What Is A Blog? – A Guide to Understanding The Concept Of Blogging
Plenty of people who have heard the term “blogging” fail to understand what a “blog” is or how creating or reading one can impact or improve their lives. Whether you have absolutely no idea what these terms mean or you know the basics but want to learn more, this guide provides you with a thorough breakdown of the topic.
The following sections also provide details about popular blogging sites and how to use one or more blogs to generate funds for personal and business goals.
So exactly what is a blog?
A blog is an online diary or journal located on a website. The content of a blog typically includes text, pictures, videos, animated GIFs and even scans from old physical offline diaries or journals and other hard copy documents. Since a blog can exist merely for personal use, sharing information with an exclusive group or to engage the public, a blog owner can set their blog for private or public access.
When a blog is made publicly accessible, anyone can typically find the blog through links available on the blog owner’s individual or business website, their social media profiles, emails and e-newsletters and online keyword search engines. Many blog owners also set up blogs on websites devoted to the creation, storage and sharing of blogs, such as Blogger, LiveJournal, Tumblr and WordPress.
Blog content can appear as posts on one continuous streaming page or posts on individual pages reachable through one or more pages set up in a list-style format as post title links, excerpts and related tags. All posts or links to posts are typically displayed to readers in reverse chronological order with the most recent content appearing first.
Have a look at some great blog examples here.
In this free email course, I will show you how to create a blog easily.
- Learn to set up your blog in minutes
- Make your first dollar with your blog
- Attract your first readers
Sign Up - Start your journey
History Of The Blog
Blogs started out as a natural extension of the increased use of computers and the creation of the earliest forms of the Internet as government military, scientific and academic networks. Before the World Wide Web, communities of people interacted on these networks. Individuals created content for themselves or others and stored that content on computers that were connected to the networks. Before blogs became popular, these communities often communicated and shared frequently-updated content through community message boards. The term “newsgroups” became coined to describe many of these discussion and information-sharing areas.
The earliest true blogs started appearing around 1994 or 1995 as open access diaries where individuals shared updates about their lives, such as personal thoughts and facts about events related to their families, academic studies, career, travels and other topics. Early online diary writers include Claudio Pinhanez, Justin Hall and Carolyn Burke. The media and public really started noticing the content and documenting its formation around approximately 1996 and 1997.
The exact date and year of the first use of the term “blog” is still debated by scholars. Most believe that it happened in 1999 as the natural truncation of a particular description of this type of content, “web log” or “weblog,” into the shortened form. Some debate exists on pronunciation. Obviously, the term describes a diary or log located and accessible on the World Wide Web. As time passed, some people thought that “weblog” should be pronounced “we blog” to refer to individuals performing the action of blogging.
Blogs vs Websites – What is the difference?
The primary difference between a blog and a website is that a blog is a specific type of content displayed on web pages on a website. Confusion often occurs because individuals and representatives of businesses often use the two terms interchangeably. For example, someone might say that they visited a company’s blog when in fact the blog was merely one part of the company’s website. Confusion also occurs because platforms that are devoted entirely to blogging create the impression that a person’s or company’s blog on one of these platforms is also their primary website.
To help sort it all out, keep the following in mind: In most cases, non-blogging websites are updated with new content less frequently then associated blog pages and blog-devoted websites. Blogs typically receive weekly, daily or even less than hourly updates. Non-blog websites, such as individual personal interest and biography or business sites, typically only update their news and blog content at that frequency and then add new pages or update some content as needed. Blogs also promote discussion. They have comment sections designed to create online conversations about blog content and blog owners in a similar fashion as comment sections provided to readers by news media platforms and other publishers under online articles.
You can use my tutorial to learn how to build a WordPress website.
Blog posts Vs Pages – What is the difference?
Simply put, the blog content that you pull up in your browser appears on a web page. The term “page” describes the document and the location. It is important to note that the term “blog” is also frequently used to describe a collection of web pages that specifically share blog content, especially on blog-focused websites. This usage is similar to how people describe a collection of pages in a diary, journal or log collectively as the object. As previously mentioned, blog content is updated frequently. Many websites have non-blog pages that contain content that rarely changes, such as a company’s history page or contact page. Some web pages have not been updated beyond a few tiny refreshed and new content changes in years.
Want to start your own blog?
We recommend using Bluehost.com
Get web hosting + Free Website Builder + A FREE DOMAIN name for just $2.95 per month.
Setting up your blog with Bluehost is so simple. With their one click WordPress installation and quick set up, you can be live and blogging in just 30 mins.
Check out my How To Start A Blog guide or head over to Bluehost to get started.
Popularity Of Blogs & Blogging
A lot of people wonder why blogs and blogging have become so popular. Blogs provide a social outlet. Many people, by nature, are social animals. They actively seek out other people offline or online for interaction and sharing of knowledge and perspectives. Even many people who are anti-social in face-to-face, offline settings enjoy interacting online through social networks using their true identities or anonymous personas. Since a blog is a social tool, creating or reading blogs provides them with a better alternative method for interacting with others that did not previously exist.
Additionally, social and anti-social people use blogs to build new friendships and other types of relationships and gain a better understanding of the lives of people who they might not likely interact with on a daily basis. For example, blogs offer them opportunities to interact with people who are from others cultures and/or live in other geographic regions, people who work in different career fields and people who have taken up previously geographically-limited and rare types of hobbies. In these cases, blogs offer content that people could only find in the past through offline newspapers, magazines, television programs, films, documentaries and special festivities sponsored by communities, businesses art organizations, local, state and federal government administrations and academic institutions.
What kind of people blog?
Almost no limitations exist in regards to the types of people who create blogs. Blog creators, also known as “bloggers,” come from all walks of life and backgrounds from around the world. As long as a person has access to online tools that help them to create web page content, they can make a blog and promote it to attract readers. The most common bloggers include individuals who want to simply share personal information about themselves and/or their interests and hobbies with the world.
Some people use this web content tool to bring greater awareness to topics they feel are critically important to the betterment of others like topics related to political news, charitable organizations, safety issues, pet care and health conditions. Businesses typically use blogs to improve the lives of their customers in general, teach customers how to safely use products/services and bring attention to their expertise in a particular industry or their products/services.
Why do people bother blogging?
People blog for a wide range of reasons beyond those already mentioned. Many people simply dislike traditional offline diary writing and need an outlet for their thoughts and feelings beyond that format, face-to-face interactions, phone calls or online chat. Some people love that they can share their innermost thoughts and information with someone else half way around the world. Sometimes this outlet is desired because they have no offline friends or support system and use blogging to help them deal with stressful life events like acute and chronic health conditions or grief after the death of loved ones.
Since many other forms of content on various websites do not require frequent updates, a lot of people, especially business owners, use their blogs as part of their search engine optimization toolkit to maintain or improve their search engine result ranking and drive more traffic to their websites. Search engine algorithms rank fresh, valuable content higher than older content and when a website receives more traffic that site owner has a higher chance of increasing their revenue.
How Do Bloggers Make Money From Their Blogs?
Beyond improving website traffic by updating content regularly, individuals and businesses make money off of their blogs by building trust with members of their target market. They offer content that their target audience finds interesting and useful and that also establishes them as knowledgeable experts. Consumers often buy new products and services from individuals and businesses who they trust.
They are also more likely to be repeat, loyal customers to anyone who engages them and provides them with “free” valuable content. Consumers who trust an individual or business and start to rely upon a specific website for information are then more likely to recognize a brand, buy products or services and even provide word of mouth referrals about their positive experiences to members of their social networks.
Those referrals then often lead to new customers and future sales. Of course, by maintaining contact with members of their target market through their blogs, individuals and business owners who sell products and services are able to bring attention to new products and services and spread news about upcoming sales and deals to people who might not otherwise hear about these details through traditional advertising methods.
Some blog owners earn money every time someone merely clicks static or dynamic ads or other embedded links on their blog pages that go to affiliate partner websites or earn a commission when someone buys a product or service on a partner website after using their link.
Lastly, many blog owners make money by selling their blogs. Blog sales typically happen after a niche topic blog website starts receiving incredibly high traffic and becomes attractive to an investor as a potential high volume money-making tool. Some people buy a blog just so that they can merge it with their existing blog or shut down the purchased blog site entirely because the competition was driving traffic away from their own blog and/or other websites.
As you can see, a blog provides an individual or business the means to share all kinds of information and reap all sorts of rewards from their efforts. Blogs can be therapeutic alone or do double duty by both serving as a social outlet and money generator. If you do not currently have a blog, review some of the popular blogging sites listed in this guide or check out the blogs of your favorite celebrities, businesses or hobby associations to give you ideas about what a successful blog looks like and the elements that go into it. If you do have an online diary but you have not promoted or monetized it in the ways outlined in this guide, review these methods and give real consideration to the idea of turning your blog into a secondary income stream.
HOW TO START A BLOG
A REALLY SIMPLE BEGINNERS GUIDE ON HOW YOU CAN CREATE YOUR OWN BLOG IN JUST 20 MINUTES.
If you’ve been planning to start a blog but didn’t know where to begin, then you’ve come to the right place!
In this tutorial I will help you get your first blog up and running in around 20 minutes. I started my first blog back in 2008 and it has completely changed my life for the better.
My name is Jamie Spencer and I have been blogging as my main source of income for the past 8 years. I have created and sold a wide variety of blogs in different niches which means I am in a great position to help you start your own blog.
I’ve designed this beginners guide to blogging to show you how to start a blog online in less than 20 minutes even if you’re a complete blogging novice, whether you’re 18 or 80. It really is that simple and straightforward. There is no technical jargon within this guide that will leave you confused.
If you do get stuck on any part of this guide, then please feel free to email me. You can contact me here. I will get back to you within 24 hours, I promise!
In this guide I’m going to run through exactly what you need to do to setup your own blog.
So, before we get started just be aware that building your first blog can take up to 30 minutes. It might make sense to bookmark this page if you are planning to start a blog when you have some extra time.
[Last Updated: 1st April 2020]
In order to Start A Blog you will
need to work through these 5 simple step-by-step stages:
1. Choose a blogging platform
2. Pick a Domain Name & Web Host
3. Install WordPress on your hosting account
4. Design Your Blog
5. Launch Your Blog
In this tutorial we will be building a blog with WordPress. Please do not skip any steps.
STEP ONE
Choose Your Blogging Platform
A blogging platform is the software used to manage your blog. It allows you to create blog pages, add content, images, video and everything else that you would need to do when updating your blog. Another name for a blogging platform is a CMS ( Content Management System).
There are lots of different open source platforms which most web hosting companies will support when you are creating your blog. The main blogging platforms are:
- WordPress – is the most popular and customizable content management system (CMS) in the world
- Ghost – is a new blogging platform that is creating a lot of noise in the blogosphere
- Drupal – is quite popular but is difficult for novices
- Joomla – another fairly popular CMS but there is a very steep learning curve
- Blogger – a free blogging solution from Google
Why You SHOULD NOT Start A Blog On A Free Platform
Plainly and simply I will never recommend someone who wants to start a successful blog to use a free platform such as Blogger or WordPress.com. While there is zero barrier to entry and no up front financial cost to you, there are lots of concerns which could cost you more in the long run. If you can, then you should always self-host your blog.
When something is free, YOU are the product
Because of this fact a platform such as Blogger or WordPress.com can shut you down at any point, with no warning and no way to recover your content. A minor indiscretion such as using an image without the right consent can have your site deleted and no way to challenge it.
No Customization
Usage of ALL the free plugins and features are very limited. And if you want to customize your free theme to make it stand out from the crowd, then just forget it. You can’t do this on WordPress.com (free version of WordPress)
It looks unprofessional
Many of the free blogging platforms do not let you have a custom domain which gives across an unprofessional appearance to potential customers and subscribers. You are also very limited with the level of customisation you can do to your blog so your site looks just like everyone else’s.
It’s hard to make money from your blog when you don’t own the domain or hosting.
Most free blogging platforms will not allow you to place any adds or affiliate links on your site. So how can you make any money from the traffic that you have being working hard to build? Answer: No chance.
Many Limitations
The free blogging platforms give you very little in terms of web space. You might get 5GB if you’re lucky. For today’s websites this is just not enough when you consider uploading images and videos to your blog posts.
SEO
Your blog’s performance on search engines will no doubt be effected by hosting your content on a free blogging platform. Servers are slower which will impact on your rankings, as well as the fact that Google favours custom URLs over shared sub-domains such as myfreewebsite12345.wordpress.com.
So what should you gather from this guide so far?
Simple. Don’t go for creating a free blog, because it will restrict you at every stage.
If you think that starting your blog on a free platform now and moving to a paid solution later on is the best way forward, then think again! Migrating your free blog from a free blogging platform to a better paid option can be very difficult and time consuming.
What you should do when creating a blog
The best way forward is to build your blog on a platform like WordPress where you will own your website and content 100% because you are self-hosted and you have your own professional / personal domain name. You won’t have any limitations and you’re free to monetize your website, which is vital if you’re wanting to make money online from your blog.
Paying for web hosting for your blog is not very expensive and can cost as little as around $5 per month for very simple hosting packages. Having a reliable web host will mean that your site is backed up regularly and you have rights to recover your website for any reason.
Why I Recommend WordPress For Starting A Blog
Well to begin with my website makeawebsitehub.com is built on WordPress, and over 30% of all websites and blogs on the internet use WordPress.
Over the past few years I have worked with all of the well known blogging platforms but always recommend WordPress to blogging novices due to the great community support and ease of use.
It’s INSANELY simple to set up.
You will see just how easy later in this How To Start A Blog guide. To give you some idea to how simple it is, my 9 year old daughter set up her own blog with ZERO help from her expert dad (that’s me by the way).
So easy to use.
Managing your blog, adding content, adding images, amending content and much much more can be done with absolute ease in WordPress. The platform has an extremely intuitive interface so adding new pages, blog posts, etc. can be done very quickly. Out of the box WordPress ticks most of the boxes you will need for your new blog and if it doesn’t there is probably a plugin out there for you.
Blogging is at the heart of WordPress.
WordPress was designed and built for bloggers as a blogging platform so all the blogging capabilities and functionality are already built-in and waiting for you. If you want to set up an email subscriptions to your blog, then this can be added via a plugin in just seconds. That’s the great thing about WordPress, you can literally set your blog up and publish your first blog in a matter of minutes.
Total control.
With WordPress, you have total control over your site. There’s no waiting for a web designer or developer to amend your content. You can just login to your dashboard and make changes yourself.
WordPress is secure.
As long as you keep your WordPress platform and plugins updated with the latest versions, and you adhere to secure password best practices, then WordPress is a damn secure place to have your site. WordPress update their software all the time to make sure that it continues to be secure and keeping hackers at arms length.
Excellent support & vibrant community
The WordPress community is vast, vibrant and always will to help out. Check out their support forums to see just how good it is.
You can read more about my thoughts on self-hosted WordPress vs WordPress.com
STEP TWO
Picking A Domain Name For Your Blog & Setting Up Your Web Hosting
In order to set up a blog you will need a domain name and web hosting. If you are new to starting a blog then I recommend that you register your domain & hosting with the same company to keep things simple.
Domain Name: This is your website address i.e. the domain name ( blog name ) for this website is makeawebsitehub.com. Try to choose something short and catchy for your blog that will be easily remembered. I recommend that you stick to .com domain names if at all possible as many of the new domain names aren’t as easy to recognize.
Web Hosting: This is where your blog is stored online. There are lots of different hosting companies out there which offer different types of hosting for a variety of different types of websites. The WordPress platform is free of charge but you will have to pay around $3-4 per month for your Web Hosting and Domain registration fees.
Affiliate disclaimer: I recommend Bluehost because I use them on a lot of websites that I own or have built for clients. I also truly believe they offer a superior service to other hosting companies. All Bluehost links on this page are affiliate links which means that I will get commission if you buy hosting with Bluehost via one of my links. This helps me to run makeawebsitehub.com and keep all the guides on this site free to use and share.
The Best Place To Buy Your Blog’s Domain And Hosting.
I personally use and can highly recommend using BlueHost.com to start a blog because of their simple installation process, great customer service & reliability. They’re also recommended by WordPress.org as a top host since 2005.
Over the years, I’ve tried dozens of different WordPress Hosting providers, so I suppose you can call me an “expert” at choosing the hosting for my blogs. If you want to learn more about what is on offer then read my web hosting reviews.
Once you have decided on which web hosting company to work with you will need to install WordPress on your account. I have created a guide on how to install WordPress on a variety of different web hosts.
Additionally if you sign up to BlueHost today, you will get high quality hosting from just $2.95 per month, as well as a FREE domain name worth up to $15 for the first 12 months for your new blog too!!!
Use this link to get a free domain with your hosting.
Remember: If you’re unhappy with your BlueHost purchase within 30 days, they will give you your money back.
When you sign up for hosting with BlueHost there are some additional services they offer. Domain Privacy Protection means that people won’t be able to see the name, address and contact details of who owns the blog, if you’re happy for people to know who owns the blog then you can deselect this and save yourself about $12 per year.
Starting A WordPress Blog On BlueHost
It’s Black Friday week so you can get high quality hosting from Bluehost for a crazy cheap price of just $2.95 per month (36 months sign up + free domain name).
For new bloggers looking to grow their sites, I recommend going for the Bluehost Choice Plus plan for $5.45 per month, as you get a lot more unlimited features. This is ideal if you plan to scale up your blog in the future or host more than one website.
Normally the Plus Plan hosting package would cost you $14.99 p/m, so jump on this deal now while it’s still available.
Remember that you can always start off with the basic plan and upgrade whenever you feel you need more features.
Here’s what you get for $5.45 per month with the BlueHost Choice Plus Plan:
- A FREE domain name ( worth $15 )
- Fast, high quality & reliable web hosting
- Free SSL Certificate
- Free Site Builder
- One-click WordPress Install and 24/7 support.
- Unmetered website space
- Unmetered bandwidth
- Unlimited email accounts
- Unmetered email storage
- Host unlimited numbers of websites on your account
Click on the “Get Started Now” button to start the process of creating your very own blog.
Next you’ll need to select the right plan for you and your blog. I recommend either the Plus or Prime packages. You can start off with basic if you like and upgrade anytime you feel you need more features to run your website.
Once you’ve selected your plan you’ll then see this page…
If you already have a domain name, from another domain name registrar, that you want to use; then just enter it in the right hand box and then click next to assign your domain name to your new hosting.
Let’s say you don’t have a domain name and you want to claim your free domain.
Type in the domain name that you’d like in the left hand box where it says “New Domain” and then click next. If it’s available then you’ll be able to proceed.
If it’s already registered then BlueHost will cleverly show you some similar domain names that you might want to consider. Or you can just type out another domain name idea to see if it’s available.
So you have found the domain name of your dreams and you’re now ready to set it up with your new hosting. The next screen you’ll see is the domain registration page where you will have to put in all the boring details such as account information, but this takes no time at all.
Once you’ve filled out the domain registration form, its then time to select your hosting plan. You’ll find this section directly below the account information section.
I normally suggest you select the Plus or Prime plan at 36 months to get a better deal on the hosting, but 12 or 24 months is fine also.
I normally don’t click any of the other options as they’re not essential however I do recommend getting domain privacy if you don’t want anyone knowing who owns the domain. The great thing about the Prime package is this option is free.
Then scroll down and fill out the billing information, click submit and you are done!
You should then receive an email from BlueHost with all your account and login details. Check your spam folder as it can sometimes end up in there if your email client is a little too sensitive.
Keep your login and welcome information safe as you may need it for future reference.
The next thing you’ll need to do is to create a password for your WordPress dashboard login. This is the page you’ll see next after paying for your hosting package. Simply click on the green button to create your password.
On the next screen, you’ll need to put in your desired password into both fields. My advice to you would be to make the password over 15 characters with a mix of numbers, upper and lower case letters and a few special characters such as $%*(*£!.
Make it hard as possible for those hackers wanting to get into your blog. Once you have a long and complex password, make note of it and click next to move onto the next stage.
STEP THREE
Installing WordPress On Your Hosting
So you’ve signed up and paid for your BlueHost hosting. Great! You are nearly there.
The next thing you need to do is to login to your BlueHost account with the details they sent you in the welcome email.
Once you have logged in you’ll see a big blue button saying “Start Building” – press this.
It will probably take about 5 minutes for them to load WordPress on to your hosting account. Once WordPress is loaded you can then login.
If you are following this tutorial then you can click the link that says “I don’t need help” and on the top left of your WordPress screen you’ll see a “Bluehost” menu, click that.
From here you can add blog posts and pages, change the theme (design) of your blog and upload any plugins.
If you get stuck, I have put together some links to useful free and paid WordPress tutorials
STEP FOUR
Choosing A WordPress Theme
Now that your WordPress blog is built you need to add a WordPress theme that has all of the functions that you need, a WordPress theme is a pre-designed template which you can customize. Right now you have a choice to make you can either go with a free or a paid one. There are of course advantages and disadvantages to both so it comes down to what you want from your blog.
Some of my favourite places to find themes for blogs are:
When you are choosing your theme you want to make sure it fits with your goals. For example, if you are writing a professional blog then you will want a formal clean design where as a music blog you will have more license to show off your creativity.
These days you should now been using a responsive design. This means that the layout of your blog will adapt to different mobile and tablet screen sizes – which is highly important for usability now that a lot of people are using mobile phones to browse the web.
How To Install Your New Blog Theme
Your new theme will come in a .zip file format if you have purchased one. You have the options to upload it straight into your WordPress Dashboard by logging into your WordPress blog.
When you log into your WordPress site for the first time, you will see this view of the dashboard.
Move the mouse over “Appearance” tab within the dashboard sidebar, and then click on “Themes”. This will open up the Themes page within your WordPress dashboard.
You can then either install one of the free themes that you’ll see available to you on your Themes page dashboard or you can install your own Theme that you may have purchased or downloaded elsewhere.
To install a free theme that’s already on your dashboard pre-loaded, you simply press the Activate button under the theme you want. See below:
Remember that you can always switch back to your old theme if you don’t like the look of the new one. That’s the beauty of WordPress.
If you don’t want to use any of the themes on your dashboard, click Add New to start looking for a new theme to use. This will bring you to a page where you will be able to search the many thousands of free WordPress themes that are available to download and use on your site.
Here you’ll see four tabs, Featured, Popular, Latest and Favourites. You can also use the search bar to find more themes, as well as being able to customise your search with specific filters, such as searching for themes that are ideal for businesses and that only have 2 columns.
Uploading your own theme from Zip file
To upload your own premium theme that you may have purchased from sites like Themeforest or MyThemeShop, you simply do the following…
APPEARANCE >
THEMES >
ADD THEME >
UPLOAD THEMES ( You’ll find this at the top of the page next to “Add Themes” page title.
You then upload your theme .zip file just like you would adding an attachment on to an email.
You’ll now have a pretty blank looking theme set up and waiting for some love. At this stage you want to fill out all the basics like your logos, social media links and other things.
STEP FIVE
Launch Your Blog
Now once you are ready to launch your new blog for other people to read it – you need to click the blue “Launch” button on the Bluehost page
Make sure you fill in the name and tagline for your new blog.
…And that is it!
Congratulations you have now taken the first steps to starting your new blog!
FAQ’s About Starting A Blog
1. Is Blogging Still Relevant?
Yes, blogging is still growing – Blogging is now one of the most popular ways of communicating and spreading information and news online. There are millions of blogs online and everyday you delay in getting started with a blog is another day wasted.
Blogging is a great way to express yourself and share your ideas, creativity and knowledge. Become a thought leader in your niche and leverage that authority for your own gain.
Blogging will help you to connect with other people who share your interests and also become a better writer.
2. How do you make money from a blog?
It’s no big secret- There’s a lot of people out there making a lot of money from blogging. The reason why these people (including myself) are making money from their blogs is because they have never given up, and they have chosen their niche wisely. Blog about what you know, and what you are passionate about to start with. At the same time, have an idea in mind to monetize the blog (advertisements, affiliate offers, products, ebooks etc). If you put the work in, you will get your rewards.
If you want to learn more then read my guide to on how to make money with blogging or my post on making money online.
3. How long does Blogging Take?
Around 20 minutes – if you already have some ideas about what type of blog you want to start, then this tutorial can be completed quite easily within 20 minutes.
As for regularly writing new blog posts and promoting them then it will take much longer. I regularly write one to two blog posts per week for this blog and it takes me about 3 hours per blog post. This includes writing, editing, adding images and promoting the blog posts to my social media followers and email list.
4. Can I start a blog for free?
Yes – there are lots of free blog platforms out there, Blogger.com is the most popular free blogging platform out there. I would not recommend setting up a free blog if you plan to use it professionally for business or to make money from in the future. You also will not have custom domain name either.
5. How do I setup an email account for my blog?
I have created an in-depth guide on how to setup a free email address with your BlueHost web hosting account.
6. How do I get more traffic to my blog?
I have written several posts on this topic or check these 37 tips to increase blog traffic
HOW TO START A BLOG
A REALLY SIMPLE BEGINNERS GUIDE ON HOW YOU CAN CREATE YOUR OWN BLOG IN JUST 20 MINUTES.
If you’ve been planning to start a blog but didn’t know where to begin, then you’ve come to the right place!
In this tutorial I will help you get your first blog up and running in around 20 minutes. I started my first blog back in 2008 and it has completely changed my life for the better.
My name is Jamie Spencer and I have been blogging as my main source of income for the past 8 years. I have created and sold a wide variety of blogs in different niches which means I am in a great position to help you start your own blog.
I’ve designed this beginners guide to blogging to show you how to start a blog online in less than 20 minutes even if you’re a complete blogging novice, whether you’re 18 or 80. It really is that simple and straightforward. There is no technical jargon within this guide that will leave you confused.
If you do get stuck on any part of this guide, then please feel free to email me. You can contact me here. I will get back to you within 24 hours, I promise!
In this guide I’m going to run through exactly what you need to do to setup your own blog.
So, before we get started just be aware that building your first blog can take up to 30 minutes. It might make sense to bookmark this page if you are planning to start a blog when you have some extra time.
[Last Updated: 1st April 2020]
In order to Start A Blog you will
need to work through these 5 simple step-by-step stages:
1. Choose a blogging platform
2. Pick a Domain Name & Web Host
3. Install WordPress on your hosting account
4. Design Your Blog
5. Launch Your Blog
In this tutorial we will be building a blog with WordPress. Please do not skip any steps.
STEP ONE
Choose Your Blogging Platform
A blogging platform is the software used to manage your blog. It allows you to create blog pages, add content, images, video and everything else that you would need to do when updating your blog. Another name for a blogging platform is a CMS ( Content Management System).
There are lots of different open source platforms which most web hosting companies will support when you are creating your blog. The main blogging platforms are:
- WordPress – is the most popular and customizable content management system (CMS) in the world
- Ghost – is a new blogging platform that is creating a lot of noise in the blogosphere
- Drupal – is quite popular but is difficult for novices
- Joomla – another fairly popular CMS but there is a very steep learning curve
- Blogger – a free blogging solution from Google
Why You SHOULD NOT Start A Blog On A Free Platform
Plainly and simply I will never recommend someone who wants to start a successful blog to use a free platform such as Blogger or WordPress.com. While there is zero barrier to entry and no up front financial cost to you, there are lots of concerns which could cost you more in the long run. If you can, then you should always self-host your blog.
When something is free, YOU are the product
Because of this fact a platform such as Blogger or WordPress.com can shut you down at any point, with no warning and no way to recover your content. A minor indiscretion such as using an image without the right consent can have your site deleted and no way to challenge it.
No Customization
Usage of ALL the free plugins and features are very limited. And if you want to customize your free theme to make it stand out from the crowd, then just forget it. You can’t do this on WordPress.com (free version of WordPress)
It looks unprofessional
Many of the free blogging platforms do not let you have a custom domain which gives across an unprofessional appearance to potential customers and subscribers. You are also very limited with the level of customisation you can do to your blog so your site looks just like everyone else’s.
It’s hard to make money from your blog when you don’t own the domain or hosting.
Most free blogging platforms will not allow you to place any adds or affiliate links on your site. So how can you make any money from the traffic that you have being working hard to build? Answer: No chance.
Many Limitations
The free blogging platforms give you very little in terms of web space. You might get 5GB if you’re lucky. For today’s websites this is just not enough when you consider uploading images and videos to your blog posts.
SEO
Your blog’s performance on search engines will no doubt be effected by hosting your content on a free blogging platform. Servers are slower which will impact on your rankings, as well as the fact that Google favours custom URLs over shared sub-domains such as myfreewebsite12345.wordpress.com.
So what should you gather from this guide so far?
Simple. Don’t go for creating a free blog, because it will restrict you at every stage.
If you think that starting your blog on a free platform now and moving to a paid solution later on is the best way forward, then think again! Migrating your free blog from a free blogging platform to a better paid option can be very difficult and time consuming.
What you should do when creating a blog
The best way forward is to build your blog on a platform like WordPress where you will own your website and content 100% because you are self-hosted and you have your own professional / personal domain name. You won’t have any limitations and you’re free to monetize your website, which is vital if you’re wanting to make money online from your blog.
Paying for web hosting for your blog is not very expensive and can cost as little as around $5 per month for very simple hosting packages. Having a reliable web host will mean that your site is backed up regularly and you have rights to recover your website for any reason.
Why I Recommend WordPress For Starting A Blog
Well to begin with my website makeawebsitehub.com is built on WordPress, and over 30% of all websites and blogs on the internet use WordPress.
Over the past few years I have worked with all of the well known blogging platforms but always recommend WordPress to blogging novices due to the great community support and ease of use.
It’s INSANELY simple to set up.
You will see just how easy later in this How To Start A Blog guide. To give you some idea to how simple it is, my 9 year old daughter set up her own blog with ZERO help from her expert dad (that’s me by the way).
So easy to use.
Managing your blog, adding content, adding images, amending content and much much more can be done with absolute ease in WordPress. The platform has an extremely intuitive interface so adding new pages, blog posts, etc. can be done very quickly. Out of the box WordPress ticks most of the boxes you will need for your new blog and if it doesn’t there is probably a plugin out there for you.
Blogging is at the heart of WordPress.
WordPress was designed and built for bloggers as a blogging platform so all the blogging capabilities and functionality are already built-in and waiting for you. If you want to set up an email subscriptions to your blog, then this can be added via a plugin in just seconds. That’s the great thing about WordPress, you can literally set your blog up and publish your first blog in a matter of minutes.
Total control.
With WordPress, you have total control over your site. There’s no waiting for a web designer or developer to amend your content. You can just login to your dashboard and make changes yourself.
WordPress is secure.
As long as you keep your WordPress platform and plugins updated with the latest versions, and you adhere to secure password best practices, then WordPress is a damn secure place to have your site. WordPress update their software all the time to make sure that it continues to be secure and keeping hackers at arms length.
Excellent support & vibrant community
The WordPress community is vast, vibrant and always will to help out. Check out their support forums to see just how good it is.
You can read more about my thoughts on self-hosted WordPress vs WordPress.com
STEP TWO
Picking A Domain Name For Your Blog & Setting Up Your Web Hosting
In order to set up a blog you will need a domain name and web hosting. If you are new to starting a blog then I recommend that you register your domain & hosting with the same company to keep things simple.
Domain Name: This is your website address i.e. the domain name ( blog name ) for this website is makeawebsitehub.com. Try to choose something short and catchy for your blog that will be easily remembered. I recommend that you stick to .com domain names if at all possible as many of the new domain names aren’t as easy to recognize.
Web Hosting: This is where your blog is stored online. There are lots of different hosting companies out there which offer different types of hosting for a variety of different types of websites. The WordPress platform is free of charge but you will have to pay around $3-4 per month for your Web Hosting and Domain registration fees.
Affiliate disclaimer: I recommend Bluehost because I use them on a lot of websites that I own or have built for clients. I also truly believe they offer a superior service to other hosting companies. All Bluehost links on this page are affiliate links which means that I will get commission if you buy hosting with Bluehost via one of my links. This helps me to run makeawebsitehub.com and keep all the guides on this site free to use and share.
The Best Place To Buy Your Blog’s Domain And Hosting.
I personally use and can highly recommend using BlueHost.com to start a blog because of their simple installation process, great customer service & reliability. They’re also recommended by WordPress.org as a top host since 2005.
Over the years, I’ve tried dozens of different WordPress Hosting providers, so I suppose you can call me an “expert” at choosing the hosting for my blogs. If you want to learn more about what is on offer then read my web hosting reviews.
Once you have decided on which web hosting company to work with you will need to install WordPress on your account. I have created a guide on how to install WordPress on a variety of different web hosts.
Additionally if you sign up to BlueHost today, you will get high quality hosting from just $2.95 per month, as well as a FREE domain name worth up to $15 for the first 12 months for your new blog too!!!
Use this link to get a free domain with your hosting.
Remember: If you’re unhappy with your BlueHost purchase within 30 days, they will give you your money back.
When you sign up for hosting with BlueHost there are some additional services they offer. Domain Privacy Protection means that people won’t be able to see the name, address and contact details of who owns the blog, if you’re happy for people to know who owns the blog then you can deselect this and save yourself about $12 per year.
Starting A WordPress Blog On BlueHost
It’s Black Friday week so you can get high quality hosting from Bluehost for a crazy cheap price of just $2.95 per month (36 months sign up + free domain name).
For new bloggers looking to grow their sites, I recommend going for the Bluehost Choice Plus plan for $5.45 per month, as you get a lot more unlimited features. This is ideal if you plan to scale up your blog in the future or host more than one website.
Normally the Plus Plan hosting package would cost you $14.99 p/m, so jump on this deal now while it’s still available.
Remember that you can always start off with the basic plan and upgrade whenever you feel you need more features.
Here’s what you get for $5.45 per month with the BlueHost Choice Plus Plan:
- A FREE domain name ( worth $15 )
- Fast, high quality & reliable web hosting
- Free SSL Certificate
- Free Site Builder
- One-click WordPress Install and 24/7 support.
- Unmetered website space
- Unmetered bandwidth
- Unlimited email accounts
- Unmetered email storage
- Host unlimited numbers of websites on your account
Click on the “Get Started Now” button to start the process of creating your very own blog.
Next you’ll need to select the right plan for you and your blog. I recommend either the Plus or Prime packages. You can start off with basic if you like and upgrade anytime you feel you need more features to run your website.
Once you’ve selected your plan you’ll then see this page…
If you already have a domain name, from another domain name registrar, that you want to use; then just enter it in the right hand box and then click next to assign your domain name to your new hosting.
Let’s say you don’t have a domain name and you want to claim your free domain.
Type in the domain name that you’d like in the left hand box where it says “New Domain” and then click next. If it’s available then you’ll be able to proceed.
If it’s already registered then BlueHost will cleverly show you some similar domain names that you might want to consider. Or you can just type out another domain name idea to see if it’s available.
So you have found the domain name of your dreams and you’re now ready to set it up with your new hosting. The next screen you’ll see is the domain registration page where you will have to put in all the boring details such as account information, but this takes no time at all.
Once you’ve filled out the domain registration form, its then time to select your hosting plan. You’ll find this section directly below the account information section.
I normally suggest you select the Plus or Prime plan at 36 months to get a better deal on the hosting, but 12 or 24 months is fine also.
I normally don’t click any of the other options as they’re not essential however I do recommend getting domain privacy if you don’t want anyone knowing who owns the domain. The great thing about the Prime package is this option is free.
Then scroll down and fill out the billing information, click submit and you are done!
You should then receive an email from BlueHost with all your account and login details. Check your spam folder as it can sometimes end up in there if your email client is a little too sensitive.
Keep your login and welcome information safe as you may need it for future reference.
The next thing you’ll need to do is to create a password for your WordPress dashboard login. This is the page you’ll see next after paying for your hosting package. Simply click on the green button to create your password.
On the next screen, you’ll need to put in your desired password into both fields. My advice to you would be to make the password over 15 characters with a mix of numbers, upper and lower case letters and a few special characters such as $%*(*£!.
Make it hard as possible for those hackers wanting to get into your blog. Once you have a long and complex password, make note of it and click next to move onto the next stage.
STEP THREE
Installing WordPress On Your Hosting
So you’ve signed up and paid for your BlueHost hosting. Great! You are nearly there.
The next thing you need to do is to login to your BlueHost account with the details they sent you in the welcome email.
Once you have logged in you’ll see a big blue button saying “Start Building” – press this.
It will probably take about 5 minutes for them to load WordPress on to your hosting account. Once WordPress is loaded you can then login.
If you are following this tutorial then you can click the link that says “I don’t need help” and on the top left of your WordPress screen you’ll see a “Bluehost” menu, click that.
From here you can add blog posts and pages, change the theme (design) of your blog and upload any plugins.
If you get stuck, I have put together some links to useful free and paid WordPress tutorials
STEP FOUR
Choosing A WordPress Theme
Now that your WordPress blog is built you need to add a WordPress theme that has all of the functions that you need, a WordPress theme is a pre-designed template which you can customize. Right now you have a choice to make you can either go with a free or a paid one. There are of course advantages and disadvantages to both so it comes down to what you want from your blog.
Some of my favourite places to find themes for blogs are:
When you are choosing your theme you want to make sure it fits with your goals. For example, if you are writing a professional blog then you will want a formal clean design where as a music blog you will have more license to show off your creativity.
These days you should now been using a responsive design. This means that the layout of your blog will adapt to different mobile and tablet screen sizes – which is highly important for usability now that a lot of people are using mobile phones to browse the web.
How To Install Your New Blog Theme
Your new theme will come in a .zip file format if you have purchased one. You have the options to upload it straight into your WordPress Dashboard by logging into your WordPress blog.
When you log into your WordPress site for the first time, you will see this view of the dashboard.
Move the mouse over “Appearance” tab within the dashboard sidebar, and then click on “Themes”. This will open up the Themes page within your WordPress dashboard.
You can then either install one of the free themes that you’ll see available to you on your Themes page dashboard or you can install your own Theme that you may have purchased or downloaded elsewhere.
To install a free theme that’s already on your dashboard pre-loaded, you simply press the Activate button under the theme you want. See below:
Remember that you can always switch back to your old theme if you don’t like the look of the new one. That’s the beauty of WordPress.
If you don’t want to use any of the themes on your dashboard, click Add New to start looking for a new theme to use. This will bring you to a page where you will be able to search the many thousands of free WordPress themes that are available to download and use on your site.
Here you’ll see four tabs, Featured, Popular, Latest and Favourites. You can also use the search bar to find more themes, as well as being able to customise your search with specific filters, such as searching for themes that are ideal for businesses and that only have 2 columns.
Uploading your own theme from Zip file
To upload your own premium theme that you may have purchased from sites like Themeforest or MyThemeShop, you simply do the following…
APPEARANCE >
THEMES >
ADD THEME >
UPLOAD THEMES ( You’ll find this at the top of the page next to “Add Themes” page title.
You then upload your theme .zip file just like you would adding an attachment on to an email.
You’ll now have a pretty blank looking theme set up and waiting for some love. At this stage you want to fill out all the basics like your logos, social media links and other things.
STEP FIVE
Launch Your Blog
Now once you are ready to launch your new blog for other people to read it – you need to click the blue “Launch” button on the Bluehost page
Make sure you fill in the name and tagline for your new blog.
…And that is it!
Congratulations you have now taken the first steps to starting your new blog!
FAQ’s About Starting A Blog
1. Is Blogging Still Relevant?
Yes, blogging is still growing – Blogging is now one of the most popular ways of communicating and spreading information and news online. There are millions of blogs online and everyday you delay in getting started with a blog is another day wasted.
Blogging is a great way to express yourself and share your ideas, creativity and knowledge. Become a thought leader in your niche and leverage that authority for your own gain.
Blogging will help you to connect with other people who share your interests and also become a better writer.
2. How do you make money from a blog?
It’s no big secret- There’s a lot of people out there making a lot of money from blogging. The reason why these people (including myself) are making money from their blogs is because they have never given up, and they have chosen their niche wisely. Blog about what you know, and what you are passionate about to start with. At the same time, have an idea in mind to monetize the blog (advertisements, affiliate offers, products, ebooks etc). If you put the work in, you will get your rewards.
If you want to learn more then read my guide to on how to make money with blogging or my post on making money online.
3. How long does Blogging Take?
Around 20 minutes – if you already have some ideas about what type of blog you want to start, then this tutorial can be completed quite easily within 20 minutes.
As for regularly writing new blog posts and promoting them then it will take much longer. I regularly write one to two blog posts per week for this blog and it takes me about 3 hours per blog post. This includes writing, editing, adding images and promoting the blog posts to my social media followers and email list.
4. Can I start a blog for free?
Yes – there are lots of free blog platforms out there, Blogger.com is the most popular free blogging platform out there. I would not recommend setting up a free blog if you plan to use it professionally for business or to make money from in the future. You also will not have custom domain name either.
5. How do I setup an email account for my blog?
I have created an in-depth guide on how to setup a free email address with your BlueHost web hosting account.
6. How do I get more traffic to my blog?
I have written several posts on this topic or check these 37 tips to increase blog traffic
HOW TO START A BLOG
A REALLY SIMPLE BEGINNERS GUIDE ON HOW YOU CAN CREATE YOUR OWN BLOG IN JUST 20 MINUTES.
If you’ve been planning to start a blog but didn’t know where to begin, then you’ve come to the right place!
In this tutorial I will help you get your first blog up and running in around 20 minutes. I started my first blog back in 2008 and it has completely changed my life for the better.
My name is Jamie Spencer and I have been blogging as my main source of income for the past 8 years. I have created and sold a wide variety of blogs in different niches which means I am in a great position to help you start your own blog.
I’ve designed this beginners guide to blogging to show you how to start a blog online in less than 20 minutes even if you’re a complete blogging novice, whether you’re 18 or 80. It really is that simple and straightforward. There is no technical jargon within this guide that will leave you confused.
If you do get stuck on any part of this guide, then please feel free to email me. You can contact me here. I will get back to you within 24 hours, I promise!
In this guide I’m going to run through exactly what you need to do to setup your own blog.
So, before we get started just be aware that building your first blog can take up to 30 minutes. It might make sense to bookmark this page if you are planning to start a blog when you have some extra time.
[Last Updated: 1st April 2020]
In order to Start A Blog you will
need to work through these 5 simple step-by-step stages:
1. Choose a blogging platform
2. Pick a Domain Name & Web Host
3. Install WordPress on your hosting account
4. Design Your Blog
5. Launch Your Blog
In this tutorial we will be building a blog with WordPress. Please do not skip any steps.
STEP ONE
Choose Your Blogging Platform
A blogging platform is the software used to manage your blog. It allows you to create blog pages, add content, images, video and everything else that you would need to do when updating your blog. Another name for a blogging platform is a CMS ( Content Management System).
There are lots of different open source platforms which most web hosting companies will support when you are creating your blog. The main blogging platforms are:
- WordPress – is the most popular and customizable content management system (CMS) in the world
- Ghost – is a new blogging platform that is creating a lot of noise in the blogosphere
- Drupal – is quite popular but is difficult for novices
- Joomla – another fairly popular CMS but there is a very steep learning curve
- Blogger – a free blogging solution from Google
Why You SHOULD NOT Start A Blog On A Free Platform
Plainly and simply I will never recommend someone who wants to start a successful blog to use a free platform such as Blogger or WordPress.com. While there is zero barrier to entry and no up front financial cost to you, there are lots of concerns which could cost you more in the long run. If you can, then you should always self-host your blog.
When something is free, YOU are the product
Because of this fact a platform such as Blogger or WordPress.com can shut you down at any point, with no warning and no way to recover your content. A minor indiscretion such as using an image without the right consent can have your site deleted and no way to challenge it.
No Customization
Usage of ALL the free plugins and features are very limited. And if you want to customize your free theme to make it stand out from the crowd, then just forget it. You can’t do this on WordPress.com (free version of WordPress)
It looks unprofessional
Many of the free blogging platforms do not let you have a custom domain which gives across an unprofessional appearance to potential customers and subscribers. You are also very limited with the level of customisation you can do to your blog so your site looks just like everyone else’s.
It’s hard to make money from your blog when you don’t own the domain or hosting.
Most free blogging platforms will not allow you to place any adds or affiliate links on your site. So how can you make any money from the traffic that you have being working hard to build? Answer: No chance.
Many Limitations
The free blogging platforms give you very little in terms of web space. You might get 5GB if you’re lucky. For today’s websites this is just not enough when you consider uploading images and videos to your blog posts.
SEO
Your blog’s performance on search engines will no doubt be effected by hosting your content on a free blogging platform. Servers are slower which will impact on your rankings, as well as the fact that Google favours custom URLs over shared sub-domains such as myfreewebsite12345.wordpress.com.
So what should you gather from this guide so far?
Simple. Don’t go for creating a free blog, because it will restrict you at every stage.
If you think that starting your blog on a free platform now and moving to a paid solution later on is the best way forward, then think again! Migrating your free blog from a free blogging platform to a better paid option can be very difficult and time consuming.
What you should do when creating a blog
The best way forward is to build your blog on a platform like WordPress where you will own your website and content 100% because you are self-hosted and you have your own professional / personal domain name. You won’t have any limitations and you’re free to monetize your website, which is vital if you’re wanting to make money online from your blog.
Paying for web hosting for your blog is not very expensive and can cost as little as around $5 per month for very simple hosting packages. Having a reliable web host will mean that your site is backed up regularly and you have rights to recover your website for any reason.
Why I Recommend WordPress For Starting A Blog
Well to begin with my website makeawebsitehub.com is built on WordPress, and over 30% of all websites and blogs on the internet use WordPress.
Over the past few years I have worked with all of the well known blogging platforms but always recommend WordPress to blogging novices due to the great community support and ease of use.
It’s INSANELY simple to set up.
You will see just how easy later in this How To Start A Blog guide. To give you some idea to how simple it is, my 9 year old daughter set up her own blog with ZERO help from her expert dad (that’s me by the way).
So easy to use.
Managing your blog, adding content, adding images, amending content and much much more can be done with absolute ease in WordPress. The platform has an extremely intuitive interface so adding new pages, blog posts, etc. can be done very quickly. Out of the box WordPress ticks most of the boxes you will need for your new blog and if it doesn’t there is probably a plugin out there for you.
Blogging is at the heart of WordPress.
WordPress was designed and built for bloggers as a blogging platform so all the blogging capabilities and functionality are already built-in and waiting for you. If you want to set up an email subscriptions to your blog, then this can be added via a plugin in just seconds. That’s the great thing about WordPress, you can literally set your blog up and publish your first blog in a matter of minutes.
Total control.
With WordPress, you have total control over your site. There’s no waiting for a web designer or developer to amend your content. You can just login to your dashboard and make changes yourself.
WordPress is secure.
As long as you keep your WordPress platform and plugins updated with the latest versions, and you adhere to secure password best practices, then WordPress is a damn secure place to have your site. WordPress update their software all the time to make sure that it continues to be secure and keeping hackers at arms length.
Excellent support & vibrant community
The WordPress community is vast, vibrant and always will to help out. Check out their support forums to see just how good it is.
You can read more about my thoughts on self-hosted WordPress vs WordPress.com
STEP TWO
Picking A Domain Name For Your Blog & Setting Up Your Web Hosting
In order to set up a blog you will need a domain name and web hosting. If you are new to starting a blog then I recommend that you register your domain & hosting with the same company to keep things simple.
Domain Name: This is your website address i.e. the domain name ( blog name ) for this website is makeawebsitehub.com. Try to choose something short and catchy for your blog that will be easily remembered. I recommend that you stick to .com domain names if at all possible as many of the new domain names aren’t as easy to recognize.
Web Hosting: This is where your blog is stored online. There are lots of different hosting companies out there which offer different types of hosting for a variety of different types of websites. The WordPress platform is free of charge but you will have to pay around $3-4 per month for your Web Hosting and Domain registration fees.
Affiliate disclaimer: I recommend Bluehost because I use them on a lot of websites that I own or have built for clients. I also truly believe they offer a superior service to other hosting companies. All Bluehost links on this page are affiliate links which means that I will get commission if you buy hosting with Bluehost via one of my links. This helps me to run makeawebsitehub.com and keep all the guides on this site free to use and share.
The Best Place To Buy Your Blog’s Domain And Hosting.
I personally use and can highly recommend using BlueHost.com to start a blog because of their simple installation process, great customer service & reliability. They’re also recommended by WordPress.org as a top host since 2005.
Over the years, I’ve tried dozens of different WordPress Hosting providers, so I suppose you can call me an “expert” at choosing the hosting for my blogs. If you want to learn more about what is on offer then read my web hosting reviews.
Once you have decided on which web hosting company to work with you will need to install WordPress on your account. I have created a guide on how to install WordPress on a variety of different web hosts.
Additionally if you sign up to BlueHost today, you will get high quality hosting from just $2.95 per month, as well as a FREE domain name worth up to $15 for the first 12 months for your new blog too!!!
Use this link to get a free domain with your hosting.
Remember: If you’re unhappy with your BlueHost purchase within 30 days, they will give you your money back.
When you sign up for hosting with BlueHost there are some additional services they offer. Domain Privacy Protection means that people won’t be able to see the name, address and contact details of who owns the blog, if you’re happy for people to know who owns the blog then you can deselect this and save yourself about $12 per year.
Starting A WordPress Blog On BlueHost
It’s Black Friday week so you can get high quality hosting from Bluehost for a crazy cheap price of just $2.95 per month (36 months sign up + free domain name).
For new bloggers looking to grow their sites, I recommend going for the Bluehost Choice Plus plan for $5.45 per month, as you get a lot more unlimited features. This is ideal if you plan to scale up your blog in the future or host more than one website.
Normally the Plus Plan hosting package would cost you $14.99 p/m, so jump on this deal now while it’s still available.
Remember that you can always start off with the basic plan and upgrade whenever you feel you need more features.
Here’s what you get for $5.45 per month with the BlueHost Choice Plus Plan:
- A FREE domain name ( worth $15 )
- Fast, high quality & reliable web hosting
- Free SSL Certificate
- Free Site Builder
- One-click WordPress Install and 24/7 support.
- Unmetered website space
- Unmetered bandwidth
- Unlimited email accounts
- Unmetered email storage
- Host unlimited numbers of websites on your account
Click on the “Get Started Now” button to start the process of creating your very own blog.
Next you’ll need to select the right plan for you and your blog. I recommend either the Plus or Prime packages. You can start off with basic if you like and upgrade anytime you feel you need more features to run your website.
Once you’ve selected your plan you’ll then see this page…
If you already have a domain name, from another domain name registrar, that you want to use; then just enter it in the right hand box and then click next to assign your domain name to your new hosting.
Let’s say you don’t have a domain name and you want to claim your free domain.
Type in the domain name that you’d like in the left hand box where it says “New Domain” and then click next. If it’s available then you’ll be able to proceed.
If it’s already registered then BlueHost will cleverly show you some similar domain names that you might want to consider. Or you can just type out another domain name idea to see if it’s available.
So you have found the domain name of your dreams and you’re now ready to set it up with your new hosting. The next screen you’ll see is the domain registration page where you will have to put in all the boring details such as account information, but this takes no time at all.
Once you’ve filled out the domain registration form, its then time to select your hosting plan. You’ll find this section directly below the account information section.
I normally suggest you select the Plus or Prime plan at 36 months to get a better deal on the hosting, but 12 or 24 months is fine also.
I normally don’t click any of the other options as they’re not essential however I do recommend getting domain privacy if you don’t want anyone knowing who owns the domain. The great thing about the Prime package is this option is free.
Then scroll down and fill out the billing information, click submit and you are done!
You should then receive an email from BlueHost with all your account and login details. Check your spam folder as it can sometimes end up in there if your email client is a little too sensitive.
Keep your login and welcome information safe as you may need it for future reference.
The next thing you’ll need to do is to create a password for your WordPress dashboard login. This is the page you’ll see next after paying for your hosting package. Simply click on the green button to create your password.
On the next screen, you’ll need to put in your desired password into both fields. My advice to you would be to make the password over 15 characters with a mix of numbers, upper and lower case letters and a few special characters such as $%*(*£!.
Make it hard as possible for those hackers wanting to get into your blog. Once you have a long and complex password, make note of it and click next to move onto the next stage.
STEP THREE
Installing WordPress On Your Hosting
So you’ve signed up and paid for your BlueHost hosting. Great! You are nearly there.
The next thing you need to do is to login to your BlueHost account with the details they sent you in the welcome email.
Once you have logged in you’ll see a big blue button saying “Start Building” – press this.
It will probably take about 5 minutes for them to load WordPress on to your hosting account. Once WordPress is loaded you can then login.
If you are following this tutorial then you can click the link that says “I don’t need help” and on the top left of your WordPress screen you’ll see a “Bluehost” menu, click that.
From here you can add blog posts and pages, change the theme (design) of your blog and upload any plugins.
If you get stuck, I have put together some links to useful free and paid WordPress tutorials
STEP FOUR
Choosing A WordPress Theme
Now that your WordPress blog is built you need to add a WordPress theme that has all of the functions that you need, a WordPress theme is a pre-designed template which you can customize. Right now you have a choice to make you can either go with a free or a paid one. There are of course advantages and disadvantages to both so it comes down to what you want from your blog.
Some of my favourite places to find themes for blogs are:
When you are choosing your theme you want to make sure it fits with your goals. For example, if you are writing a professional blog then you will want a formal clean design where as a music blog you will have more license to show off your creativity.
These days you should now been using a responsive design. This means that the layout of your blog will adapt to different mobile and tablet screen sizes – which is highly important for usability now that a lot of people are using mobile phones to browse the web.
How To Install Your New Blog Theme
Your new theme will come in a .zip file format if you have purchased one. You have the options to upload it straight into your WordPress Dashboard by logging into your WordPress blog.
When you log into your WordPress site for the first time, you will see this view of the dashboard.
Move the mouse over “Appearance” tab within the dashboard sidebar, and then click on “Themes”. This will open up the Themes page within your WordPress dashboard.
You can then either install one of the free themes that you’ll see available to you on your Themes page dashboard or you can install your own Theme that you may have purchased or downloaded elsewhere.
To install a free theme that’s already on your dashboard pre-loaded, you simply press the Activate button under the theme you want. See below:
Remember that you can always switch back to your old theme if you don’t like the look of the new one. That’s the beauty of WordPress.
If you don’t want to use any of the themes on your dashboard, click Add New to start looking for a new theme to use. This will bring you to a page where you will be able to search the many thousands of free WordPress themes that are available to download and use on your site.
Here you’ll see four tabs, Featured, Popular, Latest and Favourites. You can also use the search bar to find more themes, as well as being able to customise your search with specific filters, such as searching for themes that are ideal for businesses and that only have 2 columns.
Uploading your own theme from Zip file
To upload your own premium theme that you may have purchased from sites like Themeforest or MyThemeShop, you simply do the following…
APPEARANCE >
THEMES >
ADD THEME >
UPLOAD THEMES ( You’ll find this at the top of the page next to “Add Themes” page title.
You then upload your theme .zip file just like you would adding an attachment on to an email.
You’ll now have a pretty blank looking theme set up and waiting for some love. At this stage you want to fill out all the basics like your logos, social media links and other things.
STEP FIVE
Launch Your Blog
Now once you are ready to launch your new blog for other people to read it – you need to click the blue “Launch” button on the Bluehost page
Make sure you fill in the name and tagline for your new blog.
…And that is it!
Congratulations you have now taken the first steps to starting your new blog!
FAQ’s About Starting A Blog
1. Is Blogging Still Relevant?
Yes, blogging is still growing – Blogging is now one of the most popular ways of communicating and spreading information and news online. There are millions of blogs online and everyday you delay in getting started with a blog is another day wasted.
Blogging is a great way to express yourself and share your ideas, creativity and knowledge. Become a thought leader in your niche and leverage that authority for your own gain.
Blogging will help you to connect with other people who share your interests and also become a better writer.
2. How do you make money from a blog?
It’s no big secret- There’s a lot of people out there making a lot of money from blogging. The reason why these people (including myself) are making money from their blogs is because they have never given up, and they have chosen their niche wisely. Blog about what you know, and what you are passionate about to start with. At the same time, have an idea in mind to monetize the blog (advertisements, affiliate offers, products, ebooks etc). If you put the work in, you will get your rewards.
If you want to learn more then read my guide to on how to make money with blogging or my post on making money online.
3. How long does Blogging Take?
Around 20 minutes – if you already have some ideas about what type of blog you want to start, then this tutorial can be completed quite easily within 20 minutes.
As for regularly writing new blog posts and promoting them then it will take much longer. I regularly write one to two blog posts per week for this blog and it takes me about 3 hours per blog post. This includes writing, editing, adding images and promoting the blog posts to my social media followers and email list.
4. Can I start a blog for free?
Yes – there are lots of free blog platforms out there, Blogger.com is the most popular free blogging platform out there. I would not recommend setting up a free blog if you plan to use it professionally for business or to make money from in the future. You also will not have custom domain name either.
5. How do I setup an email account for my blog?
I have created an in-depth guide on how to setup a free email address with your BlueHost web hosting account.
6. How do I get more traffic to my blog?
I have written several posts on this topic or check these 37 tips to increase blog traffic
HOW TO START A BLOG
A REALLY SIMPLE BEGINNERS GUIDE ON HOW YOU CAN CREATE YOUR OWN BLOG IN JUST 20 MINUTES.
If you’ve been planning to start a blog but didn’t know where to begin, then you’ve come to the right place!
In this tutorial I will help you get your first blog up and running in around 20 minutes. I started my first blog back in 2008 and it has completely changed my life for the better.
My name is Jamie Spencer and I have been blogging as my main source of income for the past 8 years. I have created and sold a wide variety of blogs in different niches which means I am in a great position to help you start your own blog.
I’ve designed this beginners guide to blogging to show you how to start a blog online in less than 20 minutes even if you’re a complete blogging novice, whether you’re 18 or 80. It really is that simple and straightforward. There is no technical jargon within this guide that will leave you confused.
If you do get stuck on any part of this guide, then please feel free to email me. You can contact me here. I will get back to you within 24 hours, I promise!
In this guide I’m going to run through exactly what you need to do to setup your own blog.
So, before we get started just be aware that building your first blog can take up to 30 minutes. It might make sense to bookmark this page if you are planning to start a blog when you have some extra time.
[Last Updated: 1st April 2020]
In order to Start A Blog you will
need to work through these 5 simple step-by-step stages:
1. Choose a blogging platform
2. Pick a Domain Name & Web Host
3. Install WordPress on your hosting account
4. Design Your Blog
5. Launch Your Blog
In this tutorial we will be building a blog with WordPress. Please do not skip any steps.
STEP ONE
Choose Your Blogging Platform
A blogging platform is the software used to manage your blog. It allows you to create blog pages, add content, images, video and everything else that you would need to do when updating your blog. Another name for a blogging platform is a CMS ( Content Management System).
There are lots of different open source platforms which most web hosting companies will support when you are creating your blog. The main blogging platforms are:
- WordPress – is the most popular and customizable content management system (CMS) in the world
- Ghost – is a new blogging platform that is creating a lot of noise in the blogosphere
- Drupal – is quite popular but is difficult for novices
- Joomla – another fairly popular CMS but there is a very steep learning curve
- Blogger – a free blogging solution from Google
Why You SHOULD NOT Start A Blog On A Free Platform
Plainly and simply I will never recommend someone who wants to start a successful blog to use a free platform such as Blogger or WordPress.com. While there is zero barrier to entry and no up front financial cost to you, there are lots of concerns which could cost you more in the long run. If you can, then you should always self-host your blog.
When something is free, YOU are the product
Because of this fact a platform such as Blogger or WordPress.com can shut you down at any point, with no warning and no way to recover your content. A minor indiscretion such as using an image without the right consent can have your site deleted and no way to challenge it.
No Customization
Usage of ALL the free plugins and features are very limited. And if you want to customize your free theme to make it stand out from the crowd, then just forget it. You can’t do this on WordPress.com (free version of WordPress)
It looks unprofessional
Many of the free blogging platforms do not let you have a custom domain which gives across an unprofessional appearance to potential customers and subscribers. You are also very limited with the level of customisation you can do to your blog so your site looks just like everyone else’s.
It’s hard to make money from your blog when you don’t own the domain or hosting.
Most free blogging platforms will not allow you to place any adds or affiliate links on your site. So how can you make any money from the traffic that you have being working hard to build? Answer: No chance.
Many Limitations
The free blogging platforms give you very little in terms of web space. You might get 5GB if you’re lucky. For today’s websites this is just not enough when you consider uploading images and videos to your blog posts.
SEO
Your blog’s performance on search engines will no doubt be effected by hosting your content on a free blogging platform. Servers are slower which will impact on your rankings, as well as the fact that Google favours custom URLs over shared sub-domains such as myfreewebsite12345.wordpress.com.
So what should you gather from this guide so far?
Simple. Don’t go for creating a free blog, because it will restrict you at every stage.
If you think that starting your blog on a free platform now and moving to a paid solution later on is the best way forward, then think again! Migrating your free blog from a free blogging platform to a better paid option can be very difficult and time consuming.
What you should do when creating a blog
The best way forward is to build your blog on a platform like WordPress where you will own your website and content 100% because you are self-hosted and you have your own professional / personal domain name. You won’t have any limitations and you’re free to monetize your website, which is vital if you’re wanting to make money online from your blog.
Paying for web hosting for your blog is not very expensive and can cost as little as around $5 per month for very simple hosting packages. Having a reliable web host will mean that your site is backed up regularly and you have rights to recover your website for any reason.
Why I Recommend WordPress For Starting A Blog
Well to begin with my website makeawebsitehub.com is built on WordPress, and over 30% of all websites and blogs on the internet use WordPress.
Over the past few years I have worked with all of the well known blogging platforms but always recommend WordPress to blogging novices due to the great community support and ease of use.
It’s INSANELY simple to set up.
You will see just how easy later in this How To Start A Blog guide. To give you some idea to how simple it is, my 9 year old daughter set up her own blog with ZERO help from her expert dad (that’s me by the way).
So easy to use.
Managing your blog, adding content, adding images, amending content and much much more can be done with absolute ease in WordPress. The platform has an extremely intuitive interface so adding new pages, blog posts, etc. can be done very quickly. Out of the box WordPress ticks most of the boxes you will need for your new blog and if it doesn’t there is probably a plugin out there for you.
Blogging is at the heart of WordPress.
WordPress was designed and built for bloggers as a blogging platform so all the blogging capabilities and functionality are already built-in and waiting for you. If you want to set up an email subscriptions to your blog, then this can be added via a plugin in just seconds. That’s the great thing about WordPress, you can literally set your blog up and publish your first blog in a matter of minutes.
Total control.
With WordPress, you have total control over your site. There’s no waiting for a web designer or developer to amend your content. You can just login to your dashboard and make changes yourself.
WordPress is secure.
As long as you keep your WordPress platform and plugins updated with the latest versions, and you adhere to secure password best practices, then WordPress is a damn secure place to have your site. WordPress update their software all the time to make sure that it continues to be secure and keeping hackers at arms length.
Excellent support & vibrant community
The WordPress community is vast, vibrant and always will to help out. Check out their support forums to see just how good it is.
You can read more about my thoughts on self-hosted WordPress vs WordPress.com
STEP TWO
Picking A Domain Name For Your Blog & Setting Up Your Web Hosting
In order to set up a blog you will need a domain name and web hosting. If you are new to starting a blog then I recommend that you register your domain & hosting with the same company to keep things simple.
Domain Name: This is your website address i.e. the domain name ( blog name ) for this website is makeawebsitehub.com. Try to choose something short and catchy for your blog that will be easily remembered. I recommend that you stick to .com domain names if at all possible as many of the new domain names aren’t as easy to recognize.
Web Hosting: This is where your blog is stored online. There are lots of different hosting companies out there which offer different types of hosting for a variety of different types of websites. The WordPress platform is free of charge but you will have to pay around $3-4 per month for your Web Hosting and Domain registration fees.
Affiliate disclaimer: I recommend Bluehost because I use them on a lot of websites that I own or have built for clients. I also truly believe they offer a superior service to other hosting companies. All Bluehost links on this page are affiliate links which means that I will get commission if you buy hosting with Bluehost via one of my links. This helps me to run makeawebsitehub.com and keep all the guides on this site free to use and share.
The Best Place To Buy Your Blog’s Domain And Hosting.
I personally use and can highly recommend using BlueHost.com to start a blog because of their simple installation process, great customer service & reliability. They’re also recommended by WordPress.org as a top host since 2005.
Over the years, I’ve tried dozens of different WordPress Hosting providers, so I suppose you can call me an “expert” at choosing the hosting for my blogs. If you want to learn more about what is on offer then read my web hosting reviews.
Once you have decided on which web hosting company to work with you will need to install WordPress on your account. I have created a guide on how to install WordPress on a variety of different web hosts.
Additionally if you sign up to BlueHost today, you will get high quality hosting from just $2.95 per month, as well as a FREE domain name worth up to $15 for the first 12 months for your new blog too!!!
Use this link to get a free domain with your hosting.
Remember: If you’re unhappy with your BlueHost purchase within 30 days, they will give you your money back.
When you sign up for hosting with BlueHost there are some additional services they offer. Domain Privacy Protection means that people won’t be able to see the name, address and contact details of who owns the blog, if you’re happy for people to know who owns the blog then you can deselect this and save yourself about $12 per year.
Starting A WordPress Blog On BlueHost
It’s Black Friday week so you can get high quality hosting from Bluehost for a crazy cheap price of just $2.95 per month (36 months sign up + free domain name).
For new bloggers looking to grow their sites, I recommend going for the Bluehost Choice Plus plan for $5.45 per month, as you get a lot more unlimited features. This is ideal if you plan to scale up your blog in the future or host more than one website.
Normally the Plus Plan hosting package would cost you $14.99 p/m, so jump on this deal now while it’s still available.
Remember that you can always start off with the basic plan and upgrade whenever you feel you need more features.
Here’s what you get for $5.45 per month with the BlueHost Choice Plus Plan:
- A FREE domain name ( worth $15 )
- Fast, high quality & reliable web hosting
- Free SSL Certificate
- Free Site Builder
- One-click WordPress Install and 24/7 support.
- Unmetered website space
- Unmetered bandwidth
- Unlimited email accounts
- Unmetered email storage
- Host unlimited numbers of websites on your account
Click on the “Get Started Now” button to start the process of creating your very own blog.
Next you’ll need to select the right plan for you and your blog. I recommend either the Plus or Prime packages. You can start off with basic if you like and upgrade anytime you feel you need more features to run your website.
Once you’ve selected your plan you’ll then see this page…
If you already have a domain name, from another domain name registrar, that you want to use; then just enter it in the right hand box and then click next to assign your domain name to your new hosting.
Let’s say you don’t have a domain name and you want to claim your free domain.
Type in the domain name that you’d like in the left hand box where it says “New Domain” and then click next. If it’s available then you’ll be able to proceed.
If it’s already registered then BlueHost will cleverly show you some similar domain names that you might want to consider. Or you can just type out another domain name idea to see if it’s available.
So you have found the domain name of your dreams and you’re now ready to set it up with your new hosting. The next screen you’ll see is the domain registration page where you will have to put in all the boring details such as account information, but this takes no time at all.
Once you’ve filled out the domain registration form, its then time to select your hosting plan. You’ll find this section directly below the account information section.
I normally suggest you select the Plus or Prime plan at 36 months to get a better deal on the hosting, but 12 or 24 months is fine also.
I normally don’t click any of the other options as they’re not essential however I do recommend getting domain privacy if you don’t want anyone knowing who owns the domain. The great thing about the Prime package is this option is free.
Then scroll down and fill out the billing information, click submit and you are done!
You should then receive an email from BlueHost with all your account and login details. Check your spam folder as it can sometimes end up in there if your email client is a little too sensitive.
Keep your login and welcome information safe as you may need it for future reference.
The next thing you’ll need to do is to create a password for your WordPress dashboard login. This is the page you’ll see next after paying for your hosting package. Simply click on the green button to create your password.
On the next screen, you’ll need to put in your desired password into both fields. My advice to you would be to make the password over 15 characters with a mix of numbers, upper and lower case letters and a few special characters such as $%*(*£!.
Make it hard as possible for those hackers wanting to get into your blog. Once you have a long and complex password, make note of it and click next to move onto the next stage.
STEP THREE
Installing WordPress On Your Hosting
So you’ve signed up and paid for your BlueHost hosting. Great! You are nearly there.
The next thing you need to do is to login to your BlueHost account with the details they sent you in the welcome email.
Once you have logged in you’ll see a big blue button saying “Start Building” – press this.
It will probably take about 5 minutes for them to load WordPress on to your hosting account. Once WordPress is loaded you can then login.
If you are following this tutorial then you can click the link that says “I don’t need help” and on the top left of your WordPress screen you’ll see a “Bluehost” menu, click that.
From here you can add blog posts and pages, change the theme (design) of your blog and upload any plugins.
If you get stuck, I have put together some links to useful free and paid WordPress tutorials
STEP FOUR
Choosing A WordPress Theme
Now that your WordPress blog is built you need to add a WordPress theme that has all of the functions that you need, a WordPress theme is a pre-designed template which you can customize. Right now you have a choice to make you can either go with a free or a paid one. There are of course advantages and disadvantages to both so it comes down to what you want from your blog.
Some of my favourite places to find themes for blogs are:
When you are choosing your theme you want to make sure it fits with your goals. For example, if you are writing a professional blog then you will want a formal clean design where as a music blog you will have more license to show off your creativity.
These days you should now been using a responsive design. This means that the layout of your blog will adapt to different mobile and tablet screen sizes – which is highly important for usability now that a lot of people are using mobile phones to browse the web.
How To Install Your New Blog Theme
Your new theme will come in a .zip file format if you have purchased one. You have the options to upload it straight into your WordPress Dashboard by logging into your WordPress blog.
When you log into your WordPress site for the first time, you will see this view of the dashboard.
Move the mouse over “Appearance” tab within the dashboard sidebar, and then click on “Themes”. This will open up the Themes page within your WordPress dashboard.
You can then either install one of the free themes that you’ll see available to you on your Themes page dashboard or you can install your own Theme that you may have purchased or downloaded elsewhere.
To install a free theme that’s already on your dashboard pre-loaded, you simply press the Activate button under the theme you want. See below:
Remember that you can always switch back to your old theme if you don’t like the look of the new one. That’s the beauty of WordPress.
If you don’t want to use any of the themes on your dashboard, click Add New to start looking for a new theme to use. This will bring you to a page where you will be able to search the many thousands of free WordPress themes that are available to download and use on your site.
Here you’ll see four tabs, Featured, Popular, Latest and Favourites. You can also use the search bar to find more themes, as well as being able to customise your search with specific filters, such as searching for themes that are ideal for businesses and that only have 2 columns.
Uploading your own theme from Zip file
To upload your own premium theme that you may have purchased from sites like Themeforest or MyThemeShop, you simply do the following…
APPEARANCE >
THEMES >
ADD THEME >
UPLOAD THEMES ( You’ll find this at the top of the page next to “Add Themes” page title.
You then upload your theme .zip file just like you would adding an attachment on to an email.
You’ll now have a pretty blank looking theme set up and waiting for some love. At this stage you want to fill out all the basics like your logos, social media links and other things.
STEP FIVE
Launch Your Blog
Now once you are ready to launch your new blog for other people to read it – you need to click the blue “Launch” button on the Bluehost page
Make sure you fill in the name and tagline for your new blog.
…And that is it!
Congratulations you have now taken the first steps to starting your new blog!
FAQ’s About Starting A Blog
1. Is Blogging Still Relevant?
Yes, blogging is still growing – Blogging is now one of the most popular ways of communicating and spreading information and news online. There are millions of blogs online and everyday you delay in getting started with a blog is another day wasted.
Blogging is a great way to express yourself and share your ideas, creativity and knowledge. Become a thought leader in your niche and leverage that authority for your own gain.
Blogging will help you to connect with other people who share your interests and also become a better writer.
2. How do you make money from a blog?
It’s no big secret- There’s a lot of people out there making a lot of money from blogging. The reason why these people (including myself) are making money from their blogs is because they have never given up, and they have chosen their niche wisely. Blog about what you know, and what you are passionate about to start with. At the same time, have an idea in mind to monetize the blog (advertisements, affiliate offers, products, ebooks etc). If you put the work in, you will get your rewards.
If you want to learn more then read my guide to on how to make money with blogging or my post on making money online.
3. How long does Blogging Take?
Around 20 minutes – if you already have some ideas about what type of blog you want to start, then this tutorial can be completed quite easily within 20 minutes.
As for regularly writing new blog posts and promoting them then it will take much longer. I regularly write one to two blog posts per week for this blog and it takes me about 3 hours per blog post. This includes writing, editing, adding images and promoting the blog posts to my social media followers and email list.
4. Can I start a blog for free?
Yes – there are lots of free blog platforms out there, Blogger.com is the most popular free blogging platform out there. I would not recommend setting up a free blog if you plan to use it professionally for business or to make money from in the future. You also will not have custom domain name either.
5. How do I setup an email account for my blog?
I have created an in-depth guide on how to setup a free email address with your BlueHost web hosting account.
6. How do I get more traffic to my blog?
I have written several posts on this topic or check these 37 tips to increase blog traffic
HOW TO START A BLOG
A REALLY SIMPLE BEGINNERS GUIDE ON HOW YOU CAN CREATE YOUR OWN BLOG IN JUST 20 MINUTES.
If you’ve been planning to start a blog but didn’t know where to begin, then you’ve come to the right place!
In this tutorial I will help you get your first blog up and running in around 20 minutes. I started my first blog back in 2008 and it has completely changed my life for the better.
My name is Jamie Spencer and I have been blogging as my main source of income for the past 8 years. I have created and sold a wide variety of blogs in different niches which means I am in a great position to help you start your own blog.
I’ve designed this beginners guide to blogging to show you how to start a blog online in less than 20 minutes even if you’re a complete blogging novice, whether you’re 18 or 80. It really is that simple and straightforward. There is no technical jargon within this guide that will leave you confused.
If you do get stuck on any part of this guide, then please feel free to email me. You can contact me here. I will get back to you within 24 hours, I promise!
In this guide I’m going to run through exactly what you need to do to setup your own blog.
So, before we get started just be aware that building your first blog can take up to 30 minutes. It might make sense to bookmark this page if you are planning to start a blog when you have some extra time.
[Last Updated: 1st April 2020]
In order to Start A Blog you will
need to work through these 5 simple step-by-step stages:
1. Choose a blogging platform
2. Pick a Domain Name & Web Host
3. Install WordPress on your hosting account
4. Design Your Blog
5. Launch Your Blog
In this tutorial we will be building a blog with WordPress. Please do not skip any steps.
STEP ONE
Choose Your Blogging Platform
A blogging platform is the software used to manage your blog. It allows you to create blog pages, add content, images, video and everything else that you would need to do when updating your blog. Another name for a blogging platform is a CMS ( Content Management System).
There are lots of different open source platforms which most web hosting companies will support when you are creating your blog. The main blogging platforms are:
- WordPress – is the most popular and customizable content management system (CMS) in the world
- Ghost – is a new blogging platform that is creating a lot of noise in the blogosphere
- Drupal – is quite popular but is difficult for novices
- Joomla – another fairly popular CMS but there is a very steep learning curve
- Blogger – a free blogging solution from Google
Why You SHOULD NOT Start A Blog On A Free Platform
Plainly and simply I will never recommend someone who wants to start a successful blog to use a free platform such as Blogger or WordPress.com. While there is zero barrier to entry and no up front financial cost to you, there are lots of concerns which could cost you more in the long run. If you can, then you should always self-host your blog.
When something is free, YOU are the product
Because of this fact a platform such as Blogger or WordPress.com can shut you down at any point, with no warning and no way to recover your content. A minor indiscretion such as using an image without the right consent can have your site deleted and no way to challenge it.
No Customization
Usage of ALL the free plugins and features are very limited. And if you want to customize your free theme to make it stand out from the crowd, then just forget it. You can’t do this on WordPress.com (free version of WordPress)
It looks unprofessional
Many of the free blogging platforms do not let you have a custom domain which gives across an unprofessional appearance to potential customers and subscribers. You are also very limited with the level of customisation you can do to your blog so your site looks just like everyone else’s.
It’s hard to make money from your blog when you don’t own the domain or hosting.
Most free blogging platforms will not allow you to place any adds or affiliate links on your site. So how can you make any money from the traffic that you have being working hard to build? Answer: No chance.
Many Limitations
The free blogging platforms give you very little in terms of web space. You might get 5GB if you’re lucky. For today’s websites this is just not enough when you consider uploading images and videos to your blog posts.
SEO
Your blog’s performance on search engines will no doubt be effected by hosting your content on a free blogging platform. Servers are slower which will impact on your rankings, as well as the fact that Google favours custom URLs over shared sub-domains such as myfreewebsite12345.wordpress.com.
So what should you gather from this guide so far?
Simple. Don’t go for creating a free blog, because it will restrict you at every stage.
If you think that starting your blog on a free platform now and moving to a paid solution later on is the best way forward, then think again! Migrating your free blog from a free blogging platform to a better paid option can be very difficult and time consuming.
What you should do when creating a blog
The best way forward is to build your blog on a platform like WordPress where you will own your website and content 100% because you are self-hosted and you have your own professional / personal domain name. You won’t have any limitations and you’re free to monetize your website, which is vital if you’re wanting to make money online from your blog.
Paying for web hosting for your blog is not very expensive and can cost as little as around $5 per month for very simple hosting packages. Having a reliable web host will mean that your site is backed up regularly and you have rights to recover your website for any reason.
Why I Recommend WordPress For Starting A Blog
Well to begin with my website makeawebsitehub.com is built on WordPress, and over 30% of all websites and blogs on the internet use WordPress.
Over the past few years I have worked with all of the well known blogging platforms but always recommend WordPress to blogging novices due to the great community support and ease of use.
It’s INSANELY simple to set up.
You will see just how easy later in this How To Start A Blog guide. To give you some idea to how simple it is, my 9 year old daughter set up her own blog with ZERO help from her expert dad (that’s me by the way).
So easy to use.
Managing your blog, adding content, adding images, amending content and much much more can be done with absolute ease in WordPress. The platform has an extremely intuitive interface so adding new pages, blog posts, etc. can be done very quickly. Out of the box WordPress ticks most of the boxes you will need for your new blog and if it doesn’t there is probably a plugin out there for you.
Blogging is at the heart of WordPress.
WordPress was designed and built for bloggers as a blogging platform so all the blogging capabilities and functionality are already built-in and waiting for you. If you want to set up an email subscriptions to your blog, then this can be added via a plugin in just seconds. That’s the great thing about WordPress, you can literally set your blog up and publish your first blog in a matter of minutes.
Total control.
With WordPress, you have total control over your site. There’s no waiting for a web designer or developer to amend your content. You can just login to your dashboard and make changes yourself.
WordPress is secure.
As long as you keep your WordPress platform and plugins updated with the latest versions, and you adhere to secure password best practices, then WordPress is a damn secure place to have your site. WordPress update their software all the time to make sure that it continues to be secure and keeping hackers at arms length.
Excellent support & vibrant community
The WordPress community is vast, vibrant and always will to help out. Check out their support forums to see just how good it is.
You can read more about my thoughts on self-hosted WordPress vs WordPress.com
STEP TWO
Picking A Domain Name For Your Blog & Setting Up Your Web Hosting
In order to set up a blog you will need a domain name and web hosting. If you are new to starting a blog then I recommend that you register your domain & hosting with the same company to keep things simple.
Domain Name: This is your website address i.e. the domain name ( blog name ) for this website is makeawebsitehub.com. Try to choose something short and catchy for your blog that will be easily remembered. I recommend that you stick to .com domain names if at all possible as many of the new domain names aren’t as easy to recognize.
Web Hosting: This is where your blog is stored online. There are lots of different hosting companies out there which offer different types of hosting for a variety of different types of websites. The WordPress platform is free of charge but you will have to pay around $3-4 per month for your Web Hosting and Domain registration fees.
Affiliate disclaimer: I recommend Bluehost because I use them on a lot of websites that I own or have built for clients. I also truly believe they offer a superior service to other hosting companies. All Bluehost links on this page are affiliate links which means that I will get commission if you buy hosting with Bluehost via one of my links. This helps me to run makeawebsitehub.com and keep all the guides on this site free to use and share.
The Best Place To Buy Your Blog’s Domain And Hosting.
I personally use and can highly recommend using BlueHost.com to start a blog because of their simple installation process, great customer service & reliability. They’re also recommended by WordPress.org as a top host since 2005.
Over the years, I’ve tried dozens of different WordPress Hosting providers, so I suppose you can call me an “expert” at choosing the hosting for my blogs. If you want to learn more about what is on offer then read my web hosting reviews.
Once you have decided on which web hosting company to work with you will need to install WordPress on your account. I have created a guide on how to install WordPress on a variety of different web hosts.
Additionally if you sign up to BlueHost today, you will get high quality hosting from just $2.95 per month, as well as a FREE domain name worth up to $15 for the first 12 months for your new blog too!!!
Use this link to get a free domain with your hosting.
Remember: If you’re unhappy with your BlueHost purchase within 30 days, they will give you your money back.
When you sign up for hosting with BlueHost there are some additional services they offer. Domain Privacy Protection means that people won’t be able to see the name, address and contact details of who owns the blog, if you’re happy for people to know who owns the blog then you can deselect this and save yourself about $12 per year.
Starting A WordPress Blog On BlueHost
It’s Black Friday week so you can get high quality hosting from Bluehost for a crazy cheap price of just $2.95 per month (36 months sign up + free domain name).
For new bloggers looking to grow their sites, I recommend going for the Bluehost Choice Plus plan for $5.45 per month, as you get a lot more unlimited features. This is ideal if you plan to scale up your blog in the future or host more than one website.
Normally the Plus Plan hosting package would cost you $14.99 p/m, so jump on this deal now while it’s still available.
Remember that you can always start off with the basic plan and upgrade whenever you feel you need more features.
Here’s what you get for $5.45 per month with the BlueHost Choice Plus Plan:
- A FREE domain name ( worth $15 )
- Fast, high quality & reliable web hosting
- Free SSL Certificate
- Free Site Builder
- One-click WordPress Install and 24/7 support.
- Unmetered website space
- Unmetered bandwidth
- Unlimited email accounts
- Unmetered email storage
- Host unlimited numbers of websites on your account
Click on the “Get Started Now” button to start the process of creating your very own blog.
Next you’ll need to select the right plan for you and your blog. I recommend either the Plus or Prime packages. You can start off with basic if you like and upgrade anytime you feel you need more features to run your website.
Once you’ve selected your plan you’ll then see this page…
If you already have a domain name, from another domain name registrar, that you want to use; then just enter it in the right hand box and then click next to assign your domain name to your new hosting.
Let’s say you don’t have a domain name and you want to claim your free domain.
Type in the domain name that you’d like in the left hand box where it says “New Domain” and then click next. If it’s available then you’ll be able to proceed.
If it’s already registered then BlueHost will cleverly show you some similar domain names that you might want to consider. Or you can just type out another domain name idea to see if it’s available.
So you have found the domain name of your dreams and you’re now ready to set it up with your new hosting. The next screen you’ll see is the domain registration page where you will have to put in all the boring details such as account information, but this takes no time at all.
Once you’ve filled out the domain registration form, its then time to select your hosting plan. You’ll find this section directly below the account information section.
I normally suggest you select the Plus or Prime plan at 36 months to get a better deal on the hosting, but 12 or 24 months is fine also.
I normally don’t click any of the other options as they’re not essential however I do recommend getting domain privacy if you don’t want anyone knowing who owns the domain. The great thing about the Prime package is this option is free.
Then scroll down and fill out the billing information, click submit and you are done!
You should then receive an email from BlueHost with all your account and login details. Check your spam folder as it can sometimes end up in there if your email client is a little too sensitive.
Keep your login and welcome information safe as you may need it for future reference.
The next thing you’ll need to do is to create a password for your WordPress dashboard login. This is the page you’ll see next after paying for your hosting package. Simply click on the green button to create your password.
On the next screen, you’ll need to put in your desired password into both fields. My advice to you would be to make the password over 15 characters with a mix of numbers, upper and lower case letters and a few special characters such as $%*(*£!.
Make it hard as possible for those hackers wanting to get into your blog. Once you have a long and complex password, make note of it and click next to move onto the next stage.
STEP THREE
Installing WordPress On Your Hosting
So you’ve signed up and paid for your BlueHost hosting. Great! You are nearly there.
The next thing you need to do is to login to your BlueHost account with the details they sent you in the welcome email.
Once you have logged in you’ll see a big blue button saying “Start Building” – press this.
It will probably take about 5 minutes for them to load WordPress on to your hosting account. Once WordPress is loaded you can then login.
If you are following this tutorial then you can click the link that says “I don’t need help” and on the top left of your WordPress screen you’ll see a “Bluehost” menu, click that.
From here you can add blog posts and pages, change the theme (design) of your blog and upload any plugins.
If you get stuck, I have put together some links to useful free and paid WordPress tutorials
STEP FOUR
Choosing A WordPress Theme
Now that your WordPress blog is built you need to add a WordPress theme that has all of the functions that you need, a WordPress theme is a pre-designed template which you can customize. Right now you have a choice to make you can either go with a free or a paid one. There are of course advantages and disadvantages to both so it comes down to what you want from your blog.
Some of my favourite places to find themes for blogs are:
When you are choosing your theme you want to make sure it fits with your goals. For example, if you are writing a professional blog then you will want a formal clean design where as a music blog you will have more license to show off your creativity.
These days you should now been using a responsive design. This means that the layout of your blog will adapt to different mobile and tablet screen sizes – which is highly important for usability now that a lot of people are using mobile phones to browse the web.
How To Install Your New Blog Theme
Your new theme will come in a .zip file format if you have purchased one. You have the options to upload it straight into your WordPress Dashboard by logging into your WordPress blog.
When you log into your WordPress site for the first time, you will see this view of the dashboard.
Move the mouse over “Appearance” tab within the dashboard sidebar, and then click on “Themes”. This will open up the Themes page within your WordPress dashboard.
You can then either install one of the free themes that you’ll see available to you on your Themes page dashboard or you can install your own Theme that you may have purchased or downloaded elsewhere.
To install a free theme that’s already on your dashboard pre-loaded, you simply press the Activate button under the theme you want. See below:
Remember that you can always switch back to your old theme if you don’t like the look of the new one. That’s the beauty of WordPress.
If you don’t want to use any of the themes on your dashboard, click Add New to start looking for a new theme to use. This will bring you to a page where you will be able to search the many thousands of free WordPress themes that are available to download and use on your site.
Here you’ll see four tabs, Featured, Popular, Latest and Favourites. You can also use the search bar to find more themes, as well as being able to customise your search with specific filters, such as searching for themes that are ideal for businesses and that only have 2 columns.
Uploading your own theme from Zip file
To upload your own premium theme that you may have purchased from sites like Themeforest or MyThemeShop, you simply do the following…
APPEARANCE >
THEMES >
ADD THEME >
UPLOAD THEMES ( You’ll find this at the top of the page next to “Add Themes” page title.
You then upload your theme .zip file just like you would adding an attachment on to an email.
You’ll now have a pretty blank looking theme set up and waiting for some love. At this stage you want to fill out all the basics like your logos, social media links and other things.
STEP FIVE
Launch Your Blog
Now once you are ready to launch your new blog for other people to read it – you need to click the blue “Launch” button on the Bluehost page
Make sure you fill in the name and tagline for your new blog.
…And that is it!
Congratulations you have now taken the first steps to starting your new blog!
FAQ’s About Starting A Blog
1. Is Blogging Still Relevant?
Yes, blogging is still growing – Blogging is now one of the most popular ways of communicating and spreading information and news online. There are millions of blogs online and everyday you delay in getting started with a blog is another day wasted.
Blogging is a great way to express yourself and share your ideas, creativity and knowledge. Become a thought leader in your niche and leverage that authority for your own gain.
Blogging will help you to connect with other people who share your interests and also become a better writer.
2. How do you make money from a blog?
It’s no big secret- There’s a lot of people out there making a lot of money from blogging. The reason why these people (including myself) are making money from their blogs is because they have never given up, and they have chosen their niche wisely. Blog about what you know, and what you are passionate about to start with. At the same time, have an idea in mind to monetize the blog (advertisements, affiliate offers, products, ebooks etc). If you put the work in, you will get your rewards.
If you want to learn more then read my guide to on how to make money with blogging or my post on making money online.
3. How long does Blogging Take?
Around 20 minutes – if you already have some ideas about what type of blog you want to start, then this tutorial can be completed quite easily within 20 minutes.
As for regularly writing new blog posts and promoting them then it will take much longer. I regularly write one to two blog posts per week for this blog and it takes me about 3 hours per blog post. This includes writing, editing, adding images and promoting the blog posts to my social media followers and email list.
4. Can I start a blog for free?
Yes – there are lots of free blog platforms out there, Blogger.com is the most popular free blogging platform out there. I would not recommend setting up a free blog if you plan to use it professionally for business or to make money from in the future. You also will not have custom domain name either.
5. How do I setup an email account for my blog?
I have created an in-depth guide on how to setup a free email address with your BlueHost web hosting account.
6. How do I get more traffic to my blog?
I have written several posts on this topic or check these 37 tips to increase blog traffic.
How To Make A Website
A Simple To Follow Tutorial On How YOU CAN BUILD Your OWN WEBSITE In Just 60 MINUTES…
Written By A 7 Figure A Year WordPress Developer & Blogger
If you have been planning to build your own website from scratch but just didn’t have a clue where to begin, then you have landed in the right place…
[Updated: 1st January 2020]
My name is Jamie Spencer and I have been building websites since the beginning of the internet ( shows my age a bit! ) I’ve also been blogging as my main source of income for the past eight years. I have created and sold a wide variety of websites and blogs in different niches which means I am probably in a great place to help you create your first website.
My aim was to create a simple tutorial for individuals, business owners, bloggers and anyone else who is daunted by the prospect of building their own website. With this guide, I want to show you that you don’t need to code or hire a web developer to have a great looking and functioning website.
A few sites I’ve been featured on…
There Are Only 4 Steps To Building Your Own Website! So Let’s Start Now!
Choose what platform you want your site to be built on. We recommend WordPress.
5 MINS
This task takes only 5 mins
Get yourself a domain name for your site so people can find it. Make it catchy and relevant.
5 MINS
This task takes only 5 mins
Set up your website, choose a theme, customize the design and make it look awesome!
30 MINS
This task takes only 30 mins
Bring your website to life by easily adding content via the WordPress dashboard.
20 MINS
This task takes only 20 mins
STEP ONE
Choose What Platform Your Site Is Going To Be Built On.
The first thing you need to do is choose what website platform to build your website on. There are many different CMS (content management systems) to choose from and choosing the right platform is a top priority. You don’t want to start building your site on a CMS platform to find out that it’s totally wrong for you and your site. There’s a load of free website building platforms that you could use, but these free websites aren’t great for the long term. You’re restricted to using their own hosting and their own sub-domain ( yourwebsite.freewebsitecompany.com ).
Building out your own a fully functioning and nicely designed website isn’t rocket science. It’s quite easy actually, even for a complete novice who hasn’t had very much experience with computers. But you can get into trouble when you don’t choose the right website building platform.
Some platforms require you to know a little bit of HTML / CSS or other coding languages, so you really need to decide where you are at in terms of website building ability. If you are a beginner then you would be best to choose WordPress.org.
Below is a diagram that shows the most popular website building platforms that many of the world’s best websites are using today.
WordPress, Drupal Or Joomla. Which One Will It Be?
There are three main content management platforms that most of the world’s websites are run on. WordPress, Drupal, and Joomla.
WORDPRESS
30% of websites are run on WordPress
DRUPAL
2.2% of websites are run on Drupal
JOOMLA!
3.1% of websites are run on Joomla!
And The Winner Is…..WordPress!
For me, I choose WordPress.org all the time. There are plenty of other website builders out there to choose from, but WordPress wins hands down for a number of reasons.
1. User-Friendly & Newbie Friendly
The WordPress platform is so easy to use. Ideal for new bloggers and people starting a business. It’s intuitive and if you know how to use standard Microsoft programs such as Word or Excel, then chances are you’ll already know how to publish your own content on the site you’re about to build.
Another great thing about WordPress is that it can be easily customized with plugins, that can pretty much do anything to your site and make it exactly how you want it. You might want just a simple small business website or a complex e-com site with hundreds of products. WP can handle this.
2. Powerful
WordPress is extremely powerful and can run most types of sites. It’s a trusted platform for many of the busiest websites in the world. It can handle pretty much anything.
3. Responsive & Mobile Friendly
With more and more people viewing sites on their phones and other mobile devices, it’s really important to have a site that is responsive to these digital demands. With WordPress, most themes come mobile friendly as standard.
4. It Won’t Cost You A Thing!
WordPress is free. All you have to do is buy your domain and hosting and then you’re up and running before you can say “www.”
5. Plenty Of Lovely People To Help You Out.
WordPress is blessed with a vibrant and helpful community of developers who will be happy to help you out should you get stuck with anything to do with your WordPress site.
STEP TWO
Your Website Needs A Name And A Home.
Get A Domain & Web Hosting To Start The Magic!
Hosting your website on WordPress.com is free. GOOD NEWS!!! And you get a free WordPress domain name. GOOD NEWS!!!
But the hosting service they give you it’s really slow (which will impact your rankings on Google) BAD NEWS!!!
And the free domain name they give you is rubbish, as its a sub-domain and will make you look unprofessional. MORE BAD NEWS!!!
Example: YourWebsiteName.WordPress.com
So let’s look at the better way for your site to get up and running! By spending that little bit more money, your website can have its own hosting which is much faster and reliable than any free hosting you can get and your own domain name!
Example: www.YourWebsiteName.com
This means that you will have your very own Web Property and not a site that’s owned and rented to you from WordPress.
Web Hosting And Domain Name Costs
Before you can start creating your website, you’re going to need to take care of the basics. The two most important components to get your site up and running is a domain name and web hosting service. Without these two things, your visitors will have no way to access your site.
Domain Name
The domain name refers to the address that people will use to visit your site. It’s what your site will be identified as moving forward. Needless to say, it plays a bit part in defining your brand, so it’s important to choose a domain that represents you or your business well.
Web Hosting
Web hosting is where your site is actually going to be stored. Hosting companies have large data centers filled with servers. When you purchase a hosting plan, part of one of those servers is dedicated to your site. It’s where you will be putting on your files, copy, images, and anything else pertaining to your web creation.
Choose Your Web Hosting
Typically, hosting will cost you approximately $3 – $6 per month. It’s worth it, really it is! If you’re serious about building your own website then you need your own hosting and domain name.
In most of the websites that I have built, including makeawebsitehub.com, I have used Bluehost for my web hosting.
Go to www.BlueHost.com and click on the “get started now”. Use this link to get a FREE domain name for the first 12 months.
You can get the basic hosting package for an incredible $2.95 a month + Free domain name, but I recommend the Plus plan for new bloggers, as you get more unlimited features with this deal and you can host more than one website on the account.
The Plus Plan currently is $4.45 per month, but normally this hosting package would cost you $10.99 per month! You can always start on the basic plan and upgrade to the Plus Plan whenever you want.
Here’s what you get with BlueHost Plus Plan:
A FREE domain name ( worth $15 )
Fast, high quality & reliable web hosting provider
Free Site Builder
One-click WordPress Install and 24/7 support.
Unmetered website space
Unmetered bandwidth
Unlimited email accounts
Unmetered email storage
Host unlimited numbers of websites on your account
A Quick Recap
If you’re setting up a blog, personal website or business website, you will need both a domain name and hosting package. With the hosting package, you also get unlimited email addresses that are assigned to your domain name!
Example: joebloggs@YourWebsiteName.com
This is super useful as everything is under one roof! No hassle with having to arrange email accounts elsewhere!
If you are looking to create an online store or eCommerce website then read my guide on starting a website with Shopify.
Where To Register A Domain And Get Web Hosting Service
Now that you know why a domain name and hosting is important, where do you get it? There are many options available. For this guide, we’ll be using BlueHost.
BlueHost is an established hosting company that’s been around forever. They have a great reputation for providing reliable service at affordable prices. While the provider’s data centers are located in Utah, users from around the world will have no problem accessing your site
Currently, BlueHost’s shared hosting plans start at only $2.95 per month with a promotional offer for new members. There are a few different plan tiers to choose from. There are also different types of hosting plans available for whenever you need to upgrade.
In addition to offering hosting service, BlueHost acts as a domain registrar. So, you can take care of both tasks in one place. The company offers a free domain for one year with all of their hosting packages.
Getting your domain name and hosting service is very easy and only takes a few minutes. Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to do it at BlueHost.
1. Head over to BlueHost.com
On the homepage, you’ll be able to see some basic information about the services the company provides. When you’re ready to get started, click on one of the “Get Started” buttons.
2. Select A Web Hosting Plan
This page is for the shared hosting plans. If you’re interested in VPS hosting or Dedicated hosting, you’ll need to visit their respective pages. Links to those can be found on the toolbar up top. They are towards the upper left side of the screen under the “Hosting” submenu.
If you’re just getting started, shared plans are the way to go. Not only are they cost-effective, but they have all the resources you need to get your site up and running. Scroll down the page a bit to see a detailed breakdown of the available plans.
Currently, BlueHost offers four different shared hosting tiers.
Basic
Plus
Choice Plus
Pro
The most affordable is the Basic plan, which gives you hosting for one site and 50 GB of SSD storage. The second plan is the Plus plan. It offers unlimited sites, storage, and domain. The Choice Plus plan throws in domain privacy and a site backup feature. Finally, there’s the Pro plan. It’s one of BlueHost’s newest offerings and includes a dedicated IP address.
We recommend going with the Choice Plus plan. It’s currently $5.45 per month ( normally $14.99 pm ) The unlimited storage and extra features make it well worth the upgrade.
The great thing about BlueHost is that you can easily change your plan as your site grows. To move onto the next step, click on the “Select” button for the plan that you want.
3. Choose A Domain Name
Now you’re on to the fun stuff. On this page, you get the chance to choose your domain name. If you already have one, type it out in the righthand box. To register a new one, focus on the box to the left.
Think of something creative and relevant for your domain. If you own a business, you could do something as simple as your company name. Alternatively, you can use your own name. Whatever the case may be, type it in and choose a domain extension.
Pressing on the small dropdown menu next to the text input box will show you a selection of domain extensions you can choose. Currently, it’s only showing you 15 of the most popular extensions that qualify for the free domain offer.
It’s recommended that you stick with something that’s familiar. .com, .net, and .gov extensions have been around for a very long time, so people are familiar with them. They’ll give your address a professional touch.
If you want to register one of the many new top-level domains, you’ll have to purchase it separately from a different part of the site.
4. Create Your Account
Now it’s time to create your hosting account. This is the information that’s going to be used by BlueHost for billing and contact purposes. All you have to do is input your name, address, email address, and all other required information.
Scroll down the page to see where you’ll provide your billing information. BlueHost accepts many different types of payment methods, including most major credit cards. The connection between you and BlueHost’s billing department is encrypted and protected for peace of mind.
5. Check Your Plan Information and Finish the Registration Process
Now it’s time to create your hosting account. This is the information that’s going to be used by BlueHost for billing and contact purposes. All you have to do is input your name, address, email address, and all other required information.
Scroll down the page to see where you’ll provide your billing information. BlueHost accepts many different types of payment methods, including most major credit cards. The connection between you and BlueHost’s billing department is encrypted and protected for peace of mind.
6. Confirm Your Account
After you’ve completed the registration and submitted your payment information, you’ll receive an email from BlueHost with a unique link that’s used to confirm that you made the account yourself.
Below the congratulatory message, you’ll find a button to create your password. Click on it and choose a password that’s easy to remember. BlueHost will require you to provide this password anytime you log in or contact support.
After that’s completed, you’re all done. You can now log into your BlueHost hosting account and get started.
What If I Already Have A Domain Name?
This is no problem at all. If you have a domain and hosting already, feel free to skip this step and move onto Step 3, where I will explain to you how to set up a website.
What Sort Of Domain Name Should I Choose?
Thinking of a decent name for your website can be the toughest thing about building your own website.
In short, your domain should be…
Catchy
Unique
Easy to remember
Quick Guide To Choosing A Domain Name
I have put together some quick tips for thinking up a really good domain name for your site.
What are your Top 10 Keywords
Think of about 10 keywords or terms that describe your website in the best way possible. When you have a good bunch of them you can then start to put them together, mix them up, add prefixes & suffixes to create some really cool domain name ideas.
A Unique Domain Name Is The Way To Go!
Don’t buy a name that will be confused with another website. Be unique, otherwise, it could mean your website falls flat before it has even started. Never buy domains that are simply the plural, hyphenated or misspelled version of an already established domain.
Go for Dot-Com Available Domains or a Top Level Local Domain
There’s no shortage of domain extensions nowadays with .this and .that at every turn. But only a few are really worth having. Dot-Com domains are considered the most valuable and important if you are going to be building a brand. If you want to target a worldwide audience with your site, go for a .com .org or .net, in that order of preference.
Local domains such as .co.uk for UK or .es for Spain are preferable. Avoid local domains like .uk.com
Make it Easy to Remember and Easy For People To Find Your Site.
Although people tend to find your site through a branded search in Google, it’s still important to make your domain easy to spell/type out. If it requires a lot of effort to type correctly, due to trying to spell it, the length or the use of un-memorable words or sounds, you’ve probably kissed goodbye to a good portion of your branding and marketing value.
Make it Stick In Peoples’ Heads
Keep your domain name snappy and memorable. Word-of-mouth and search engine prominence are both reliant on easy to remember domain names. You don’t want to have an amazing website that no one can ever remember to tell their friends about because they can’t remember the name of the damn site!
Short Domain Names Go A Long Way!
Short is great! Short is the way to go! It’s easy to type and easy to remember. It gives the possibility of using more characters in the URL in the SERPs and a better look and fit for offline marketing material.
Watch Out For Copyright Infringement
A rare mistake to make but one that isn’t made that often. But if it does it can blow a great domain and a great company out of the water! Check that you’re not infringing on anyone’s copyright with the name of your website. To do this head over to copyright.gov and search before you buy your URL name.
DON’T USE… Hyphens or Numbers
Hyphens and numbers suck! Simple! It makes it really difficult to give your domain name verbally and it fails the easy to remember or type test.
Other useful resource: How to Register A Domain Name
STEP THREE
Setting Up Your WordPress Website & Making It Look Professional!
The boring stuff is nearly done!
So you have purchased your domain name and hosting and now it’s time to make your website function. In just a few minutes your site will come alive.
The first thing you need to do is install WordPress. Sounds hard, but it’s not! Easy as pie!
Installing WordPress
You have two choices. Install with 1-click installation or manual installation.
One click install is very very easy, so would recommend going down this route.
1. One Click Installations To Create A Website With WordPress, Joomla, And Drupal
One-click installation is just that. One click and you’ve installed WordPress. Most web hosts will have the 1-click-installation integrated as standard within their dashboard. This service will have you up and running in a blink of an eye and help you to make your own website with ease!
In your Bluehost account, you’ll find the “1-click-installation” in your account control panel.
If you haven’t signed up to Bluehost and you’re using another web host, then the “1-click-installation” should be in the same sort of location on the site.
These are the steps you need to follow with the “1-click-installation” process. This will be the same or very similar to all of the other major web hosting company websites.
- Log in to your own hosting account/control panel.
- Go to your control panel within your hosting account.
- Click on “1 Click Installs”
- Find the “WordPress” icon and click.
- Choose the domain where you want to install your website.
- Click the “Install Now” button and that’s basically it! You’ll get details of how to access your new WordPress website.
If you need any more help with this, I have created an in-depth WordPress Installation Guide that you can read, print off and follow.
2. Manual Installation
Some web designers/developers like to install WordPress manually to get a custom install of the components they want and don’t want. Others will need to manually install because their web host does not have the “1-click-installation” capability. If this applies to you then you’ll need to have a quick read through of my Manual WordPress Set-Up Guide.
#ProTip: If your web host doesn’t have “1-click-installation” then you should really change your web host!
Click here to open up the Manual Installation Instructions.
Follow these quick and easy steps to install WordPress manually onto your server.
Step 1:
Download WordPress http://wordpress.org/download and save it to your local drive on your computer.
Step 2:
Create a new folder on your desktop or somewhere on your computer and unzip WordPress in that folder.
Step 3:
Find the file named wp-config-sample.php and change the name of it to wp-config.php. You can do this by right clicking the file and selecting the option “rename”.
Step 4:
Open the wp-config.php (with Notepad or Dreamweaver) and fill in the following lines:
define(‘DB_NAME’, ‘database_name_here’); – Database name (if you don’t know it, ask this from your hosting support)
define(‘DB_USER’, ‘username_here’); – Your hosting username
define(‘DB_PASSWORD’, ‘password_here’); – Your hosting password
Once you’ve filled in all the areas noted in the above example, save the file.
Step 5:
Now log into your hosting FTP (download FileZilla for that). The FTP address is usually ftp.yourdomain.com, username and password are the same that you used to register to your host.
Step 6:
If there is any file named “index” – delete it. After that upload all the files from your WordPress folder to your FTP server. I believe you can use “drag n drop” function in FileZilla.
Step 7:
Once you have completed the previous steps, go the URL: yourdomain.com/wp-admin/install.php
This is the page you should see:
Making Your New Website Look Awesome!
Choosing A Theme To Make The Magic Come Alive.
So you’ve purchased your very own domain name and hosting. You’ve installed WordPress on your server, set it up and now you’re ready to venture into the online world with your new website.
It’s time to make this site of yours look professional/awesome/cool, whatever you want it to be. This bit is so easy and we’ll have you up and running in no time!
WordPress automatically installs a very basic new theme to get you started. It looks like this…
The theme is called Twenty Fifteen and is really simple and clean in design, but you’d probably want to find your website’s own identity and go with something that not many people have.
With WordPress, you have access to literally thousands of themes designed by WordPress developers to help you make your site look great.
How To Find A Theme
1) Login to your WordPress Dashboard. You can do this by typing your web address along with /wp-login
Example: http://www.yoursite.com/wp-login
Type in your username and password and then you’re in.
Once you’re logged in, this is the view of your WordPress dashboard.
WordPress DashBoard View
There are a lot of buttons, options, and functions here, which might look a bit complex, but trust me it isn’t. In the next few stages, I will show you how to get started with your theme.
Once you spend just a few minutes exploring the WordPress dashboard, you’ll understand how everything works and become completely fluent with this platform.
2. Getting Started With Free Themes
A “Theme” in simple terms is a collection of files that you can download from WordPress that work together to produce the front end styling of your website.
WordPress themes mainly contain the following:
- The complete design or style of your site
- font design
- color themes
- widget locations
- page layouts (or templates)
- styles for blog posts and blog archives
- additional stylistic details
- menu styles / structure
- In most cases – Responsive design
WordPress has thousands of FREE themes that you can access via the “Appearance” section on the left of the dashboard.
Click “Appearance” then “Themes”. This will take you to the main page for WordPress’ free themes section.
Then click on the “Add New” button which will take you through to where all the free WordPress themes are.
Here you’ll be able to search for themes via a range of really handy filters like: Most popular (Most downloaded + used themes) Featured (Themes chosen by WordPress and featured) Latest Theme (Latest themes to be released on the platform)
Then if you click on “Feature Filter” you then have even more options to help you find the best theme for your site.
3. Premium Themes
If you’re looking for something a bit more professional, more design-led and more robust then premium themes might be what you’re looking for.
Premium themes have many advantages over Free Themes such as reliable code base and superior support if something goes wrong with your site. Also, they just look and function better than the free themes you can pick up on WordPress Theme Directory.
Some premium themes are more like web design software, where you can actually design and build your own theme designs and page layouts/templates. This gives you more flexibility in the type of site you want to build.
I buy most of my premium themes from Theme Forest.
For support, quality of code, constant updates and improvements of premium themes, MyThemeShop and Compete Themes are ideal for the beginner WordPress web builder.
Theme Forest is great for the sheer number and variety of themes available. If you’re looking for a particular type of business site, then you’ll be sure to find it on there.
4. Pre-Made Design Elements – Inspiring And Ready-To-Use Stock Photos, CMS Templates, Fonts, And Assets.
To really make your website stand out from the crowd, you may want to get a bit more adventurous and use some additional design elements.
There’s a huge library of goodies for you to use at Envato Elements, which range from ready to use stock images for your blog posts (250,000+ fully licensed stock photos), web templates, fonts, backgrounds and much much more. Elements like these can save you so much time and are all ready for you to use for a single monthly subscription by signing up to Envato Elements.
There’s 30,000+ Fonts, Illustrations, Backgrounds, and over 250,000+ Stock Photo for just $29 per month. There’s also plenty of FREE stuff on there that you can use as well.
How to Install Your New WordPress Theme
So you have the theme you want for your website and you’re ready to install it. This is really simple. Click on the option “Install” then the next step is to click “Activate”
Feel free to change themes as many times as you wish, as it has no effect on the content you already have on there (blog posts, pages, images). Rest assured they are all safe and won’t be deleted or anything nasty like that.
How to Add Content & New Pages To Your New Site.
You are about to see just how easy it is to create a website with WordPress. Below I will be showing you the basics or entry-level tasks that you will need to know in order to add and edit content on your WordPress website.
How to Create A New Page In WordPress
Again, this is such an easy task, anyone can do it. Let’s say you want to create an “About Us” page on your site. All you have to do is…
- In the WordPress Dashboard sidebar look for the section called “Pages” then go down to the option “Add New”.
- You then land on a screen which will probably look to you a lot like Microsoft Word. It’s very similar in function too. You can add text, images, video, shortcodes and loads more.
- Once you’ve added your text that you want on the page, click the “Save Draft” button on the right menu bar and then click “Preview” to see what you’ve actually created before you publish it to “Live”
How to Add Pages To Your Menu
To show your new page in the top navigation bar of your WordPress website, you’ll need to do the following 3 easy steps.
- Save your work. To make sure you don’t lose any of your content that you’ve created on your page, click “Update”
- In the Dashboard sidebar Click “Appearance” and then “Menus”
- The page that you’ve just created will be displayed in the “Pages” box to the left of center. Click on the tick box to the pages you want to be added to your menu, then click “Add to Menu”.In the “Menu Structure” section, you can move the order of the pages around by just clicking and dragging into position.
How to Create Blog Post Pages
“Posts” are web pages where you’ll publish content via your blog. If your website is going to have a blog section, then “Posts” is where you’ll need to go to publish this type of content.
With posts, you can categorize the content really easily within WordPress, which makes it easier for the visitors to your website find your blog posts, especially the older pieces of content.
If you want to include a blog to your website, you can use different categories and posts. Let’s say you want to create a category named “blog”. To do so, simply add it to your menu and start making posts.
Here’s a quick step by step guide on what you need to do:
- To create a new category for your blog, simply go to “Posts -> Categories”
- Another way is to create a blog post by doing this…. “Posts -> Add New”. Then with your completed blog post, you just assign it the right category and you’re ready to publish.
So you’ve created your category for that particular blog post. You can then just add it to the menu so that it’s easily accessed by one and all!
How To Install A WordPress Plugin To Help You Get The Most Out Of The Platform
Plugins are modules or extensions that are installed into the WordPress CMS to increase the capabilities of your website. They add extra features, usability, tools and much more to your site that normally doesn’t come with your WordPress Theme.
Plugins help to add functionality where once you would have had to build the whole site again if you missed anything out.
Plugins can turn a normal website into an online shop in just minutes. Or it can help you get up to speed on your SEO for your site, add a photo gallery, forum and just about everything else!
Installing A Plugin
To install a plugin, head over to the “Plugin” section in the Dashboard menu and then select “Add New”. Use the search function to find the plugin you want for your site.
There are over 30,000 plugins available, so have a good look around and make sure you read the reviews. Not all of them are great, and you should look to see what people have said about them. Also, check to see if the Plugin is still being updated on a regular basis.
Installation is very simple. Just one click and you’re done.
Plugins can turn a normal website into an online shop in just minutes. Or it can help you get up to speed on your SEO for your site, add a photo gallery, forum and just about everything else!
Useful WordPress Plugins
As there are so many different WordPress plugins I’ll give you a few free plugins that I install on every single one of my websites:
- Yoast SEO – if you plan on making sure your new website is set up for success with organic traffic from Google then this is an essential plugin. It also makes easy to format what images and text is used when your web pages are shared on social media too. You can read my guide on setting up Yoast.
- Site Kit By Google – allows you to access information from Google Search Console, Google Analytics, Google AdSense, and PageSpeed Insights from within the WordPress admin panel.
- Contact Form 7 – is one of the most popular and oldest WordPress contact form plugins around. With it, you can create and manage multiple contact forms and easily customize form fields
STEP FOUR
Adding Content To Your New WordPress Website
Well done. You’re up and running with your domain name, hosting, WordPress install and theme. Now its time to bring your site to life by creating content for it.
I’m going to keep it real simple and cover the basics, so you can jump straight in with adding content to your site.
Adding pages to your website and editing them
The first page people normally create when they build a website is an “About Us” page. You can see my About page here. It’s also at the top of this page in the main navigation.
To create a page like this you will need to…
1. Click on the Pages link which you will find on the left hand side of your WordPress dashboard. Click on the “Add New” option underneath.
2. WordPress will then take you to a text editing page, similar to what you would use on Mircrosoft Word or on Gmail.
Adding posts to your website and editing them
Posts are very different to pages. If you have a blog section on your website, then you will need to create your blog content on a post page.
These posts will then appear listed in your blog feed page. If you click on my blog link at the top of this page, you will see all my blog content listed on this feed.
Creating a post
To do this simply hover over the Post link on the left of your WordPress dashboard, then click on “Add New”.
Just like creating a page, you will see the same text editor layout. Write your blog content in the large white space, add the blog title in the smaller white box at the top of the page.
Creating a category for your blog post
When you create a blog post, you should also put it into a category. WordPress gives you the ability to sort your blog posts into categories which helps to organize your blog content into relevant topics, subjects and sections.
It makes your content more discoverable for the user and for search engines.
You can find the categories and tags meta boxes in the right-hand column of your WordPress dashboard, under the “Categories” section.
Adding menus
If you want to add any pages, categories or posts to your main navigation bar, then you will need to create a menu. You can do this by going to the left of your WordPress dashboard, hover over Appearance > then clicking on Menu.
Once you’re on the Menu page, click on the text link “create new menu” which will be near the top of the page.
Give your menu a name and then click on the “Create Menu” button.
Then you can add in the pages you want on that particular menu.
Once you’re finished, press the “Save Menu” button.
You can then assign this menu to your main navigation bar by clicking on the “Manage Locations” tab, which is at the top of the page.
And That’s It! Well Done On Creating Your First Website!
Creating a website can be quite complicated and daunting for someone who has never learned how to code or had any experience with websites. This guide helps people to get online quickly, effectively and without the need of a web developer.
If you have followed all these steps in this guide, then chances are you now have a website! I’ve really enjoyed putting this guide together and I hope it’s helped you produce the website you’ve always wanted.
If I can be of any more help, please feel free to get in touch via the contact form or email me.
No comments:
Post a Comment