How to get your own custom website address (domain)

There are so many options to make websites these days, it can almost be too many options, especially when they all come with a price and a learning curve. The sites you can make for free can be limited, or they don’t give you a nice clean custom link.
That’s why in this post, I ‘ll be showing you how for as little as $30 for the year you can have a fully customized website to showcase your products or media, make and track sales, build your email list or whatever else you want to use your site for.

All you need is a domain + WordPress + the appropriate plugins.

First, choose a domain name from a hosting platform. There are so many out there, but I use Namecheap. Like their name implies, they offer affordable domain name hosting and I’ve been a happy customer of theirs for about four years.
You can usually get a domain for give or take $12 per year, add on SSL certificate for another $12, add on some tax and that rounds up to about $30 for the whole year (or less as you can see here).Once your order goes through, hover over the Account tab and click Hosting List. Click “go to CPanel” to access your hosting dashboard, scroll to the bottom and find the WordPress installer. Click “install now” and choose your domain. Then wait for it to install.

(Want to skip all this and go the super-duper fast way? Link your custom domain to a site builder like WithKoji – perfect for link in bio single page sites.)
Once that’s set up you can hover over and click manage to get to your dashboard. You’ll need to make a WordPress admin login if you’ve never had a WordPress account before.
Before I go any further, I know this all seems complicated. Don’t worry, though. The thing I like about Namecheap is they have 24/7 chat support, so it doesn’t matter what time zone you’re in, you can get help or even just ask the tech to do something for you if you’re completely lost. That being said, I think you’ve got this, and nothing you accidentally do can’t be undone.
Anyways, the left hand side of your WordPress dashboard is where all your options are. The first things you’ll want to do are adjust some settings and choose your site’s overall look.
First, hover over “settings” and choose “permalinks.” Select “post name” as the setting. This is going to make sharing your links so much easier, because the default makes it something like “yourname.com/u2024259t00602,” so changing it to post name makes it much more readable, like “yourname.com/how-to-cut-cheese.”
Now you’ll want to customize your site. Hover over “appearance” in the left hand menu and click “themes.” You can preview and choose a theme which determines the overall look of your site, such as fonts and layouts. You can also add a site identity, images and a bunch of other stuff.

Great, so you have a website, now how do you:
Make it into a store? Install WooCommerce. This may or may not change the theme settings, so make sure you have the one you want selected after you install WooCommerce. Once it’s installed, you can add products, set up shipping, set up payment methods like PayPal or Stripe, and even integrate third party services like Printful for print on demand products.
Track conversions? Get the plugin “install headers & footers,” then copy and paste your Facebook Pixel into the header block. Now you’ll be able to automate the tracking of actions on your site and retarget customers.
Make it a landing page? Create a new page, add a header and sub-header, and then embed a contact form from your email list service. The contact form should always be visible at the very top of the page without having to scroll. Add any more details like testimonials and images underneath the contact form. Turn off the menu visibility so that there are no other actions for the visitor to take but to fill in the contact form or exit the page. Publish and share!
Make a link-in-bio page? The same idea as a landing page, but instead of a contact form, you will add your social links, affiliate links, YouTube video, whatever you want people to see first. There is a block native to WordPress that will add in your social links, or you can add custom images onto the page and then add your social links to them by using the “link” feature. There is also a video embedding block to put your YouTube or Vimeo videos seamlessly into the page.
There are honestly so many ways you can design the pages on your WordPress site, it’s amazing. If there’s a feature you need, search for a plugin with those keywords and you’ll probably find it. I wanted to share this info because it’s easy to fall into the trap of paying for a monthly website fee that may not be making you any money back right away. Even if it is, I’m always a fan of a good deal. And I love having the freedom to customize my website how I want without limitations. I hope this was helpful, if so let me know in the comments your biggest takeaway.