Setting Up Your Own WordPress Blog : Domain

Why should I grow up?

18 February 2008 27 Comments

Gundam Tr-1

This is a continuation from Setting Up Your Own WordPress Blog : Hosting. Some of my friends have been asking me a lot of things regarding setting up a WordPress blog, own domain and paid hosting. I’m compiling all the discussions so that if anyone else ask me on the related topic, I’ll just redirect him/her to specific post.Now that you have the tools and a place to build your own WordPress blog, you need an address so that your friends know where to find you.

Domain Name

Think domain name as your address. The address you give your friends when you invite them to play at your virtual playground. You already have a base and the tools to build your playground, now you need an address to tell people where to find your playground.

Domain vs Hosting

Some people get confused between domain and hosting

domain = your web address = http://azwanhadzree.com (the one you type in the address bar column in Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox).
hosting = a physical server to host your web address = the place you host http://azwanhadzree.com. It must be accessible by anyone (unless it is password protected) and you need a server at a data center. Your hosting provider can give you just that.

I use my own name as my domain name. You need to pay for the domain too. The price is standard but some companies may give special offer when you register with them. Unless you have your own server, you have to purchase both domain and hosting. Take note that you can purchase both from different vendor but before doing that please ask for the charges involve on transferring domain and linking set up. For a newbie, get both from one. NetKL offers free domain when you register for any of their hosting packages. It is only RM60 per year for the basic package.

Domain & Niche

Deciding on a domain name sometimes can be tough as it depends on what you want. If you want to blog about something specific then you should do a keyword search for your niche blog. You may want something like http://my.exgirls.com. This suits a weirdo who wants to spill out all the things about his ex. Example OK … example. If you’re an expert in SAP workflow (I am not one yet) and you want to establish yourself as one, in the SAP community, a domain name that contains ‘workflow’ or ‘SAP’ would be a good choice. So it depends. To make it simple, register your own name like I did.

Domain & SEO

The reason for a keyword search is for SEO, Search Engine Optimization, especially if you are planning to monetized your blog or if you are planing to be an expert in a certain area. What SEO can do to your blog? Refer to my Cari Duit post and how I fine-tuned it . It’s still on the first page of Google for the keyword Cari Duit although I only did tuned it once. But of course, the search results is less than 1 million, it’s easy to get on the front page.

Search Engines are the most widely used Internet tool to find products or information. Search engines drive potential visitors (customers and also spammers) to your blog, but in order for them to reach you, you need to provide the search engines with specific keywords that best describe your blog. Then again, to just discuss about search engines, niche and SEO would take more than just 200 or 300 words. So I leave that to other experts. You can refer to http://wordtracker.com for keywords (refer to my entertainment niche post), registration to their newsletter is free. If your blog is only a personal blog why bother , but that doesn’t mean it can ‘t be optimized.

Domain Tips

If you are getting your hosting/domain from Malaysia and the price is in RM, pay in USD with PayPal if possible. You get a much better exchange rate compared to transferring the money from PayPal to your Debit Card and there’s no fee (or any charge) involve.
Some hosting company include domain in their packages while some don’t. Please make sure you know what are you paying for.
For companies that offer a free domain with any of their packages, please make sure that it belongs and registered under you name, not theirs.

Everyone is blogging these days about all different things which is why you find blogs on just about every topic from television blogs to soldier blogs. If you are looking for information on blogs, you can easily find good tips online.

[tags]niche, blogging, seo, setup, wordpress, domain, hosting package, server, tips[/tags]
Image Credit : BeckZaidan, which has nothing to do with the post ..ha..

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