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Would you like to learn how to start blog or website?
My name is Ken, and I have been an IT professional for over 20 years. I love working with various technologies and websites fit perfectly into that category. For me, it is a chance to start something from the ground up and work through all the minor challenges you have with when creating something from scratch. I look forward to teaching how to start a blog.
Over the past 20 years, I have spent a long time researching what works and what doesn’t with starting a website or blog. Through research, I able to find various pieces on websites and blog on how to create the right look for my websites. I have created this free step-by-step tutorial that is when creating a blog or website.
How to Start a Blog or Website in 3 Easy Steps:
Starting from nothing when deciding to create a website can be a very intimidating experience for most people. The reality however is that when creating a website, it relatively easy to get started. Every blog or website has three major components. The domain name is what you enter on the address bar of your internet browser to pull up your website. When a person does this, that domain name takes them where the website is on the internet (web host) and the content of the website (theme).
Sounds simple, right? Well, there is more that goes in to theme and that is content. Content is what the people coming to the website are looking for, and we will get in to that more later in the tutorial. Continue reading below for more details in order to the additional steps that you need to take to get a fully functional website working.
This is the name of your website. You should pick a name easy to remember and showcases your website. This is a very important piece and requires heavy consideration when making a blog or website.
The next critical factor in the success of your website. Selecting the right web host for your website. There is no shortage of vendors to select from in this area. I have used several over the years and have provided some reviews of the common ones.
Now comes the last component of starting a website. The theme is the overlay that displays content to the visitor of the website. This is another critical component that is important.
Preface:
Before we get started with the How to Make a Blog or website tutorial, I want to make sure you are thinking through a couple key areas before registering a domain name and just putting up some website. There are five key areas that you need to focus on now before you start your blog or website.
Picking something you have a passion for or a Niche (like traveling or selling a product):
The Nice of website defines what it is about. Every website has a focus, and that focus is a Niche. While in the beginning the focus of your website might be consider Micro-Niche, this is a very specific category of focus. An example would be if you were doing a fitness site. You could blog about home fitness or working out in the gym. Your niche is Fitness (general category) and your Micro-Niche could focus on fitness bands and reviewing those. Most people will want to start at a generic enough Nice category to expand out in to other areas as the website gains momentum.
This will define what your website or blog is about. This is one of the most important things you need to the determine in the beginning. When selecting the Niche of your website make sure it is something that you are passionate about. This will prevent you from becoming burnt out over time, as you will have to generate the content of the website.
Make sure that the topic you select has enough interest, or the there is a larger enough community to support the website. We do not need this if you are just looking to post content or just want to use the blog as writing. However, it is absolutely a requirement if you are looking at building a business or trying to monetize the website later on.
Selecting the name of your blog is the second most important step you do at the beginning. This should align with your niche, and there are 1000s of options here to make the site your own. Most people will use the name of a business like Target.com or they will use descriptive words like Lauratravels. This is important to help determine what the domain name of the website will be later on.
Selecting the Best Platform:
Finding the Perfect Web host and Domain Name:
There is no shortage of companies offering web hosting services. I have used several over the past 20 years. Over 10 years I had a reseller account with hostgator. However, the past 5 years I have since moved away from hostgator in favor of bluehost. Their platform is a little easier to use and more cost effective.
I strongly recommend if this is your first website to go with something that is very inexpensive, like bluehost.
When setting up the website, bluehost has made that easy.
Once you have the right web host register your domain name through them as well to make sure you have everything in the right place.
Picking the Right Theme for Easy Management:
Themes will make or break your website. They are the one limiting factor to most websites. The theme of a blog or website will determine how the visitors engage in the website.
Themes are the one area that I am personally weakest in because I am technical. I am not a very creative person, nor am I able to visualize the website as some people can. I have to rely on themes more and templates even more. Knowing the areas that you need help in is critical when starting any project.
There are three major players in the theme market and it changes almost monthly.
WordPress – This is going to be your main content management framework for the website. I wouldn’t recommend anything else.
- Elementor – A free or subscription theme that allows control over your website through modules.
- Divi – Another popular theme that allows you to configure every aspect of your website.
- Genesis – A theme that allows the creator to customize the website in a more traditional way with WordPress.
Finding Resources Online:
Google is your friend in this area. Need to find out how to do something? Google it.
Joking aside over time, this website will contain most of what we need to get you started. As you determine what you want the function of your website to become, then you will need to learn different content and marketing strategies.
Hopefully, by sharing over two decades in trial and error, I will steer you in the right direction.
Before we get started with the guide on how to start a blog or website, lets answer a couple common questions.
This seems like a simple question, but is often hard to answer. Determining the reason is critical to ensuring you don’t waste time or money on an idea that seemed good, but you lost interest in it after a couple months.
Answering this question will help establish a coherent message on your website and make the content relevant to the visitors. Below are a couple reason to start a blog or website:
- To use it for creative expression.
- To become self-employed or earn money.
- To establish expertise and build an audience.
- To start a business to sell a product.
- To become a blogger or influencer.
The quick answer is you should not if you are serious about making this a long-term investment. Other than personal websites, treat your website as an asset. That means like any asset you get out of it what you invest in to it.
Time is your product in the beginning and treat it as if it was worth something because it is. Spending time to generate content is valuable, and you should be able to benefit from that instead of someone else.
Absolutely, think about anytime you want to know something. You go to google and enter a topic and whole slew of websites come back.
Reaching people takes time and effort though, it will not happen overnight. Most people reach a certain point and lose interest before the website if able to gain momentum.
Staying the course and when you find something you love than over time, you build a following.
All you have to do is search the internet and you find 100’s of people willing to sell you their method for making money online. That’s HOW they are making money online. They are selling a digital product.
There are countless stories about people making millions online through various niches. Maybe its drop shipping or affiliate marketing. Most websites don’t make it obvious that it took years to get where they are and sometimes decades.
Another component not really discussed is that takes money to make money. There are very few people that could start from literally nothing and become a millionaire. In most cases, people are reporting gross income, not net income after expenses. A website might generate over million in revenue but it costs 900k in ads and maintenance.
Great Question! The answer is that depends and you. Most people will see visitors of some sort in the first few weeks. However, you are looking for volume and that takes time. Your main niche idea needs to have enough of a following that you can tap in to the market.
From what I have seen, it takes about 6 to 12 months to get the website working and you really start seeing people finding the website. Through various methods like social media and ads you might grow that faster. That’s where it takes money to make money part.
You can leverage an ad campaign to generate leads to the website, but that depends on what goal you have.
In most cases starting from nothing, it will take anywhere between 2 to 5 years to get a large of following to where you are making enough to make a full time living off of your website.
Again, it depends on you and what your goals you have for your website.
Table of Contents
Step #1: Finding a Niche
Finding a Niche is a critical step when thinking about starting a website or wanting to become a blogger. Finding your niche requires a lot of research until you find that sweet spot. Depending on which category you fall into below will guide you in how to pick your niche for your website or blog.
Bloggers: This category is for people that are looking to create a website for blogging. This is where they are writing content on various topics like fitness or traveling. They typically share their ideas and view on various things. This is one of the most generic categories people fall into for websites. An example would be a food blogger may post recipes or review a new dish.
Recommendation: Start in a broad category when trying to decide what you want to write about. Maybe you want to write about doing home workouts or keto friendly meals. I would stick to the generic fitness category that will allow you not only to write about those specific topics but also dive in to other areas like the best treadmill for homes.
Business: This can be a combination of bloggers that turn their website in to a business or you are someone that is looking to sell products online. This is one of the most common categories for people. Almost every website is a business of some sort, selling some product. Whether it is drop shipping, digital products like courses, or generating revenue through ads when a website makes money, treat it as a business. An example would be a blogger selling a course on how to cook meals.
Recommendation: Make sure that researching the product you are looking to sell to see how many people are interested in it and what the competition looks like. Trying to compete with someone like Amazon is going to be hard for someone just starting out. An example would sell a product like a recipe book.
Personal: When starting a personal website or blog, you still need to find something for the site to be about. Maybe you are just looking to share things or treat as a journal. Some people just like writing about random topics or creating stories. Whatever the desire is for starting a personal blog or website one day it may transition to a blog or business.
Recommendation: I would strongly recommend before starting a personal blog you ask yourself what is the plan for this website for the next 5 years. If you have no intentions of ever trying to have the site generate revenue, then niche isn’t important.
Step #2: Selecting the Right Platform
Ok, so I have to pick a Niche I am excited to write about and so now what? When creating a website there are two options.
1. Hosted or Free options: These typically are a sub-domain of another URL. Example would be sub-domain WordPress.com. When selecting this option because it is free, there are limitations in what you can do with the site. You are going to have to follow their rules and restrictions on what you can and can’t do on the site.
2. Self-Hosted: This option is the one I recommend for 99% of people looking to start a blog or website. Self-hosted offers the most flexibility to grow your site, and you get to determine everything related to the site. While it costs you money to start the website, in life you get what you pay for and this is true with websites.
How much does it cost to start a website or blog?
So if I go the self-hosted option, how much will it cost me? Great question and what you will find out is that most people are only going to show you what it costs to register a domain name and to get hosting services. They rarely show you all the long-term costs associated with the website. You should have seen some number on the homepage of fromzerotoguru.com those number are the costs of the website to date.
Hostgator:
HostGator is another popular choice with people just starting out. They offer similar discounts and service offering as other web hosting providers.
Selecting the right platform in the beginning is not as important as just getting started. Overthinking it will just lead to you not doing anything. Once you have selected the right platform, then you can move right in to picking a domain name.
I have used both of the above services for years. I have a reseller account with HostGator that allows me to host unlimited websites for a low monthly fee. This allowed me to create and support multiple websites from a single account. I have also used bluehost and found it to be easier for when setting up a single site to just go through them.
The recent changes in service offerings make it to where both are viable options in the beginning. I will cover the differences in the options later in this guide and the pros/cons of each that highlight why there is a cost difference.
When starting a new website or blog and you are planning on using WordPress as the CMS framework. I strongly recommend trying Bluehost for the first website. The setup process was simple and you will work your website with 20 minutes. Bluehost supports over 2 million website worldwide. If you take advantage of the link, you will receive a discount on the various hosting options.
You will receive:
- Free domain name for 1 year
- SSL Certificate
- 27/7 support
- 1-click WordPress install
Step #3: Picking the Right Domain Name
The domain name of a website is how people are going to find your website. There is a lot to take in to consideration when picking a domain name. For most websites you are going to want to stick with a .com address. These are the most common and what people will remember. Second, you want something easy to remember and semi-short. You will want to make sure it makes sense for the niche of your blog or website so that people will remember what your site is about. An example would be you don’t to call your site onlinefruits.com and sell cars.
Also remember that once you register the domain name, that you own that domain until you decide not to renew it. Every year you have to renew your domain name, typically this cost is around 10 to 15 dollars depending on where you registered your domain name.
This is one area that has been a problem for me over the years, all the good Domain names are not available. However, there is hope, if you think of a good name but find that it is not available. Just try to add some additional words to it. For Example, Amazon.com could be amazonblog.com.
Once you have the domain name picked out, now it’s time to set up your website.
Step #4: Getting Started with Your Web Host
According to wordpress.org, bluehost is the best web host for hosting WordPress websites and blogs.
Let’s get started with setting up for a new website. Let’s start by going to the bluehost website.
Step #1: Click on the Get started green box to begin
Step #2: Select the best option for you.
Step #3: Setting up your domain, this is where you enter your desired domain name.
- Is for when you are creating a new domain, just enter the domain name you want.
- Is when you are looking to transfer your web hosting to bluehost. This means you already have a domain name.
- Is if you have not selected or found a domain name that you want.
Step #4: If the domain is free, you are ready.
Step #5: Packages and options,
The best option is a 36 month package, that means for three years you don’t have to worry about anything. Domain Privacy is always a good one to get if not selected automatically. SEO tools and Sitelock are optional, there are free plugins that will accomplish the same thing.
I just want to point out that yes, starting a website is costly. Anyone saying it is free or cheap is trying to get you to purchase something else.
Step #6: Enter payment information.
Once you enter payment information, it will take you to where you can set up your account. Once you have configured your account it now on to the fun part and that is to install and configuring WordPress.
Step #5: Installing WordPress
Do you remember that you wanted to learn How to Start a Blog? Well, the time is here to visualize your hopes and dreams. We are now ready to start the install and configuring your website. Once you have entered all of your account information and setup payment, bluehost will automatically take you through the next steps of setting the initial website through WordPress.
I am going to show how to set up the website in the event you have to start over because something error’d or you want a fresh start. The process for setting the website up for the first time is easy to follow the prompts.
Step #1: Deleting the current website
Once you have logged in to your bluehost console follow these steps:
- Click on my sites.
- Click on the three dots in the upper right-hand corner.
- Click Delete Site
Step #2: Adding Your Website
Next, we will start adding your website back by having WordPress installed again.
- Click My Sites
- Click Add Site
Step #3: Setting up Site Name
The next screen takes you to where you need to input the site name and tagline.
- Enter the Name you want to use
- Enter the Tagline for your blog.
- Click Next to continue.
- Advanced is if you need to change any information like login name or email.
Step #4: Domain Selection
There shouldn’t be any changes here for most people. There are some optional plugins you can select. Clicking Next will finish the install of WordPress. Also note that the plugins if installed can be uninstalled in the WordPress console later. Click Next to continue.
Step #5: Install Screen
Typical Loading screen while the WordPress software is being installed. The screen will move on to the next screen automatically.
Step #7: Confirmation Screen
From this screen make note that your website URL is a temporary URL. This is common as your domain name will take some time to register in DNS before it is live. Make a note of the information listed in this window, as you may need it later. Click on Go back to My Sites.
Step #8: Waiting for Your Console to Update
After installing the console, make take some time to load your information. For me, I had to log out and log back in before my information populated.
- This area is where your domain name is located. Below are some recommended steps for your new website.
- Clicking on Launch My Site will turn off the temporary coming soon page to your site.
- Clicking WordPress will log you in to your website’s WordPress admin console.
Step #9: Testing your Websites URL
I always recommend testing your website’s URL in a separate browser window. Simple go to the address bar and type in your domain’s URL. You should get a page like this below. This page will remain on your website until you select Launch my site.
DNS usually can take up to 24 hours to update. Until then, you can use the bluehost console to access your site to make changes. Our next section, we will start configuring your website.
Step #6: Configuring Some Basics in WordPress
Now we have installed WordPress, let’s continue the How to start a blog or website tutorial. Let’s start with making some initial configuration changes to the site once you login the first time.
Step #1 Users
In this section, I show you where to go to make some changes to the user accounts for your blog. This is where you can adjust color settings and change your password. You can add two factor authentication to your site to further enhance the security.
We cover that under Step 9
To get started, in your WordPress console on the left-hand side, go down until you see users. Click on all users.
To add a new user, click the Add New button.
To edit a user account, click the user account and select edit.
Once in the user account there are settings that you can change specific to that user.
- You can change the color scheme for the user
- You can change the password
- You can set permissions for the account maybe they need not be an admin.
- You can upload an avatar image.
The plugin section we will discuss Wordfence in more detail, but this is a free feature to enable two factor authentication to your site that will ensure it stays secure.
With the basic settings done, now we move to my favorite part of the How to start a blog or website guide. THEMES!!!!!!
Step #7: Adding the Right Theme
Themes, the best part of WordPress are the themes. There are countless numbers of themes for a WordPress site. They are what give a website its look and feel, they will either help you or cost you an arm and a leg.
You can spend hours, days, week, and even months looking for the right theme for you. The best advice I have for someone is to start with a default free theme from WordPress. This will get you used to the common items that you need to change on any theme.
For this guide we are going to be using the Astra free theme, the same one is on this very site.
Installing a Theme
Let’s get started, first you need is to log in to your WordPress console for your website. Once logged in, you will need to select appearance from the left side menu, clicking on it takes to the current installed themes.
At the bottom will be a plus sign. Click that area to add a New Theme.
There are two ways to add a new theme, one is through uploading. This is for when you get a theme outside of the second option. The second option is through searching and installing the free ones from WordPress.
There are 100’s to pick from here, there are also some premium ones that require you to purchase them. However, we are going the free route. In the search themes box type in Astra and install it.
Once installed Activate it.
Congratulations! You have just installed your first theme and taken your first step to making this website your own. The next section of How to start a blog or website, we will look at page builders. A content build can change the way the website looks and allows you to have complete control over where content is showing.
Step #8: Adding Plugins
Plugins make things easier with WordPress websites. When there is a need for something the first thing you should check is if there is a plugin for it. Want to make your website faster there is a plugin for that. Want to add social buttons to posts, there is a plugin for that.
I am going to walk you through some common ones that most people install for all their websites. You are welcome to try to them and determine for yourself what works and doesn’t.
Everything in How to start a blog or website guide, we are going to look at the free versions of these plugins. Almost all of them offer a premium version or paid version.
Step #1 Adding Wordfence Security
Wordfence is a free security product that helps protect your website from external threats. I highly recommend some security product like this to make sure that your site remains secured.
The moment your website goes online, there are people looking to compromise your website for various reasons. Make sure you take the security of your hard work seriously because the last thing you want to have your website compromised.
To add Wordfence, go to your plugins section of your console and clock on add new plugin. In the search field, just type in Wordfence.
Once installed and activated you will look at the settings under the menu for Wordfence. At first it will analyze the traffic and you have the option of enabling it to block traffic.
There are two important features that you should consider. One if enabling the two factor authentication. The second is that you will receive email alerts when someone logs in to the website. This will help prevent people not allow from getting long-term access.
Wordfence Update:
I was to get some examples of why installing a firewall is so important for new sites. This site and another site I have is being scanned, and WordFence has already blocked attempts.
I cannot stress this enough, make sure you have a complex password and you are using a hosting provider like Bluehost. Add something like WordFence and you will reduce the risk of your site being compromised by a considerable amount.
Step #2 SEO Plugins
Finding a good SEO plugin is critical for people being able to find your website in search engines. The most popular choice hands down is Yoast. That plugin has been around for several years.
The challenge I had with Yoast was that it did not function well with Page Builders. The plugin could not see the content in the page builder. If you are using the default page and post editors, I highly recommend using Yoast.
I ended having to use a plugin called Rank Math, so it worked with the Elementor page builder.
The duplicate post plugin is nice for when you are looking to duplicate the layout of a post. This makes that post a template.
As an alternative, if you are using a page builder like Elementor, you can use rank math. When in the page builder there is a SEO option at the top right of the module’s page?
For plugins, those are the basic ones that need to get started. There are 1000s more plugins you can get for website but I consider those the must haves. We are approaching the final two steps in getting the fundamentals setup on your brand new website or blog.
Finishing the Setup
We have reached the end of the how to start a blog or website guide. Don’t worry though, we will continue adding helpful tips and tricks for keeping your website up to date. Please leave a comment below if you have questions or suggestions.
