So you have decided to set up your self-managed blog with paid hosting.
If you have taken advice from an earlier article of mine you have also subscribed to space from HostGator and bought a domain from Go Daddy.
Now you have 3 distinct items and they need to be made into one unit.
That's what we will do in this article.
First, we start with our Go Daddy account and locate the place where we 'manage our domains'.
In this tab we click on the domain we have bought and presto, all details about it open up.
One of the details we are going to look for is the 'nameservers'.
By default these nameservers will be set to point to the Go Daddy domain since they are hopeful you will host with them.
But if you are not doing that (because HostGator support is terrific) we need to click on the nameservers and change them in the window that opens.
Obviously then we need the addresses of the HostGator nameservers then.
You will find them in a mail you would receive from HostGator.
Else you can go to yourdomain dot com slash ( / ) cpanel and access the control panel of your site.
Here you will find name server addresses (which look like a number dot HostGator dot com).
The next step is to copy these nameservers and paste them in the window that opened in Go Daddy...
in the space which says "I have my own specified nameservers" (the last option above the boxes).
In about 20 minutes the transfer will be effected.
Now it's time to go back to our control panel and look for the icon that says 'add on domains'.
Here we need to add the name of our new domain.
However this step will not be necessary for the first domain that you buy because the control panel is dedicated to it.
In case of your second and later blogs - and therefore second and later domain names - you will need to do this step.
It's a simple step that tells HostGator that a new domain is now being pointed to it.
That done we are ready for part three of this process, which is loading the blogging software.
We look for another icon in the cpanel - titled 'fantastico' to do this.
Click on fantastico and in the screen that opens look for 'WordPress' in the left column.
We will install a WordPress blog since that is really cool.
Easy to maintain and with lots of free options to set up.
Click 'new installation' and choose the domain name from the drop down menu that appears.
Of course, for your first blog there will be no menu...
but wait till you taste blood! The rest of the steps are to be followed as guided.
Once you click on 'finish installation' 'go back to the WordPress overview' and click on visit site.
You will see your brand new blog!