanding tutorials. Setting up this stuff can be really daunting for beginners and I was really dreading this step. You have given me the confidence to continue.
As an aside, I also wanted to thank you for the Xmas lens lessons. I have made my first sale online doing this!! Although it isn’t that much in dollar value it’s convinced me this works – so I am ready to make my mark online now. I have my personal ‘proof of concept’ and it feels mighty good!
Easy to understand explanation!! Thanks so much!!
Jane (MoneyMom)
I’m another one that uses Hostgator and have had excellent customer support.
“Fill in your domain name ~ no http:// or www. just the name. Then you will need to create a password for yourself. My hosting fills in the username/directory part and I believe hostgator does too.”
Yes Hostgator does fill that bit in – on my slow dialup it does take 5-10 seconds for it to happen so wait patiently after adding your domain name and it will suddenly appear.
Great info as always, Jackie.
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Excellent and well written post. I use hostgater for my sites and I have been very happy with the service. A couple of times I have problems (due to my lack of knowledge) and hostgater has always resolved the problem and explained to me what I need to do to avoid having the same issue in the future.
Again Jackie, thank you for sharing information in a clear, easy to understand format.
Not sure what you mean ~ we’re going to build a whole niche blog about mountain bikes.
The only time I would suggest using subdomains is if you have a very general domain name. ~ then you can add subdomains on just about anything and then you don’t have to buy more domain names.
for example: I have quickeasytips.com ~ I have put a few subdomain sites on that to save money. Downside of this is you can’t sell those sites later down the road ~ but I’ve gotten them ranked and made money from them. It’s one way to go if you don’t have a lot of cash.
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Jackie,
If you have a domain say in the mountain bike niche is there an advantage to using subdomains for setting up sites that are related to the mountain bike niche or do you just use pages?
Thanks,
Michele
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