YUP! It’s possible. I’ve been making websites for almost as long as there have been websites and I’m amazed at how easy it is now. What I used to charge thousands of dollars for can now be easily done in a matter of minutes. So, how do you set up an awesome site like the one you’re looking at right now with only minutes of work and $80? Let’s get started.
STEP #1 – BUSTANAME.COM
You’ve got to find a good domain name, you probably have some things in mind but need to figure out quickly whether or not they’re avaiable. Go to Bustaname.com, an amazing application that lets you test out domain names to see if the .COM, .NET, or .ORG domains are available. That’s how I found www.fourminutesite.com. Generally, shorter is better.
STEP #2 – ANHOSTING.COM
Once you’ve figured out what domain name you want, you’ll go to ANHosting.com. You could register at Go Daddy, but ANHosting gives you a free domain name with your hosting purchase, and you need the hosting anyway, so this’ll save you money. The sign-up is pretty self explanatory, just put your domain name in and choose the options that sound best for you.
I’ve been working with ANHosting and their parent company, HostingSolutions, for more than five years. I’ve called them with problems that were almost always my fault dozens of times and someone always picks up immediately, no waiting. I’ve worked with a lot of web hosts, and these guys know what they’re doing and know how to satisfy.
STEP #3 – WAIT!
ANHosting is now setting up your site and linking it to your domain, this can take up to 24 hours, but usually doesn’t take any more than 2.
STEP #4 – CHECK YOUR EMAIL
ANHosting will eventually send you a signup email with some important information. Most important is the login information for your CPanel. This will be located at http://www.YOURDOMAIN.com/cpanel – so go there and login with the username and password they provided. Now, it’s possible that the internet fairies might not have worked quite fast enough to make this work immediately. That’s why ANHosting also provides you with an IP (numbers) based address to connect to in the meantime while the internet fairies work. But they will work, until they do you can use the IP-based address.
STEP #5 – INSTALL WORDPRESS
ANHosting has a great one-click installer called SOFTACULOUS. You can use it to install everything from Joomla to PHPBB. But we’re going to use it to install WordPress. Just click on Softaculous and then “WordPress” and then “INSTALL” at the top of the page. You’ll have a chance to fill in some useful information, like the name of your blog and a tagline for it (you can always change these later). But, remember, third from the top is the “In Directory” which, if you want your wordpress install to be at http://www.YOURDOMAIN.com/ should be blank. If you want it to be at http://www.YOURDOMAIN.com/blog, the “in directory” should be “blog.”
Click install and you’re done.
STEP #6 TAKE A LOOK AROUND!
You’ll be presented with two links after you install. One is the URL of your new wordpress install (in my case, http://www.fourminutesite.com/) and the other is the URL of the admin panel for your new site (http://www.fourminutesite.com/wp-admin/) Open both of these up. Enter your login info into the admin system and take a look around. From here you can delete posts, add posts, check comments, do all kinds of great stuff.
STEP #7 GET A NEW THEME!
Check out the Free Themes Directory and find one (or several) that you like and download them.
Now head to http://www.YOURDOMAIN.com/wp-admin/theme-install.php and click upload, choose the file that you just downloaded and the theme is INSTALLED AND READY TO USE!
Now click on the “appearance” tab on the left-hand side. This will bring up your themes, click on the new theme and then click “activate” on the upper-right. Your new theme is now active!
STEP #8 (BONUS STEP) CUSTOMIZE YOUR THEME
If you have a fairly advanced theme, like Mystique, which I’m using on this site, it will allow some customization. If it does, the “Appearance” box will now show “Mystique Settings” (or settings for whatever theme you’ve chosen.) Mystique allows you to change the colors of some areas, as well as the background, and it allows you to change the URL of the twitter link on the upper right of the page. I find it very fun to mess with these settings. Hopefully you will too.
Now you’ll also probably want to edit your Widgets. Some of these are “native” to wordpress, and others are created by your current theme. For example, when using Mystique, there is a twitter widget. You can drag this over into the sidebar where you want it, and click on the options arrow to edit what twitter feed it’s pulling from (it defaults to WordPress.) These widgets are really fun to play with.
STEP #9 EXPLORE!
I’d like to say you’re done, but you’re actually just beginning. There’s so much that you can do with a simple installation of wordpress like this. Take it on, look around, make some posts, click on EVERYTHING! Have FUN!