Choose a domain name for yourself (e.g. www.allbobbins.co.uk), and
then check this out with a Google search, to see if it's in use or if it
clashes with another website with a similar name. Also have a look at
one of the domain name retailers, and see if this name is available for
you to use. Don't choose a name like www.disney.net or you could get
into legal hot water.

If you wish to buy a domain name with view to setting up a website,
you should buy the web-hosting with the same company (to save
yourself some money). If you don't, the web-hosting company will most
likely charge you to transfer the domain name over to it.

Buying a domain name will usually include email forwarding, so you
could create an email address for yourself, e.g. “joel @ allbobbins.co.uk”
All incoming email could come through this address, and could then
be forwarded on to an existing email address of yours. If you were to
get a lot of spam coming your way, you could re-forward all email for
"joel@..."  to a non-existent email address, and then use a different
email address for your website … e.g. itsjoel @ allbobbins.co.uk.
You could allow for a month, running both email addresses, before you
trash the old one, in case anyone you know carries on using the old one.

I've put a bit more info about domain names (& web-hosting) on this
site, HERE.   

Choosing web-hosting for your WordPress site

There are numerous web-hosting services for your WordPress
site. Bob Rotheram of Arnold U3A recommended UK GoDaddy
to me. You will see at the top of the website page, that there is a
UK phone number for the Support Team. 

HERE are the  pricing options for you with UK GoDaddy . I & my
niece chose a 3 year deal, which we could cancel at any time (& get
refunded for unused web-hosting time). At the same time, the advisor
set it all up for us over the phone, setting us up with the WordPress
2011 theme, (which you can easily change to another). My neice
had already bought a domain name for herself with GoDaddy.
Subsequently, GD emailed her with her login details.   

Creating a password and an email address.

Before you arrange web-hosting,  it's a good idea to set up two
passwords for yourself, one for login into the WordPress site, and
another for password-protection of any webpages you wish to hide
from view. So think of 10-12 character passwords, a mixture of
say letters and numbers (perhaps a historical date), and include
1-2 capital letters also in each.

Also set up a new email address for yourself, perhaps with Hotmail,
Yahoo or Gmail, to receive any email from your web-hosting
company, to send monthly back-ups of your data-base to (which you
can set up automatically), and to receive any comments from readers
or forum users, which you've set up to moderate.  

How to access your WordPress Dashboard ...
.
Your new WordPress website with GoDaddy will have a name like this …
http://yourdomainname.co.uk    (the www is not present in this address)

To get to the login page, add  /wp-admin  onto the end of the URL.

The login page for WordPress will look like this …

Enter your username and password, to access the Dashboard.  

To create a Desktop shortcut to the login page ...

1. Highlight the entire URL in light blue, using a mouse click at the
   end of the address and then a backward sweep with your
   mouse over the entire URL. Three rapid mouse clicks on the
   URL should highlight it also. (The URL is the website address
   at the top of each webpage)

2. Copy this address … Ctrl + letter C
   Minimise the screen.

3. Right mouse click on your Desktop > New > Shortcut

4. Click inside the “Type in” box, & paste in the URL … Ctrl + V

5. Click on “Next”

6. Type in a name for your shortcut, straight over the
   blue-highlighted text,

   e.g “WP login”   

7. Now click on “Finish”

   You will now have a new Desktop shortcut, for your login page
   which I think is a big time-saver.

................         ..                                                           NEXT PAGE