​Domains and Hosting

​Step 1: Go to NameCheap.com
We recommend Namecheap for domains and hosting.

Click this link to go there and grab your domains and your hosting.

Step 2: Select Shared Hosting Option

The domains are​ a good deal at NameCheap and the hosting we recommend just this Shared Hosting Plan for getting started. Even if you sign up for one of the basic programs, you can always migrate through these dedicated servers, the virtual dedicated servers and all that kind of stuff if you need more performance later. To get started, these shared hosting accounts are just fine.

​Looking at the chart below you can see the pricing for the diffent hosting plans. The cheapest option is to pay for the year up front at around $18. But if you click on the monthly button, you just want to go for three bucks a month, five bucks a month, $nine a month if you need unlimited websites. If you're just getting started, the $3 shared hosting is the one to use.If you start expanding quickly, you can always ramp up through these very quickly. It's easy to upgrade your subscription.

​Choose the option that works best for you. Now if you're brand new and you've got a new domain to purchase, you can purchase a new domain from Namecheap during the purchase process, or you can use a domain from another register. Either way, it doesn't really matter. Either way you do that, it's just going to check and see if your domain's available or if it's at another registrar. If you already have a domain, you won't get charged ​the domain name fee.

Step 3: Make sure you add the SSL certificate!

If you want to add a domain there, it's 12 bucks basically right there. You continue through and we do recommend that you get this SSL certificate for four bucks, where you want your site to be secure.

​Once you confirm your order, you put your credit card information in, and you log into account. You're going to see something that looks like this and click on the ​Dashboard Menu option. if you are not there yet, and what you're going to see is the main account that you registered with is going to have this management icon here.​

​Step 4: Go to the hosting dashboard.

This is a domain (StepByStepSideHustle.com)  that I've added previously and I'm going to show you how to add a domain if you happen to have your domain already registered somewhere else like GoDaddy. Here is the main management icon and this is basically the dashboard that you'll see when you first log into your account in Namecheap.

Step 5: Go to CPanel

What we're going to do right now is go to cPanel and I'm going to show you how to add a new domain should you have it at another registrar. 

Now this is what cPanel looks like.

Step 6: Login to domain registrar and edit DNS (Domain Name Servers)

​Log in to where you have your domain registered.I have my examples registered at GoDaddy, and this is the one that you saw in the ​setup earlier, GolfshotConfidence.com, and these are the DNS server names that we're going to need.

NameCheap Name Servers: NS1.NAMECHEAP.com and NS2.NAMECHEAP.com

​

We will have a link to those and a link to an article that shows you how to do this as well.

Changing DNS at Godaddy.

Changing DNS at HostGator.

Changing DNS at BlueHost.

​I'm going to do the DNS changes for the GiveMoreValue.com domain and you'll need to find that in GoDaddy, scroll down here, and wherever you have these registered, you're going to have somewhere where you can manage the DNS or the name servers. 

Look for that, if you don't have GoDaddy, if they're managed somewhere else, that's what you're looking for.

Here's the name server section and we're just going to change these. I want to enter my own name servers. I know it says it's advanced, but we're just going to copy and paste that, copy and paste that. We're going to change this one to a two. Backspace over that one that was there and put a two, and then just save that.

Step 7: Create the addon domain in your hosting account

Now, it's going to take a little bit for GoDaddy to process that change. What happens in the meantime is that we will come back overto where we've got to cPanel open. What we're going to do now is scroll down to where we see Addon Domains, and we're going to click on Addon Domains, and it's going to give you a place to set those domains up.

You can see here we've gotten GolfshotConfidence.com here that we already put in. We're going to come back over here to GoDaddy and just copy. You can always just type in the domain, we're going to copy that domain there.​ Okay, so we've typed in the information on our new domain, and we're just going to click on add domain, and it's just going to take a minute or so to process.

That's what you'll get once you successfully add the domain to your cPanel account. You can go back and you can see, GiveMoreValue.com is now listed. 

​ In our next video, we are going to install WordPress on our main domain. See you there.