Maybe you are an aspiring blogger or affiliate marketer searching for how to start your first blog or website…
NOTE: Some of the links in this post are affiliate links. This means that if you click on any and go and purchase on the website I will make a commission from it. If you buy your hosting via Dreamhost after clicking on my link, send me an email, with your transaction ID and I will give you access to my my top-selling blogging course for free. Send to: [email protected]
So what we’re going to do in this training lesson is quite simple but they’re very necessary if you want your dream of having a successful blog or affiliate website to become a reality:
Key takeaways:
But first, let’s get your domain name from Namecheap.com
People use the term blog and website interchangeably online, especially when talking about the most popular website platform online called WordPress. Most WordPress websites have a blog function, this is where you add fresh content/articles/blog posts to your website. And Google and the search engines LOVE new content.
Register Your Domain With Namecheap
Let’s assume you have already found the best domain name that you want to use to build your blog or affiliate website, but if you haven’t, you can check out our Lean domain search tutorial to find good domains or Expired domains tutorial also.
So to register our domain name, we use Namecheap (best domain registrar), or YOU CAN GET IT FREE WHEN YOU GET YOUR DREAMHOST ACCOUNT. There are lots of domain registrars out there but we highly recommend Namecheap because we have never had problems with them, vs the likes of Godaddy, which can be an actual nightmare!
- Go to Namecheap and search for your domain in the search bar, Namecheap is going to show you if your domain is available or taken.
Since our domain is available, now we have to pay to get the Namecheap domain and start building our website.
2. Click on add to cart and Click on Checkout.
3. You choose either a one-year or two years domain registration.
4. Next, it’s going to ask you to create a new account or log into an existing account, since I already have a Namecheap account, I’m just going to log in.
5. Now that you have successfully created your Namecheap account and are ready to proceed, you can either use your Credit cards or Paypal to pay for your domain, and you’re good to go.
Log into your domain registrar control panel to make sure your domain registration is confirmed and authorized… Now we can proceed to host your new affiliate website using DreamHost.
Why Dreamhost?
Here are the reasons why we prefer DreamHost and always recommend it for our students who are starting their first affiliate website:
If you’re interested in learning how to start your first blog or affiliate website, then you have to pay attention to the next couple of sections because they are very important to have a fully functional website.
Set Up Your DreamHost Hosting Account
Once you’re on the DreamHost homepage, click on Hosting from the menu, and then click on shared website hosting.
From the next page click on see all plans.
Now, it takes you to all the hosting plans that DreamHost has.
You can either get a monthly, one-year, or 3 years hosting plan.
To get your hosting for $38.40 (Approx) for 1 Year (which is crazy good) we recommend you go with a one-year plan because the longer hosting you purchase the cheaper you get it. we do not recommend month-by-month. Also, if you’re on a budget, it would enable you to focus on more important things like building and promoting your website.
Here we’re not going to be looking at complex or more sophisticated hosting plans. We’re going to be using the best hosting plans for beginners.
The Shared hosting. You can access Dreamhost here.
DreamHost has two types of shared hosting plans as you can see above, Shared starter and shared Unlimited.
They both have the same starting price, but we recommend you go for shared unlimited for a couple of reasons:
- You can host unlimited websites
- Get free domain business email addresses with your domain name, like: [email protected]
- You get a free domain name, plus loads extra stuff you do not get with the Shared Starter.
And as you can see from the image above, there are loads of other things you can get for choosing the shared unlimited hosting plan for 1 Year. That is very important, choose 1 year.
You also get website builders, free automated website migration, etc. Although you don’t need all of these other things at the moment.
Now, Click on sign up under the shared unlimited hosting plan.
It takes you to the next page that looks like this below:
We have already picked our plan, the next step is to add our domain name.
DreamHost offers a free domain name registration with the shared unlimited hosting plan but if you have a domain using Namecheap you can use this too.
So we assume you have already registered your domain name following the process above.
Click on the button that says “I already have a domain” Put your domain name and click assign.
You will be taken to the payment section, you can either pay for your domain using a Credit card or Paypal.
Make sure you cross-check your checkout page to make sure everything is in order.
You have to uncheck the Dreamshield protection because you dont need it.
The things you’re going to need are Pre-install WordPress and WP website builder. and they’re completely free.
As you can see, to get your website online to the world only for the first year is $38, which is cool compared to the potential of what you can accomplish with your website.
Next is to fill in your details for the purchase, and we recommend signing up with Google because you can easily sign into your hosting account and not risk forgetting your password.
Once you have done everything we have mentioned above, you can click on submit order.
Now you’re going to be redirected to the Control panel of your DreamHost account.
Next, we’re going to talk about how you can easily install WordPress using the One-click install feature.
Install WordPress
Your domain name has already been added to DreamHost but it’s not going to be working yet until you connect your domain registrar with your hosting.
But first, we’re going to go through a quick WordPress website setup (Install WordPress on our website)
- We have to click on Manage website from the menu on the left-hand side of the page.
2. Select the domain name by clicking on manage, if you have multiple domains.
3. Scroll down to WordPress and Click on Install.
It only takes a short time to successfully install and you’re ready to build your website on WordPress.
When you click on manage, it goes to show you an error message because your domain name is not yet connected with your hosting account. So let’s do that now.
Successfully Connect Your Domain to Your Hosting Account
To get your website online, you have to successfully link your domain name registrar with your hosting account using what is called a Domain Name Server (DNS). Let’s go through step-by-step how to do this.
- From your DreamHost Panel, click on domain on the left side of the page and click on manage domains.
2. Click on DNS,
And it’s going to open up a new page that contains your DreamHost Nameservers as you can see in the image below. These 3 DNS are important because they connect Dreamhost with Namecheap.
3. We open up Namecheap on a new tab, and once you’re in your dashboard, You’re going to see your domain. Click on manage.
4. On the next page, find the Namecheap Basic DNS and from the dropdown, click on the custom DNS ( This might be different if you’re using other Domain registrars but would be similar).
5. Now, go back to DreamHost, Copy the 3 DNS and paste it into the Namecheap custom DNS and click on the green check mark to save.
Now, you’re done. It might take a couple of hours before your domain name is successfully connected to your hosting account.
After waiting for about 20 minutes, our new website has already started working.
Now, to start building your website, you have to go back to your WordPress and manage your website using WordPress.
So we’re going to go to the Manage website and scroll down to WordPress and then Click on manage.
It takes us directly to the backend of our WordPress website, where we can start adding plugins, themes, content, and all of those things that make our website functional and valuable to our audience.
Conclusion On How to Start Your First Affiliate Website
Now you know the basics of how to start your first affiliate website, it is really quite easy…
You have a clear understanding of how to find and buy a domain name, how to set up your hosting account, and also how to successfully connect your domain name to your hosting account so that your website can come alive.
Have you launched your first affiliate website yet? If your first affiliate website is online, kindly type in the comment section below the word “AM IN”
If you haven’t set up your affiliate website yet, we recommend you do that using DreamHost.
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