Expert tips on how to make a blog from scratch. Here’s how to start your own blog in less than half an hour. Whether you do it as a hobby or as a way of drawing in income, it’s a clever way to put your writing skills to good use.
But what if you have the passion to write but not necessarily the knowledge to create a blog? Here are easy steps to do it!
1. Choose a Domain Name.
This will usually be the name of your blog but it doesn’t have to be. It can be something that describes your blog and what you love writing about.
For example, if you have a flower blog called “The Open Bud,” you can try for theopenbud.com, openbud.com, or openbudflowerblog.com.
You can check if the domain name is available by clicking this link: https://seooptimised.website/hosting-and-domain-names/
2. Get Hosting
So what is hosting? Also known as web hosting, this is a service that provides the technology needed for a certain website to be viewed on the internet. And this includes your blog.
There are plenty of hosting sites out there, and I have to say not all are equal. I have sites hosted all over the place including free and paid. My suggestion is to grab some cheap hosting while you are getting your blog established, and when you grow your traffic, move the site to a more suitable/ safe/ stable host.
Cheap hosting suggestions are:
1. Zuver – $3 a month. I have one of these hosting accounts and it’s fine.
2. Crazy Domains – $2 a month – I also have an account here and have so far had zero problems. I have had some sites hosted here for over 2 years.
3. Namecheap – They have some really cheap specials and the one as I write this is $9.88 a year. Now that’s hard to beat.
So host your blog on one of these cheapie hosts until you get some decent traffic. For a new blog with minimal traffic, one of these is just fine. As long as you back your site up regularly, there should be no problems.
Once you have it all set, done your SEO, and everything else, you can move it to a more solid host like Myshop.
This Aussie host has an outstanding tech support and while service starts at $16 a month, it is still very reasonable. If you are getting a lot of traffic and your site is monetised, its a good idea to keep your finger on the pulse at all times.
I recommend tech support where a human answers the phone and takes care of your issue right away, which is why I choose Myshop over the big players any day. A monetized blog needs to be constantly monitored because it’s your bread and butter and each minute your blog is down, you are losing money.
These packages include a free SSL, which would normally set you back $100 a year for a decent one.
3. Install WordPress
Installing WordPress is quite easy especially with cpanel hosting (which all of the ones I have recommended above all use). It’s usually a single click and there are heaps of videos on how to get this done quickly and easily. You can choose a suitable theme when you install. This can be changed later on quite easily.
Here is a tutorial to help you with installation. https://documentation.cpanel.net/display/CKB/How+to+Install+WordPress+With+cPanel
You can take some inspiration from some of the pre-made blog sites here.
If you are having problems getting the theme to look exactly like the demo, this is not an easy task to achieve, particularly if you are using a free theme.
A lot of free themes don’t have the demo content files included as they want you to purchase the pro version which usually has them. Note before you upgrade to the premium version, it’s not always straightforward and you can end up right where you began.
If you find yourself unable to fill out the demo data, please contact us and we will be able to get this happening for you reasonably quickly and for a small cost.
4. Begin Writing
This is where the fun begins. After you have set up your theme, you can press posts, then add new. You can type in the text box and add images in there too. Imagine it like your online publisher and Word rolled into one.
There is a preview button on the top right and this will show you what the page will look like when it’s published. If you are happy with the way it looks, press publish.
So, are you ready to start your blog?
If you need any assistance, we will be very much happy to help as this is one of our areas of expertise.
