In the first of another new series of blog posts, I'm going to be featuring some information on how to develop your domain names.
The development of domains has become increasingly popular since the decline in parking revenue, and you can now produce a number of sites for a fairly small outlay.
Your portfolio of domain names can be developed into anything from a simple one-page lead generation site to a fully fledged authority website with thousands of useful pages. Monetization methods range from collecting money from adverts and affiliates to selling products or leads. We'll delve deeper into the monetization methods later in this series.
Before creating your website, you have to decide on a reliable hosting company, which will allow you to host multiple sites on one server. I'm not an expert in hosting technology, and I have limited knowledge of various hosting companies, but I can recommend SiteGround if you're looking for a fairly inexpensive but reliable host. I've been a customer of theirs for a year and have never had any problems. I think I pay around £100 per year.
After setting up your hosting, your name servers, and your domain names, you should be ready to install WordPress. Why WordPress?
It's an excellent content management system (CMS) that's updated regularly, which reduces security threats and adds features. It also has a lot of third party plugins and themes, meaning that it's possible to turn WordPress into just about anything you want, which is great news for us.
It also means that you don't need any prior knowledge of coding to get started or to install themes and plugins.
You can install WordPress in one of two ways:
1. Download WordPress:
To get the latest copy of WordPress, you can go to www.wordpress.org and click on "Download WordPress." This will give you a .zip file, which can be unpackaged and uploaded to your new hosting account using FTP. After uploading your WordPress files, navigate to your domain name on which you've just installed WordPress.
From here, you'll need to create a database and follow the on screen instructions to complete the WordPress installation. Here's a five minute installation guide for those following these methods.
2. The Easy Way
Most hosting companies have a quick installation option to allow you to install WordPress within seconds. My hosting company (SiteGround) uses cPanel technology, which allows me to install the latest version of WordPress in two clicks.
Some, such as GoDaddy, have a "Popular Apps" section in the Web Hosting Account Manager that allows you to do a similar installation. Here is an in depth guide to installing WordPress using the cPanel method.
After installing WordPress, you can navigate to your domain names WordPress Admin section by going to [insert-your-domain]/wp-admin. Log in using the username and password you created in the installation phase, and you'll see the WordPress Dashboard.
From here you can install all plugins and themes, as well as manage comments, SEO, and users. Of course, you can also create pages and posts from here.
Tip: WordPress installs a sample post, called "Hello World!" You'll want to delete that post before publishing new content. This can be done by going to
Familiarize yourself with the WordPress Dashboard by playing around with basic settings and maybe even create a sample post (they can always be deleted again).
In the next article for my Domain Development series, we'll look at plugins you'll need in order to create a decent money making website. From there, we'll cover themes, content, and much more.
Monday updates can now be seen here.
Domain Development is a blog series that teaches you how to create money making websites from your domain portfolio.
The development of domains has become increasingly popular since the decline in parking revenue, and you can now produce a number of sites for a fairly small outlay.
Your portfolio of domain names can be developed into anything from a simple one-page lead generation site to a fully fledged authority website with thousands of useful pages. Monetization methods range from collecting money from adverts and affiliates to selling products or leads. We'll delve deeper into the monetization methods later in this series.
Before creating your website, you have to decide on a reliable hosting company, which will allow you to host multiple sites on one server. I'm not an expert in hosting technology, and I have limited knowledge of various hosting companies, but I can recommend SiteGround if you're looking for a fairly inexpensive but reliable host. I've been a customer of theirs for a year and have never had any problems. I think I pay around £100 per year.
After setting up your hosting, your name servers, and your domain names, you should be ready to install WordPress. Why WordPress?
It's an excellent content management system (CMS) that's updated regularly, which reduces security threats and adds features. It also has a lot of third party plugins and themes, meaning that it's possible to turn WordPress into just about anything you want, which is great news for us.
It also means that you don't need any prior knowledge of coding to get started or to install themes and plugins.
You can install WordPress in one of two ways:
1. Download WordPress:
To get the latest copy of WordPress, you can go to www.wordpress.org and click on "Download WordPress." This will give you a .zip file, which can be unpackaged and uploaded to your new hosting account using FTP. After uploading your WordPress files, navigate to your domain name on which you've just installed WordPress.
From here, you'll need to create a database and follow the on screen instructions to complete the WordPress installation. Here's a five minute installation guide for those following these methods.
2. The Easy Way
Most hosting companies have a quick installation option to allow you to install WordPress within seconds. My hosting company (SiteGround) uses cPanel technology, which allows me to install the latest version of WordPress in two clicks.
Some, such as GoDaddy, have a "Popular Apps" section in the Web Hosting Account Manager that allows you to do a similar installation. Here is an in depth guide to installing WordPress using the cPanel method.
After installing WordPress, you can navigate to your domain names WordPress Admin section by going to [insert-your-domain]/wp-admin. Log in using the username and password you created in the installation phase, and you'll see the WordPress Dashboard.
From here you can install all plugins and themes, as well as manage comments, SEO, and users. Of course, you can also create pages and posts from here.
Tip: WordPress installs a sample post, called "Hello World!" You'll want to delete that post before publishing new content. This can be done by going to
Posts » All Posts
in your WordPress Dashboard, hovering over the "Hello World!" title and clicking on Trash.Familiarize yourself with the WordPress Dashboard by playing around with basic settings and maybe even create a sample post (they can always be deleted again).
In the next article for my Domain Development series, we'll look at plugins you'll need in order to create a decent money making website. From there, we'll cover themes, content, and much more.
Monday updates can now be seen here.
Domain Development is a blog series that teaches you how to create money making websites from your domain portfolio.