Hosting your website is not a big deal if you are from Europe or America, where people have bank accounts, debit and credit cards that are authorized for online transaction. In countries like Nepal, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Kenya and other developing countries, access to online accounts is neither easy nor affordable. For online purchases, people in such places have to go to their banks and pay extra money to use the bank’s MasterCard. For buying popular hosting and domain services, they go through a third party service provider, which is more expensive than direct purchase.
However, international debit card service like Payoneer is now available to freelancers and online sellers in hundreds of countries including the least developed ones, and such freelancers can now easily buy anything online- from electronics in Amazon.com to hosting plans in HostGator. Besides Payoneer MasterCard, you can use PayPal and any international credit or debit card to buy domain hosting and domain.
Why not use free blogging platforms like blogger?
Freelance writers or anyone interesting in sharing their ideas or creativity to the world will gain a lot from blogging. By a targeting a particular niche, a blogger can attract large number of loyal followers and regular visitors. With a live website or blog, you can not only practice your writing skills but also learn useful online tactics to drive visitors traffic to increase your online earnings as well as expand your online customer base. If you have a great idea for a blog, I suggest that you buy a domain and hosting plan right way. Investing money on your own hosting and domain will give you the motivation to continue writing. Furthermore, self-hosted websites are more customizable and support advanced SEO and web analytics plugins that aren’t available on free blog sites like xyz.blogger.com or xyz.wordpress.com. While you can always use free blogging platforms for blogging practice, you will eventually have to get your own hosting and domain, if you want more control of your website.
If you have no idea how to design a website, don’t worry. After setting up WordPress, which you will learn in the section below, it takes only a few minute to install a free theme of your choice. If you are in the programming field or want to learn it, there are numerous free WordPress tutorials on YouTube that will teach you how to customize WordPress themes so that you can give your website a unique look. However, first-time bloggers can simply install a free WordPress theme to start with. All in all, the benefit to cost ratio of hosting your own website will definitely be high, so it is highly recommended that you start early because in less than a year you can start monetizing your blog to sustain itself.
The whole process of buying domain & hosting, setting up WordPress, adding a theme and finally getting your website live, should take you less than an hour- most will complete the process in 10-15 minutes. The detailed instructions are mentioned in the sections below:
How to Buy Hosting and Domain with Payoneer MasterCard
How to choose a suitable Domain Name
Buying a domain name is a quick process but coming up with a good name takes some time. Your website’s name is very important because you are going to stick with it for the long term. You can either come up with a name with SEO keywords or a catchy name that is preferable if you want to establish your blog/website as a brand. So decide on a name that is best suited for your need. If you want to build a brand out of your blog or website I suggest you come up with a cool and catchy name- example: Buzzfeed, Gizmodo, Brainpickings. If you just want quick traffic from a niche then you can use SEO keywords on your domain name. Example- makemoneyonline.com, namecheap.com, bestandroidphones.com etc. Even better, you can also try combining a SEO keyword with another word to come up with a cool brand name example- androidauthority, highonandroid etc. Prepare a list of cool/wacky/professional website names and then short list them. Ask your friends for opinion. You can even do a survey to find out which one sticks more in the mind of the audience.
If it’s a generic name, it’s highly possible that your website name is already taken so you may have to come up with a different name. You can add extra letter or word at the end of the domain name or tweak the spelling to get a clever sounding name. After you finalize the domain name for your website you can purchase it from websites like HostGator, GoDaddy, NameCheap etc. It’s easier to purchase hosting and domain from the same place, and this post has the step by step tutorial for it, but both of these can also be purchased from different places and then integrated.
On the below sections, you will learn how to choose an appropriate hosting plan, how to check the availability of your domain name, how to make payment, and how to setup your WordPress website.
What is the best HostGator hosting plan for my website ?
There are numerous hosting service providers like HostGator, Bluehost and Godaddy . I’ve been using HostGator for many years and I’ve found them to be very reliable not just in terms of their prices but also in terms of fast customer service.
If you want to get a take website online today, you will start by purchasing a hosting package. On HostGator’s “Choose a Plan” page, you will see three different hosting packages. Each of these HostGator hosting packages are designed for specific types of customers like newbie bloggers, small businesses or large companies that get huge volume of traffic everyday.
Which HostGator hosting plan is the best for my blog/website ?
The the three HostGator hosting plans are named: Hatchling, Baby and Business Plan. So, which one is the best? If you are going to open a full-fledged online business and expect huge traffic spikes in the coming months, go with the priciest option i.e. “Business Plan”, which gives you unlimited bandwidth, private SSP & IP and a free toll-free number. If you want to host only one website or blog, then the “Hatchling Plan” is the cheapest option. However, if you don’t want to pay high but still want to be able to add/host multiple websites in the future, I suggest choosing the “Baby Plan“, which is reasonably priced and lets you add unlimited domains or websites. Baby Plan is what I’m currently using to host all of my websites.
Now that you’ve decided on a HostGator plan, let’s get your website online. Click here:“HostGator Hosting & Domain Registration”. Click “Choose a Plan” and select “Sign up Now” to begin the registration process. You are now in the registration/billing page.
On Step 1, you will be asked to “Choose a Domain”. If you have already purchased your domain name, click “I already own this domain” tab and enter your website name. If you haven’t purchased the domain name, select Register a New Domain“. Now Hostgator will check for the availability of the domain name. If the domain name is already taken, you will have to come up with something else. After adding your first domain, it will be set as your Primary domain. You can later add other domains (websites) as add-on domains via CPanel.
On Step 2, you have to choose a Hosting plan & its billing cycle – 1 month, 3 months, 6 months, 12 months, 24 months or 36 months. Of course, you get discount for advanced payment of longer billing cycle. However, I suggest purchasing the hosting plan for 1 year (12 months) so that you can easily switch to another hosting provider in case you want to later. After selecting the billing cycle, set your username. I have combined my first name and three digits of my last name to create my username, but you can set it any way. Now enter a pin code that’s 4-8 digits long. Save your username and pincode information in a secure location in your PC or save it online via services like Dropbox.
Payment using Payoneer MasterCard, Paypal or other methods
You are now on step 3, which is the billing/payment section. Here, simply enter your personal details like Email address, Name, Phone, Street address
If you chose PayPal as your payment method then you just need to enter your PayPal username and password.
Next is step 4, where you can choose additional services like HackAlert Monitoring by Sitelock, Professional Email and CodeGuard backup. These services will cost you extra. As a newbie blogger, I personally don’t have any use for these services so I didn’t choose any of those options.
In step 5 you will get the option to “Enter an available Coupon Code”. HostGator discount coupon code or promocode will save you money on your purchase. On normal sales day, you get over 20% discount on various shared & reseller hosting via promocodes. There are also promocodes to get the first month of hosting for just 1 cent.
August 2016 coupon details:
3 HOURS ONLY! 60% Off All New Hosting Plans of 12mos or longer + $8 select Domains, use code: AUG18FLASH. 8/18 3am-6am AND 11am – 2pm CDT!
More HostGator flash sales/coupons/promocodes here: Hostgator best deals and discount coupons 2016 .
However, if you have a great idea for a website or blog, don’t delay getting it online just because there’s no discount or sales available for hosting and domain.
Finally, on Step 6, review or order and price details and click “Checkout Now”. You are all done.
Congratulations!! You have successfully registered a hosting plan and domain name for your website.
After successful purchase, you will also get an email from Hostgator customer support. The email will have the username and passwords to login to your billing and CPanel accounts. Save your login information in a secure location in your hard drive or secure cloud services like dropbox.
1-Click WordPress auto-installation and final website setup
Now that you’ve purchased your domain and hosting, it’s time to setup WordPress for your website or blog. Login to your CPanel, Select “QuickInstall” , which is under Software and Services section. On the new page, click “Install WordPress“.
During the installation process, you will be asked to enter the Title of your Website, and setup Login details(admin username and password). That’s it, your website is all set up. You can start adding themes, categories and posting contents right away.
You can open a browser, enter your domain name and view it online. Note that your website will not show up/go live instantly. Wait 4 to 8 hours for the network to access information if your domain name has a “.com “or “.net” extension. Other type of extensions may take up to 48 hours.
Besides WordPress, you can also install other CMSs like Joomla, Drupal etc for your blog. Now that your website is live on the internet, read these useful tips for newbie bloggers to get started.
How to add a domain name purchased from other sites to HostGator
Some people like to purchase domains from different sites (BlueHost, NameCheap, GoDaddy..etc) and then add it to a different hosting service provider. Mostly, there is only $1-$2 difference in domain registration prices offered by different domain name services. If you have already purchased domain from a different company then you will need to follow additional steps of adding domain name address to your hosting account. It is quite easy. If you already have a domain name from sites like GoDaddy, NameCheap, BlueHost etc , here is how you can add it to your Hostgator’s CPanel:
Login to your CPanel and add the domain name you just purchased. Select “add domain” option
Open another browser tab and login to your Namecheap (or any other) domain name account and then add the name servers addresses by going to “Domains” >> Click on “Manage” >> “Advanced DNS”. Under personal DNS servers, click add your name server addresses.
To learn in detail about adding name servers read these posts:
How to add/edit name servers on Namecheap
How to add/edit name servers on GoDaddy
After successfully pointing the domain name to your server address, you can go back to your CPanel and install WordPress, Joomla, Drupal or any other CMS for your website. Refer to previous sections for the steps on how to install WordPress for your website.