We’re delighted that you have chosen to take up our free WordPress installation, setup and personal guidance service!

There’s just one thing you need to do before we can take over the reins and get everything setup for you: purchase a domain name and hosting.

Don’t worry – it’s a piece of cake and doesn’t have to take any longer than a few minutes.

So let’s get going!

Click here to access the Bluehost homepage. Bluehost are my domain name and hosting provider of choice – all of my websites are hosted with them, including the one you’re currently reading this tutorial on. They also offer a 30-day Money Back Guarantee.

(Important note: I can only offer you our free WordPress installation, setup and personal guidance service if you purchase a domain name and hosting through the above link. I will receive a commission from Bluehost if you choose to purchase hosting via the link above, which is how I can afford to offer you our free service. Purchasing through the above link does not affect the price you pay – you are getting the best possible deal.)

On the Bluehost homepage, hover over products in the navigation bar and click on Shared Hosting.

On the next page, click get started now.

The following page is where you’ll choose your hosting plan. You have three options:

Select hosting plan

Unless you have immediate plans to run more than one site, I recommend that you choose the ‘starter’ plan. This will give you everything you need to get your blog up and running, and you can always upgrade to more advanced plans in the future if your requirements change.

It is of course up to you though. Pick your plan and click on the relevant select button.

Enter your chosen domain name on the next page and click on next.

If you’re not sure what domain name to choose, check out this wonderful guide.

There’s also a simple solution if you’re struggling to think of a domain name: use your full name (or a variation of it). This gives you free reign to blog what you like about if you’re not yet sure what you want to focus on in the long term. If it’s good enough for Chris Guillebeau and Michael Hyatt, it’s good enough for us 😉

Please note that your chosen domain name may be taken; you may need to try a few different names before you find one that hasn’t already been registered. If you find this process a little frustrating, remember this: your domain name doesn’t have to be permanent. If you’re not 100% happy with your domain name, you can always change it in the future (you can grab a new domain for as little as $11.99).

All things being well, you will see a confirmation message on the next page:

You’ll need to enter your account information below that message.

Next, confirm your account plan. I recommend a 12 month subscription to start with, but you can reduce the monthly cost with longer subscriptions – 24 months or 36 months.

Package information

You may be wondering what the other options are, so let’s take a moment to explore them:

  • Domain Privacy Protection. I can’t put it better than Bluehost does: “The whois information for any domain name is available to anyone on the internet. Your whois information can be harvested by marketing companies, which will give you unwanted solicitations. When you add Bluehost Domain Privacy to your registration, the only information listed in the whois will be Bluehost.” Basically, it’s an issue of privacy. Decide whether you want it accordingly!
  • Site Backup Pro. This is not mandatory, but I strongly recommend that you leave this box checked. It is vital that you take regular backups of your site, and for just $1.67 per month, Bluehost’s backup service is great value for money.
  • SiteLock Domain Security. This is not essential, but check out the features by clicking on More information and decide for yourself.
  • Search Engine Jumpstart. You don’t need to start worrying about search engines just yet, so unless you’re keen on the features it offers, leave this unchecked.

I recommend that you leave the boxes as they are, but it is of course entirely up to you.

Next, enter your billing information. You can pay by credit card, or if you would prefer, you can click on More payment options to pay by PayPal.

You may notice that although there is a monthly fee for hosting, Bluehost charges you annually. So instead of paying say $6.95 per month, every month, you pay $83.40 for the whole year up front.

Don’t let that worry you though. Not only do Bluehost have a 30 day Money Back Guarantee, they also offer pro rata refunds after that time. So if you decide to cancel your hosting three months from now, you’ll still get your money back for the remaining nine months.

Once you’re finished and happy to proceed, click on the big green next button at the bottom of the page:

You may now be presented with a bunch of ‘Additional Options’, such as a QuickStart Coaching Session or additional domain names. You might like to consider these options,but none of them are necessary. We’ve got you covered 🙂

Head right down to the bottom of the page and click to skip to the next page:

Additional Options

You’ll be taken to a confirmation page, where you’ll be prompted to create a password. Click on the create your password button:

Choose a password

You’ll be taken to a page where you can create a password for your account. I recommend that you use Bluehost’s password generator for this purpose – they’ll create a really secure password for you. It’s entirely up to you though.

Click on the Password Generator button. A new window will open with a unique password generated for your account.

Make a note of the password, then click on the Paste button. The password will be pasted into the two fields. You can then click on the Create button.

That’s it! We can take over from here. Just fill in the form below and hit “Set Me Up!”

[contact-form to=’bmp@leavingworkbehind.com’ subject=’New Blog Setup Request’][contact-field label=’Name’ type=’name’ required=’1’/][contact-field label=’Email’ type=’email’ required=’1’/][contact-field label=’Domain Name’ type=’url’ required=’1’/][contact-field label=’Bluehost Password’ type=’text’ required=’1’/][/contact-form]