Instructions:
A domain is a location on the Internet and is part of every internet address. For example, in ‘www.gmu.edu’ ‘gmu’ is the domain and ‘.edu’ is the top-level domain.
- Go to Reclaim Hosting: https://reclaimhosting.com
- Click on ‘Sign Up’ and select the Students and Individuals option ($30/year).
Selecting your Domain Name:
- Enter the domain name you would like to use in the box next to ‘www.’
- You can try some form of your name
- first & last, first & middle initial & last, or some variation
- Why your name? If you don’t own it, someone else might/will. It is the most obvious name for your domain, and one that can be used for a variety of projects.
- If privacy is a concern, you can choose another name. Keep it professional.
- You can try some form of your name
- Click on the triangle next to ‘.com’ to view a dropdown of top level domains to choose from.
- We tend to favor .org or .net
- Some of the other options are not available to people living in the U.S.
- I recommend that you do NOT use .com. You can, it is not limited to commercial enterprises or business, but many people think it is, so it can cause you problems.
- Click ‘Check Availability’ to see if the domain is available.
- You may need to try several options before you find one that is available
- Try changing the top level domain (.org/.net etc) before you change the domain name.
- When you have found an available domain, click ‘continue.’
- You do not need to select ID protection in the next screen – just click ‘continue.’
Registration and Payment
- Enter your details, and payment information to complete the order.
- Make sure you record the password that you use.
- Once you have completed your order, check your email for a transaction receipt and an email with your new account information – make sure you keep that email.
Setting Up WordPress
- Click through to the ‘Client Area.’
- You should see 1 Active Account and 1 Active Domain.
- The blue ‘Support’ button on the right gives you access to Reclaim Hosting’s fantastic customer support, if you need it.
- Click on the cPanel (control panel for your hosting account).
- There are rows and rows of options – we’ll be using very few of them in this course!
- Select ‘Web Applications’ which should be the first set of options.
- Click on ‘WordPress’ which we will use for your Online Portfolio.
- You are now in ‘Installatron.’ This is one of my favorite features of Reclaim Hosting, providing one click installation of a range of software, saving you from a much more complex manual process.
- Click on ‘+ install this application.’
- On the next screen, leave most of the settings on the default options.
- Location: leave this as it is. When you leave this as it is, with the Directory blank, WordPress is installed so that it is what appears when someone visits your domain – which is what we want to happen.
- Scroll down to Settings [all these can be changed later in WordPress]
- In ‘Administrator Username,’ create a username you will remember.
- In ‘Administrator Password,’ click on ‘show password’, and record the password.
- Under ‘Web Site Title,’ try ‘Online Portfolio” or something similar. This can be changed later.
- In ‘Website Tagline,’ delete the text and replace it with something of your choosing (it’s like the subtitle of your site), or leave it blank.
- Accept the default settings.
- Scroll to the bottom, click ‘+ Install” – and watch Installatron do its thing!
- Once installtron is done, Note the 2 urls under the name of your site.
- Url 1: where this WordPress site is now installed, which takes you to the front-end of the site, which is what appears in the image on the left of your screen.
- Url 2: to access the back end of the WordPress site, where you add and edit content. Basically, it is the site addess with ‘/wp-admin’ added.
- Log out of ‘cPanel.’
You do not need to go to Reclaim Hosting to get to your WordPress site. Instead, use your WordPress url <mysite.org/wp-admin>, and log-in with the email address associated with your Reclaim account and the WordPress password you recorded.