How To Start A Blog
I’ve been blogging for over three years now and I am always asked so many questions as to how to get started, how to monetize, and so forth. There are so many small details that go into blogging and these steps on how to get started are perfect blogging for beginners tips.
Before we start, you must know that I didn’t wake up a blogger. I had no prior experience to blogging two years ago, so if I can do it – I know you can too! You honestly have to start with a strong will to succeed. Contrary to what most people say, blogging is NOT a get rich, quick scheme. You have to know where and how to implement your time wisely by doing that, you’ll start seeing some form of income.
Now, after that prep talk, we can get to the basics of starting. So, what is a blog? A blog is a website in which you post articles on a variety of topics. For you to be here, I’m sure you know what you may want to ‘blog’ about.
When you ‘Google’ something, most of the websites you click on are blogs filled with information from resources such as books, research, experiments, or personal experience.
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Another reason would be to help your physical business or products to get more traffic and sales. With a blog, your reach can be endless in reaching your ideal customer and costs very little to maintain. It also helps to give customers a chance to get to know you and build trust, before they actually decided to purchase from you.
The greatest part about all of this – is that you can blog on your own time and you’re in complete control. A blog costs less than $20 a month to maintain and very little is required to keep it going. You can even start a blog for free if you choose to – but if you want to make money from it – you can end up switching up later.
Step One – Choose Your Niche
Before starting, make sure you know exactly what you want to blog about. This will become your niche. You typically want to choose a topic you enjoy. It could be anything – from parenting tips, quick and easy recipes, fashion tips, makeup, hair, travel, you name it; it’s a niche.
Step Two – Choose A Platform
Blogging platforms vary and it’s very important to choose wisely! Why do you need a platform? Because, it’s where your content will remain and where your readers will go to read your posts.
There are plenty to choose from. Blogger, Wix, WordPress and Weebly are a few of the most popular platforms and most people start with WordPress and never leave.
Step Three – Choose A Hosting Platform
Unlike your platform, where your web design and functionalities will go – a host is for your actual web address. A host makes your blog accessible to your audience.
Step Four – Set Up Your Blog
Another reason why most bloggers go with WordPress as their platform and Bluehost as their host is because they’ve teamed up to make starting your website simple and inexpensive. Together, they’ve come up with an all-in-one setup with a money-back guarantee.
Because you’re reading this, you can get a discount for Bluehost when you click here.
Select a plan.
The ‘Choice Plus‘ plan is going to be your best bet, being that your have unlimited features and it keeps your personal information private. If you choose another plan, you can choose domain privacy later, but for a small fee.
Enter your domain.
Now that we’ve gotten this far, I’m pretty sure you’re excited to get this blogging thing in motion. So whatever name you had in mind, enter it here. This will be your web address, so make sure you’re certain.
Set up your Bluehost account.
I don’t know about you, but I’m always wanting to manually enter my information. Here, you can manually enter, or login with Google to have your information inserted automatically.
Select your package.
This is totally up to you. You have a few choices depending on how far in advance you want to pay. Bluehost bills you 1, 2 or 3 year UPFRONT, so be mindful.
I know what you’re thinking – am I ready to make this financial commitment? Yes, if you’ve gotten this far, you’re ready. Compared to other hosts, Bluehost is really affordable and if you go with someone who offers a monthly plan, you’ll end up paying hundreds of more dollars over the course of time. If you’re not happy, there’s a 30-day money-back guarantee.
Keep in mind, that the offer applies to the first payment. So if you choose the 1-year plan, your low price will be locked in for that year and may go up once that year is over. If you choose the 3-year plan, your low price will be locked in for 3 years. So pay up as much as your budget will allow.
The only package extra you will really want to consider when just getting started is the Domain Privacy. As I stated before, Domain Privacy is free if you choose the Choice Plus. If you chose another plan, be sure to check this box on this step.
Complete your purchase.
Now, you’ve done it! All you have to do is enter your payment information, check the box after reviewing the terms and hit submit.
Create your account and login.
Now, you can create a username and password for your Bluehost account. You’ll use these to access Bluehost at any time.
Start creating your website.
The fun begins now. Now you can enter the name of your site and add a tagline. For example, the name of my site is ‘Being Ecomomical’ and my tagline is ‘exciting ways to save time and money.’ Now you give it a shot and enter it here.
You’ll want the next field to be blue. Which means, you want your blog posts to show up on your website, opposed to a static landing page (without being able to insert blog posts). You can choose if you want your blog posts to start on the landing page, or if you want them to start on a separate page that will link to your homepage. This is all dependent on your personal preference and can be changed at any time.
You’ll be prompted to answer a few survey questions and viola – you have a self-hosted WordPress blog!
The great part about all of this is that BlueHost has a very responsive team ready to help you every step of the way! I wish you the best on your blogging journey!
xo,
Torche’
