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Let us see what are the steps you need to follow to start your own self-hosted blog using WordPress platform.

Hope you feel excited to start your own brand new blog.

Want To Learn On How To Start Your Blog Today Rightnow ?

Here in this article, you will find step by step instructions to launch your blog in 10 minutes.

By the way, what’s stopping you? It doesn’t cost you much.

It probably cost the same as you spend one morning in McDonald’s

“The best way to live the life of your dreams is to start living the life of your dreams Today, in every little way that you possibly can.”

– Mike Dooley

I think I have motivated you enough with the little pretty words.

Four Steps To Follow To Start Your Blog

Here we go

1- Choose your Domain name

2- Select your Hosting provider

3- Choose your Blogging platform (normally WordPress)

4- Design your blog,

Modify according to what you like so you get your desired look and feel.

Oh and I just forgot to tell you the important part

Decide what you want to blog about

Choose something which you are passionate about and can continue writing for 10, 20 years

Just don’t go only for the lucrative keywords which you don’t have any passion for.

You may have some ideas for now but you will one day in the near future run out of ideas or topics to blog if you choose the wrong niche

It won’t help you in the long run.

But if u are completely thorough on the topic or area you write about, You will obviously dominate that space

You don’t have to be a master, You will learn through time.

OR if you can’t decide On what you should blog about?

Start anyway!

Not sure of what to blog is a common issue.

Don’t make that a Hindrance to you. You can just switch topics slowly in time.

Just Choose a domain which can go in general

To start a blog you’ll need to select a blogging platform – or a tool that helps you to get your content up onto the web.

There are many blogging platforms available but in my mind, the choice is clear and simple.

WordPress.org is the site you would go for, I use it too and I highly recommend you to use it too

I would recommend you to create your blog on WordPress cause

it’s easy to set up and flexible
It’s Free
It’s Secure
And it’s easy to customize it

Here is a pie chart of the Top 100 blogs Hosted Platform

There are two types of WordPress tools

WordPress.com-

Pros

They take care of all of the hostings for you. You don’t have to download software, pay for hosting, or manage a web server and its free, yes you heard it right
They handle all behind-the-scenes technical stuff you really don’t want to have to worry about yourself. Which is a huge relief
No need to worry about updates. WordPress.com is responsible for updates and backups

Cons

You must register for an account on WordPress.com and abide by their Terms of Service.
You can’t upload any custom themes, plugins from the 3rd party developers or modify the PHP code behind your site that can make your blog look “cool” and unique.
And you have to pay if you want more add-ons like

a)Custom domain name

b)Little more space for your blog

c)Host videos directly on your blog

d)Don’t want third-party adverts appearing on your blog? well you have to pay for that too

You can upgrade to premium service if you don’t want WordPress.com in your domain name.
WordPress.com is less customizable
They control all the ads to be shown on your site
No affiliates are allowed
If they caught you placing affiliates links

(a) they could disable your links

(b) they could issue a warning advising you to remove the affiliate links or

So that means monetization is very strict here and if your dream is to make money by affiliates and ads, well then you are out of luck here
You do not own the content
And this cons outweighs all of the points mentioned above
i.e Their Terms Of Service (TOS) clearly states that WordPress.com “may terminate your access to all or any part of the Website at any time, with or without cause, with or without notice, effective immediately.”

So if you are serious about blogging I would not recommend you to go for it

WordPress.org-

Cons-

You have to update all the backups and updates manually

You have to buy your own hosting and domain

Pros

Unlike wordpress.com You own your content
No registration with WordPress.org is required
You can upload your own themes and plugin from the 3rd party.
You can customize your site with different fonts and styles to make your blog cool according to your own preferences

Size & Speed

You can choose your own hosting according to the needs of your website

You can choose how much space you want to purchase for your site,

How fast your server will be by the way (site speed is vital for SEO),

How you want to handle your email, and how secure your website will be.

SEO

Seo is a vital part to make your website do well, increase in Search Engine Results Page (SERP) rankings and to get your content out to the world

You can optimize every single page on your site to make it more attractive to search engines for the keywords you want to rank for.

Monetization-

You can control all the ads you want to show on your site

You can earn through affiliate commissions

You can sell space in your site for ads

etc

You get the point that wordpress.org is better than wordpress.com

Let’s not babble much and get started

How To Instructions Here

Step 1- Buy A Domain Name and Hosting Account

Check Here to find out if your Domain name is Available

Get a domain name from (Godaddy) cause its one of the best Domain Registrar site

NOTE

Choose a .com over others

They’re easier to remember and people normally type in xyz.com over xyz.net

Make your domain name as short as possible.

It makes it people stick to their brain faster and longer

Optional- Try to include a keyword your blog is about.

Example If your website deals with flowers you may wanna go for XYZflorist.com something like that

Next, There are plenty of web hosting companies to choose from.

Prices generally range from $3 – $1000/month.

But I would suggest you get a hosting account from (BlueHost) or from ResellerClub

Save 66% + Free Domain

(Click here )

Because I personally use it, Its Great

By saying this I don’t mean there are no other hosting provider as good as These Two Company, what I mean is after comparing the pricing, features, support etc BlueHost and Reseller Club emerges as the best option

Their Plans are decent and To be honest, you really don’t need anything fancy at this stage.

You can upgrade your plan later on as your traffic and blog grow.

Oh and one thing that draws me out of all the features is their excellent customer service.

Once you’ve chosen your domain name and the hatchling plan

You’ll have to register it by putting in your contact and billing information.

Now After you got the domain name and the hosting site, Let’s get to the next step

Bluehost has simple free, “one-click” install of WordPress.

Like I said before When I had questions I was able to chat with the “live chat” folks at BlueHost for free.

They guided me in the right direction and made starting my own blog super easy

To install WordPress Just go to your control panel

Scroll down to the Software tab and select Softaculous app installer

Click on WordPress and install from there

Its super easy and takes only a few seconds

Now that you got your WordPress site up Go to your WordPress admin

In case you don’t know how to access your site admin

Its simple you will be sent in the email you put in the tab where to send your installation details

or you could just access by manually typing in yourdomain.com/wp-admin/

Enter your credentials

You will be greeted with a dashboard like below

Step 2 – Choose Your Favorite Theme

A good theme is a key to making your website look beautiful.

Personally, I prefer the simple Colours instead of the bright neon and dark ones

But hey if that’s what you like then go for it

There are thousands of themes to choose from.

You can change your theme any time, so don’t get too caught up it

To upload your downloaded plugin, Just go to Appearance<< Themes<< Upload Themes

Or You can also just browse the free themes instead

Just go to Themes<< Add new and there is also a filter option whether it will be for a magazine or blog or portfolio and many more options.

After applying the filter or even if you do not apply the filter you will be greeted with tons of beautiful themes like below

After selecting the one you choose click Activate and Publish

Or If you did not find anything you like just go to

Themeforest.
Elegant Themes.
StudioPress.
Thrive Themes.
Themegrill
Colorlib, etc

There are literally a number of themes selling site out there

Just Google it

Step 3 – Customize your site

Use Plugins and Tools to modify your site

Speed, Design, Security, SEO, Social sharing, etc are required to make your site looks amazing on the outside and with its features too

By the way, your Website speed is one of the key factors in order to increase your SERP

Just (CLICK HERE) to see the 24 must have WordPress plugins for your website

Customize your website look by Heading over to appearance<<Customize

And you will be greeted like this where you can customize to your choice

Menu options in the sidebar will vary, depending on the theme you choose

Step 4 – Start Blogging

Now for the next step is to Start writing compelling and useful content that serves the readers

There are two types of content that you are able to create for your blog in WordPress

Pages
Post

Pages

Pages are the Static articles page which normally don’t change

Some example of it is About us, Contact, Services Page

They are permanent and timeless entries meaning they will not show the date you create the page

They don’t have categories

Post

Posts are the blog or content you normally write for your audiences

Posts are content entries listed in reverse chronological order on your blog’s homepage.

Due to their reverse chronological order, your posts are meant to be timely.

Older posts are archived based on month and year.

As the post gets older, the deeper the user has to dig to find it.

You have the option to organize your posts based on categories and tags.

Write high-quality posts on a consistent basis.

Remember, your goal is to become the go-to resources in your topic or niche and dominate it

I would recommend you to create an upload schedule.

If you upload every Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday

Upload consistently on the days you set

Here is some tip on how to write a great blog post-

Write your blog post in a range of 500-1000 words

Cause if it’s too short, it will not reach its core meaning

and you will not be able to express clearly

If it is too long you don’t want the reader to bore to death

Put featured image and image in between the post

Create Infographics cause some people tend to like words on picture or diagram rather than Reading from a white plain blog

Like Neil Patel has mentioned in his blog, use the word You and I cause it makes it more personal and connected to you

Make sure your paragraph has only about 3-4 line and keep it short and simple

Cause you do not want to make your reader feel like reading a book,

Most people don’t like reading. You get the point of what am saying

Keep a lot of white space between the two sentences

Write an Introduction post

When I say write an introduction post it doesn’t mean write an article introducing yourself,

You can create a Page called About Me for that where you talk about who you are, what your blog is all about and what your mission or goal is with your blog

What I mean by this is write an article about a topic in your niche the best you can to make an entrance

Create Your About Us Page, Contact Page, Books Page, Archives Page, etc.

Tips on writing About us page

If you have a video explaining about you that would make it much simpler
Make sure to add testimonials and use their full name and their site to give more credibility to your testimonials.
Use first person Tense
Add a picture (Picture tells a thousand words)
Tell your story
Include your contact details and address

Hey a little Sidenote here Creating the About Us Page, Contact Page, Books Page, Archives Page, etc. will make your website approval for Adsense faster in case you want to monetize later on.

Configuring your URLs to be search engine friendly

I am no SEO expert but I know one thing search engines don’t like is that they don’t want long Ugly URLs

Ugly URLs- You have encountered that long ugly, Clumsy URLs

For example, the URLs is http://xyz.com/2018/20/topic-web/best–web-hosting-of-2018/

It would be much better if the URLs is simply http://xyz.com/best-hosting-2018/

In order to change your links to a more cleaner, Go to “Settings” -> “Permalinks” and change to Post name

I personally use it and I would recommend for you to use it too cause it is short and simple.

INDEX YOUR SITE

Whats the use if your website is not seen on the web

Google Search Console Monitors your site’s performance in Google Search results

CLICK HERE to go to Google Search Console previously known as Webmaster Tools

You will need to log in first with your Gmail account

Note- Use the same email account for Search console and Google Analytics because that way it will be much easier to connect later

Simply input your URLs and click Add property

Now Google will want to know that you actually own the website

So Google will give you a few ways to verify that you are actually the owner of the website

The easiest way and my personal favorite is verifying by meta-tag

Its Super Easy

Go to Plugin <<add new and install Insert Header and Footer or Click Here to download the plugin

Activate the Plugin

Go to settings<< Insert Header and Footer

Copy the Meta-tag and paste it in the Header area of Insert Header and Footer plugin

Click Save

Head over to the Google search console and click VERIFY

Now you are done

Get a free Business professional email id

A final touch

A business email is a must for every website or blog

Unlike Gmail or Yahoo, However, you can create a professional email with Gsuite

An email with your own custom domain name gives you more authority and trust

You will be contacting a lot with your email and having an email with your own domain name will make your site look more professional

Its easy as 123..to set up with Zoho

Zoho Why?

Cause mail services for custom domains typically come with a fee,

But Zoho offers a free mail service for up to 10 users on a single custom domain.

Just Click Here to learn on how to set up your own professional email.Its super easy Trust me

Have you Started a blog?

If you’ve read this guide to this far

That means you should start your own blog

I really think you are on the right time to start your own blog

At the end of the day though, there’s only one way to find out:

Get started and see what happens.

CONCLUSION

Did this Help you?

Feel free to let us know what blog you have started and has this guide help you or not

If there is anything on how we could improve it to make the processing of getting started easier or if you encounter any problem

Let us know in the comment section and let’s get sorted out together.

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