How To Start a Blog: Step-by-Step Guide for Beginners

A lot of times, we get asked: How to start a blog and is it a challenging process?

Please also reach out to ask how much does it cost to create a blog?

Starting a blog is really easy. You don’t need to be a techno-geek to have a blog up and running.

Additionally, starting a blog doesn’t break a bank. The cost of starting a blog (on your own) is approx $60 – $70 per year.

In this article, I will show you how to get a blog even without any technical knowledge. Even if you are an absolute beginner, you can follow the steps to start a blog.

How to Start a Blog

You can start a blog without any coding. It’s fairly simple to perform few steps for the installation on a web host and your blog will be up and running in few minutes.

Before Creating a Blog

If you are new to the blogging world it is advisable to undertand few basics.

What is a blog? Why create a blog? Important points to consider before starting a blog

How to Create a Blog – Step by Step Guide

After you have understood the basics, it’s time to work on starting the blog -

Step 1: Select a Topic for the Blog

Your blogging business is going to start with the selection of a topic. You have to decide a topic for creating your blog and write on it regularly.

What are those topics that you are interested in? Topics that you would love to read and write. It doesn’t matter if you are not an expert on that topic. All you need is a passion. You can always enrich your knowledge by reading about the topic regularly.

If you can’t think of any topics, then think about your hobbies. Select something that you really enjoy.

If you make a mistake here, it would mean that you will choose a wrong path and keep walking on it. In many cases, it may take months to realize that you chose a wrong topic.

Don’t choose a topic just because others are making good money blogging about it. It doesn’t make sense to start a blog on a topic that you are not interested in. After few weeks or couple of months, you will loose interest and stop working on the blog. Choose a topic as per your interest.

Read few important points about How to select a blog topic.

Step 2: Choose a Domain Name

The domain name is the Internet address of your blog. A domain name registration is required (with one of the domain name registrars) before you create your blog.

Before you go for choosing a domain name, it is crucial that you have decided the topic for your blog. We have discussed in previous step how to choose the topic.

Now, Think of a domain name that is short and simple, reflects the topic of your blog, easy to remember, easy to spell and is ‘brandable’. Also, it should match with the topic of your blog.

Note: Do not register the domain name at this stage. You will get a free domain name while signing up for web hosting in next step.

Step 3: Get the Best Hosting for your Blog

Web hosting is one of the key things required to run your blog or any website. A web hosting provider company provides space on their server to put your code scripts, images and other files required to run your blog.

When you are going to start a blog, it’s important to choose your web host wisely.

There are a lot of web hosting companies. However, after creating a number of blogs for myself as well as my clients, I have learned that very few web hosts are reliable.

You won’t like your blog to be occasionally down or not reachable. So you need a web host that provides best up-time, is easy to use, provides excellent support and doesn’t cost much on your pocket.

My Recommendation I recommend BlueHost to everyone. They provide great service, superb up-time and amazing customer support. One of the most important features for newbies is the easy-to-use interface that BlueHost provides.

If you run into any problem related to your hosting account, you can call them up on their 24×7 number, email them or chat with them in real time.

Step 4: How to Set Up WordPress Blog

Installing WordPress is not a challenging task. If you want, you can get it done for free, by an expert.

Bluehost provides 1 click WordPress installation.

What does that mean?

1 click WordPress installation means you don’t need to upload scripts, run installer manually. All you need is to click on 1 button (after providing basic information) and WordPress will be installed.

First of all, go to the Bluehost page by clicking on this link. You will see a page similar to below screenshot. Click on the green button. Bluehost keeps changing the design of their website from time to time. So if the page doesn’t look exactly like, this don’t worry.

Click on the green button Once you click on that link, you will see a page similar to below screenshot. You can choose “Starter” plan if you want to create just one blog. If you plan to have more than one blogs, then you can go with “Plus” plan.

Choose a plan After you choose your desired plan, you will see a screen similar to below one. Here, you can enter the domain name that you want to register for free. If the domain name you chose is available, you will be able to get that. If it’s not available, you will have to try another one.

Enter desired domain name Once you have chosen your unique domain name, you will be required to enter your personal details and package details as shown below.

Enter account details

Choose your package

The 3 year plan is most economical one. You don’t need any of the extra or add-ons. So just un-check them. Once you have completed the form, hit the submit button.

After you have created a web hosting account, login to the control panel using the credentials. Bluehost will also send your account information over email.

Next, go to the section called “Website” under which, you will find “Install WordPress” link, as shown in below screenshot. Click on it.

Click on WordPress icon

On the next screen, click on the big “Install” button.

The next screen shows you the domain name that you just registered with Bluehost. Click on the “Check Domain” button. Now the final step is to click on the “Advanced Options” to allow you to enter the site title or name. Here on this screen, you can also choose the user name and password for the administrator account of your blog. Once done, click on the check box “I have read terms and conditions” and hit the “Install Now” button.

This will complete the installation of your WordPress blog.

Creating Your First Post

Login to the dashboard of your blog. The link will be yourdomainname/login. It’s also displayed on screen after completion of WordPress installation.

Once you login to the dashboard, try to familiarize yourself with different menus and options inside dashboard. Trust me, it’s not difficult.

Click on “Posts” and delete the default one. You don’t need that. Similarly, click on “Pages” and delete the default one.

To create a new post, Click on “Posts” > “Add New”. You will see the post editor where you can write your first blog post. Check out the buttons on top of the post editor.

Over to YOU!

We hope that you found this tutorial helpful. You should now have complete understanding on how to start a blog using WordPress. It’s time to get started now!