Hey Friends,
The past few weeks, I’ve been sharing some “blogging” related posts for those of you who are considering starting a blog of your own. Today, I am going to take you step by step and show you exactly how to start your own wordpress website with Buehost (the exact hosting provider I use!). I’ve got pictures to explain exactly how to do it… and it couldn’t be easier!
If you’re still thinking about starting a blog, feel free to check out the recent blog posts about blogging:
6 Reasons Why Christian Girls Should NOT Have a Blog
6 Reasons Why Christian Girls SHOULD Have a Blog
If you’re ready to make the jump with a self-hosted wordpress blog, then keep reading. I will show you how to start a blog that costs just $3.95 a month!
Step #1: Visit Blue Host
Bluehost is the hosting providing that I use for my blog. To put it in simple terms, Bluehost is like the garage that houses my car (except it’s a blog in this case). They house my blog for me. Why use Bluehost? It’s reasonably priced and they have exceptional customer service. Seriously, if I have a technical blog question Bluehost either tells me how to fix it, or they do it for me. Is that awesome or what?
Okay enough bragging about my awesome hosting company!
Now, you see that big green button in the center of the homepage? Click on that green button to get started!
Step #2: Select Your Plan
Now, you need to select your hosting plan. The three plans are: basic, plus, and prime… but I would encourage you to just go with the basic plan. It’s seriously all you need, unless you have a very large website, or you want to have multiple websites.
The basic is more than enough for almost everyone’s needs, and it’s very reasonably priced!
After you’ve decided which plan you would like, click on the green “select” button on your chosen plan.
Step #3 Name Your Blog!
This is the fun part! Now you get to name your blog. Come up with something creative, catchy, and fitting for your website. Just make sure you really like the name, once it’s chosen it’s not easy to change!
You can purchase the name right on Bluehost in the left column. Just make sure you choose the .com option… it’s the most professional and easy for people to remember.
A “domain” is simply the name of your website. My domain is www.moreradiance.com. 🙂
Step #4: Choose Your Account Information
This part is rather boring, but here you get to choose how many months of hosting you want to buy (I usually buy one year at a time!). You can also choose what other “features” you want. You really don’t need any of them, but I would recommend getting the domain privacy protection. This will keep your domain information private.
Step #5: Pay for Your Blog
The next step is entering your payment information and paying for the blog hosting… woohoo shopping is fun! 😉
Make sure you agree to the Terms of Service! 🙂
Bluehost may ask you if you want to buy any upgrades… I would skip them!
After you’ve paid for you blog – Bluehost will ask you to create a password and log into WordPress. But that’s so easy-peasy I don’t think I need to show you how to do that!
Step #6: Pick a Theme and Start Building
Once you’ve created your account with Bluehost, you can choose a “theme” for your blog. Basically, a theme is the design/layout for your website! Choose the one that you like the best (you can always change it later).
After you choose your theme, all you need to do is click “start building” and WordPress will automatically download.
Step #7: Customize Your Site
Once WordPress is installed, you can customize your website! You can begin by writing a new post, add photos, design your site, or whatever you want to do next!
Once it’s customized you can “launch” your website so the world can see it! Woohoo!
If starting a blog makes you nervous, feel free to contact me, I would be more than happy to walk you through this process. Just ask!
If you’re all ready to then what are you waiting for? Click here to get started!
Have fun! 🙂
Disclaimer: Some of the links above are affiliate links – which means I will earn a small commission if you make a purchase.
I’m thinking about getting BlueHost for my website (it’s currently a free WordPress site); I assume that you can transfer a WordPress blog to a BlueHost hosted blog? The main reason I’m thinking about doing BlueHost is because free blogs through WordPress have ads that you can’t control, and I’m afraid something bad will come up on it. :/ I also think it would be nice to have some email addresses that are through the website, and the fact that it doesn’t have .wordpress at the end would also be a bonus. Are there any other reasons that you love BlueHost versus WordPress only?
Thank you for this post! If I end up switching to BlueHost, I’ll definitely reference this post. 🙂
In Christ,
Leona
Well, in order to have a self-hosted website, you need some kind of hosting. I used to have a free wordpress blog but it didn’t look as professional as I wanted and I didn’t like that .wordpress was tagged onto the end. A self hosted website has a lot more capabilities so that’s why I wanted to go with a hosting company. I had heard a lot of good things about BlueHost and they seemed more professional than Host Gator and other hosting companies. And they are reasonably priced 🙂 Does that answer your question?
Rebekah
Yes, it does. Thank you! 🙂
thank you very helpful post