This short tutorial is about buying hosting from BlueHost (one of the hosting services recommended by WordPress and the one that this blog uses). It also assumes that you already have a domain name. If you do not have a domain then I recommend you to checkout the tutorials on How To Brainstorm WordPress Domain Names and How To Register A Domain Name Via GoDaddy.

Note: It is highly recommended that you buy domains from domain registrars like NameBoy or GoDaddy and hosting from WordPress recommended hosting providers like BlueHost, DreamHost, HostICan, ANHosting, MediaTemple or Laughing Squid. Keeping these two services will prevent you from being held ransom by one single company and usually domain registrars are not strong in hosting and hosting providers are not strong in domain registration.

Though this tutorial is about buying hosting from BlueHost but the process of buying hosting from any other hosting provider should be a similar.

1. Go to BlueHost and click on the “Sign Up Now” button (this may change in future but click on something that invites you to sign up).
2. Enter your domain name under “Transfer Clients” (even though BlueHost may provide a free domain, do not fall for it as you do not want to be held ransom by BlueHost or any other hosting provider especially when you want to switch providers). Click the “Next” button.
   
   
3. Enter your particulars and choose the hosting package. You can either pay by Credit Card or PayPal.
4. After successful payment, you’ll receive an email with the login details to your Control Panel and information about FTP, email, DNS and IP addresses.
5. Since this tutorial assumes that it is a transfer of domain. The DNS or the Domain Name System entry must be changed at GoDaddy. The primary and secondary DNS values for BlueHost are NS1.BLUEHOST and NS2.BLUEHOST.COM.

In my next post, I’ll show you how to change the DNS entry in GoDaddy.