Have you ever wanted to know how to start a blog? In this post, I will walk you through how to get your new blog set up and running, quickly and easily.

How to Start a Blog

Maybe you think you can’t start a blog because it’s too hard. Perhaps you are overwhelmed or haven’t had the time to get started. This post will walk you through starting up your blog with easy step by step instructions. It’s not nearly as terrifying as you think it’s going to be.

For this tutorial, we’re going to set up a WordPress self-hosted blog. There are other options, but this type of blog will give you the most freedom and comes at very reasonable costs.

Step 1: Pick a Domain Name

Did I lose you already?

Let’s start simple – a domain name is the address of your blog. For people to view your blog, they need to type in your address to get there.

We’ll talk about purchasing the domain name in the next step but for this step think about what you want your domain name to be. This step should require some thought – this domain name should be one that you want to keep for a long time.

People don’t change their domain names often (although it is possible), find a domain name that works for your business or blogging idea.

Not all domain names will be available for you to purchase so you’ll want to come up with a few alternatives if yours isn’t available.

We’ll talk about purchasing your domain name in step 2.

Step 2: Choose a Hosting Provider

Are you lost again?

A hosting provider is an online company that stores the digital files that make up your blog. Hosting providers charge you an annual (or maybe monthly) fee to use space on their computers.

There are a ton of hosting providers that you can choose. Your hosting provider should have easy to access customer service. For this post, we’ll talk about Bluehost since I have experience with their process.

Remember your domain name we picked out in step 1? You have two options for purchasing your domain. You can buy it with your hosting provider or separately. For simplicity, we’ll buy ours together, but if you’ve already purchased your domain name, you will have a few extra steps to point it to your hosting provider.

Step 3: Purchase Hosting and Domain Name

I’m going to walk you through the steps to purchase both your hosting and domain name with Bluehost.

1.) Visit https://fashionbooksfaith.com/bluehost you will be directed to Bluehost, click the Get Started Now button.

2.) Next, we’ll choose our hosting plan.  You can choose the basic option to get you started. You can always upgrade later if you need more website space.

3.) Since you picked out your domain name already, all you have to do is enter it in the new domain box. If you already have a domain, you can enter it in the other box. If your domain isn’t available, it will let you know, and you can try your alternative domain.

4.) Next, we’ll enter our contact information. And we’ll choose our package. You get the best pricing by selecting a 36-month plan. There are some extras listed on this screen as well, you can skip them for now. You won’t need them to get started, and you can always add them on later if you decide you want them.

Note* Purchasing the 36-month Plan you are pre-paying for three years of your website

5.) The final step in this section is to enter your payment information. You can see in the above screenshot that you will pay for the total of all three years.

6.) Congratulations! You are now the proud owner of your domain name. The next step is to set your password.

7.) Be sure and create a secure password so no one can hack it. And write your password down somewhere, you’ll need it.

8.) On the next screen, you will be prompted to choose a theme. You can select one now, or you can hit the skip button at the bottom. A theme is the overall look of your blog. If you see one in the options that fit how you’d like your blog to look then go ahead and choose it. There are thousands, or hundreds of thousands, of themes that control the visual aspects of your blog. If you don’t find one here, don’t worry.

9.) Whether you choose a theme or hit skip, the next step is the same. Your blog is now set up, and we can click the Start Building button to go into your WordPress dashboard.

10.) You can follow the prompts to launch your new blog. If you need help with the next steps, I would highly suggest signing up for Sassy Suite’s Blogging Boot Camp.

So you’ve done it! Congratulations, you now have your domain name and hosting, and your blog is set up. The technical side of setting up your blog is in place. Watch for additional posts where we will walk through more advanced steps for your blog.

Have questions about how to start a blog? Drop me a message or come over to our group to discuss.