This guide is for absolute Beginners who have just made the decision to start a blog and need some step by step guide on how to start a blog and setup WordPress. I wanted it to be a thorough and helpful resource for newbies who struggle where to begin and proceed the steps. Don’t worry, Just follow these steps and you can make your first blog in just several minutes.
Here are the topics that will be covered:
#1 Choose a Blog topic
#2 Picking a domain name
#3 Registering a domain name
#4 Choose a web host
#5 Point domain name to web host
#6 Install wordpress
“The journey of thousand miles starts with one step”
Similarly, Your blog niche is going to be the most important part of your blogging journey. The niche is the topic of your website and will influence your blog name. It is recommended that you focus on one main topic within your blog so that it will be more organized and visitors will be able to find it more easily.
Must Read: How to choose niche topic for your blog
Keep in mind, your domain name is your internet identity, don’t always be in a hurry when choosing a domain name. Adhere to the below tips and you won’t make mistakes choosing the domain name for that your brand, company or blog.
i) Choosing a good domain name is the hardest part for you to get the name that you really like for your website. Don’t get discouraged from that fact, but rather try to be creative. Here are 9-tips how to choose a right domain name for your blog.
Must Read: 9 Tips to choose a good domain name
ii) Ensure that there will be no legal problems with the domain name you choose. The wrong domain selection can get you into trouble and cause you much difficulty later on. You need to consider several factors before register your domain name, so you won’t have any regret afterwards.
Must Read: 4 Things to consider before registering a Domain name
For domain name registration services, i highly recommend Godaddy and Namecheap as they offer good prices and are really reliable. Between these two popular domain name registrars, Godaddy offers more features and constantly has good pricing discounts.
1) Go to Godaddy com
2) Enter the domain name you want to buy in the search box.
3) If your domain is available for registration, click on Add button to add this domain name to your cart, and click Continue to Checkout.
Before you click Add, make sure
- Check for misspellings
- Fits your Blog topic
4) choose your Registration Type( Public or Private)
- Public registration shows all your personal information in whois database, whereas Private registration hide your personal info, prevent spam and Protection from malicious or accidental transfers as well.
(keep in mind you need to pay an extra cash if you go for private registation). - Register your domain for multiple years (recommended) and continue to click out.
5) Select your payment method and complete your order.
6) Thats it. Now,You have got a domain name for your blog.
Once you have chosen your domain name you need to get blog hosting so that you can put your blog on the internet.
Hosts I recommend & how to choose
Get a Bluehost. They are awesome because they offer great support, they’re reliable, they’re affordable and they have a handy feature called Unlimited FTP. Bluehost offers awesome feature called Cloudfare for their customers tollally free (CloudFlare is a service that makes your website faster, safer, and smarter).Bluehost is also an officially recommended hosting provider of WordPress.
If you can pay for at least one year’s worth of hosting at once, choose Bluehost. If you are unable to pay a year in advance and prefer to pay month to month, choose Hostgator. It’s my second favorite host.
CLICK HERE TO SIGNUP FOR BLUEHOST.COM
Bluehost setup
1) Go to Bluehost and click “Sign Up Now”
2) Enter your domain name on right if you already have one.
3) Account,package & Billing informations
i) Fill in your account information on required fields
ii) Keep in mind, you will be required to pay the annual rate in advance. Here’s the math:
- 12 months at $6.95 per month is $83.40 per year
- 24 months at $5.95 per month is $71.40 per year
- 36 months at $4.95 per month is $59.4 per year
iii) Select your payment method. Then Confirm and click next.
Done (you have successfully purchased your host )
After you have purchased Web Hosting Account, you have to connect your domain to your web host before you can set up your first blog. To do that, you have to know your Web host name server.
1) Go to your mail inbox to check your hosting account information that your web hosting provider sent you.
2) Login to godaddy and follow these steps:
3) Locate the URL that you just purchased
4) Click “Set Nameservers”
5) Select “I have specific nameservers for my domains”. Set the Bluehost nameservers NS1.BLUEHOST.COM and NS2.BLUEHOST.COMto direct your URL to Bluehost.
(It could take up to 2 hours for the changes to take effect, but it usually takes considerably less time)
6) Login to Bluehost (your hosting provider)
Go to controlpanel Login >> Domain>> My Domains >> Assign a domain to your cPanel account.
7) Enter your domain name that you’d like to assign. If ownership is verified, your domain name servers are pointed to bluehost account.
8. Click ok and Wait for the changes to take effect
Normally its takes only a few minutes for the changes to propagate. But in some cases it can take up to 2-4 hrs to change over. Once your name server is properly propagated, you can go ahead and install WordPress