A step-by-step guide to starting a blog for beginners. If you have no idea where to start, this is the post for you. I will teach you how to start a blog and promise it’ll be simple, and relatively easy.

How to Start a Blog: The Ultimate Guide

This post may contain affiliate links. Please see my full disclosure policy for details.

Blogging can seem intimidating at first I am going to give you step by step instructions to start a blog that through a self-hosted WordPress.org website.

You will learn how to:

1.Choose your blog topic.

2. Choose a platform

3. Find your host & domain name

4. Customize and build

Before I started blogging, the only internet experience I had was responding to emails, posting on social media, and reading articles. I am here to tell you if I am capable of setting up my own blog entirely on my own; you are too.

All you need is a domain name, website hosting, and to read to the end of my article.

I wish I was keen enough to read a blog post like this before starting my blog. If I actually did my research rather than jumping right in, I would have saved myself a lot of headache and time.

But, I wouldn’t be able to caution you about all the mistakes I made so you can’t make them yourself. So here I go, saving you time and energy. If you think this post is helpful, remember to subscribe to happilyharper.com and gain direct access to checklists, printables, a daily planner, and more.

Today you’re going to learn a lot in a short amount of time. Grab a cup of coffee and dive in.

You will learn how much it costs to start a website

Understand self-hosting

Set up a self-hosted website

Register a domain

Install WordPress

Change the permalink structure

Install a theme for your website with plugins

Create pages and content

Build a drop-down menu with a table of contents

Set up Google Analytics and a Search Consol

Utilize the folks at Fivver

Submit a sitemap to Google

Build an email list

Welcome to the world of blogging. From your little corner of the internet, you have the opportunity to make money, become a better writer, and share your stories and wisdom. I know you will be great. I will strive to make this easy to understand, straight forward and inspirational to all you aspiring bloggers. Again, if I can teach myself to design and manage a blog, you can too.

How Much Does it Cost to Start a Website?

Having your own website is far less expensive than you may think. The cost of a website can be anywhere from $100-$25,000, but today, I’m going to show you how to make a website that will cost you $100 a year. I recommend starting small and eventually customize your site more, add plugins, and outsource freelancers from Fivver.

Use a Self-Hosted Word Press Platform

Stop and read before going any further. WordPress.org and WordPress.com are completely different platforms. You want to choose wordpress.org. The real WordPress.

When I started out, I didn’t even know there were two and made the amateur mistake of creating content and designing a site through wordpress.com. Do not make my mistake. It is a lot of hassle to transfer your photos and content to a self-hosted site. Luckily for you, this post will give you the proper steps to start a blog the correct way from the beginning.

There are many differences between wordpress.org and wordpress.com but the main difference is that with wordpress.org, you own your own website and data. That is very important. With wordpress.org, you can customize your site with various plugins, utilize google analytics, add affiliate links, and the list goes on.

WordPress.com is created by the founder of wordpress.org and is perfect for a blogger who is just doing this as a hobby and will never track analytics, add affiliate links, ads, or even own rights your blog. The free host owns your website and can actually shut you out whenever they please. That is why it is crucial self-host when you start a blog. And you won’t get your own domain name, it will look like yourblog.wordpress.com. Yuck.

The most common beginner mistake is choosing the wrong platform such as .com vs. .org. Yep, I fell right into that category! Luckily, you stumbled upon my post and you will not be making that mistake today. Choose WordPress.org. WordPress is free and the most popular platform on the internet today.

To start a self-hosted WordPress website, you simply need a domain name and a self-hosting site.

A domain name is your website’s address on the internet such as happilyharper.com or google.com, etc. Web hosting is where your website files are stored on the internet. I recommend ” rel=”noopener noreferrer”>Blue Host. Think of it as a computer hard-drive on the internet where your blog will be saved.

I like Bluehost because they are one of the largest hosting companies in the world and today, they are offering my users a free domain and 60% off hosting.

Typically, a domain name is about $15 per year and Bluehost usually charges $7.99 a month. But today, Bluehost has offered to give my readers 60% off and a free domain; this is a huge saving’s.

When you sign up through my link, you will get my partner discount for $3.95 per month. And you get a free domain. If you already have a host, no problem. You can easily switch over and still use my discount.

Sign up with Blue Host today. You’ll get a free domain with your hosting plan and they make super simple to use with WordPress. Heck, nearly 1/3 of all websites in the world are powered with WordPress. It’s a no brainer. Click on the banner below to get started.

Getting Started with Bluehost

Go to the Bluehost website and click “Get Started” and select a plan. I choose the basic plan and paid it in full for 36 months. You need to pay for it all at once to lock in the promo code I have for you. Get started today by using my member price at $3.95 per month.

 ——>Click here to head over to Bluehost and hit the green “Get Started Now” button.

Pick your Domain Name

The next screen will prompt you to select a domain. That is where I entered happilyharper.com to see if it was available. If your exact domain isn’t available, Bluehost will provide other choices with variations. Click next to the payment plan. I didn’t add anything extra but you’re more than welcome to do so. You can always change this later.

Go check your email. This is exciting, you have a domain name and website hosting. Bluehost is the quickest, cheapest, and in my opinion, best host if you’re just learning how to start and grow a blog.

Install WordPress

Once you’ve received your email through Bluehost, it will take you to a dashboard with an option to install WordPress. If you are using Bluehost as I recommended, WordPress will be installed automatically. It’s pretty amazing. Then, select the domain you want WordPress to be installed. I typed in happilyharper.com and selected next.

Enter your website name as well as username and password and check the boxes to continue and install. You can then log in to your WordPress page. That was so easy.

Free SSL Certificate

Google requires you to have an SSL certificate as an extra security measure. It may automatically install but if it doesn’t, switch it on under the security settings.

Permalink Structure

Make sure you change your blog’s permalink structure before you start publishing posts. Simply click on “Settings” and then “Permalinks.” Change to “post name”.

Connect Google Search Console and Google Analytics

It’s important that you connect Google Search Console and Google Analytics to your new website as soon as possible.

Create a free Google Analytics account then connect your blog to Google Search Console. Download the Rank Math plugin. Yoast works well too and both are free.

Go to your Google Search Console, sign in and select “Add Property”. Enter your own URL like mine at happilyharper.com. Click the ‘ Alternative Method’ tab. You will be given a code. This was challenging for me but it doesn’t have to be.

Simply copy the code, and then paste it into your website <head> section, before the <body> section. You can download a headers and footers plugin for this or do it manually by selecting appearance > editor and find the line that says <head>. Copy, paste the code and save.

Choose Your Theme

You can change your theme from the WordPress admin dashboard. And you can change it anytime. Go to Appearance and select Themes. Then select, Add New. You can search themes by typing in keywords. Once you select a theme you would like to try, hit install. Once the theme is installed, it will show up under the Themes home page. You have the opportunity to view as a live preview before activating.

Keep in mind, you can change your theme whenever you want. You can purchase a theme or select a free one. My suggestion is to build your site with content and a free theme before truly deciding what you want and then upgrade to premium.

Each theme has it’s own selected plugins and limits to what you can do. When you are in “live preview”, explore what the theme has to offer.

Check out Fiverr

Next, establish your logo. I recommend searching for a freelancer on Fiverr or designing your own using the OVER app. Fivver is the world’s top freelancing site. It’s so easy. Start by posting your job description regarding your project and the specific skills required.  Then you get a list of candidates, their costs, experience, reviews, etc.

You are able to communicate with your freelancer in realtime and send files and pictures. Then you pay through Fiverr easily and with peace of mind.

By discovering Fiverr, I found a world of opportunity. Costs are more than reasonable and the freelancers are impressive. Click on the ad below to take you directly to Fiverr’s website to get started.

Select Your Plugins

Download plugins. First, install a free SEO plugin. This is important so you are able to optimize your post as you are writing it in the draft phase.

Some of my favorites are Askimet Anti Spam, Social Media Widgets, Rank Math SEO, Smush, and Social Warfare.

Submit a Site Map to Google

Go to your Google Search Console and select your site. In the left sidebar, select “Sitemaps”. Type sitemap.xml in the text field next to your domain and hit submit.

Understand The WordPress Dashboard

WordPress has Posts and they have Pages. Posts appear on your blog with the newer ones appearing first. Posts are where you create and publish new blog posts. Pages are meant to be static. One example of a page is your about me. Disclaimer, Privacy Policy, and Contact are “Pages”.

Your blog name is at the top and will always take you to your home page. There is a “Comments” section where you can approve, deny, or reply.

“Appearance” is where you can customize your site and determine your theme. And “Plugins” are fun add-ons to perform various functions for your site. Then there is “Settings” where you can control specific aspects of your website.

What Should You Write About?

Focus on writing before you get caught up developing the blog. I had 8 blog posts before I really started customizing my website. You will develop it more over time.

Create content that your ideal niche will read eagerly. Aim to be the go-to hub for a specific niche or topic. I am still working on narrowing down my niche. My goal is to provide content for working mother’s or women in their 20’s to 40’s. Build an audience who trusts you.

How do you find your focus? Maybe you already have your focus and are sitting comfortably reading this post; knowing you are one step ahead of the game. If you are struggling, like me, with narrowing down your niche, ask yourself; What is your passion and what is your talent? How can you use that passion, combined with that talent to help serve people?

Successful bloggers think of their audience as a single individual. Would this person like your blog post? Would it be helpful? Then create your post specifically for them.

You can ask yourself questions like, what exactly can you help your audience with? What products do they like? Are they men or women or both? What is their income bracket? Are they into health and fitness? Cooking on a budget? Crafts for kids? Financial guidance? Then, make it so good they want to share. It helped me to make a list of my favorite blogs and write reasons why I like them.

For every single post you write, ask yourself: What problem am I solving and what are my readers take away? Have a strong title with a power word.

Keep the paragraphs short so they are easy to read and have headings to break up the text. Create lists and table of contents. I aim to write my posts at 2,000 words or more. You definitely don’t need to write that much but make sure one out of every 10 is over 2,000 words.

Use Grammarly

Their tagline says it best; a free writing assistant. Grammarly ensures your writing is easy to read and error-free. I write my blog posts directly into WordPress and Grammarly corrects any spelling or grammatical errors along the way. I am currently using the free version. Grammarly is a free proofreading tool to ensure you don’t have embarrassing typos. You can purchase premium Grammarly if you need to check for plagiarism, vocabulary enhancement, and advanced grammar checker.

Why Should You Start a Blog?

Expose your interests to a larger network

Create new opportunities for yourself and your business

Document your life in an empowering way

You can make money blogging

Google LOVES blogs and is automatically optimized by search engines

Blogging helps other people

A blog can help you grow your business

Many online consumers trust the information they get from blogs

You can boost traffic to your website

You can target potential customers for your business

What You Don’t Want to Do

You don’t want to delete pictures from your media section. These pictures are embedded directly into your blog post.

Don’t wait to use a site like MailChimp or Convert Kit right away. Start building your mailing list and capturing emails from day one. Don’t be passive about it. Email marketing is a huge factor in business strategy.

I repeat…don’t use wordpress.com

Use Email Marketing from Day 1

Email is the most effective marketing channel for businesses, and your blog is your business. It is 40 times more effective than Facebook and Twitter combined.

An email list is purposeful, personal, and targeted. You don’t own the social media sites you use such as Facebook and Instagram but you do own your email list.

People will read your email in the privacy of their inbox. That is personal and you can develop trust.

Everyone I know has an email address. But, everyone does not have every social media platform.

I started using MailChimp. It is free for my first 2,000 subscribers and pretty easy to understand. My conversion rate from opt-in forms is not as high as I would like. I am now trying Mailerlite which I like SO much better than Mailchimp. Use my code for $20 off. it so I may later purchase Optin Monster, Constant Contact or Covert Kit. If you would like to see comparisons of these options, comment below.

You need to convert every website visitor into an email subscriber before they leave your blog because it is unlikely they will ever come back. If you do covert them, so you can send them relevant messages to bring them back to the site.

Use Pinterest

Pinterest IS a search engine. If you already have a Pinterest account, turn it into a business account. From there, create 15-20 relevant boards to your blog with keyword rich descriptions. Fill up your profile and add a picture. Claim your website. Design your own optimized pins. I use OVER.

Pinterest is one of the fastest ways to generate traffic to your new blog. The number of followers you have does not even matter. You just need to pin consistently and be strategic. If you don’t have time to pin all the time, utilize tailwind. Comment below and I can send you a one-month free trial.

Choose What Affiliate Programs You Want to Participate in.

Research affiliate sites and register. I started with the Amazon affiliate program right away. As soon as you get an approval email, set up your payment options and everything else.

Look for the product you would like to sell on these platforms and generate your own deep link.

Insert your own specific affiliate link into your post so that people can buy using your link because they are going to buy anyway. Or maybe they buy because they trust your opinion.

For instance, after reading this blog post, you may sign up for Bluehost website hosting. You were going to anyway, so, you could just use my own referral link. Nothing extra is to be paid on your part, you actually get a discount. And I earn a small commission. Win-win.

Viola. There you have it. You have learned how to start a blog. I am confident that your initial blog set up should now be finished and ready to go. And unlike my first blog set up, it should have been really easy; lucky you.

XOXO
Mackenzie