Help with setting up a blog! Please :-)

[Jesswoods]

Hi everyone,

Please, all of you who are better at this than me, can you explain to a relative newbie how to set up my blog? Here is what I have done and what I want to do:

I have a website for some children's books that I am going to be producing a bit later, so I have the hosting with FatCow. I am using their free domain for that site.

Since I already paid for a year of hosting with FatCow, I thought I'd find a cheap domain for my personal finance blog, so I bought one from GoDaddy.

I have heard its best to use separate hosting and domain companies, but have no clue what to do from this point so that the domain from GD is hosted on FC.

Do I actually build the site on GD or do I build it on FC?

I am massively confused!

Add to that the GD rep told me they are offering 1 year website builder with free hosting for $12 for the first year, but I think the 5 pages would be too small for the blog...what do you guys think?

Any advice that can help me figure out what the heck I am doing is greatly appreciated!

Jess

[CoolBlue]

Are you going with wordpress?

Let's see:
You need to change your namesever on Godaddy to point to your hosting account on Fatcow.
See: http://support.godaddy.com/help/arti...r-domain-names

I have specific nameservers for my domains — This option indicates that you are hosting your domain name with another company (enter the two or more nameservers your hosting provider gave you), or you have custom nameservers you want to use for this domain name.

The nameservers should be in your Fatcow account and should look something similar to (the numbers might be different):

Nameserver 1: ns1.fatcow.com
Nameserver 2: ns2.fatcow.com

Once that is done. You are finished with Godaddy (contact support there if you need more help).

According to Godaddy:

After updating your nameservers, allow 4 to 8 hours for other networks to access information for .com and .net domain names, and allow 24 to 48 hours for other networks to access information for all other domain extensions. If you have difficulty, contact our 24/7 technical support team for assistance.

Everything else is done on your fatcow account.
The simple way to put up a wordpress site for you would be to follow the instruction:
http://www.fatcow.com/knowledgebase/...ArticleID=1750

You can contact the help support on FatCow for more help. It looks like they are on 24/7.

[CoolBlue]

Youtube video on Godaddy nameserver:

Changing DNS Nameserver in Godaddy - YouTube

I don't know a thing about FatCow but found this video on youtube that might help you

How to Install WordPress on FatCow - YouTube

[Jesswoods]

How kind of you to find that info for me!!! I will try these as soon as I get the kids to bed tonight. I just want the darn thing up so I can start adding content, lol!

Thanks again, you rock!

[Cynthialil]

You need to build your site on the host - FatCow in this case. The plan you mentioned might be for an easy site builder kind of thing. Those are usually simple templates so you can get a site up fast but they're not very flexible.

If you have the option, don't use their easy builder, use their Wordpress install. That will give you all the flexibility you need to blog and put up pages.

[SavvyMom]

Originally Posted by Jesswoods

I have heard its best to use separate hosting and domain companies, but have no clue what to do from this point so that the domain from GD is hosted on FC.

Hi Jess,

You've gotten some great advice already - I just wanted to mention that there really is no need to get your domain from a different company than the one you have your hosting with, in fact I think this makes things more complicated. I have always had all my domains and hosting through Godaddy, and as others have said you can just install Wordpress through your hosting company, it only takes a couple of minutes to get it set up. Just something to keep in mind for the future in case you want to do another blog.

[starbirdy66]

As someone who has had to transfer a lot of domains from registrar to registrar for clients when they switched hosting companies I can say it is worth it to have the two entities separate. If for any reason you are not happy with your host, transferring a domain name is something that should be a non-issue if the domain registration is with another company.

Domain transfers take time and it is down time you can't afford if you are running a business. Changing DNS at the registrar to point from one host server to another is always faster than waiting for a domain transfer. There are rules to follow, some domains can end up locked if account information was recently updated to protect someone from stealing a domain. This could hold up a transfer for a month or so.

There are some great discussions on that here:
web hosting - Should I host my site with the same company I bought a domain from? - Pro Webmasters

[SamanthaJ]

I second all of this, blog section would be helpful, maybe?

[Success19]

I have been posting questions at the blogging are and here - since I do both and they are a related topic. The main thing is to get started on these things. Perfectionism is a good thing, but it can slow you down or make you motionless. I have friend who won't start a blog until she knows everything and it is perfect. This has been an ongoing process for her for about six years. I keep saying start a free one (that is all she can afford) and stop trying to be perfect. The reality is she isn't going to come up with the cash for all the bells and whistles. Free is completely acceptable as a starting point.

[Ehitz]

Once you get the Domain name onto FatCow, they have a one click wordpress install on the control panel home, should the screen it takes you to when you first log in!