Welcome to my guide on how to build your own website. I’m glad you’re here, and it’s about time!
Let me start by saying, there are so many different ways to do this, and yes there are easier ways. There may be cheaper ways, I’m sure. But this is the way I do it, and more importantly, the way I know how to do it. And isn’t that why you’re here?
At a high level, what we’re going to do is essentially the following:
- Register our custom website domain (djcflo.com)
- Set up a custom email address (coleman@djcflo.com)
- Deploy a hosting site for our website on DigitalOcean using WordPress
- Design and build a simple landing page using Elementor, which is easily updatable
- Install some optional plugins that will secure our website and make some things easier
What are the advantages to doing it this way?
The costs are relatively low. Our domain will cost ~$15/yr, web hosting ~$10/month, and email $7/month.
Extremely customizable. Other platforms like Squarespace and Wix lock you in to their pre-designed templates. WordPress as a platform allows you access to millions of plugins, and Elementor as a page builder can be updated by designers on Fiverr & Upwork if you want to pass on the work to a freelancer.
You’ll actually learn something. By being in control of the whole process, you will come to better understand some of the back end stuff. Is it complicated? Yes of course. Will I provide support? Not for free, no I will not. Will it be fun? If you’re a nerd like me, absolutely!
Part 1: Secure your custom URL
1.1 – Purchase your Domain (custom URL) from Dynadot using my referral code
- Domain names can be purchased from a variety of places, including GoDaddy, Namecheap, Squarespace, etc. but I like to use Dynadot
- Pick your custom Domain name (www.YOURNAME.com) and make sure the site is available so you can purchase and own the .com
- Use my referral code to buy your Domain from Dynadot.
1.2 – Register all matching social media handles, as well as the matching generic gmail.com address
- It’s good practice to register all of the matching social media handles (Instagram, Twitter, TikTok) and also the generic @gmail.com address with Google.
- I recommend starting with the generic gmail account, and using that to sign up for all your socials
- Lock your new name down everywhere possible.
- You will own your Domain name (with yearly renewal fees), but you do not own your social media handles. Each platform (Instagram, Twitter, etc) technically owns all of the handles, and lets users register them for free. This means other people can register your social handle. In the future if you were to secure a trademark or copyright for your brand name, there are mechanisms in place with each of these tech giants that allow you to seize your handle/name! But you *cannot* seize a domain. You have to purchase it outright, or negotiate a purchase if someone already owns it.
- I am not going to cover this process. It is just a matter of locking down the usernames on all available platforms.
1.3 – Sign up for a DigitalOcean account using my referral code
- Sign up for DigitalOcean using my referral code (you’ll get the first two months free!)
- We will use DigitalOcean to host our website and also to manage our DNS records – the system that routes incoming web traffic inquiries.
1.4 – Add your Domain to DigitalOcean
- Inside of DigitalOcean, make a New Project in the sidebar, navigate to Networking>Domains and add your Domain to the project
- Take note of the three NS records (ns1, ns2, ns3.digitalocean.com) These are called NameServers
- Copy the NS1 address from DigitalOcean
- Read more on DigitalOcean with this support article
1.5 – Add Nameservers (NS Records) in Dynadot
- Open Dynadot, and click into the DNS settings
- Change from Dynadot Parking to Nameservers
- Paste in the NS1 address and remove the . at the end
- Repeat this for NS2 and NS3 nameservers and click Save
- Read more on Dynadot with this support article and this youtube
– Part 1 Recap –
At this point, you have a Domain setup that is being managed with DNS records at DigitalOcean. You purchased it via Dynadot, and any web traffic coming in is getting redirected to DigitalOcean to be routed.
Next, we are going to set up MX records to point email towards Google so we can get a custom email address!