Initial Preparation

One of the most critical tasks in creating a website designed to bring in viewers is choosing a good domain name. If you choose a poor domain name, it will take more effort to bring in viewers than necessary.

A good domain name will have something to do with what you offer and may or may not include your actual store name.

When registering a domain name, be sure to choose a .com domain.

For help with selecting a good domain name, be sure to read the resources linked at the bottom of this section.

Resources:

• Basic Keyword Research for Targeted Marketing
• Keyword Research For Domain Names

Once you have a good domain name picked out, you will need to register that domain name.

If you want to get your domain for the absolute lowest cost possible, please see the resources at the bottom of this section.

If you don’t mind paying a couple of dollars extra per year and would prefer to have everything setup quickly and easily, simply register your domain when you get hosting. Most good hosting companies will let you register a domain when you choose a hosting plan.

Resources:

• How to get a cheap domain name
• GoDaddy

Now that you have a domain name picked out ( and possibly registered ), you will need to get a hosting service.

If you want to be able to use these instructions exactly as written, I recommend using Host Gator, linked in the resources box at the bottom of this section. While you can get by with their Hatchling plan, I highly recommend getting their Baby plan. It is three dollars more per month, but it gives you unlimited domains and addon domains which can be very useful in the long run.

Note:
The instructions on this site assume the use of Host Gator. If you use a different hosting provider, you might need to improvise a bit here and there.

If you decide to go with Host Gator, be sure to use their current coupon code ( BEACH ) to get 20% off and make note of the fact that you will also get a $25 adwords credit to use for paid marketing once your site is complete.

If you want to use your own hosting and don’t mind that some of the instructions on this site will not be quite accurate as a result, be sure to get the following:

• Linux Hosting
• Unlimited Domains
• No forced advertising
• A reasonable amount of disk space
• A reasonable amount of bandwidth
• Backup capability
• Free setup
• Subdomains
• MySQL
• PHP
• At least a few POP 3 accounts
• IMAP Support if you use outlook for mail
• SMTP

NOTE: It typically takes a few days for a new domain to be reachable.

I don’t personally recommend dedicated hosting to start with because it is relatively expensive and you will not initially have a need of it.

Once you start getting a lot of content and traffic ( and more incoming cash ), you can choose to upgrade your hosting when it makes sense to do so.

Resources:

• Host Gator

Before you start actually working on your site, it is a good idea to create at least one new email address for use by the site.

I recommend setting up two email addresses initially:

• one email for wordpress generated emails ( perhaps wp@yourdomain.com )
• one email for your use when responding to site emails ( perhaps yourname@yourdomain.com)

If you are not sure about how to setup a new email address, check the resource box below.

If you do not use Mozilla Thunderbird and are not sure how to go about setting up a mail account in your email program, you can check your new email account online via cpanel.

Resources:

Creating an Email Address:

• How to create a new email address with HostGator

Checking an Email Acount:

• Using Mozilla Thunderbird to get mail
• Using cpanel to get mail
• Using other clients:
  Go to the search engine of your choice and do a search for your mail clients name and “account setup”.

Next Step → WordPress Setup for Selling