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WordPress How to Make a Website with WordPress Installing WordPress Domain Names, Hosting, and WordPress

Lee Bowling
Lee Bowling
249 Points

Question about the name

For purchasing a domain name. Is it best to just make up a name? what is the use for the site other than practice? can the name be changed ever for that price? I am just kind of torn about just naming it WordPressLeeBowling but I don't want to have to pay for a name that's just for practice. Help!

4 Answers

kush sharma
PLUS
kush sharma
Courses Plus Student 2,360 Points

Hi, It's not necessary to purchase a domain if your purpose is only to practice what you learn. For practicing wordpress you can set up a local server like wamp or lamp on your computer and then practice from your localhost. I am sure they will show you in the next couple of videos to do that.

Xinyu Lin
Xinyu Lin
90 Points

what does WAMP/LAMP, or local host mean? And how does purchasing a domain name differ from setting up an account online through WordPress as a blog? Is it that if you just sign up from the Wordpress than it only functions as a blog and if you buy a domain name, it becomes a website?

Daksh Shah
Daksh Shah
3,534 Points

If your only purpose of registering a domain name is to practice what you learn at Treehouse, I would suggest you use the Workspaces feature. Workspaces is a great resource specially provided to you by Team Treehouse which allows students to build and edit websites in the browser. Learn more about Workspaces.

When you think that your web development skills have been refined, you could start off with a simple portfolio website by registering a domain name and choosing a simple hosting plan.

"A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step."

Happy learning!

Lee Bowling
Lee Bowling
249 Points

Oh I am just talking about on the learning Wordpress trailer the guide has you purchasing a domain name in the first video. So I wasn't sure if that was a requirement to complete that course.

kush sharma
PLUS
kush sharma
Courses Plus Student 2,360 Points

Hi Xinyu,

As wordpress is based on PHP and PHP is a server side language and so we need a server to process the php code. Now we cannot buy a server for the simple purpose of testing or practicing. Our own computer or localhost can be converted to a server instead with some special kind of software and that software is called WAMP/LAMP which is a abbreviation for W:Windows(the operating system), A:Apache(the HTTP server),M:MySql(The database management system),P:PHP(the scripting language)....similarily LAMP:L:Linux, rest is the same.....

If you buy a domain and purchase hosting then you can set up wordpress as a website with your specific domain name as being the URL for the site.

I didn't get that point regarding wordpress sign in thing here...may be you are referring to signing up from wordpress.com then yes you will only hae a functiality of a blog and not a fully functional website..