How to get a Canadian Blog for Crafting

Easy!

If you are visiting my website, you probably like to make things too. I like making things and that includes websites. So, you know, if you want your own blog or website, I think you can build it yourself! It’s really not that hard. Truly.

I have had many personal and business websites for more than 24 years. In my (probably biased) opinion, I think you and everyone can and should have a website or blog. Especially for us makers, it is a way to record and showcase our makes, often (let’s face it) when no one else in our circle is all that interested.

Give your blog a cool domain name

Okay, so in Canada, our Top Level Domain is .ca. It is administered by a body called Canadian Internet Registration Authority or CIRA. CIRA is responsible for setting the rules for all dot-ca domain names. By using .ca domain, you are signalling that you are Canadian. In fact, you actually have to have a presence in Canada to buy .ca domain name.

Buying a domain name is probably the simplest thing to buy on the internet. You type in the name you want at a registrar’s site (I recommend Web Hosting Canada, especially for us Canadians of course) and if it is available, great – you can purchase it immediately. That’s it. When it comes due (usually a year), you choose to continue and pay again or let it drop. The first step in done!

The main rule here for choosing a Canadian domain name is that you can’t use a name that is already bought by someone else and that you have a Canadian presence, like a Canadian citizenship or permanent residency.

Some Cool facts about .ca Domain names

• You must be Canadian or permanent resident (or meet the Canadian presence rules);
• You can use your domain name for an email address;
• Domain names are NOT case sensitive, meaning you can type in WICKS.ca, or wicks.ca or even wICkS.cA to find this site.
• Domain names must be at least 2 characters and can be up to 63 characters long.
• You can use letters and numbers and the hyphen symbol as well as accented characters such as è or é.
• If you find a website with .ca, you know you are buying Canadian.

Choose your Blog Host

Again, I gotta say that I have used Web hosting Canada (WHC) for well over 3 years now. They have great (like, really great!) support and fast loading sites.

Choose your Blog Hosting Package.

The Pro Plan from Web hosting Canada is the best to start out with (which incidentally includes your domain for the first year). It really is a great deal for quality hosting. They are a Canadian company fully located in Canada, they use eco-friendly practices such as renewable energy, they are bilingual, they offer 30-day money back, and unlimited space to grow.

WHC will provide easy to follow set up instructions for your website and email. I suggest you use their automatic installers to get WordPress loaded and then you just log in and everything you need is there for you to start on your website / blog journey.

Blogging with WordPress is Easy

Working with WordPress is very straightforward. If you can use any basic word processing app, you can easily use WordPress for your site. You can choose from hundreds of free themes and plugins which allow you to expand as you get get more confident.

So that is it! It is so easy you could have a site setup up today. Mind you, you will have to come up with your own blog post ideas and that is a whole different thing.

Let me know if you found this information handy and also if you decided to get a website. I’d love to visit you there!