Register And Host Your Domain

Let’s begin by navigating to our hosting provider. Click on the image link below to navigate to the hosting provider.

You will find yourself in front of the following site, shown in Figure 1-2:

Figure 1-2 HostGator homepage

Next, you will need to click on the ‘WEB HOSTING’ menu button near the top of the page, which will take you to the web hosting page. In the web hosting page, scroll down the page until you see the hosting plans similar to Figure 1-3.

Figure 1-3 Hosting plans for your arcade

We are going to use Linux Hosting as opposed to Windows Hosting. If you would like to find out more about Linux hosting as opposed to Windows hosting you can search Google; however, it is not important for the purpose of this book. Now, depending on what type of package you want you will click on the ‘Order Now’ button. The Hatchling Package is the cheapest package and you will have unlimited disk space and bandwidth; unfortunately, you will only be able to host one domain name. The Baby Package is your second option which is still a very reasonable price. The baby package will provide you with unlimited disk space, bandwidth, and domain names. This means that if you wanted to create another webpage you could simply register a new domain name with HostGator and use your current hosting plan. The final option is the Business Package which provides you with all the features as the previous two and it gives you much more options as well as your own Toll-Free number. We will not need our own toll-free number; adversely, if you are starting up your own e-commerce site you may need one. I would suggest at least getting the baby package so you can host more than one domain name. So go ahead and click the ‘Order Now’ button.

On the next page you will select ‘Register New Domain’ and enter the domain name you want to register as shown below in Figure 1-4. In this case I would type in ‘yourarcade’ and switch the drop down menu from ‘.com’ to ‘.org’. Then, click next.

Figure 1-4 Order wizard domain selection

After you have selected your domain and clicked next. You will be shown a new page of the available names as displayed in Figure 1-5. Check the domains you would like to register and click ‘Continue’.

Figure 1-5 Available domain selection

Next is an overview of your purchase as shown below in Figure 1-6. There is also a text box for a coupon code. Now, if you are going to use the ‘baby hosting package’ you can enter in ‘freemonth’ in the coupon textbox and you will receive your first month purchase for only $0.01!

Figure 1-6 Registration over-view

Click the ‘Calculate Totals’ button to advance to the next page, which will show your order details as shown in Figure 1-7.

Figure 1-7 Your order details

Click continue to progress to the payment page. You will need to enter in your contact information, username/password, and your credit/debit card information. There is also an option to pay using PayPal. For these instructions we are going to assume you are using a credit/debit card as shown in Figure 1-8.

Figure 1-8 Payment options

After you have entered all the required fields, make sure to select ‘Yes’ on the agreement and click ‘Verify My Order’. The next page will confirm the information you have just entered. Make sure that all the information is correct, scroll down to the bottom, and click ‘Process My Order’. If everything went okay you should see a message similar to this:

Congrats! You now have your own ‘.com’, ‘.net’, or ‘.org’ website!

If you visit your domain name from your browser you will most likely not see anything, or you may show a HostGator ‘Getting Started’ page. The reason for this is that we have not added any files to your website. We will get around to this in Chapter 3. In the next portion we are going to walk you through your website control panel. How to set up your email address, change your settings, and many other options that you now have available with your hosting plan.