Blogging is one of the best ways to promote your business or to earn a steady income online. Starting a blog is also considered to be a great way to share your ideas with other people. Few years ago, creating a new blog required a lot of coding skills, however, nowadays it becomes easier than ever. Here, we will take you through an easy step by step guide that will allow you to get your blog started within 30 minutes.
Choose a platform
Many websites use WordPress as it’s good for starters who are creating their first website. This CMS works pretty well with low and medium traffic. Other two options that you can choose besides WordPress are Joomla and Drupal.
WordPress is easy to install and has a strong community online in case you will face any kind of issues. It’s an open source platform and used by a lot of people. It’s also ideal for anyone who is not technologically advanced. You will have access to a lot of free themes and plugins that will make the work even easier for you.
Why WordPress?
- It’s free, you will only need a domain name and web hosting.
- Community forums are very helpful.
- It offers more than 50,000 free plugins to help you get started.
- There are more than 10,000 free and paid WordPress themes available.
Buy a domain name
Before you download WordPress, we would recommend that you first choose a domain name.
Why the domain name is important?
- It affects your ranking in search engines.
- It defines your brand.
- It’s the first impression your visitors will face.
How can I choose a suitable domain name?
Choose a domain name that is unique and stands out from your competitors. Choose something that is witty and memorable. Keep your domain name short. According to a research, top 100 websites have approximately 6 characters in their domain name. Choose something that is easy to pronounce and type. Having a domain name that comprises of too many vowels will lead to mistypes. Choose something that many people will be able to pronounce with no difficulties. Simply put, choose a name that is short, brandable, memorable, catchy, easy to type, includes keywords, and niche related.
Sign up with webhosting and install WordPress
Web hosting is a service that stores all your files, images, and content that your blog will contain and displays to visitors. It’s a service that keeps your blog content accessible online. You will not be able to set up blog nor use your own domain name when you do not have a web hosting.
There are many web hosting services available, some of them are cheap, others costlier. Choose a hosting service that is reliable, secure, and easy to manage. From my experience, I think Bluehost is considered to be among the best webhosting companies.
How can I set up my blog on BlueHost?
1- Go to Bluehost.com
2- Choose a hosting plan. We would recommend that you start with basic package as it offers plenty of speed, storage, performance, and functionality to your first website. You can always upgrade your hosting plan as your website grows.
3- Next, choose a domain name. Remember to double check your name to avoid any mistake.
4- Enter your personal information and credit card details and finally complete payment.
5- Click create password and choose a password for your hosting account.
And that’s it! You will get WordPress automatically installed on your website. You can log in by visiting the link on the WordPress hosting tab from your Bluehost account panel. You can customize your website appearance from the settings at the sidebar.
Setting up your own blog is very simple and easy. Once you follow the provided instructions, you will take less than 30 minutes. However, for those who have not yet decided on domain name, it may take longer.
So, just how much time does blogging take? Well, depending on your writing skills, creating quality content that your visitors will want to read can take a lot of time and work. It will depend on what topic you choose to write about, do you prefer to write longer or shorter articles, Are you planning to include images or videos. etc..
Theses questions will determine how long you will spend blogging. Overall, it’s up to you to figure out the type of content you want.
Does Blogging cost any money? The great thing about this type of business is that you can start for free or with few charges. So how do you decide? As mentioned earlier, it will depend on you and your business plan. Free blogs are available but they come with limitations. We would recommend that you pay for couple of things such as:
- Domain name: This will cost you approximately $10/year.
- Web hosting: This usually costs approximately $4-$15/month.
Will blogging make you money? The short answer is yes, there are a lot of successful bloggers that make more than $50,000 per month. Blogging provides you with a lot of ways to earn money. Some people use their blogs to sell items, review products and make a commission from affiliate sales. However, you can also set up your own blog just as a hobby.