How To — Start A WordPress Blog — Buy A Web Hosting Plan

A website can’t exist without a domain name and a web hosting plan. There are a ton of web hosting companies on the web and then there is countless web hosting comparisons, reviews, coupons, and deals of those hosting companies. And almost all of the bloggers recommend at least one web hosting company of their choice.

The problem is, the web hosting provider recommended by ‘Blogger A’ could be the worst rated hosting company by ‘Blogger B’ or vice versa. Again, a good percentage of the bloggers or the “best web hosting reviews and ratings” are biased.

I would say there’s no such thing as a perfect web hosting company. You need to select a web hosting plan based on your actual requirements and budget. If you are unsure about it then the best thing is to get help from your geeky friend or ask on a web hosting forum.

You can also check out my Web Hosting Handbook to know all (almost) things web hosting. Anyway, I’m recommending a shared hosting plan by Hawk Host (for this very tutorial) as it’s reliable and affordable (especially when it comes to renewal).

Just in case, Shared Hosting is the most popular — and also the most affordable — web hosting plan. It’s super-easy to manage a shared hosting plan and it’s equally good for beginners as well as experienced webmasters.

Shared hosting basically means that you’re sharing your server (resources as well as the cost) with hundreds of other websites. And that makes it affordable for everyone.

The majority of websites on the web are actually hosted on a shared hosting plan. It can cost as low as $1 per month to as high as $25 per month depending upon the hosting brand and their resources. If you are new to blogging or have an existing WordPress.com or BlogSpot.com blog that’s not getting a lot of traffic, a shared hosting plan is all that you need.

Also, shared hosting is good for a personal website or a small business website (assuming that you don’t expect too much traffic every single day, and all you need is an online presence plus business email).

And hey, a shared hosting may also be suitable when you need to host multiple websites — as long as you don’t expect hundreds of thousands of visits an hour to each website.

So let’s get started!

Note: I’m starting a real WordPress blog here (for demo purpose).

1. Hawk Host Homepage

Go to Hawk Host homepage and click on “Hosting” to select a shared web hosting plan.

2. Hawk Host Web Hosting Plans

Hawk Host offers 2 shared hosting plans and I would recommend the PRIMARY plan (or their basic plan) as it’s good for hosting unlimited websites and offers unlimited resources (bandwidth, databases, email accounts, subdomains, etc.).

So if you are planning to start multiple websites (or blogs) then the Primary plan is good enough. However, if you want to upload thousands of gigabytes of data then you should consider the Professional plan as it offers unlimited disk space as well. Again, it’s a good idea to pick a 2-year billing cycle as it offers the best value for money.

3. Choose Your Domain Name

Use the “Register a new domain” option, if you wish to purchase the domain name via Hawk Host itself.

4. Register A New Domain Name/Use Existing Domain Name

If you have already purchased it (say from Namecheap.com or GoDaddy.com) or own it elsewhere then use the “I will use my existing domain and update my nameservers” option.

5. Configure Your Hosting Plan

Review your web hosting plan and its billing cycle, hosting location (ignore this if you don’t know what it is), and of course the final price and click “Continue”.

6. Review & Checkout

Review your order and apply Promo Code (if any).

7. Promo Code

Confirm the final price (after applying the promo code) and click “Checkout”.

8. Complete Order

Enter your personal, billing and payment details and click “Complete Order”.

9. Hawk Host Welcome Email

You will instantly get a confirmation email.

10. Hawk Host Login

Login to Hawk Host Client Area by entering your email address and the password that you have set during the “Checkout” process.

11. Hawk Host Client Area

That’s the Hawk Host Client Area or the Dashboard from where you manage your Hawk Host products and services and billing. You can click on “SERVICES” to view your Hawk Host products and services.

12. Hawk Host My Products & Services

If you are logging in immediately after signing up, you will see a “Pending” status for your hosting account. However, you can click on it to see the hosting information (like the associated domain name, server name, IP address, nameservers, and billing details).

13. Hawk Host Manage Product

As you can see, the hosting account is pending but you can update the nameservers of your domain name (if it’s registered on Namecheap.com or GoDaddy.com or elsewhere). When the hosting account is totally setup, you will receive a New Account Information email from Hawk Host.