Also, creating a blog is so cheap even if you are on a budget; it can be started with as low as $1.99.

CLICK HERE TO START YOUR BLOG TODAY FOR AS LOW AS $1.99/month

We used these steps to build our blog, and since then, we have gotten over thousands of dedicated readers.

WHERE TO START?

NOTE: before we start going through the step-by-step instructions on setting up your own blog, let me make something clear to you.

If you decide on using Bluehost as your blog’s web host provider, you can skip the following steps: 

• Step 2.2 (registering your domain name) - Save $14.99, and 5-10 minutes of your time
• Step 4 (connecting the Domain name to your web host) - Save 5 minutes of your time

This is because Bluehost gives you a free domain name of your choice once you start hosting with them, and they automatically link your domain to their web host.

This is very easy, especially for beginners and it is also a very good deal from the platform itself. It takes as low as $1.99 per month to subscribe to and it does all the work for you plus you save an amazing amount of money.

1. How to Choose a Topic for your Blog

Choosing topic ideas for your blog is the most important part when trying to get your blog in shape. How else are you going to make a blog without getting an idea of what you want to write?

Well, let’s look into the various ways you can get topic ideas for your blog.

Creating Topics from A Magazine

When you pick up a magazine, all you see are just words and entertainment, what a potential blogger sees are all topic ideas. Getting your topic ideas in magazines can be that easy.

For example, you pick up a fashion magazine, and you get so much interested in the dresses, bags, shoes, etc. You want to really write about it, well, that there is your topic idea.

Most fashion blogs today are very popular raking millions of views monthly just posting fashion advice or fashion trends on their blog. Same goes for electronics, gadgets, business, even entertainments. Some of the blogs get their topic ideas from those magazines.

Creating Topics from What You Love Doing 

Well, this way can be said as the most comfortable and trustworthy way to generate blog ideas.  Someone once told me, do what you love as a profession, and you would never get tired of it. The best advice I have ever gotten in my life because teaching people how to make extra income has always been my thing.

You can make your hobby your post idea, it can be playing games in which you do game reviews, it can be cooking, in which you post recipes, and it can be about even having a dog-related hobby which you can end up teaching people how to train their dog better in your blog.

Creating Topics with Market Trends

This is for those that are keened on making money faster with their blog. If you fall into this category, you might consider going for an evergreen niche.

An evergreen niche is a part of the industry with everlasting appeal. This niche does not rely on seasonal trends to attract its readers. This is because it handles the aspect of life in which people actually needed and desirable.

An evergreen niche can include – health, self-improvement tips, money making skills, bodybuilding tips, etc. Blogs who make use of this niche always gather loyal subscribers.

Well, that’s it for choosing a topic idea when it comes to starting a blog. But before you jump right in to pick a blog topic, you might consider checking the popularity of the blog topic idea you choose using Google trends.

This is because some blog ideas tend to lose its popularity and interest over time and declining popularity means declining in the number of people who will view your blog post.

For example, if you choose a blog topic on Dog's Training, when checking it with Google trends, you can find out that the interest and popularity within 5 years are still stable and it’s even growing.

On the other hand, if you check the popularity of the Paleo Diet, you will find out that over the past 5 years, the popularity and trend are showing a decrease in interest, so that is definitely not the type of blog idea to write about.

2.1. Picking A Right Domain Name

Picking out your domain name is very important because this is what your visitors see first on the address bar. A domain name is actually your website’s name; this is the address in which your users can access your website.

This gives you an identification string that defines your authority within the internet. You can see an example of a domain name below.

With that settled, it is time for you to pick a special domain name. It is advisable that the best way to pick out a domain name is for it to match your niche.

Also, it is imperative that you keep it short and memorable, do not use hyphens or numbers, and then also use keywords in it.

For example, you are running a dog blog idea, and you want to choose a domain name. You can pick something like houndloud.com or dogmansion.com or some crazy domain names.

It is also advisable when choosing a domain name; you can make it unique by adding your name. For example, your name is Shelly; you can go with something like shellyspound.com or shellylikesdogs.com. As you can see, the domain names are very versatile and captivating.

After choosing a domain name, you have to check if the domain name is available or not. This is because most times, these domain names are already sold out to someone else, or people buy it from web hosts to resell it at a higher price.

If it’s available, that’s fine. If it’s not available, you can consider changing the extensions. Extensions are those words that are after the main domain name e.g. .com, .net, .org, etc. just to mention a few.

So, for example, you choose shellyspound.com and it’s taken, you can consider going for shellyspound.net or shellyspound.org.

Most people prefer to use .com as an extension, so if you are that type of person, then you would have to change the entire domain to something like shellylikesdogs.com, then viola your domain is free.

When this is done, you have to proceed to register that the domain name that you have chosen, which is available for purchasing.

2.2. Registering Your Domain Name

Before we go further to the step by step instructions for registering your domain name, it is important to know that if you are hosting with Bluehost, you can register your domain name directly without any charge, for up to a year.

So if you want a domain name for free while hosting with Bluehost you can skip this step.

So back to registering your domain name, the best site to register your domain name is on NAMECHEAP.

You can register your domain with any web host, but we typically recommend this one for its affordability.

Purchasing a domain through Namecheap is pretty straightforward and easy.

You can start by clicking the link: www.namecheap.com for 30% off for a new domain registration, then it will lead you to where you will check if your domain name is available.

We already did this in Step 2.1 (using our Domain Availability Checker) so you just input your already available domain name and click on search domain.

After the domain shows as available, click 'Checkout'.

On the next screen, Namecheap will ask you to review your order and offer you free domain privacy.

Ignore all the other options, and click “Confirm Order”.

On the next page, you will be asked to create an account. Just fill in all required information and click 'Create Account' at the bottom.

Once you're done, you will be asked to complete your payment information. After that, just check out and pay.

You will get a confirmation Message giving you the necessary information for your domain name.

3. Choosing A Web Host

After buying your domain name, the next step is choosing the platform to host your site. So far, the best site to host your blog is Bluehost.

For those of who don’t know what a web host is, well just put it this way – a web hosting company helps provide the technology necessary for your website/blog to go live in the world wide web.

They bring your website to life and make it accessible to people all over the world on the internet. 

Your blog will be stored on their servers, if anyone calls a web page from your site, it automatically sends out information to the server, to call out that web page. This is what a web host does.

The reason we recommend Bluehost is because of its benefits. Bluehost offers professional and standardized hosting, it is considered as one of the best web hosting services from EIG.

Most top websites/blog host using Bluehost so as you can see your website is very convenient and protected using Bluehost. 

Also, another benefit Bluehost holds is its great value packages it comes with, with as low as $1.99 per month, you can get a very good hosting site with website builders, one-click WordPress installation (one of free blogging platforms), easy to navigate control panel, ability to cancel subscription for up to 30 days and get your money back and their 24/7 customer support. 

The last benefit you get when using this amazing hosting site is that they have very fast servers. This makes your blog run smoothly without crashing, if you use a bad hosting service, your website would most of the time be down, so that’s why we recommend you use Bluehost.

How to Sign Up with Bluehost

Signing up with Bluehost is as easy as creating a new email. On your web address bar, go to www.bluehost.com and click the “Get Started Now” button.

You would be given four web hosting plan to choose from – basic, choice plus, online store and cloud, we advise you go for the basic plan. This is because it is the cheapest and easiest to work with, suitable for beginners.

You would be taken to the next page, where you will be asked to choose a new domain name or input an already existing domain name.

For those who want to get their domain name free of charge, you should input the domain name-checked with our domain availability checker and confirmed availability. With that done, you can click on “next”.

For those who have already bought a domain name with Godaddy, just input your domain name on their “Use a domain you own” bar then click “next”.

This takes you to the next page, filling up your personal information, creating an account, selecting the package information and checking out.

Fill in your personal information, name, number, address country, etc.

After that, select the package payment plan. Bluehost offers only the 12-month plan for as low as $1.99/month, the 36-month plan at $4.95/month and the 1-month plan at $15.99. Leave it at the default 12 month plan to enjoy the $1.99 rate (make sure to take advantage of this special offer while the promotion lasts).

Next, you see all the add-ons. For those that register their domain name with Bluehost, more add-ons are available. We recommend that you only tick the domain privacy protection, if you don’t want your information to be shown.

For those who registered their domain name with Namecheap, leave all the add-ons unpicked because they are not all that necessary, but select the 12-month plan to enjoy more.

Next, go and fill up the payment information. Bluehost accept credit card, debit card, and PayPal too. Once you have finished, tick to “accept the terms and services” then click on “submit”.

After that, you will receive a welcome email with all your information.

4. Connecting the Domain Name to the Web Host

After registering for your web host, it is time to link your domain name to the Bluehost servers. It is important to know once again that if you registered for a domain name through Bluehost, the platform will automatically link your domain name to the Bluehost servers so you don’t actually need this step. 

But for those who bought their domain name from Namecheap or have an already existing domain, it is time for you to link it to the Bluehost servers.

With that said, first log into your Namecheap account. With their new redesign, it appears they have hidden their domain manager. Just make sure to look at the top right until you find 'Account,' then click 'Dashboard'.

After that, a list of domains will appear. If you have purchased your domain with them, it will be displayed there.a Click on 'Manage' next to your blog domain name.

After clicking on the 'Manage' button, you will need to go to the 'Nameservers' section (this is what connects it to Bluehost).

Next, make sure you select the “Custom DNS” option (1), then simply replace the existing nameservers with:

Nameserver 1: NS1.BLUEHOST.COM
Nameserver 2: NS2.BLUEHOST.COM

Then, make sure to click the 'green tick' button (3) to confirm the changes. After that, your domain will successfully point to Bluehost.

If you choose other web host provider, the Nameservers' information can be found in the email you received from your hosting provider at the time you make a purchase. So make sure you keep this information in your archived email folder.

It is important to know that sometimes, it may take from a few minutes to hours for the internet to recognize your new Nameservers.

That’s all for Namecheap!

Next step, you should login in into your Bluehost account. After logging in, you will be taken to your Cpanel on the Bluehost platform. Find the “Domains” section, and click on it to point out our domain name from our Namecheap to our Bluehost account.

Now, go to the hosting overview page and click the "Welcome" link for your site. This will show you all the options available in the hosting control panel.

Next, press the "Settings" button.

In the "Domain Name & Site URL" area, click the "Change" link.

To connect your domain, type the domain name you want to use in the "Enter Domain Name" field (a).

Finally, press the "Continue" button (b).

After that, there will be a message on the summary confirming all the processes being complete.

So there it is, simple as ABC! Next step, we are going to learn how to set up our blogging platforms.

5. Setting Up your Blogging Platform with WordPress

The reason we recommended Bluehost is because it is user-friendly and easy to use especially by beginners. Bluehost offers a one-click WordPress setup. Also, Bluehost is a recommended host of WordPress, it hosts over 850,000 WordPress websites currently, so you are in good hands!

Also, if you find WordPress complicating to use, Bluehost is the answer to your problems. It will save you time, stress and a lot of money.

Lastly, if you want to install WordPress in Bluehost, I recommend you make it simple at first. You can add other options later on. Just stick with the original WordPress theme given to you.

First off, you need to start by logging in, your Bluehost Cpanel via https://www.bluehost.com/my-account/login.

On the control panel, click “Hosting” and click on the “Add Site”.

Choose 'Install WordPress'.

Next, what you need to do is to just follow these two simple steps:

1. Once you hit the 'Continue' button, you need to enter the Site Title. If your blog is about Dog Training, you may name it 'Dog Training', etc.

2. After clicking on “Continue”, you will be asked to provide the domain name to install the WordPress in. Insert your registered domain and we recommend that you leave the directory field beside it on default, then click “Continue”.

You may get a message saying “looks like files already exist in this location”, ignore it then click continue.

Wait for a few minutes for WordPress to be installed, then after that, you are taken to a page where your WordPress login button is displayed. 

If you do not see your WordPress site immediately, do not fear. It can take up to a few hours (about 12hrs) before the change is made.

So congratulations, you have installed WordPress on your blogging platform!

6. Understanding the Basic Functions of WordPress

Before starting to freshen up your new blog, there are some things you need to know.

Everything is not necessary but for better judgments on using the WordPress site, you need to know some specific things at hand to ensure more professionalism while working on your blog outwards.

First off, your blog login address is – https://yourblogaddress.com/wp-admin. After that, you would be taken straight to your WordPress Dashboard. On there, you can see some tabs which we are going to quickly look at now.

By clicking “Post”, it gives you access to create a new blog post that can be uploaded to your website. 

When you click “Media”, you can be able to upload images, videos or sounds that can be used in a post immediately or later on. 

The “Pages” option is much related to the post option which you can customize to your taste and the “Comment” section, you can edit, approve or even delete a post because this gives you full control over your blog.

Clicking on the “Widget” you can add a widget on your sidebar for faster access to various features, after that you see the “menu” in which you can add a menu to your website.

Clicking on the “Plugins”, you can be able to install any of them (add-ons) to extend your website’s functionality. 

Under the “Settings” tab, you can change anything you want to suit your functionality in the site.

Before starting to post on your new blog, there are also some things you need to do to ensure our blog comes out professional and not too shabby.

First off, log into your WordPress. When you do that, there is a default dummy page, post, and comment. The first thing you do is to delete those. You would see this under “All posts”, and move it to the trash. Finally, click on the “Comments” section and also delete the comment.

Secondly, you need to set up the permalinks. The default is https://yourdomain.com/p=123. This is very short, not suitable for search engines. Go to your settings, then select “Permalink” and then select “post name” then click “Save”.

This will make your keywords visible when your URLs appear in search engines. In addition, this will also increase the SEO of your blog.

Thirdly, you need to set your time zone. Go to “Settings”, then “General”. Then set your time zone and click okay. This is very important, especially if you schedule your posts; they will go live prior to the time zone.

Lastly, you need to change the user registration settings and the comment settings. If you want to allow guest posts and run a multi-author blog, you need to set the user registration settings.

On the Settings page, beside the membership, tick on the “Anyone can register“ box, then change the new user default role as “Contributor”. If you just want to run a normal one author blog, you can uncheck the box.

To set the way you want your comments to be, go to Settings, then “Discussion”, a dialog box will appear. Tick according to your taste and click on okay to save changes.

7. Publishing your First Post

Now that you have known the basic part of WordPress, it is time for your first post. I am going to show you a step to step instruction on how you can do that.

Now, for you to publish your first post, on your dashboard click “Posts”, remember to delete the default post already. A fresh editorial page might appear, but if it doesn’t, select “Add New”.

Give your post a title in the title bar; add a media if necessary but it’s for the best to improve your blog’s SEO. Add your post contents, and then looking at the right-hand side of the dashboard, there are several options you can choose to suit your taste when posting.

These include scheduling your post or posting it right away, categorizing your post, setting how your images display, etc. After setting those, you cross check, then you click on “Publish”.

Well, congrats! You have just published your first post!

Frequently Asked Questions

What is a blog?

A blog is like a personal website, with the sole aim of giving information about a particular niche or variety of niches, which is updated regularly over a period of time.

Should I build a blog or make my own website?

Well, building your own website is much more difficult and costly to maintain, but with web hosts and WordPress, building a blog is easier cheaper and faster. Also blogs last way longer than websites.

How do I start a blog if my writing skills are not that great?

Well, there are paid sources in which you can find willing professional writers to handle the job, some of them include Upwork, Fiverr, and Freelancer, etc. Sometimes the blog post ideas can come from you; all you just need is to create the structure of the article for the freelancers.

I want to set up a blog, but I don’t want people to know it’s me, how do I do that?

Well actually, you can use a nickname, a pen name or just your first name. As time grows, and the long-term benefit of name credibility grows, you can now reveal your true identity.

How much code do I need to create Blog?

Surprisingly, NONE. You can start-up a blog with zero knowledge about coding because of the benefit Bluehost and WordPress offers, but along the line, you would have to learn some coding in WordPress or pay someone to code for you to increase the functionality of your blog as it grows.

I have started my own blog, how do I increase my traffic?

You can start up first by utilization of SEO in your blog posts, but the provision of vital information should be your main aim first.

Secondly, you need to build your community of readers on social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram and even Pinterest (we would handle this on another post on this website).

You can also increase your Traffic by building positive relationships with other blogs to get exposure by emailing them and also commenting on their blog posts.

How can I make money from my Blog?

You can check out our last posts for these steps, but shortly, you can make researches on the topic, follow our tutorials and monetize your blog through various means like using Google AdSense, affiliate links, banner replacement or even selling your own products and E-books online related to your niche etc.

Conclusion

After going through this step-by-step tutorial to start a blog, we hope you can proudly now say, “I can build my own blog from scratch!”

We hoped you enjoyed this tutorial!

Like I said at the beginning of this article. As a blogger, it is my duty to help new bloggers to help establish their blog to standard, to gain more views and to make money blogging. You need to get serious if you are down for it.

Once your blog is built, the next phases are to grow your audience and make money from it.

So, what do you think about this tutorial?

Please share this article if you enjoyed it.