Website Hosting Providers - How Get a WordPress Site Up and Running Fast The good news is that today you can get a website or blog online quickly and easily without any technical expertise. Here I run through four steps which result in having a WordPress powered website or blog up and running. These are: 1. Register a domain name 2. Select from the numerous website hosting providers 3. Install Wordpress 4. Configure Wordpress and enter your content (text, pictures, videos etc.) Step one is to find and then register a domain name. You should browse a few domain registration websites before buying as prices are not consistent. Godaddy.com and Cheapnames.com are sites which should be included in your search. Remember that you need to select a good name at the outset as this is the one thing you don't want to change in the future, so it is worth spending time finding the best available name. Step two is to select one of the many website hosting providers available. There are many suppliers that will be fine but for a Wordpress site HostGator is a good choice. Many website hosting providers also offer a domain name registration service and the most simple way forward is to use this. However, whilst it is simple it will probably not be the cheapest option. Some website hosting providers include a free domain in the package, this may be fine but ensure that you own it, that the extension is acceptable and that it continues to be free. After you have signed-up for a hosting plan you will be able to access your control panel. Assuming that you got your domain name from a different supplier you now need to get details of your host’s nameservers (may be in a welcome email) go back to your domain registration site and enter the nameservers in the DNS information. Step three is to go to and open Fantastico in the control panel (smiling face icon) and use it to install Wordpress. Select Wordpress from the left margin (under Blogs) and click "New Installation". ‘Install on Domain’ should already show your domain and ‘Install in Directory’ can be left blank. The other fields should be completed but don't spend time on this as the data can be edited later, which you will no doubt want to do anyway when you see how it is used. The field that is important is the admin password, use a strong password to avoid any risk of your site being hacked. Click ‘Install WordPress’ and ‘Finish Installation’ on the next page. You should now see a confirmation of the installation and a facility to email the details. You should enter your email address so that you receive a record of your logon details and URL.
Step four is to go into your WordPress dashboard and select a theme and layout that you like and install the plugins you want. Then you can start publishing your text, pictures, videos etc. It really is an easy process but in practice it cannot be done as fast as is suggested above. Having gone through the process of registering a domain name it takes a few hours before it is available for use and after you have completed the DNS information for the domain name it will take 24-48 hours for this to be circulated around the internet.