When you start a food blog, or any blog for that matter, it could get quite overwhelming. There are so many things to consider from hosting to content management systems to themes. Don’t worry! I am here to help. Over the years I’ve started many blogs and websites. I am more than happy to share my experience with you.
Before you do anything, the first thing you need to consider is the name of your blog. You should come up with a name that describes you. For my food blog I chose jocooks simply because nobody really thought that I could cook, so I though it would a cool name, that in fact I can cook, so this is how jocooks came about.
What is a domain?
A domain name is simply an address to your website or blog, such as www.jocooks.com or www.tipsforfoodbloggers.com. It could be the as your blog name, or it could be different. It’s the URL (Uniform Resource Locator) to your website. Do not get overwhelmed with all the terminology, for now, it’s enough to know that the domain name is your blog’s URL, your blog’s address on the internet. To be technically correct, the URL is not the same as the domain simply because the domain name is part of the URL, for example a complete URL would be http://www.jocooks.com or http://www.jocooks.com/bakery/cakes/sex-in-a-pan/.
Your domain also has an IP address. IP stands for internet protocol address. But what is it? An IP address is a unique identifying number given to every single computer on the Internet. Your computer has an IP address, your phone has an IP address, so as expected, your blog has an IP address.
Choosing a domain name could be frustrating, especially if you think you’ve come up with a cool catchy name, and you’ll come to realize that most of these domains are already taken. There are many websites for you out there to check which domains are available.
So how do you check what domains are available? Well there are many websites out there that allow you to do this, but here’s a few of them:
How do you actually register for a domain?
In the example below I’m going to show you how to register a domain, under the assumption you are using www.dreamhost.com. The reason I’m using www.dreamhost.com is because I strongly recommend that you use them for your hosting needs as well as registering your domain.
Step 1
Click on this link, www.dreamhost.com, to bring you to the dreamhost home page. There click on the Domains tab, as circled in the image below.
Step 2
So this is where I was talking before about choosing a name for your blog. This page actually allows you to check if the name you chose is available.
For example I typed in darlingkitchen so that my domain would be darlingkitchen.com, click on the Check Domain button and surprisingly enough, the domain is available. This is what you should receive if the domain you choose is available:
If your domain that you entered is already taken, you will get an error message when you click on Check Domain telling you that the domain is already taken. Once you have carefully chosen your domain and it is available, just click on the register button and follow the steps to complete your purchase.
Domain names are usually around $9.95 or higher, per year, so one thing to remember is that your domain name will need to be registered every year. When you register your domain with www.dreamhost.com you will be able to set it up so that they automatically renew when the year is up. You can also purchase the domain for a longer period of time if you wish, such as 2 years, or 5 years.