Set up your free GoDaddy hosting account

When you purchase a domain from GoDaddy, you will be entitled to a free ad-supported hosting account. This is great for bloggers who may need to set up a redirection page to their true blog address. I've been asked a few times now how to set up this free hosting account, so I thought it was about time I posted a walk through!

Assuming you have already purchased a domain name from GoDaddy, you should have your login details and be able to log in to your GoDaddy account. Once you have your login details to hand, this is what you should do:

1. Log in to your GoDaddy account manager.


2. Select "Hosting account list" from the "Hosting and email menu" in the navbar near the top of the page. This will open the "manage hosting page"


3. On this page, you should see a link saying "Use credit" next to "Free Hosting Credits". Click on this link to open the next page.


4. On the right, you should now see "set up free hosting". Select the domain you would like to associate your hosting account with, and choose either Windows or Linux hosting. The main difference between Windows and Linux hosting is the ability to use different programs and databases in your hosting account, so if you're only using this to host a redirect page for your blog, it wouldn't matter which you choose.


5. Once you've made your choices, click continue, then go to the Hosting Account list. Click on "Set Up Account" next to the New Account (Free with Domain) that you want to set up.


6. In the Hosting Control Center, click Accept to accept the End User License Agreement.


7. Now, you'll need to set up your free hosting account with the following information:
   
   
   • Enter New User ID: Create a user name that you will use when you log in to this hosting account. This can be different to the login name you use when logging into your GoDaddy account.
   
   
   • Enter New Password: Create a password that you will use when you log in to this hosting account. Again, this can be different to the one you use to log into GoDaddy.
   
   
   • Confirm New Password: Re-enter the password that you just created.
   
   Make a note of these details so you can log into your hosting account later. Then click continue.


8. Verify your Domain Name and User ID, click Submit, and then close the Hosting Control Center. It may take a day or two for your hosting account to become active; you will receive an email when the hosting is activated, including your FTP settings, so it's probably best to wait for this before attempting to log in to your new account.

Once your ad-supported hosting account is active, you can upload files by FTP. The easiest way to do this is to use an FTP client program such as FileZilla (a free, open source program) to connect to your hosting account. Alternatively, you could use GoDaddy's web based ftp client, which you can read about here.

Now that you've set up your GoDaddy ad-supported hosting account, you can easily upload your redirect page, or indeed any other files to your hosting account.

Related posts:

• Create a redirect page for your blog
• How to set up your Blogger custom domain with GoDaddy

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