You’re bursting with ideas you want to share with the world, but you are intimidated with the process of setting up a self-hosted site. Does this sound familiar? The technical side of setting up a blog can feel overwhelming to those starting for the first time.
Since we’ve been sharing my blog income in our monthly financial reports, I’ve had lots of people ask how to actually start a blog, as in how to actually go through the nitty gritty technical details of getting a self-hosted blog up and running. I’m not an expert, but I’m happy to share what I do know, so I decided to put together a step-by-step showing how I set up my own blog!
I recommend Bluehost for hosting, as that’s exactly what we did and we had a great experience. My husband, the technical one of us, did the research before we chose Bluehost. I didn’t even realize at the time (though my husband probably did) that Bluehost is the only hosting service officially recommended by WordPress. Personally, we’ve had a great experience.
Getting Started
Go to the Bluehost site and click on the green “get started now” button.
Next, choose your plan. If you’re just starting out, the starter plan will be perfect. That’s what we did and it’s worked fine. If you pay for 36 months up front, you’ll get the lowest rate of $3.95 per month.
UPDATE— Right now Bluehost is letting me offer my readers a $2.95 monthly price! This won’t last though, so get started now using this special link!
Choosing a Domain Name
Now it’s time for your domain name. Some people will tell you just to hurry up and pick a name so you can move on, but I think it’s important to be sure you have a domain name that you’re really happy with. My advice is to choose a name that is :
- Easy to remember — You want people coming back and telling their friends, right?
- Easy to spell — Avoid cutesy spellings that could be confusing.
- Not too long — This goes along with easy to remember, but also easy to read as a url.
- Gives a hint as to what your blog is about — You want to pique readers’ curiosity and give them a reason to click over to your site.
- Something you love — This is going to be your “brand,” so make it something you are proud to promote.
You get a free domain name registration with your Bluehost hosting package! If you already own a domain name, you can enter it here under “transfer domain.” You’ll have to go through a few extra steps to make sure your DNS points to Bluehost.
After entering your domain name, you’ll fill in your personal information for the account. This is pretty self-explanatory.
Choose a Hosting Package and Add-ons
Now it’s time to choose the hosting package you want. You can use the dropdown menu to see the available options. If you have the money upfront to pay for 36 months and you’re committed to at least three years of blogging, it will be cheaper in the long run. Not only will you get a cheaper monthly introductory rate, you’ll be at the introductory rate for longer. After the promotional period of 12, 24, or 36 months the price goes up slightly (but is still inexpensive).
Also, noteworthy is that Bluehost allows for seamless upgrades to their non-shared hosting plans (VPS and dedicated server hosting), when your site grows to need them. Bluehost doesn’t require a contract and you are free to cancel at anytime. I love when companies stand behind their product or service enough to offer a guarantee like that.
You’ll have a couple of other options for services to add to your bill. The one I recommend to everyone is Domain Privacy Protection (sometimes called WHOIS privacy). With a simple online search you can normally find the name, address, and email of the person who owns any domain name, unless it is privacy protected. The person who found you through a WHOIS search could then send you email, or mail, or make a surprise visit. With domain privacy protection, your own information will not appear in a search. For us, this service is worth paying for. If you bought your domain elsewhere then you won’t see this option (you were given the option when you bought your domain name).
If you don’t have another site backup tool in place, it’s worth looking at Site Backup Pro as well. Avoid that terrible sinking feeling that comes when you begin to suspect a mistake or a technical failure has erased your hard work on the site.
If you aren’t interested in any of this additional services, simply make sure the boxes are unchecked. The only extra option we choose is the Domain Privacy Protection.
Enter your billing information and click Next to finalize your purchase.
You’re now the proud owner of a domain name (and hosting package).
Check your email for a welcome email from Bluehost and an email about activating your domain if you got one through Bluehost. Click to activate it!
The next step is to get your site set up. You’ll be asked to create a password for your account.
Please choose a strong password, something with upper case and lower case letters, numbers, and symbols. Don’t make it obvious either. You don’t want to find your site has been taken over by someone who correctly guessed your password was Password123.
With your password created, you’re now ready to sign in and get started! Bluehost will automatically install WordPress for you (this saves you from some of the complicated parts that confuses people).
Click the “log in” button to get started!
At this point you can choose a free theme from the options given or you can just stick with the default for now and change it later. I think you’re probably best off just sticking with the default and then shop around for a free or paid theme in the near future once you have the basics set up. So either choose one of the given themes or click at the bottom to skip this step.
Now it’s time to start building your site. It may take up to a day for your domain name to be registered, but you can still start working on your site right away and Bluehost will take care of the details for you.
Click on “Start Building” to… start building!
At this point you can opt to be guided through the set up by answering the questions in the middle, or if you’re familiar with WordPress you can click “I don’t need help.”
Now you’ll be able to start creating and publishing posts and pages for your blog. Put up a sample post, and then play with the Appearance and other settings and the available themes until it looks just like you want it to.
Your domain will display a “coming soon” message until you are get it looking the way you want and are ready to launch it.
You did it! You set up a WordPress blog with Bluehost like a technical pro!
Happy blogging!
Vaulable (but FREE!) Blogging Resources
7 Surefire Ways to Boost Your Blog Income Overnight
Goal Setting Workbook for Bloggers
10 Steps to Take When a Blog Post Goes Viral
8 Bad Blogging Habits and How to Break Them
New Blogger’s Guide to Guest Posting
Secret Blueprint for Blogging Success
Note: This post contains my affiliate link, so I’ll receive a commission when you sign up through my link at no extra cost to you. As always, all opinions are my own! For more info, see my disclosure page.
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Thank you!
We’re already super impressed with Bluehost! My husband signed up this afternoon and within a couple hours someone had called offering to help walk us through setting up the site. But your tutorial is so handy, we don’t even need help! (And I’m thinking about starting my own blog, too! Will definitely have to get your behind-the-scenes info.)
That’s awesome Cathie! I’m glad the set-up went smoothly! Best of luck to both of you! 🙂
Thank you for the great post and for encouraging others. I have been playing with the idea of blogging for a while now, but not too technical savvy. This may be the push that I needed. Thank you!
You’re welcome Petrona! You can definitely do it! 🙂
Hi Stephanie! I followed your steps and set up a wordpress blog but I am absolutely confused! Do you need to know how to code in order to build the website? I looked at wordpress.com and it looks much simpler than wordpress.org…do they both work about the same way? I’m just starting out with blogging but would love to slowly build it up and perhaps monetize it. Any tips you can give me would be so helpful! Thank you!
I purchased “WordPress Websites Step-by-Step” by Caimin Jones from Amazon or Ebay and it is very informative. I read that WordPress.com is a hosted service. That means although there’s nothing to install (which makes it simpler) you don’t get as much freedom in the choice of web designs you use, you can’t use your own domain name without an additional cost, and you can’t add extra features to you site by using plugins.
On the other hand, the version you’ll find at WordPress.org is yours to download and use as you please. You can have your own domain name (which looks more professional), use any design and extend your site with as many “plugins” as you like.
Hey! Just thought I’d say this is exactly the information I’ve been searching for–forever!! I do have one question, though; When you use the WordPress install is it WordPress.org or WordPress.com? I currently have a blog on WordPress.com, but want to make it more my own (you can’t add plug-ins and all the themes and layouts are pre-made)
Thanks,
Kristen
Hi Kristen! It is wordpress.ORG. It’s definitely the way to go! 😉
Perfect! One more question, when switching over, I know that I can use my current domain, but because it’s with wordpress.com and not a self-hosted site, would I have problems switching it over? I much prefer the idea of having more freedom with, well, everything, but I don’t want to lose the domain name as I’ve already produced a following for it.
So, when paying for Blue Host, you are paying the full $142 up front for 36 months? Meaning that will be taken from my account all at once?
Hi Tiffany! Yes, you would pay all of that up front. If you end up canceling at some point, you will get a pro-rated refund. The nice thing about doing 36 months at once is that you lock in the low intro price for 3 years. If you don’t want to spend quite as much all at once you can just do 12 months.
Ah, I see! Thank you. I’ve been mentally preparing myself to start a blog for a while now and I think I’ll finally be ready to start soon! I will be referring back to your blog often. Thank you for such a wonderful resource.
Wіth havin so much content ⅾo you ever run into any problems of plagorism or copyгight infringement?
My site ɦas a lot of unique content I’ve eitheг crеated myself or outsourced but it appeaгs a lot of it is poppіng it up all
over the wᥱb without my permission. Do you know any ways to help
protect against content from being stolᥱn? I’d
genuinely appreciate it.
Thank you so much for this step-by-step that includes pictures and costs! I have been thinking about starting a blog for a while now but am terrible with technology and there is a lot of terminology that I do not understand. I also read a lot of tips about building community with other bloggers and there is often terminology in those posts that I do not quite follow either. I would love a vocabulary cheat sheet!
That is a great idea Amanda! Being immersed in the blogging world, I think us Bloggers forget that. IF you send me a list of terms that aren’t immediately clear, I would be happy to start a cheat sheet! 😉
Well, I took the leap today! I had been thinking about blogging for a while but I wasn’t sure I really had anything to say. Lately I have been missing what I have been passionate about in life and wanted to find a way to bring it back. Today I signed up for a blog and have been jotting down ideas. I have already filled out a whole page with them! I guess I have more in my head than I thought. Thank you for your blog posts which have helped give me a little extra push. 🙂
Eeek!! I did it! So excited to get my blog up and running. Thanks for your easy to follow instructions.
Thank you for the information. Do you still use Bluehost or did you graduate to a different site because of limitations.