If you are a beginner of WordPress, this tutorial is suitable for you. In this series of tutorials, I will tell you how to choose a better domain name, how to select a good host, how to install the WordPress, how to choose the WordPress theme step by step, until you can manage to build a great Worpress blog or website by yourself.
Establish a basic WordPress blog, it is not necessary for you to learn the website technique, and all the sources or tools mentioned in this passage are free. Thus, the only thing will cost your money is only the domain and host.
The first step of establish a WordPress blog is to choose a good domain name, the domain name is the unique address of your blog, just like the address of your home, for example, the google.com, aol.com, cnn.com.
What is a good domain name?
If you do not know how to choose a good domain, I have five principles for reference.
1. A good domain name is short. The shorter, the better. The length of your domain should be within 5 letters/numbers, just like the CNN.com or Google.com. Of course there are some exceptions, for example, howtodotings.com, topreviewonline.com, howtomakeawebsite.net and so on.
2. A good domain name is easy to spell and remember. If not, you will loss readers easily, and remember that avoiding the intricate words, like the CappuccinoBar.com which is not user friendly to readers. If you choose a good domain name, it is easier for readers to type it in the explorer.
3. A good domain name is relative to the subject of your blog. Because a lot of people love to type the domain name directly to surf your website, and if your domain name can reflect the subject of your blog, people can remember it and surf it easier.
4. A good domain name has a top domain suffix like .com, .net or .org. When you are purchasing the domain name, you have a plenty of suffixes to choose. However, three suffixes are the first choice come into mind. The first one is .com which is also the most popular top suffix nowadays. If you can not find the domain has the .com suffix, then consider the .net or .org. Never choose the suffix like .biz, .info or .me, because most of the rubbish sites utilize these suffixes.
5. A good domain name should not has the hyphen (-) or numbers to the greatest extent. Some people like to use some numbers or hyphen in their domain name, because it is easy to find the shorter domain. Avoiding doing this, because it is easy to mislead your readers and make them type the wrong domain name.
If you think it is complicated for you to choose domain names like that, now I introduce a simple method: list the keywords of your blog, and then put the prefix, (e.g., super, mega, quick, top, hot) or postfix (e.g., central, spot, corner, zone). For example, if the subject of your blog is car, then the relative subject can be automobile, motor and so on. So you can find the domain name like supermotor.com, easymotor.com, greatatuomobile.com.
Check whether the domain name is available.
According to the principles above, I do believe that you have found the best domain name for your blog. Now let me tell you how to check if the domain name is available. You can use the whois tools like AjaxWhois.com, the only thing you should do is to import the relative domain name and then it will display the condition of it. You will know whether it has been register or not.
Some other tools for you to check your domain name and know more things about it.
- Nameboy.com, it can give you many suggestions for your domain name according to the keywords of your blog.
- Bustaname.com, if you import a series of keywords, this site will sort some good domains that have not been register by other people.
- DomainsBot.com, the search engine for a domain。
How to purchase a good domain name?
After you have find the suitable domain name, the following step is purchase it. I suggest buying the domain name on the goddaddy.com, it is convenient and cheap, and all of my domains are registered on godaddy.com, including this topreviewonline.com.
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