A Web Host (also called an Internet Service Provider or ISP) keeps track of your domain name and provides web hosting – or a place for your website on their servers. An online search will bring up hundreds of companies that offer both low cost domain names and economical web hosting. This article will describe the process securing your domain name and web hosting with one of the largest of these companies, godaddy.com.

 

Four Benefits of GoDaddy Shared Web Hosting 

 

Simple Auto Install of Joomla Version 1.5.25

GoDaddy offers simple auto installs of Joomla 1.5.25. Most web hosts do not. There are over 4,000 files in the Joomla program. So you definitely want a web host who allows you to install Joomla with just the click of a couple of buttons. Be aware that many web hosts might claim to have an auto install of Joomla. But what gets installed is not Joomla 1.5, but rather Joomla 1.6 or Joomla 1.7 – either of which may not work for many Joomla extensions. Even at GoDaddy, it takes some effort to reach the auto install for Joomla 1.5.25.

 

24 Hour Live Knowledgeable Support

You really need a web host which allows you to talk to an actual person any time you have a problem with your website. A key benefit of Go Daddy is that I can call at 1 am and talk with an actual person. Many web hosts have no one - other than an email ticket system - and thus problems can go on for weeks. Even companies with Live 24 support often do not bother to hire or train folks who know what they are talking about. So do not overlook this factor.

 

Deluxe Shared Hosting with up to 25 websites for $75 Per Year ($3 per website per year)

The cheapest option for webhosting is always "shared hosting" where your website is on the same server as a bunch of other websites (up to about 400 websites per server). GoDaddy offers to different Shared Hosting Plans. The first is a basic plan which gives you about 4 websites for $60 per year. The second is a Deluxe Hosting Plan which allows you to have up to 25 websites for about $75 per year. This comes to $3 per website per year. I use their deluxe plan as I currently have about 20 Joomla websites I have built to promote different causes and serve different purposes. I have also built a couple of websites for friends. Once you learn how easy it is to build a custom Joomla website, you are likely to want to build more. So consider the Deluxe Hosting Plan. Speaking of cost, you should also be aware that your domain name will also cost you about $10 per year for sites ending in .com and .org. Domain Names can also be secured through GoDaddy so the total cost for 20 websites runs about $200 per year – or about $10 per year per website. 

 

A Relatively High Email Send Limit

If you want to send out emails, one of the most important differences you will want to look for in choosing a web host is how many emails you are allowed to send out per hour or per day. The most common limit is 250 per day. The Go Daddy limit is 1,000 per day which is 4 times better than typical hosting companies. Even if you are working with a smaller email list now, it can be difficult to migrate a website to a different host after your website traffic grows. So think before you leap.  There are web host which will allow you to send unlimited emails. But they are typically NOT shared hosting and the cost is hundreds of dollars a year - way out of the price range of most people.

 

 

 

 

 

Securing Your Domain Name and Web Hosting the Old Fashion Way… By Calling GoDaddy on the phone!

You can secure your domain name and web hosting on line. But it is actually much easier and faster to just call them up and have a REAL PERSON help you. The real person is best  not only because they can verify right on the phone which domains are actually available, but also because they can often offer you deals on domain names and web hosting.  

 

Godaddy offers two kinds of hosting, Linux and Windows. Be sure to ask for Linux Hosting as Windows does not work very well with Joomla. If you forget, or get Windows hosting by accident, you can always change over to Linux by going to GoDaddy > My Hosting Account> Click on Your Domain Name > Select Hosting Account Details > Select option: Switch Operating System > Then select Linux Operating system. But this is a hassle and it is best to simply tell the person you sign up with that you want Linux hosting.

 

If you have a “deluxe hosting account,” your first website will be your PRIMARY website. All of the other websites will actually be “sub-folders” of this primary website. But they each operate as separate websites on the Internet. Whether you have a Economy Plan or a Deluxe Hosting Account, the following is the process for creating a new Joomla website. We will create one called springforwardwebdesign.com. which is being added to my primary website.

 

Step One: Getting your new Domain Name

A Domain Name is the internet address of your website, such as mywebsite.com. You will need to select a domain name that is not being used by someone else. Typical ending extensions include .com, .org, .net and .info. With browsers set up for auto linking from search engines and cut and paste to the browser being common, a longer domain name is not as much of a problem as it once was. More important is a domain name that is memorable and easy to spell.

 

It is a good idea to do this first step of setting up your account and securing your domain name by talking to a real person. Have your Go Daddy account log in name and password ready and your credit card ready. (You can also get an account log in name and password when you call them – but be sure to write it down as you will use it frequently in the future).

 

Then call Godaddy help phone number: 480-505-8877. Pay for the new domain name and ask them to include it as one of the domain names in your Deluxe Hosting Account. Because it was a .com domain name, the cost was about $10.00 for one year. However, if it was a .info domain name, the cost would have been under two dollars per year. There was no charge for the hosting because that is already paid for by my primary Deluxe Hosting account.

 

Setting Up Your Primary Domain Name with Godaddy

 

If this is your first website with GoDaddy, it is called your Primary Domain. We will first review how to set up a primary domain and then review how to set up a secondary domain (in other words one of your 24 other websites on your Deluxe Hosting Account). Then in a later article, we will discuss how to add a Joomla 1.5.23 website to your domain. That process is the same whether you are attaching it to your primary domain or to a secondary domain.

 

Once you have your shared hosting account, the next step is to make this domain the primary domain on your shared hosting account.

 

First click on My Account and Log In.

 

Scroll down to My Products and click on LAUNCH:

 

 

This will take you to the Domain Manager page:

Once your primary domain has been registered with GoDaddy, it will appear in the Enter Domain Box, as will the FTP user name. Just enter the FTP password you want to use, confirm it and click on FINISH.

 

The FTP password must start with a letter, include at least one upper case and lower case letter, one number and one special character and be at least 8 characters long.

 

Then click on FINISH. Be sure to write down your FTP user name and password for later.

 

 

Once you receive confirmation that the DNS server address has been set up for your account, you can check to insure that your domain has been set as the primary domain for your deluxe hosted account.

 

1. Log in to your Account Manager.
2. From the My Products section, click Web Hosting.
3. Next to the hosting account you want to use, click Launch.
4. From the Settings menu, select Domain Management.

 

The Gold Star by the domain name indicates that it has been set as the Primary Domain.

 

You are now ready to add a Joomla Application. This is done by clicking on the green CONTENT tab, then selecting GoDaddy Hosting Connection. The rest of how to install Joomla on your website is the subject of another tutorial. Below is information on how to attach additional websites to your primary website.

 

Adding your new domain name to your Deluxe Hosting Account:

We will assume you have a “deluxe hosting account” which allows you to have as many as 25 data bases. Since each Joomla Website takes up one to two data bases, you can have about 20 websites. Your first website will be your PRIMARY website. All of the other websites will actually be “sub-folders” of this primary website. But they each operate as separate websites on the Internet.

 

After Godaddy confirms that your desired domain name is available and that you have purchased your new domain name, and asked the GoDaddy rep to put it on your Deluxe Hosting Account, you next need to create a folder for your new website to go in which is connected to your Deluxe hosting account. To do this, go online to godaddy.com website and log in: with your customer number and 4 digit PIN (or your login name and password).   

 

Logging in takes you to MY ACCOUNT. Go to ORANGE MY PRODUCTS section on left side of the screen and click on the white “Hosting” link:

 

This opens up the Hosting page. Click on blue Manage Account button in the Control Panel Column to the right of your domain name (or simply click on the word LAUNCH).

 

This opens up the Hosting Control Center.

 

Select SETTINGS

To add a new website to your deluxe hosting account, click on the GREEN Settings button at the top of the page, select the Domain Management option and click this. This brings you to the Domain Management Page:

 

 

 

Put Your New Domain into a Sub-Folder

Your primary website does not have a sub-folder, but all of your secondary websites have sub-folders and are called sub-domains. The names of these sub-folders can be shorter than the actual domain name. For example, I am going to put springforwardwebdesign.com into a folder called springforward. To do this, click the ADD DOMAIN button in the upper right corner. This will bring up the Add Domain screen.

 

 

Name the folder

Type in the name of your new domain “springforwardwebdesign.org” and put it in a folder named springforward. To add a new domain, click on the BROWSE button which will show all of the domains registered to your GoDaddy Account.

 

Under the word domain, start typing your new domain name into the box. You will likely see the name of the domain appear under the box. Click on it to enter the full name of your domain in the box.

 

In the FOLDER box, type in whatever “folder” name you want to use for your website. It should be a short name in lower case with no spaces. For example, if you new domain is called mynewdomain.com, the folder name could be newdomain.

 

Then click on OK.

 

 

This will take you back to the Domain Management Screen and your new domain will show as Status = Pending.

 

 

Wait for Domain to become active

It will take about 30 minutes for PENDING to turn to SETUP. And you will need to click on Refresh your Page or Refresh List to verify that this has occurred. So go do something else for a few minutes. Once you new domain has been added, you are ready to add a Joomla application to this new domain name. That is the subject of another article. But the simplest way to get to the correction page is to click on the Green Tab Content > Go Daddy Hosting Connection where you can find all of the applications for your website.  This will be the subject of the next article.

 

 

Note on Redirecting Your Website:

If you ever want to redirect a new website to an existing website, go to the Domain Manager ADD DOMAIN and create a folder for your new website. Then click on the pencil to the right of the existing website and change the folder name to the folder name of the new website you just added).