Green Web Hosting

1 – Buy A Domain Name

The first thing you’ll need is a domain name.  I recommend using NameCheap for several reasons; they have an easy to use interface, they’re cheap, they have monthly coupons that can be used multiple times throughout the month and customer support is fast and friendly.

CLICK HERE for the latest NameCheap Coupon Code

Despite how well branded they are with their sexy girls, I cannot recommend goDaddy.  As entertaining as they may be, hot chicks cannot not make domain names affordable.  Don’t be fooled by their $1.99 domain names.  You have to buy some other non-domain name product to get that price and it’s only good on the first year   The site is horribly awkward to navigate and their help system is a bit on the lean side.  I’ve wasted countless hours looking for information, particularly when it comes to canceling something.  It’s especially not a place for newbies. 

Protecting Your Registration Information

When you register a domain name, you’ll need to give your name, address, phone number, and email.  All of that information is freely available to anyone who does a “whois” search on the domain.  It’s a gold mine for spammers so I highly recommend protecting it.  Here’s how…

NameCheap offers free WhoIsGuard on all new domain names and transfers for the first year and only $2.88/yr after that.  You can also turn it off and back on anytime you like. 

goDaddy’s Privacy Manager (Domains by Proxy) is a pricey $8.99/yr and it cannot be turned off and on.  Once you turn it off, you’re actually canceling your subscription and you’ll have to pay again if you want it back on.

2 – Buying Web Hosting

I recommend getting an unlimited hosting plan so you can host as many domain names as you like and be able to do it without having to worry about data transfer usage, sometimes erroneously called “bandwidth”.  I also highly recommend getting a hosting plan that uses the cPanel control panel, the best and easiest to use in the industry. 

Here’s an article called Picking The Right Web Hosting Company When You Don’t Know Jack.  It explains what you need, what you don’t need and why.

3 – Connecting The Dots

Once you have a domain name and web hosting, it’s time to hook the two together.  Your web hosting company will have sent you a welcome email with your account login details along with their domain name servers (DNS).  They’ll supply 2-3 of them.  

As an example, I use SuperGreen web hosting.  Their DNS names look like this:

• ns1.pipedns.com
• ns2.pipedns.com
• ns3.pipedns.com

And let’s say you bought your domain name from NameCheap. 

• Log into your NameCheap account. 
• Click the Manage Domains link in the top menu. 
• Click on your domain name.
• Click on Domain Name Server Setup in the left menu.
• Select the radio button Specify Custom DNS Servers (Your own DNS Servers).
• Enter all of the DNS server names.
• Click the Save Changes button.

That’s it!  It usually takes about an hour for your domain name to resolve to the DNS servers if you go with NameCheap and SuperGreen.  Anything else and it could take several hours.

What About Additional Domain Names?

If this is not your first domain name on your web hosting account, that is, you’re adding another one, there is one additional step.  (As I said before, get a web hosting account that allows you to host unlimited domain names.)  After you purchase the domain name, be sure to set up the DNS servers on the new name (as in step 3) before you proceed with the next step.

4 – Adding More Domain Names to Your Hosting Account

• Log into cPanel on your web hosting account.
• Go to the Domains section and click on Addon Domains.
• Type in your domain name without the http or www and press the <TAB> key.
• It will fill in the FTP and Document Root for you.
• Enter a password, do it again.
• Then click the Add Domain button to save it.

CLICK HERE to find web hosting coupons and special discount pricing on hosting plans

Best Green Web Hosting Providers: WebHostingHub : CoolHandle : FatCow : HostGator : SuperGreen : iPage : iPower : GreenGeeks : HostPapa :

More Web Hosting Providers: JustHost : Cirtex : LunarPages : HostClear : Dot5