Starting a blog can be overwhelming. There are tons of things to learn, and the tech terms can make the process extremely daunting. Trust me, I was once in your shoes, but even non-tech people can start a blog. In fact, if you follow these quick steps for starting a new blog, you can get your blog live in as little as half an hour!
If you struggle with any of the steps, feel free to reach out to me. I’ll be adding more resources to help you get started on your journey to blogging success!
Disclosure: Some of the links below may be affiliate links. At no additional cost to you, we may earn a small commission if you make a purchase.
1. Pick a Domain Name
The first thing you have to do to start a blog is select the domain name. This is one of just two required costs of starting a blog – and it can be free if you play your cards right!
What is a domain name?
A domain name is the address someone will type in to find your blog on the internet. This is also known as your blog’s URL. Often times it is synonymous with your blog’s name. For example, my domain name, or URL, is blogstarterkit.com.
How do you secure a domain name?
There are a lot of ways that you can find and purchase a domain name. One of the most popular places to look for domain names is GoDaddy.com. Here you can search for domain names to see if your desired one is available. Note that the internet already has millions of websites live, so finding the right domain name may take some searching.
As for costs, domain names will vary all over the place. If you’ve found an available domain, it may start at just $0.01 for the first year with a multi-year contract, or it could be a premium domain costing thousands of dollars to secure. Keep searching until you find the best domain name for your blog. Then just “Make It Yours” and pay for the domain.
If you want to see about getting the domain for free – read on to selecting a hosting service.
2. Select a Hosting Service
In addition to your domain, you will need a web hosting service to push your blog live.
What is a web host?
A web hosting service, or host, is in essence a server where you rent space to build your blog. This is what makes your blog go live on the internet. As every website requires hosting, there are dozens of web hosts out there to choose from.
Where to find a website hosting service?
When you are just starting your blog, you’ll want to go with an affordable option. For new bloggers, I recommend Bluehost. I hosted my first blog with them for over 5 years before moving it to a larger more powerful server. Why Bluehost? Well, let’s take a deeper look.
My Recommended Host for Beginners: Bluehost
Honestly, Bluehost is not the best hosting provider out there, but it is a reliable host and one of the cheapest hosting services out there when you first start off. In fact, for a new blog, you can secure hosting and your domain for less than $4 per month from Bluehost!
That’s right, Bluehost includes your domain for free with your hosting service! That means the total cost for your first year of blogging can be under $48. Completely affordable!
While Bluehost is great for beginners, as your blog grow you may want to move your blog over to a more powerful host. This gives you time to start building your site and growing your audience while your costs are low. Once you’re ready, you can move your site over to a more expensive host that offers faster speeds and better support.
If cost is not a consideration when you’re just starting off, you may want to just start with a more powerful host to begin with to avoid having to switch down the road.
My Recommended Host: Lyrical Host
I personally moved to Lyrical Host and have not looked back. They are one of the most reliable hosting providers out there with top-notch offerings, amazing support, and decent prices.
Best of all? They will migrate your site over to their hosting servers FOR FREE. You simply schedule your appointment, and they take care of all of the migration making it a fast and easy process. Honestly, making the switch from Bluehost to Lyrical was super simple. I’ve actually done it for multiple sites!
If you want to try Lyrical Host, use the referral code blogstarter10 for 10% off your first hosting plan payment.
3. Install WordPress
Now that you’ve secured your domain and hosting, it’s time to start building your blog! The first step to doing this is installing WordPress.
What is WordPress?
WordPress is an open-source content management system (CMS) or in more basic terms, it’s the system that allows you to manage your website – like the content on it – without knowing anything about programming. It powers over 43% of all websites on the Internet and is pretty user-friendly once you get used to it.
How to Install WordPress
While it may sound complex, installing WordPress is really simple. In most cases it can be installed in just a few clicks, but if you’ve purchased your hosting through Bluehost, WordPress installation is already integrated right into your account and you’re ready to go!
4. Choose a WordPress Theme
You’re almost there! Now comes the fun part – determining the design of your blog. This is done by choosing a WordPress theme.
What is a WordPress theme?
A theme allows you to design the look and feel of your blog without needing to code it yourself. They are in essence pre-built templates from the pros out there that will help you control the way your blog looks on the internet.
Where to find a WordPress theme?
So where do you find a blog theme? Well, once again, since WordPress is so popular, there are thousands of themes to choose from. They range from free to hundreds of dollars or you can even get a custom theme built by a web designer for thousands of dollars. It’s all a matter of what you want to spend.
If you’re just getting started blogging, a free blog theme will suffice. To find one, browse through the 10,000+ free WordPress themes in the official directory. Before selecting one, make sure the reviews are great. Some of the best free themes include Astra, Kadence, OceanWP, and GeneratePress.
Fortunately, you can switch your blog theme at any time, so don’t stress too much about finding the right one. Besides, as you start customizing your blog, you’ll be able to really see the power behind the themes.
Then, as you start getting more traffic to your blog, you can decide if you want to switch to a paid theme, but blogging is a marathon, not a sprint, so no need to go all-in with your expenses on day one.
How to Install a WordPress Theme
Once you’ve found the theme you like best, go into your WordPress instance to Appearance > Theme and at the top select WordPress.org Themes. Search for the theme you want to use and click Install. Once it is installed, you’ll need to click Activate on the theme. This will make it live and allow you to start customizing your blog!
It is worth noting that changing themes once your blog is live and growing can be a bit of a headache, so I would make sure you have some satisfaction with the theme you pick. It could take you a long time to get around to the headache of switching it out!
5. Customize Your Blog
With so many blogs using the same themes, you get to start making the theme your own by customizing the settings in your theme. This allows you to manage things like the top header, page layouts, colors, fonts, upload your logo, etc.
How to Customize Your Blog
To start customizing your blog, in your WordPress dashboard select Appearance > Themes > Customize. This will open your theme’s options. From here, you can modify hundreds of elements of your theme to start designing your blog as you wish.
Upload your logo. Change the fonts. Add your colors. Determine if you want a sidebar. Edit your footer. The options are almost endless!
6. Add WordPress Plugins
Is your blog looking good? Excellent. You’re almost done with the 7 steps to starting a blog, and it’s about time to go live, but first, let’s learn about WordPress Plugins.
What is a WordPress Plugin?
One of the reasons WordPress is so popular is the thousands of plugins available for it. These plugins are third-party add-ons that add new functionality to your blog – some are free while others are paid. These could be related to layout, speed, security, or even helping you write great content!
While there are endless WordPress plugins available, you’ll want to be selective on the ones you choose to use. Too many plugins – or even poor quality plugins – can slow down your website or they can interact with each other for negative results. Due to this, try to limit the plugins you use, research the ones you want to install, and read the reviews.
How to Install WordPress Plugins
To find your plugins go into your WordPress dashboard > Plugins. Here you’ll see the plugins that were already added to your website by Bluehost, or your selected web host. Feel free to poke around in them to see what they can do, or delete those that are unnecessary – like Hello Dolly.
To add new WordPress plugins, go to the top and select “Add New”. You’ll see a search box on the right popup to allow you to “Search plugins”. There, you can search for what you’re looking for.
Recommended Plugins
As you start your blog, you’ll want to install a few handy plugins to give you an edge on starting a successful blog. Here are some of my favorites.
- Yoast SEO (or RankMath): You’ll learn more about SEO and how to optimize your content to start ranking on search engines with this plugin. There is also a paid version that offers additional functionality.
- Akismet Anti-Spam: This plugin will help you monitor and block spam to your website.
- MonsterInsights (Google Analytics): Know how people are finding and coming to your website.
- UpdraftPlus: Free backups of your blog saved to your Google drive… just in case!
- Wordfence: A free anti-virus, firewall, and malware scan that allows you to set up two factor authentication to login to your blog helping secure it from being hacked.
7. Write and Publish Content
Congratulations! You’ve set up a blog and are ready to start publishing! While this is just the beginning of your blogging journey, it’s the nuts and bolts of how to start a blog. From here, it’s more about determining what to write, optimizing your articles, and really driving traffic to your blog!
How to Get Started with Blog Content
To start publishing blog pages and posts, go to your WordPress dashboard and hover over Page or Post > Add New. This is where you’ll start writing your posts. As you finish them, they can be pushed live.
Hopefully you’ve made it through these 7 steps without too much headache and have successfully made setting up a blog simple! If you run into problems, there are tons of resources out there, or head over to my Facebook page and ask a question.
