Background Information
InMotion Hosting was founded in 2001, and it’s based out of Los Angeles, CA. The company also owns a data center located in Ashburn, VA.
InMotion Hosting is a privately-owned company that owns over 300,000 domains. They also own Web Hosting Hub, which is a web host created for beginners and bloggers.
Features and Pricing
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They’re known for being a web hosting powerhouse with fast servers and great up time.
As far as hosting goes, the company offers shared business, VPS, reseller, and WordPress hosting.
They also offer enterprise hosting solutions and web design services.
Plus, automatic domain renewal is included with each plan, and a free domain is available with some plans like the Shared Business Hosting package.
The company offers 24/7 customer support in the form of live chat, email, Skype, and phone support.
If you’re looking for a .com domain, expect to pay $14.99 per year. The same applies to .net, .org, .biz, .info, and .us domains.
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Domain privacy protection is an extra $9.99 per year, bringing the grand total to $24.98 per year.
The company also offers a 90-day money back guarantee, so you’ll be able to get a full refund if you find that In Motion Hosting isn’t the web hosting site or domain registrar for you.
9. Domains.com
Background Information
Domains.com was founded in 2000 and was previously known as ZenNames.net.
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The company is owned by Domains.com Ltd. and is centrally located in the United Kingdom in Weymouth, Dorset.
Features and Pricing
The company specializes in domain transfers, email, SSL certificates, site building, e-commerce solutions, search engine visibility, online marketing services, fax through email, and more.
They currently offer WordPress hosting, VPS hosting and dedicated hosting plans.
No matter the hosting plan you choose, you’ll receive at least one free domain along with URL forwarding, email forwarding, transfer lock, and Total DNS Management.
Customer service options include 24/7 phone support as well as a Frequently Asked Questions area.
If you just want to use Domains.com to register a domain, you’ll pay $11.99 every year for a .com website. A .net website will set you back by $17.99 per year, while a .info site is $4.99.
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Domain privacy protection costs an additional $6.95 per year per domain, so you can expect to pay about $18.94 for a .com domain and WHOIS privacy protection.
Privacy and business protection cost an additional $24.99 per year per domain.
10. Domains.Google
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Background Information
Google launched Google Domains on January 13, 2015. The software is currently in the beta stage.
Features and Pricing
Every domain comes with:
Private registration at no extra cost
Easy integration with top website builders
Custom email with G Suite
New domain name endings
Customization sub-domains
Fast, secure, and reliable internet infrastructure with Google
Simple domain management tools
Email forwarding
Support
The Google Domains US Support Team is available 24 hours every day of the week. You can contact them via live chat, email, or phone.
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A .com website through Google Domains will cost you as little as $12 per year per domain. Automatic renewal is available through the site.
Before each automatic renewal, you’ll receive an email notification when each renewal occurs so that you have the chance to cancel your domain’s registration.
You can also buy domains for up to ten years. This means you can buy a .com domain for two years for $24 or ten years for a fee of $120.
WHOIS privacy protection is included with your domain at no additional cost. Note that some domains, such as .co.nz or .co.uk, do not allow private registration.
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Cheapest Domain Registrar
To get your domain name at the cheapest price available,
click here
or copy this link into your web browser https://clients.domainking.ng/aff.php?aff=2017
What is Website Hosting?
Web hosting is a necessity for any website (remember that a blog is a type of website)
— it is the physical location of your website on the Internet, an online storage center that houses the information, images, video, and other content that comprises your website.
Web hosting service providers maintain the server where the data associated with your website resides, and also manage the technology that makes your website connect to the Internet.
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Website hosting is typically measured in the amount of disk space you're allotted on the server and the amount of data transfer or "bandwidth" you need for accessing the server. For example, if you have a lot of customer interaction at your website, such as files to download, you will access the server frequently and you'll need more Web hosting transfer space than someone who simply puts readable text on their website.
The more "items" or "content" you have on your site (i.e., photos, maps, PDF files, etc.), the more disk space you'll need for website hosting.
Most of the websites that provides domain name registration also provide hosting services.
NOTE: when buying a hosting plan, make sure you get SSL with any hosting plan you subscribe for. The SSL tells the world that your site is safe to enter
Linking your domain name to your web host
if you purchased your domain name and hosting plan from one company at the same time, it will be very easy to link them together as the company will automatically connect the domain name with the hosting plan. But if you bought them from different
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companies e.g. you bought your domain name from hostgator.com and bought your hosting plan from namecheap.com, you will be required to link them manually.
In this case, while buying the hosting plan from namecheap.com, you will be required to add the domain name you have already purchased and after buying the hosting plan, you will be provided with 2 nameservers, the address will be sent to your email
address.
To connect your domain name fully to this hosting plan, you will have to go back to the settings page of the company you bought the domain name from and insert those nameservers into the custom DNS section.
Below is a detailed example on how to connect a hosting plan to a domain name bought on namecheap.com
You have a hosting plan elsewhere and you were provided with the nameservers for your domain.
To connect a domain to a third-party server or hosting plan via nameservers that you
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received from your hosting provider, you need to set these nameservers as Custom for your domain. You can do that in the following way:
1) After signing into your namecheap.com account, select Domain List from the left sidebar and click the Manage button next to your domain in the list. Then find the Nameservers section and select Custom DNS from the drop-down menu:
2) After that, enter your hosting nameservers one by one in each line (if you need to set more than 2 nameservers, press the Add nameserver red button). When the nameservers are entered, press the green checkmark to save changes:
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It may take about 24-48 hours for your domain to propagate after the nameservers update to be resolving properly all over the world.
Note: Some hosting providers may provide you with nameservers with IP addresses for them. Entering nameservers would be enough. Also, if you were provided with the nameservers ending with dots (i.e., ns1.nameserver.com. ), they need to be
entered without the dots at the end.
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Chapter 4
WordPress Installation
After registering your WordPress website i.e. after you have connected the domain name to your hosting company, you will have to login to your cPanel (this is a site that gives you admin access to your new blog). You will receive the link to your cPanel in your email address (this will be sent by your hosting Company), login to your cPanel and install WordPress (Follow the Instructions below). They are many ways of installing WordPress as you can see below. Choose anyone you are comfortable with.
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How to Install WordPress using MOJO Marketplace
MOJO Marketplace provides a simple WordPress installer tool. Several hosting companies use this to provide a 1-click WordPress install experience. This installer is integrated into their cPanel dashboard.
For this tutorial, we will be showing you the BlueHost cPanel. Simply login to your hosting account and then on your cPanel dashboard scroll down to the website section.
Click on Install WordPress icon or 1-click Install. They will both take you to the MOJO Marketplace where you will see an overview about WordPress with an Install button.
You need to click on the install button to continue.
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MOJO Marketplace will now ask you where you want to install WordPress. Simply select your domain name from the dropdown menu and click on the check domain button.
The installer will now check that everything is in order and will show the final step. You can check the box next to Show Advanced Options to expand it.
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You will notice that MOJO Marketplace has already given your site a title ‘My Site’. It will be using your email address as the username and entered a random strong password.
You can change all these settings. You also need to check the terms and conditions checkbox.
Once you are done, you can click on the Install Now button.
Your installation will begin, and you will be able to see a progress bar. It will take only a few minutes. You need to wait on this page for it to finish.
Once the installation is finished, you will see a success message with a view credentials button.
You have successfully installed WordPress. Click on the View Credentials button to go to MOJO Marketplace dashboard and scroll down to the notification center.
There you will see the status of your WordPress install with a link to view credentials.
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This will display the installation status and success notice. You will also find links to your site and WordPress admin area along with the username and password you will need to login.
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How to Install WordPress using Softaculous
Softaculous is a popular auto-installer script. It allows you to easily install popular web applications like WordPress with just a few clicks. Hosting companies
like SiteGround and InMotion Hosting use Softaculous in their control panel.
Simply login to your cPanel account and look for Softaculous icon or WordPress installer icon. You will find them under Auto Installers section.
Clicking on any of these icons will launch Softaculous auto-installer for WordPress. First you will see an overview of WordPress. You need to click on the Install tab to continue.
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Softaculous will now ask you where you want to install WordPress. You need to choose http:// or http://www. as protocol.
If your site has SSL and HTTPS, then you can select https:// or https://www. as protocol.
After that, you need to choose the domain name where you want to install WordPress.
Most users want to install WordPress in their domain’s root directory, like example.com.
In that case, you need to make sure that the ‘In Directory’ field is blank.
Scroll down a little, and you will see the site settings section.
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Under this section, first you need to provide a title and description for your WordPress site. Don’t worry you can easily change them from your WordPress admin area after installation.
Next, you need to choose an admin username, password, and email address. Softaculous will automatically fill in the username and password fields for you. It will use a non-dictionary word for username and a strong password.
You can change them if you want so that they are easy to remember for you. However, we strongly urge you to always use a strong password.
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Make sure that you enter correct email address in the admin email field. This is where WordPress will send notifications and password reset link if you ever forgot your password.
Rest of the options on the screen are optional. You can now click on the install button to run the installer.
Softaculous will run the installer using the settings you provided. You will see a progress bar with installation status. It will take a couple of minutes, do not close the window until the progress bar reaches 100% otherwise this may affect your WordPress installation.
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You will see a success message after the installation is finished. It will also show you a link to your website and another link to your WordPress admin area.
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How to Install WordPress using QuickInstall
QuickInstall is another popular auto-installer used by many hosting companies like HostGator and others. We will be using HostGator’s cPanel dashboard in the
screenshots here, but it wouldn’t be much different if you are using some other host that has QuickInstall.
First you need to login to your hosting account’s cPanel dashboard. Scroll down to the Software and Services section and then click on the QuickInstall icon.
This will take you to the 1-Click Installers page on QuickInstall. You will see that it offers installations for most popular web applications including WordPress. You need to click on WordPress to launch the WordPress installer.
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This will take you to the WordPress installer where you will see an overview of the software. Simply click on the ‘Install WordPress’ button to continue.
This will bring you to setup your WordPress install settings.
First you need to choose the domain name. If you want to install WordPress in a sub-directory like example.com/blog then you need to enter blog in the install path field.
Leave it blank if you want to install WordPress in the root directory, like example.com.
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You need to provide a title for your site, this could be anything and you can always change it later. Next, you need to provide a username, password, and email address for the admin account. You will also need to enter first and last name for the admin user.
Once you are satisfied with the settings, click on Install WordPress button to begin the installation.
QuickInstall will now install WordPress for you. You will see a progress bar and later success message when it is done.
Click on the drop down icon next to view credentials button in the success message. A fly down menu will appear with login credentials and a link to the admin area of your newly installed WordPress site.
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How to Install WordPress using Fantastico
Fantastico is a common auto-installer script used by some WordPress hosting providers.
It is similar to the other installer scripts in the list, and offers an easy way to quickly install WordPress.
First you need to login to your cPanel dashboard. Scroll down to software and services section, and there you will find the Fantastico icon.
Clicking on Fantastico icon will launch the auto-installer script.
Some hosting providers are still using an older version of Fantastico. In this tutorial we will be showing you screenshots from Fantastico F3 version. If Fantastico on your host looks different, then don’t worry. Basic installation steps are the same, and you should be able to easily follow them.
On the main Fantastico screen you will see a list of web applications on your left. You need to click on Blogs, and there you will find WordPress listed among many other applications.
Clicking on WordPress will show you an overview of the application with a Install button.
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Simply click on the ‘Click here to install WordPress’ button to continue.
Fantastico auto-installer for WordPress will now ask you to fill in your installation settings. First you need to choose the domain where you want to install WordPress.
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If you want to install WordPress in a sub-directory then you can enter the sub-directory name in the field below. Otherwise, make sure that this field is empty.
Under Administrator Details section, you need to provide admin user account
information. Enter a username, password, and email address for your WordPress admin account.
Click on the Submit button to continue.
Fantastico will now install WordPress for you. You will be able to see the installation progress. Once it has finished installing WordPress you will see a success message.
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How to Install WordPress using FTP
Manually installing WordPress is also known as the famous 5 minute install. However, manual installation has a few added steps, and you will need an FTP client for that.
First thing you need to do is download the latest version of WordPress. Unzip the file, and use the FTP software to upload the files into your web host directory of your choice.
If you want to install WordPress on your root domain name (like example.com), then you need to upload WordPress files to your website’s root directory. Usually this directory is called /public_html/.
On the other hand, If you want to install WordPress in a subfolder (like example.com/blog), then upload it in a folder /public_html/blog/.
Once you are done uploading WordPress, go to your hosting control panel to create a database. We are using cPanel web hosting, so our screenshots will be of cPanel. In your cPanel, find the icon like this:
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You will see a field to create a new database. Enter your database name, and click
“Create Database”.
Now that you have created your database, MySQL still needs a username. This username will have access to perform actions on the database.
On the MySQL Databases page in your cPanel account, scroll down to MySQL Users section. Simply provide a username and password for your new user and click on the
‘Create a user’ button.
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This new user still does not have access to the database you created earlier. For that you will need to add the user to the database and give them permissions to perform all actions.
On the same MySQL Databases page in your cPanel account, scroll down to ‘Add User to a Database’ section. Select the database user you created from the dropdown menu next to user, then select database, and click on the add button.
You will be now asked for the privileges you want to allow this user. Select all privileges and click on the Make changes button.
Your MySQL database and user are now ready, and it is time to run the WordPress install.
Simply go to to the URL where you uploaded WordPress. If it is in the main domain, then enter your domain name in the browser window, like yoursite.com or
www.yoursite.com.
You will see the language selection page. You can choose a language here so that rest of the installation is displayed in your own language. You can also use English for now and then later change the language.
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Click on the continue button to proceed.
You will now see some installation instructions. Basically WordPress will now tell you that it will need your database name, password, and mysql host information.
Click on the ‘Let’s go’ button to continue.
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WordPress will now show you a form. You need to enter the name of the database you created earlier.
Fill in the information and then click on submit button. WordPress will now connect to your database and will show you a success message.
Click on ‘Run the Install’ button to continue.
WordPress will now create tables in your database and then send you to the next step of the installation.