How to Start a Blog
A question I am often asked by my friends is "how can I start a blog?" Most of the time they either hate their jobs or want to earn a little extra money and they have seen from my experiences that making money online by blogging offers a great lifestyle with plenty of personal freedom. Of course, just putting up a site and writing a post every now and then isn't going to open up the flood gates so cash can start pouring in, so I thought I would create a complete series for people to use as a guide on how to start a blog, and then how to monetize the site after traffic picks up.
Before Your First Post
The first thing you have to do when starting you blog is to decide what you want to write about. You need to find a niche that you are passionate about because you are going to be writing about the topic so frequently. This is a subject area that you are going to have to read a lot about and cover in-depth so focus on something you already enjoy doing. To help you get started, make a list of areas you are interested in and ask your friends to make a list of your interests. A mistake too many people make is to try and start blogging about something they think will make them money but have no interest in. These blogs die out quickly as the owner loses interest.
The next thing you are going to want to do is pick a domain name for your site over at GoDaddy. Be creative, but think short and sweet. You want your name to be brandable and not "thebestblogonnflfootballplayers.com." Who is going to remember that? By the way, there are plenty of free blog hosts out there, but you definitely want to spend the few dollars and get one you host yourself. It's more professional and there aren't as many limits on what you can do with your site.
After you have your domain picked out you are going to want to find a good hosting company. I personally recommend HostGator as the top choice. First off, it's fairly cheap and more importantly they are incredibly reliable. If you are just starting out with building your website, another great feature they offer is Fantastico to install WordPress, so you will not need any technical knowledge whatsoever.
The last thing you need to do before you get started is to download a theme for your blog. This is the design or the look and feel of your blog. You might have to shell out a few dollars if you want it to look professional, but there are plenty of free choices out there as well. If you are going to do it yourself then here are some resources to help you get started:
- So you want to create a WordPress theme?
- Creating a WordPress theme from scratch
- A 3-step guide on how to create a WordPress theme from scratch
After you have completed these four steps, you will have started your very own blog. Pretty basic and easy right? Now for the hard part as we get into the details of what pages you need to have, how often should you post, and other blogging tips and tricks designed to help you make money online.
Cheap Webhosting
If you plan to make money blogging then it's important that you use a quality webhost for your site, but if you are just starting out then you might not have a lot of money to spend on a solution. However, you don't have to worry because I've found some of the best sites for hosting your new blog or web site that won't break the bank.
There are plenty of other low-cost webhosts out there, but you are going to want to make sure your sites are up and running 99.9% of the time or you are not going to be able to make as much money online as you should be.
HostGator
One of the best webhosts that I have found is HostGator. I have been using this company for quite a few years for my sites and they are inexpensive, have several different plans to fit your needs, and their customer service is top-notch. Plus, it is extremely easy to install WordPress or several other content management systems for your site using Fantastico. One click and the files are uploaded for you and the database is created!
BlueHost
Another hosting company that I use and strongly recommend for beginners is BlueHost. They also have the cpanel backend, which makes everything easy to find and easy to use. You also get the Fantastico installs, which if you are a beginner can be a real help to get you started (and save you money from having a professional install something).
Basically if you go with either one of the above companies you will get a cheap webhost to help you get started making money online. Both of these sites are fairly big, so you don't have to worry about them disappearing one day and taking your site along with it.
If you want to find your own webhost, make sure that they are going to guarantee 99.9% uptime, they have 24 hour live support via phone or live chat, and that you can cancel at any time without incurring a penalty. If they don't live up to the hype then you want to find someone else who does.
Which hosts do you use? I'd love to hear about them in the comments.