Do you want to learn how to start a blog?
In this post, I’ll show you exactly how to create your own blog, no technical experience required. (It’s easier and faster than you think.)
Starting a blog is not complicated at all.
This how-to guide contains what I learned and is for those who want step-by-step instructions in an easy and simple format.
In fact, by following the step-by-step instructions in this guide you will be able to create your own blog in less than 15 minutes.
Ready? Let’s go!
NOTE: Wealthy Tools’ blog is hosted by Siteground. For only $3.95 a month, Siteground can help you set up and host your blog. Because Wealthy Tools are a Siteground affiliate partner, our readers can use this link to receive a 60% discount off the monthly price.
Starting a Blog in Six Easy Steps:
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Decide what to blog about
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Pick a blog name and hosting option.
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Set up your WordPress blog
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Design your new blog
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Install the best plugins for your blog
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Write compelling content & publish your first post!
Step1: Decide what to blog about
Industry-wise there are 3 profitable segments:
- Health
- Wealth
- Relationship
Breaking them into sub-sections..
Following are the most profitable markets in the world:
- Health and Fitness – Sports equipment, Yoga, Nutrition, Exercise, Meditation, Dieting.
- Fashion – Makeup tutorials, Style and dressing tips, Hairstyles, and beauty products.
- Travel – Vacation deals, Best places to visit, Your own travel experiences, and Product reviews.
- Finance – Personal finance, How to save taxes, Stocks, and Real estate.
- Websites – Software, Programming, Web development, Web design, and Functionality.
- Content marketing – How to market your products or services, SEO tips and tricks, E-mail campaigns.
- Food – Write different recipes, Best restaurants in the area, Reviews of kitchen equipment.
- Lifestyle – Home decoration, Gardening, Survival.
- Personal Development – Time management, Motivational stories, Health awareness, Leadership skills and Communication skills.
- Parenting – Childcare, Product reviews, Tips for age stages.
- Instructional – Tutoring, How-to’s, Guides.
- Corporate – Industry updates, Expert tips, and Best practices.
- Entertainment – Comedy, Video, Music, Podcasts.
You can see, all of them falls under the main categories of Health, Wealth and Relationship.
Why? Because human beings lack one of these and willing to spend money to regain that in their life.
That’s where you can cheat them to make money, right?
No. Wrong.
You don’t have to cheat anyone to make money. Or sell a wrong product to anyone.
If you want to become profitable then start helping people in solving their problems. You may earn quick money by cheating someone but you will fail in the long run.
You can cheat someone only once. But you can have lifelong customers if you provide them value every time.
Always SOLVE A PROBLEM.
Step 2: Pick a blog name and hosting option.
You must have got a clear picture of blogging, selected your niche.
1. Deciding your domain name
Your domain name is your identity on the web, no matter what niche you choose. It’s the unique address of your blog on the Internet.
This is your brand. People are going to remember your domain name. This is the name you are going to promote and ultimately this is the name which is going to give you a worldwide recognition.
So be very cautious which selecting a domain name for your blog.
When registering a new domain and trying to find an available name, people often wonder if the domain name extension really matters. Oftentimes, the domain name you want will be unavailable as a .com but will be available as a .in, .net, .info or .biz.
Look at the chart below, to see which extension is popular.The answer is that .com extension still dominates. 75% of all domains are .com followed far behind by .net and .org, at 10% and 7% respectively.
In the end, it’s about being memorable, so if a different extension or country code helps you be memorable, then break the rules!
I selected www.wealthytools.com as my domain name. Now, this is a brand worldwide and people know me by this name.
Here are three golden rules for buying a domain name.
- It should be small
- It should be easy to remember
- I prefer having .com domain names, so I recommend you to do the same.
I always buy domains from GoDaddy. This is one of the world’s largest domain provider company and very trustworthy too.
You can go to GoDaddy.com and start searching for some good domain names.
Pro Tip: You can search your main keyword on LeanDomainSearch.com. It will check all the amazing domain available for that niche. Let’s say you want to search some good domain for your cooking blog. Just go to LeanDomainSearch.com and type your keyword there.
2. Choosing a good hosting service
Your hosting is a pillar where your blog will stand. This is a server where all your data is going to save online. All the images, texts, videos are going to save on this server when you post anything on your blog.
A good hosting server should have
- A cPanel to control everything easily
- Add unlimited domains on a server to run multiple blogs
- Unlimited bandwidth
- Unlimited hosting space
- 1 Click WordPress space
Luckily, Siteground is such a hosting service provider which meets all the needs. Siteground is our Favorite WordPress Hosting Service.
Sign up for SiteGround (60% promo)
How to buy hosting from Siteground?
Step 1: Open the official website using this link (this link will activate special discount for you).
Step 2: Select WORDPRESS SERVICES button in the menu.
Step 3: Select GrowBig package (the package in the center). You can add unlimited domains on a server to run multiple blogs.
Step 4: Enter the domain name if you have already bought one. Otherwise, grab a new domain name from Siteground itself.
Step 5: Complete the payment process.
You cannot use debit cards, pay through credit card.
Congrats!!
We have completed the foundation of a good blog.
Note: If you are a Godaddy user then you have to change the nameservers.
Step by step guide for GoDaddy users:
- Sign in to Siteground.
- Click on “My account”.
- Select “Go to cPanel”.Look at the left side of the screen. There are two nameservers.
- Copy these nameservers one by one.
- Log in to your Godaddy account.
- Choose the domain.
- Click on Domain Settings.
- Click on Manage DNS.
- Scroll down and click on change.
- Select custom.
- Add nameservers.
- Click on Save.
The change takes few hours to take effect. In few hours, you will be able to access your domain.
Step 3: Set up your WordPress blog
You’re almost done!
You now own a domain name and hosting package, but you need to install WordPress in order to build your site.
You must be thinking that setting up a blog is very technical things. I cannot do it as I am not very technical kind of person. It looks hard and time-consuming.
In Siteground you can install WordPress in just a few clicks. They have given inbuilt scripts on your server.
In just a few seconds it will be installed on your domain name and you will get login details.
Sign up for SiteGround (60% promo)
Step 1: Login to Siteground.
Step 2: Select “My Account”.
Step 3: Click “Go to cPanel”
Step 4: Click the WordPress icon.
Scroll down to “AUTOINSTALLERS” and select the WordPress icon. The page will look like this:
Step 5: Click the install button.
Step 6: Fill the details ‘Carefully’
Note: Under admin account section, make sure that email address is a working email. Also, make sure you pick a different username and password! You’ll use them every time you access your site and write blog posts. Note down your username and password in a notepad.
Now, tick mark the box of Limit login plugin to increase the security of your WordPress blog. I love using Siteground WordPress installer because they have taken great care of the security of WordPress.
Click ‘Install’ and your WordPress blog will be installed on Siteground hosting within 1 minute.
You will see a success screen as shown below:
Copy the “Administrative URL” – this URL will allow you to start building your site.
Step 7: Login to WordPress admin dashboard.
Take that URL you just copied and enter it into a new web page. Now enter the username and password you created a few minutes ago. The page you’ll sign into regularly should look something like this:
Congrats! You just learned how to install WordPress all on your own!
This is one of the reasons that I have started using Siteground hosting because it let me enjoy the power of Varnish in shared hosting. For the same thing, other hosting like WPEngine cost at least 10X of Siteground pricing.
You can sign up for Siteground with 60% discount using below link.
Sign up for SiteGround (60% promo)
Step 4: Design your new blog
Your choice of WordPress theme is just as important as your choice of domain name. A good looking theme makes your blog look more professional.
Initially, there is no need to buy premium themes. WordPress provides tons of free themes. You can start with any free theme without wasting much time on theme selection.
But the sad truth is it’s harder to make your blog look professional with a free theme. You can customize a free theme up to certain extent. If you are not satisfied then you should buy premium these.
In simple words, it’s the design of your blog. How you want to make it look.
There are tons of themes available in the market. The biggest repository of WordPress themes is ThemeForest. You just go there and select any good looking theme for your blog.
Step 5: Install the best plugins for your blog
WordPress is powerful because of awesome plugins that you can use for maintaining your website.
These are the exact plugins that I use to keep my website in a good shape.
1. Akismet
2. Google Analytics for WordPress
3. Yoast SEO
4. WP Smush
5. Wordfence Security
6. SG Optimizer
7. Sumo Me
8. Jetpack
9. WP Database Backup
10. Social Warfare
They take just a few seconds (literally a few seconds, it’s just a click of a button) to install once you’ve started your blog. And if you really want to play around with some cool plugins, check out WPBeginner’s Best WordPress Plugins.
Step 6: Write compelling content & publish your first post.
Congratulations! Now you have your own domain name, hosting space and your blog is set up.
It’s time to write and publish your first blog.
Now start creating content for your blog and promote your blog on all social media handles.
Happy Blogging
Sign up with Siteground hosting and receive a significant discount now!
Siteground offers free migration from your existing hosting. If you have never heard or used Siteground earlier, I suggest you check out and you will love it.
Check out Siteground (60% discounted link)
Do let me know if you have any question about using WordPress with Siteground hosting.
Don’t forget to share this detailed guide with others on Facebook and Google plus.
In next article, we are going to see how people in the industry are making money with blogging.
Stay tuned for my next article.
Happy Blogging!!