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Using wordpress to design a site that includes affiliate marketing

by tkster95
11 replies
  • WEB DESIGN
    • |
I bought my first domain name today through godaddy.com. I then created my first site (or blog) using wordpress. After doing some research I found hostgator to be a better option than godaddy's host service so I went with them. With hostgator as my host I forwarded the traffic from the domain I bought through godaddy to the site I created with wordpress. Did a test and by typing in my domain name into the bar up top... what do ya know, I got to my site! I was happy lol. I still couldn't get to it through the search engine, even when I typed in my actual domain name, but I did that within seconds of signing up so I figured it may not be registered yet. I then signed up with commission junction to start posting affiliate links on my site. After searching around a bit I found a relevant program and decided to sign up with it. Tried to post on my wordpress blog and it didn't work saying they only allow advertising if you have a stand alone wordpress site through one of their approved hosting servers.. or something along those lines. And to my surprise... I didn't see hostgator on the list. Did I just waste the $10 dollars on hostgator or can I still somehow use my wordpress page through their host service and include aflliliate links on it? If so how do I do it? When I was surfing this forum I though I remember people saying you can use a webpage designed through wordpress with any host out there.

-Side note, I'm a complete newbie to affliate marketing. I've been researching the topic for a few weeks now. I decided to go through all this; buying a domain, setting up a website, and signing up with a host as a learning experience.
#affiliate #design #includes #marketing #site #wordpress
  • Profile picture of the author CMartin
    Originally Posted by tkster95 View Post

    I bought my first domain name today through godaddy.com. I then created my first site (or blog) using wordpress.
    As you don't give much details, from what you say I'll presume that you went to wordpress[dot]com and created there a blog. If that's the case, then what you did in the next steps are NOT ok.

    What you should have done is to create the blog in your OWN domain... the one you registered at godaddy, and at hostgator.

    I'll try to explain below in detail.

    After doing some research I found hostgator to be a better option than godaddy's host service so I went with them. With hostgator as my host I forwarded the traffic from the domain I bought through godaddy to the site I created with wordpress.
    Again, presuming that you created a blog in wordpress[dot]com, what you did is wrong, because you are just "Redirecting" traffic from your domain to wordpress[dot]com, when what you want is to get the traffic into your own domain.

    I'll try to explain how the whole process works and what you must do to correct the problem:

    Step 1: Register the domain in a registrar company
    You registered yours at godaddy (JFYI namecheap is also a good one).
    Status: DONE!

    Step 2: Get hosting at a hosting company
    You already did this with hostgator. When signing up at the hosting company you had to specify the domain name for the account, so I'll presume you did this correctly and provided the domain name that you registered at godaddy. So, we'll consider...
    Status: DONE!

    Step 3: Change Domain Servers (Name servers) at Registrar (in your case godaddy).
    After signing up with the hosting company (hostgator), you should have received an email with instructions in order to configure your domain with their (hostgator) domain servers. Usually the domain servers are always two and at hostgator they are something like this:
    - NS[999].HOSTGATOR.COM
    - NS[999].HOSTGATOR.COM
    [999] above is the domain server number that hostgator uses. It can be for example:
    - NS785.HOSTGATOR.COM
    - NS786.HOSTGATOR.COM

    With this info (from your hosting company), you have to go to godaddy (sign in into you account), select your domain, and there should be an option to modify the domain name servers for your domain. I never used godaddy, but here's an article I found on how to change the domian servers (they use the term Nameservers that is also the same thing):
    http://help.godaddy.com/article/664
    So, you follow the instructions in the article and you must select "I host my domains with another provider" and provide/replace the domain name servers that are currently being used with the ones from Hostgator (the ones that start with NS..).

    Note: just to make sure everything is ok, you should also delete the forward that you setup previously.

    After this you must wait around 24 hours (sometimes more) in order to get access to you domain name via HTTP when you enter it in your browser, like:
    http://www.example.com

    So, from your post it seems you didn't do this.
    Status: TODO!

    Step 4: Create the Blog in you domain, at your Hosting company
    Read the email you received from Hostgator - sometimes they provide you a way to login into the control panel without having to wait that the domain servers get propagated around the Internet. But if they don't provide you should wait until you can access you domain by entering it directly in your browser (http://www.example.com).

    So, when you login into the hostgator's control panel there are option to install/create your own "wordpress" blog platform IN your domain and not at wordpress[dot]com.
    You should understand that the term "wordpress" is used for both the wordpress[dot]com domain where you can create free blogs (but is not your domain) and for the blog platform (software) from wordpress[dot]ORG that you can install and configure directly from the control panel of your domain at hostgator.

    Status: TODO!

    Step 5: After installing your blog, you must configure it with themes and so on and then start posting
    Status: TODO!

    So, try to do and correct the above and you should be up and running in a few hours.


    Did a test and by typing in my domain name into the bar up top... what do ya know, I got to my site! I was happy lol.
    No you were not at your site! You were at wordpress[dot]com! When you use the option to "Forward" or "Masking" you domain, you are just "forwarding" or "redirecting" to another domain but you domain is still shown in the address bar. Read this article from godaddy:
    http://help.godaddy.com/article/422

    I still couldn't get to it through the search engine, even when I typed in my actual domain name, but I did that within seconds of signing up so I figured it may not be registered yet.
    It takes more time to get you domain indexed by search engines... but, presuming that what you did was using the "Forward" or "Masking" domain option, I think that search engines might not even index domains that uses the "Forward" or "Masking" option (I'm not sure about this, so I might be wrong). Anyway, what you want is to get the content on YOUR domain indexed and not the content from other domain.

    I then signed up with commission junction to start posting affiliate links on my site. After searching around a bit I found a relevant program and decided to sign up with it. Tried to post on my wordpress blog and it didn't work saying they only allow advertising if you have a stand alone wordpress site through one of their approved hosting servers.. or something along those lines. And to my surprise... I didn't see hostgator on the list.
    I presume this happened because they detected that you were using a free blog at wordpress[dot]com and not in your domain.


    Did I just waste the $10 dollars on hostgator or can I still somehow use my wordpress page through their host service and include aflliliate links on it? If so how do I do it? When I was surfing this forum I though I remember people saying you can use a webpage designed through wordpress with any host out there.
    No, you haven't lost anything. Just correct the above steps to create your own blog at your domain and there should be no problems using the affiliate links IN your site.


    -Side note, I'm a complete newbie to affliate marketing. I've been researching the topic for a few weeks now. I decided to go through all this; buying a domain, setting up a website, and signing up with a host as a learning experience.
    At least you are doing something... and that is great! Keep going and when you have questions, just ask. The Warrior forum is a great community

    Hope this helps

    Carlos
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    • Profile picture of the author tkster95
      Thank you Carlos, your the man! I couldn't of asked for a better more detailed solution! I'm going to attempt to follow your instructions now, just wanted to thank you in the mean time. If I have any questions i'll post them.. thanks again!
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      • Profile picture of the author tkster95
        Originally Posted by

        [B

        Step 4: Create the Blog in you domain, at your Hosting company[/B]
        Read the email you received from Hostgator - sometimes they provide you a way to login into the control panel without having to wait that the domain servers get propagated around the Internet. But if they don't provide you should wait until you can access you domain by entering it directly in your browser.

        So, when you login into the hostgator's control panel there are option to install/create your own "wordpress" blog platform IN your domain and not at wordpress[dot]com.
        You should understand that the term "wordpress" is used for both the wordpress[dot]com domain where you can create free blogs (but is not your domain) and for the blog platform (software) from wordpress[dot]ORG that you can install and configure directly from the control panel of your domain at hostgator.

        Status: TODO!


        Carlos
        I'm unable to add the wordpress software to my control panel at the moment. I'm running into a problem when trying to set up a "secure WebDisk" through my host. Every time I attempt to open/create the file I get an error message:

        "Internet Explorer could not open htts://mydomain.com:2078/ as a web folder. Would you like to see its default vidw instead?"

        when I click yes I get:

        "There was a problem connecting to the webdisk service. Please make sure ports 2078 (ssl) and 2077 are not firewalled."

        Attempting to fix the problem I went into my firewall settings made exceptions for both ports and the secure webdisk file on my desktop however, I still get the same message. I've contacted hostgator about my problem but haven't got a answer yet. I'm using windows XP home edition if that makes any difference. I went to wordpress.org to download the software and it stated that you need access to your control panel to add the software. Without being able to save the file to my secure webdisk on my desktop, is there any way to add the wordpress software to my contrl panel online?
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  • Profile picture of the author mktgpro21202
    to add...in your hostgator cPanel, click on FANTASTICO, then choose wordpress from there. It will install in a few seconds, then go to yourdomain.com/wp-admin, log in, and your good to go.
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    • Profile picture of the author tkster95
      Originally Posted by mktgpro21202 View Post

      to add...in your hostgator cPanel, click on FANTASTICO, then choose wordpress from there. It will install in a few seconds, then go to yourdomain.com/wp-admin, log in, and your good to go.

      Thanks... you answered my question while I was typing the post asking it lol. I just downloaded it through fantastico.. I'll create my site, add some affiliate links and hopefully it works this time. Thanks again.. I'm still having issues when creating the secure webdisk though. Hopefully that doesn't cause additional problems in the future.
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    • Profile picture of the author tkster95
      Originally Posted by mktgpro21202 View Post

      to add...in your hostgator cPanel, click on FANTASTICO, then choose wordpress from there. It will install in a few seconds, then go to yourdomain.com/wp-admin, log in, and your good to go.
      This may be a stupid question i'm about to ask.. but I'm trying to figure out how to nagivate through my cPanel more effectively. I can get to my wordpress dashboard by typing in myaddress.com/wp-admin like you said, but is there any other way to access that? After downloading wordpress with FANTASTICO it seems like there should be a link where I can access that program. I found all the wp files in my file manager> public_html but when I click on the wp-admin nothing happens. I guess i'm just kind of confused as to how you knew that typing in myaddress.com/wp-admin would get me ther? lol.. I feel like an idiot asking. I'm just thinking about for future refrence, say when I download other content or programs through FANTASTICO how would I know how and where to access a particular page to edit or creat something?

      I feel like a complete newbie.. haha.
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      • Profile picture of the author CMartin
        Originally Posted by tkster95 View Post

        This may be a stupid question i'm about to ask.. but I'm trying to figure out how to nagivate through my cPanel more effectively. I can get to my wordpress dashboard by typing in myaddress.com/wp-admin like you said, but is there any other way to access that?
        No. That's the only way.

        After downloading wordpress with FANTASTICO it seems like there should be a link where I can access that program.
        Fantastico just installs the wordpress blog platform in your domain. After installation you must go to the wordpress admin area and log in to "administer" the blog.

        I found all the wp files in my file manager> public_html but when I click on the wp-admin nothing happens.
        You should never do that
        cPanel is the administration panel for your domain - just for your domain.
        The "File Manger" is used like the "Windows Explorer" in your windows machine, where you access the folders and files and can delete, rename, edit and so on. "File Manager" works in a similar way for your domain, but if you don't know what you're doing... leave it.

        I guess i'm just kind of confused as to how you knew that typing in myaddress.com/wp-admin would get me ther? lol..
        Because that's the way wordpress works
        As you need to use "yourdomain.com/cpanel/" to login into the administrative area of your domain, to login into the administrative area of wordpress you need to use what was predefined by the wordpress developers, and that is to use the specified url (yourdomain.com/wp-admin/) -or- if you had installed it under a new folder in your domain, like "blog", you would have to use "yourdomain.com/blog/wp-admin/".


        I'm just thinking about for future refrence, say when I download other content or programs through FANTASTICO how would I know how and where to access a particular page to edit or creat something?
        You should know first what you're installing. There a lot of info out there... just use the search engines a do a search for "[program name] tutorial".

        Here's for example a tutorial I found just by entering "wordpress tutorial":
        WordPress Tutorial - How to Install and Manage WordPress
        Just start with "How to get started with WordPress by writing posts, creating pages in WordPress, etc." form the above page and then follow the other links.

        You now have to "study" how to work with wordpress. Everyone that uses wordpress in their domains had to do the same... learn and test a lot. Read or watch some video tutorials etc. There are a lot of info in the internet. Just search for it, and you'll find... as I did with a simple search.

        Carlos
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      • Profile picture of the author Srikanth D
        Originally Posted by tkster95 View Post

        This may be a stupid question i'm about to ask.. but I'm trying to figure out how to nagivate through my cPanel more effectively. I can get to my wordpress dashboard by typing in myaddress.com/wp-admin like you said, but is there any other way to access that? After downloading wordpress with FANTASTICO it seems like there should be a link where I can access that program. I found all the wp files in my file manager> public_html but when I click on the wp-admin nothing happens. I guess i'm just kind of confused as to how you knew that typing in myaddress.com/wp-admin would get me ther? lol.. I feel like an idiot asking. I'm just thinking about for future refrence, say when I download other content or programs through FANTASTICO how would I know how and where to access a particular page to edit or creat something?

        I feel like a complete newbie.. haha.
        Fantastico installs wordpress for you.
        That includes setting up a new database for your wordpress and configuring it with the installed wordpress and creating a admin account(you enter the details while using fantastico).
        Once fantastico is done, your entire wordpress folder will be present in the specific domain folder. If it is your main domain, it will be present in pulic_html as you said, if you have addon domains, for example you have a addon domain xyz.com, look for a folder xyz.com in your public_html go into that and there you will find your wordpress folders installed.
        The folders include wp-content,wp-admin etc. As far as you are concerned, you only need to work with wp-content. You have plugins and themes folders inside. Go to themes folder and upload the theme of your choice(make sure it is a zip file) . Extract the zip file.
        Then typeout your domain name/wp-admin. mywebsite.com/wp-admin
        Here you enter your admin/pass that you created with fantastico. You are in wordpress backend. Click on appearance and choose themes and activate.

        Let me know if you have any questions.
        Signature
        >> Getting back into IM game <<
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  • Profile picture of the author sdakin
    Carlos, I can't thank you enough. I found this post doing a google search for wordpress & host gator, and your advice is just what I needed.

    Here's my issue. I already have an active website that I created from Network Solutions. I am attempting to migrate the content over to my host gator account, but putting it into a Wordpress platform.

    I opened my hostgator account with a domain name that has nothing to do with my current site. I added my current site's domain (heretofore known as site2) as an addon in my cpanel. Ideally, I wanted to re-create site2 without changing my nameservers until it was completed. Is that impossible to do?

    (To clarify: I want to totally re-create my website, but I want the domain to continue pointing to the old one until the new site is finished).

    Would it be possible to create site2 in the wordpress install off of my first (unrelated) domain name and then migrate it over to site2's domain name when I'm finished?

    Am I talking like a crazy woman?
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    • Profile picture of the author CMartin
      Originally Posted by sdakin View Post

      Carlos, I can't thank you enough. I found this post doing a google search for wordpress & host gator, and your advice is just what I needed.

      Here's my issue. I already have an active website that I created from Network Solutions. I am attempting to migrate the content over to my host gator account, but putting it into a Wordpress platform.

      I opened my hostgator account with a domain name that has nothing to do with my current site. I added my current site's domain (heretofore known as site2) as an addon in my cpanel. Ideally, I wanted to re-create site2 without changing my nameservers until it was completed. Is that impossible to do?

      (To clarify: I want to totally re-create my website, but I want the domain to continue pointing to the old one until the new site is finished).
      I currently don't have a hostgator account but I presume it's possible by using a temporary url for your addon domain.

      Let me check... here's an article I found at hostgator:
      From: Please read before creating an Addon Domain. HostGator.com Support Portal
      Note: The temporary URL for an addon or subdomain is
      http://ipaddress/~username/subfolder/ or http://servername/~username/subfolder/
      where the username is your cPanel user name for your primary domain.
      Examples

      http://gator123.hostgator.com/~username/addon.com/
      http://gator123.hostgator.com/~username/subdomain/
      Anyway, I recommend you to contact hostgator support if you have any problems with it.

      Originally Posted by sdakin View Post

      Would it be possible to create site2 in the wordpress install off of my first (unrelated) domain name and then migrate it over to site2's domain name when I'm finished?
      Probably, but if you can solve it by using a temporary url (as described above) I would use it instead.

      Carlos
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  • Profile picture of the author heather1954
    I have one main site hosted with inmotion, i use wordpress.
    i have two other domains with same hosting company and i would like to start working on both sites, my question how do i start working on my second domain on the same dashboard? do i have to go back to Cpanel and download WP again just for the second website?
    Also do you think WP is good for Travel Website?
    Please can someone show me how? this is confusing to me:confused:
    thank you
    :confused::confused::confused:
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