Your Quick Guide to Registering a Domain Name and Setting Up Your Blog

The popularity of blogging can be estimated just by the fact that there are around 4 million blog posts written every single day. It has become a vital part of the content marketing strategy for B2B as well as B2C marketers. Blogging helps to drive traffic, establishes you as a thought leader in your industry, improves engagement with your target audience, and even has the power to convert leads into buying customer.

But, before you commence blogging, you will need to register a domain name and set up your blog. If you are doing this for the first time, don’t worry.

Here’s how you can register your domain and set up your blog in three easy steps.

1. Choose Your Domain Name

Before you think of picking a website hosting service, you will need to choose a domain name. To get the right namewhich reflects the crux of your blog or business perfectly a thorough research is a crucial. Some of the things to keep in mind are:

• Be aware of the popular search terms and keywords related to your field, and try to get the domain name closest to these terms.
• Make sure that that the blog name is easy to remember and spell. So, keep it short and catchy.
• The name should also be descriptive of what you will be blogging about.
• Avoid using numbers and/or hyphens. This often creates confusion in the mind of the visitor. For instance, people can confuse 0 with o.
• If possible, try to get a .com domain extension. It is the most popular extension these days. However, it is also the most expensive one.

2. Check Availability of the Domain Name

Next, ensure that the domain name choose is available. For this, you can use a domain checker. This is an online tool that tells you about the availability of a domain name by simply checking itvia the checker. In case the name is already taken, try typing another variation of it, or names that resemble it. You can also try changing the domain extension to .net or .org. Or, you can even consider reaching out to the current owner to check if they are willing to sell it to you.

3. Get Your Blog Online

Once you have picked your name, it is time to take the blog online. This process includes registering your domain name. You can do this through a domain name registrar by paying a fee. Usually, this fee is for one year. You will need to renew the domain name every 12 months with a renewal fee. The second option is to choose a website hosting serviceprovider. Generally, a domain namecomes free with their hosting plan.

A domain hosting company also takes care of everything else needed to get your blog up and running. For blogging, you will also need software that helps you create the webpage and add posts. The most popular, easy to use, and customizable software used for blogging is WordPress. The good news is thatsome of the best hosting companies offer free registration of the domain name as well as free installation of WordPress as part of their plans.

Once online, the hosting service will take care of the performance, security, and maintenance of your blog. Choose a hosting service that offers 24/7 customer support and maximum uptime within their web hosting plan’s price.

Taking your blog live doesn’t need to be rocket science. Just do your research and pick the right hosting company.