When you browse a WordPress theme, you need to visualize your future website. That's why picking a theme/template is the toughest part of setting up any WordPress site. Seriously. There are a large number of free and paid WordPress themes out there so selecting one from so many themes can be extremely difficult. The problem with free WordPress themes is that its developers may not update their themes regularly. And when the codes of your themes are not up-to-date, it becomes vulnerable to attacks in the future. The same applies when you buy a paid WordPress theme from an independent theme developer (or freelancer). You may get the theme you really like at first, but eventually, the theme will become outdated. I personally recommend buying WordPress themes from a premium WordPress theme marketplace because they make sure that their WordPress themes are up-to-date. And that’s why they release new updates regularly and even add additional features when WordPress updates its core software. Out of the premium WordPress theme marketplaces, my personal favorite is StudioPress.com (oh yeah, I am also using one of their themes). First things first. There’s every chance that you will come across few terms like WordPress Framework, Child Theme (also known as Skin), and WordPress Hooks to name a few. So let us just explore those terms before getting started.

Plugins extend the functionality of your WordPress site (just like we add new features and functions to a web browser like Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox) with custom features. WordPress Plugins are independently developed by third-party developers across the world. There are over 50,000 plugins in the official WordPress Plugin Directory and you can install any of them using the plugin browser or the installer available in your WordPress dashboard. If you know what you want then you can use the Search to find it. Or, you can browse the Featured, Popular, Recommended, or Favorites (favorite plugins of a particular WordPress.org user) to get an idea of what’s possible. So let’s get started!

Now that you have purchased a domain name and a web hosting plan, it’s time to setup WordPress on your server. Login to Hawk Host Client Area when you receive the New Account Information email, and it's from there that you manage various aspects of your web hosting account. So let’s get started!

Now you have purchased a domain name, a web hosting plan and have updated the nameservers as well. So what happens after that? Basically, once you purchase a domain name + web hosting plan, you need to do 3 things. First, setup your web hosting account (including nameserver updates, update passwords, etc.). Second, upload the website files from your computer to the server. Third, setup your custom email accounts ([email protected]). When your web hosting account is activated, you will receive a welcome email from the web hosting company with the account information. Some web hosting companies offer instant account activation and hence you receive the account information email almost instantly. I have received the account information email in less than 30 minutes. Now I will simply go through the Hawk Host Client Area --- just in case. So let’s get started!

When your domain name registrar and the web hosting company are different, you will have to update the nameservers (or name servers) of your domain name. For instance, my blog is currently hosted with InMotion Hosting and its nameservers are ns1.inmotionhosting.com and ns2.inmotionhosting.com. So when you type maheshone.com into the address bar, your computer fetches the page from the servers of InMotion Hosting. And if I'm migrating my blog from InMotion Hosting to Hawk Host then my new nameservers become ns1.hawkhost.com and ns2.hawkhost.com. So I need to update the nameservers of my domain name by logging in to my Namecheap account (which is my domain registrar). Once the nameservers are updated, when you type maheshone.com into the address bar, your computer will fetch the page from the servers of Hawk Host (and NOT from InMotion Hosting). So let’s get started!

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!

The first step in building an online business is registering a domain name. It’s like incorporating a company when you want to set up a business. The only problem is, it takes a lot of thinking and patience to find a perfect domain name that reflects your personality or business, or both. A domain name is your identity on the web. So try to find a name that’s unique, memorable, short, readable, and brandable (preferably a .com). You will also have to make sure that it doesn’t conflict with other brand names or trademarks.

Recommended Read: How To Choose A Domain Name For Your Blog

Even though you usually get a free domain name when you sign up for a 12-month web hosting plan, I would recommend purchasing a domain name on your own from a domain registrar like Namecheap.com or GoDaddy.com and it costs $10-$15 per year. Doing so will make it easy to manage all your domain names from a single dashboard (assuming that you will need more domain names in the future). Web Hosting Companies offer a domain name free of cost only for the first year, after which they start charging a premium rate. There’s every chance that you might not stick with the same web hosting company in the future, so it’s always better to purchase your domain names elsewhere and manage them separately. So let’s get started!