Blue hosting: How to create a hosting account, install WordPress & get 60% discount

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Creating your own website, which will do well in Google, is not that difficult with the right guidance. I’ve been teaching people how to set up their own WordPress website since 2010 and they are amazed at how much they can learn and create in a few hours time. An easy way to get started is by blue hosting.

Here I will show you in detail how to create a hosting account with Bluehost, install WordPress (most ‘tutorials’ on Pinterest ignore this small little detail, they just cover how to sign up for your hosting account (the part which you get paid commission for) but ignore the most important part which is your content management system, without it you won’t have a website) and of course you can bag up to 60% discount on your account.

Jump straight to Blue Hosting step-by-step video instructions

There are over 330,000 web hosting providers out there [source] and many of them are very good, but unfortunately not all of them.

My experience with hosting providers since 2010

In the last 10 years, I have worked with a different hosting company almost every week. I’m a freelancer and have my own WordPress training business. Many different types of company approach me to create staff training based on their website. Every week a different website, most of them built by a different web developer.

If I worked for one specific web agency, I would most likely see the same web host, the same themes and the same customisations in websites. Instead, my clients are a very broad range from charities and self-employed individuals to financial services providers, county councils, schools and colleges, hospitals and clinics, property developers and large organisations such as KPMG, Fineos and the Houses of the Oireachtas (the Irish Parliament). They are all different and they all use different hosting providers.

So, my work has been interesting over the years, I’ve seen a lot of great sites and some not so great ones. Most smaller sites are hosted on shared hosting accounts. Shared hosting accounts are single, physical servers which host multiple sites and are therefore quite affordable.

They are brilliant to get started with, they’re affordable (usually less than $200/year after renewal + discounted rates for the first few years) and offer plenty of space to grow. Most hosting providers are also very flexible. As your site grows and you need more space you usually can upgrade easily.

What makes a good hosting provider?

However, there is one thing that can make all the difference to you and your business – and that’s the support!

They all promise a lot of tools and benefits, but every host is a little different and sometimes things don’t work the way they should. We follow instructions and guides, we try over and over again, but for whatever reason, it’s not working. We’ve all been there, haven’t we?

That’s when we need support and ideally, that’s the hosting provider, because they know their product best, right?

I’ve had my frustrations with a couple of hosting providers in the past where the client had an issue with the SSL cert or something similar. I offered to look into it. After reading all the FAQs, following their guides and instructions, googling up and down, and still unable to fix it, I opened a support ticket.

I explained everything I’d done but said that the issue still persists and asked if they could please look into it to resolve the issue.

The email I got back 24 hours later was along the lines of ‘Thanks for contacting us. You can find more information in regards to setting up a SSL certificate at our FAQs (link to FAQs). Kind Regards…’

How frustrating is that!? I read all FAQs, I did my research, I explained it all in the email, but they couldn’t even be bothered to read my email. They just couldn’t be bothered to check the account and see if they can find the issue. Now, that’s poor and frustrating customer service and that’s certainly a company I would never recommend to anybody. And I’m not the only one, I’ve heard similar stories about them from different clients over the years. Anyway, we’re not going to mention their name here; it’s just an example where there can be a (great) difference between otherwise similar-looking, and similarly priced, small starter website hosting services.

What are the facts about Blue hosting?

So let’s have a look at Bluehost or Blue hosting as some people like to call it. They are one of the 20 largest website hosting service providers, hosting over 20 million domains in a US facility. They are one of the website hosting services recommended by WordPress.org themselves and I have always found their support team to be very friendly and helpful.

Why do I need a hosting provider?

Setting up your own website is the first step to your online business, where you can blog about your passion, offer your services to the world or set up an online store. It’s the first step to creating passive income and it takes less than an hour to do. So let’s get started.

What do we need to build a website?

• To get started with WordPress you will need a domain – that’s the name of your website, so search engines such as Google can display it to visitors, you can add your domain to your business card and connect social media accounts to it. My domain name for this website is wpuncovered.com.
  But wait, don’t set one up yet – read on and you could get one for free for the first year.
• You also need a hosting account, that’s the space where your site content (text and images) will be saved and displayed from.

What’s included in your WordPress hosting account?

Hosting account set up in 5 simple steps, get up to 60% discount, a free domain, free SSL cert, WordPress install in 1-click and great support.
Get all this for less than $4/month for the first 3 years!

Great news, Bluehost currently includes the domain for new signups for the first year – so there is no extra cost for you! See here domain renewal cost. If you have a domain already, that’s fine too, you can transfer it. Bluehost offers .com, .org, .co, .us, .net, .info, .co.uk and others. However, if it’s a country-specific extension you are after such as .ie, you might have to register it first with a domain provider in your country depending on local regulations.

Blue hosting also offers hosting discounts and includes a free SSL cert – that’s an encryption certificate for your website to keep your website visitor information safe. It usually costs $79.99/yr, but here you get a free SSL cert!

1-click WordPress install. As you will see, this makes it extremely easy to install WordPress to your site with just one click. You don’t have to worry about creating a MySQL Database or to configure any PHP files, it’ll all be done automatically.

And their great customer support is there for you too 24/7, just in case. If you need to contact them. I’d recommend using their webchat, it’s super quick and efficient. However, if you follow the instructions below, you should be just fine and set up in no time.

Step by step video instructions on how to set up a hosting account with Bluehost

Watch the Blue Hosting step-by-step video instructions – created in November 2020 with all the new Blue hosting features – and please let me know in a comment below, the name of your new site, which theme you went for and why you chose that one!

Get your account with Bluehost and bag some great Bluehost discounts!