Webhosting and domains. So you’ve got your email under control, but its time to move onto bigger things. You want your own website like everyone else, and you want to blog just like me! So follow some the next couple of steps, and I’ll get you hooked up in no time at all.

The first thing you going to need is a domain. Deciding on a domain name can sometimes be a pain because you think to yourself - “no one has {mysurname}.com, its so uncommon!”. You search for it, and to your horror, IT’S TAKEN! Not to fear. You don’t have to have a domain that has your name or surname in it. Hey, I was lucky, and Jasonbagley.com was available, but having a domain that has nothing to do with you is sometimes a good thing, since you have the option of writing anonymously! So choose a catchy word or phrase and lets get going…

Registering your domain
If you have read my previous post on hosting, you’ll know that I can’t speak more highly of Dreamhost, so Ill be discussing how to get your .com and .co.za’s hosted there.

Registering a .com through Dreamhost is free if you buy hosting with them, just follow the prompts when signing up, and you will be rocking. But registering a co.za, and then getting it hosted at Dreamhost is a little more tricky. The reason I want you to get your co.za hosted at Dreamhost, is so that we can install Wordpress (the software I am using to write this blog with) with one click! Buying hosting at Hetzner (My recommended SA hosting company) is going to cost you more per month, as well as you’ll have to setup everything yourself. Upload wordpress, setup the database, install wordpress etc. It does become a problem for non-tech savvy users.

Hosting your very own co.za
First things first. You going to need the hosting before buying the co.za domain. If you too scared to do this yourself, drop me an email, and I’ll try to get something sorted out for you. Head on over to Dreamhost and sign up. Once everything is up and running (could take a couple of hours), you’ll need to allocate some webspace on your hosting account for your co.za domain. So click on Domains > Manage Domains under Dreamhost’s control panel. There you can view and add domains to your account. First make sure that the co.za you want to buy is available by searching for it here. Once everything checks out, and your prized domain name is available, go ahead and add your domain, and save the information that Dreamhost gives you about the nameservers. (Something like NS1.dreamhost.com: 219.66.12.34 - There are 3 of these, NS1, NS2 and NS3)

The next part is the trickiest. Buying a co.za domain. Download the application form from the co.za registrar, fill it in electronicly and remember to fill in the nameservers that Dreamhost gave you, onto the form under section 6. Once you have completed the form, email it off to coza-admin@co.za, and wait and pray their email robot gets everything correct. :-) Once everything has been checked, you will receive an invoice for your domain, which will become active once payment is recieved, R50.(Annual fee. Cheap hey?!)

And there you have it! If you receive the confirmation email from co.za, it means your application was filled in correctly, and your domain will be up and running at Dreamhost within 72 hours - the time it takes to filter across the internet.

So to sum up the Internet Series - Part 2…
Buying a domain and webhosting shouldn’t be difficult. Buying a .com is the easiest as Dreamhost gives you a .com for free with your hosting, so its all setup automatically. Buying a co.za is more tricky. First sign up for your hosting, then setup the co.za at your host. Fill in the application form from co.za and make sure you fill in the nameservers given to you from your host. Pay your R50. Wait 72 hours. Scream with joy when you see your domain is live! If you stuck somewhere in this process, give me a shout in the comments or by email and I’ll gladly help you out.

Part 3 we are going to get to the juicy parts. Setting up your blog and writing that all important first post!

I haven’t included any affiliate links in this article, but if you want to share the love when signing up at Dreamhost, please use jbagley or www.jasonbagley.com as your referral. :-)