Okay so, purchasing the domain and hosting is the only things here which will cost you some money. Let's check out on how to get your domain and server.
There are many server providers in the world, for example : Digital Ocean, Namecheap, OnlyDomains, Godaddy, etc. Choosing which one for your website is more of preference. For the purpose of this tutorial, we will work on namecheap.
So how domain and server works is, think of a kitchen in a fancy restaurant. The entrance/exit to the kitchen is through a door and one door only (not considering the emergency doors). The kitchen is where the food is made and stored, and the door is what you use to move the food in and out.
Likewise, the domain is the door and the server is the food. You cannot store any food if you dont have the kitchen and just have the door, and you cant move the food inside the kitchen if the door is blocked. Likewise, you cannot host the website without a domain AND a server.
Step 1 :
Head onto namecheap.com and make a profile using the Sign up link on the top left.
Step 2 :
Search for the domain that you aim to buy.
Note there are few things to consider before deciding on the domain that you wanna purchase.
-Domains which have english dictionary words which are already bought by a client/company are usually high price, for example, if you search the domain knowledge.com, you will notice that it is already taken. If you want these type of domains, you need offer the bought client/company money, which is usually more than $199 (LKR 35591.15 as of 01-Dec-2018).
-Domains which have english dictionary words and are not already bought by a client/company requires a very price, for example, if you search the domain deductible.com, you will notice that it is a premium domain and the price to purchase a premium domain in namecheap is $53,750 (LKR 9613186.82 as of 01-Dec-2018). Note : This is the initial price, after that its like $12 per year.
Therefore I suggest going for a word which is easy to remember and is practical.
Step 3:
Select the TLD
Select what you want from a variety of tlds from .com to .online
This is preference but if this is your first domain, and not much important, I suggest to choose a low price TLD
This should look something like this
Step 4:
Add to cart any that you want.
Note : You can always purchase more domains of the same name and different TLDs so set up redirection so that if someone types abc.online, they will automatically be sent to abc.com
Here, you can purchase the hosting server with the domain or complete the domain purchase and buy the server later. If you have a server already bought, then you can buy the domain directly.
Step 5:
Complete the purchase of the domain
Here you can select the number of years you are paying to straight up. The ICANN fee is a compulsory fee to register your domain which is paid every year. The WhoisGuard hides the personal data of the server, the one I bought had it free forever, but before purchase always check the features you are given.
Confirm the Order and move forward to the purchase. The rest should be easy
There are few types of hosting. Basics are, Shared Hosting, VPS Hosting and Dedicated Hosting.
- Shared Hosting - What happens physically in the service provider is, one actually physical server is partitioned and configured to parts, and one part is configured and given to you. This is the weakest performance wise, but is the ideal for a smooth website.
- VPS Hosting - A Virtual Private Server is a bit similar to Shared because the physical server is shared accross people, but the section you are given is very private to yours and is more secure than Shared Hosting. Also, configuring a VPS is kind of hard as some VPS comes with no Cpanel for web management.
- Dedicated Hosting - This is the most powerful hosting and should be used for websites which have large content or large traffic. A full physical server is allocated to you.
Step 1:
Find the suitable Hosting Service
You can select payments yearly or monthly. I want to talk about the features here.
- SSD-Accelerated Disk Space - This is the disk space for the full server, the hosting web files, database files and the small cache files.
- Bandwidth - Which is the internet connection. All three packages give unlimited internet.
- Websites - This is the amount of websites you can have linked with the server. Notice you can have any number of pages, subdomains, but not main domains.
- Website Builder - This is the basic building tools for a website.
Even though the first package limits websites and space, if you are trying this to test out, I suggest the first package on the left.
Step 2:
Select the domain link process
Click the Use a domain I own with Namecheap if you already bought the domain in, or set to buy in the cart.
Step 3:
Select the domain that you want using the Select button.
Step 4:
Continue with the purchase, the domain should be automatically linked with the server if you buy both inside namecheap.com
Shortforms used
- TLD - Top level domain
- VPS - Virtual Private Server
Note : I might update this overtime
Contents --
- Introduction
- Domain and Hosting Purchases
- Installing Wordpress
- Setting Up Wordpress
- Setting up Elementor
- Maintaining Overtime
Thank you all for your time in reading this!
Last updated : 01-Dec-2018