[WordPress] How To Set-Up WordPress On An Addon Domain Via cPanel

Who this little tutorial is for: People who already have a domain with their web host, but want to add another domain for an entirely different website.

In my case, my main domain is Freespanishshortfilms.com, and I’ve been planning to put up other sites for my other projects. Since my hosting package can be used with more than one domain, I’ve decided to use the same host for my other websites.

As so, here are a few steps on how to set up WordPress on an addon domain on cPanel.

First off, here are what I’m currently using for my own sites: Namecheap.com for the domain, A Small Orange for web hosting, and cPanel for overall site management.

Click here to go directly to Step 1!

Step 0: Make sure you can have more than one domain for your hosting plan.

There are several packages available from many different web hosting services out there. For the purposes of this tutorial, it is assumed that you have a package wherein you can use more than one domain. A Small Orange has a $4-a-month hosting plan of this nature, and I highly recommend for you to try them out.

Step 0.1: Get a new domain for your new site.

It is assumed also here that you already have a nifty new domain you’re going to addon to cPanel. If you haven’t, why not try Namecheap? I enjoy the simple interface of their site, plus their monthly promo codes are clear and on just one page of their site. Here’s a link to their coupon codes.

Step 0.2: Redirect the nameservers for your other domain to that of your web host.

This assures that your domain will be connected to your actual content, instead of the usual “parked” or temporary page of the domain register.

For Namecheap, this is just a simple case of changing the default nameserver (as shown below)…

… To the nameservers of your webhost. In my case, as I use A Small Orange, these would be NS1.ASOSHARED.COM & NS2.ASOSHARED.COM. Select “Custom” in the Nameservers field, and type in the new nameservers. Once complete, click the little check icon beside the “Custom” field. Now, you’re good to go.

Step 1: Use cPanel to add a new addon domain.

Once you have the new domain setup, log in to your cPanel. Go to the “Domains” section of cPanel, and click on “Addon Domains”.

Once there, you’ll be presented with a menu that looks like this:

All you have to do is enter your new domain in the “New Domain Name” field. The “Subdomain” and “Document Root” fields will automatically be filled up once you do.

Remember also to check the box for “Create an FTP account associated with this Addon Domain.” This will make it easy for you to access the files later on with a file management program, such as FileZilla, which I personally use. (Here’s a link if you want to know more about FTP.)

The username is also automatically generated (usually based on the new domain you placed in the field), and you can generate a password with the password generator available.

After the fields are filled up, click on “Add Domain”, and you’ll have the new domain added to your cPanel to manage.

Step 2: Install WordPress for your new site.

I heard that there’s a way for you to install WordPress using ZIP files, but for my own convenience, I let Softaculous do the job for me. This portion will thus focus on using Softaculous to install WordPress.

On cPanel, go to the Softaculous Apps section, and click on the WordPress icon. This will take you to the WordPress page on Softaculous.

From there, simply click the “Install” button on the upper left corner. (I have to note this, since I personally couldn’t find the Install button at first. Older guides noted that the Install button was at the bottom, but an update changed the button’s position, I suppose.)

From there, you’ll have to input some data on the given fields. For more information on how to fill this up, I recommend you checking out this link, which helped me in my own endeavors in making my site work.

Once done, click on “Install” at the bottom of the page. Voila! You’ve installed WordPress on your new domain, congratulations!

At this point, you can now access the WordPress menu once you go to your domain’s WordPress login page, which is typically at *youraddondomain.com*/wp/wp-admin. Enter your admin credentials, and you can begin tweaking your site to your liking.

By the way, here’s one more tip, and this is one I got very confused with the first time. You’ll notice that your homepage may actually appear on yourdomain.com/wp/ instead of yourdomain.com. To fix this, you can check the WordPress codex for how to give WordPress its own directory, and go over the instructions in the “Using a pre-existing subdirectory install” section. Here’s a link to the guide.

To be honest, this is one of those tutorials I’m writing for myself, since I know that I’m very forgetful and would probably scramble for the steps again the next time around. However, if this helped you in any way, do let me know in the comments. Cheers!

PS: Yes, a few affiliate links in this post, but I can vouch for them, as I use them all myself. So if you’re looking to register a new domain, check out Namecheap (all my domains I registered with them). Alternatively, A Small Orange has provided me with pretty good service ever since I got a hosting plan with them.