Plan Before Adding

• Confirm domain ownership and where DNS is managed (registrar or hosting).
• Decide the document root (e.g., public_html/addon.com).
• Check disk quota and subdomain limits on your cPanel plan.

Create an Addon Domain

1. Log into cPanel → Domains → Addon Domains.
2. Enter the new domain name (example.com). Adjust the subdomain and document root if needed.
3. Optionally set a password for FTP access to the addon domain.
4. Click Add Domain. cPanel creates the folder under the document root.

Create a Subdomain

1. Go to Domains → Subdomains.
2. Enter the subdomain (e.g., blog) and select the domain.
3. Set the document root (e.g., public_html/blog) and click Create.

Upload Initial Files (File Manager)

1. Open File Manager and navigate to the document root for your addon domain.
2. Click Upload and select your site files or a zip archive.
3. If you uploaded a zip, select it and click Extract into the folder.
4. Ensure an index.html or index.php exists at the root.

Set Permissions & FTP Access

• Directories: 755 — Files: 644.
• Right-click a file or folder in File Manager → Change Permissions.

Preview & Update DNS

1. Preview the site using the hosts file locally or temporary URL provided by your host.
2. Update the domain's A record at the DNS provider to point to your hosting IP to go live.
3. Allow propagation; test with https://example.com.

Checklist

- [ ] Verify domain and DNS provider
- [ ] Create addon domain / subdomain in cPanel
- [ ] Upload website files to the correct document root
- [ ] Ensure index file exists and permissions are correct
- [ ] Update DNS A record to hosting IP
- [ ] Test site from multiple devices