Once you’ve decided on what you should blog about and chosen a blog name, the actual steps to start a blog are really pretty simple. You can literally have your blog up and running in less than a hour. Blog’s are a great addition to your business, Facebook page, hobby, or online business. Here’s a complete walkthrough on how to start a blog:
Please note, this article does contain affiliate links. Affiliate links provide me with a commission on any product or services purchases you make BUT at not extra cost to you. Remember – I only recommend products I personally use myself.
Select a Hosting Product to start a blog
>>> Click here to get started <<<
The link above will take you to Traffic Planet Hosting, which is a great hosting company where I personally run all of my own blogs and websites. Hosting is a service that allows you to rent a special computer, attached to the internet that will run your blog or website.
The first thing you’ll want to do, after clicking the Get Started link above, is click on the green “Chat Now” button in the bottom corner of the Traffic Planet Hosting page. Start a chat with one of their sales folks. Tell them that you heard about Traffic Planet Hosting from Larry at Side Income Blogging, and that you would like a discount code. They’ll give you a special code that you can use when you sign up. This code will give you 20% off your first month!
Tip – when you sign-up, if you go with an annual subscription you’ll get 2 months of hosting free AND a free domain name as well.
To start signing up for a hosting plan, click the SSD Plans & Pricing menu, then click the WordPress Hosting menu option in the drop down below it.
This will take you to the main page where you can choose of the three available plan options. You’ll see the screen below:
If you are just starting out, and will have only one blog for now, you’ll want to use the base “Business” plan – This will be the option for the majority of you. If you have other websites, consider the larger plans. One great thing about Traffic Planet hosting, is they will migrate your sites from another host at no additional cost! I personally have the Elite plan, as I host 17 different sites on my server. I’ve literally had zero down time in four months.
Press the orange Get Started under the plan you wish to sign-up for to begin the actually sign-up process.
Step 1 – Choose a domain name for your blog
After pressing the orange Get Started, you’ll see the Step 1 – Domains screen:
From this screen, you can specify to use a New Domain, Do a domain transfer if you already have a existing domain name reserved, or do a Domain update if you have a domain name reserved with someone, and want to keep it where it’s at.
I will assume the majority of you want to specify a new domain name. To do so, selected New Domain (selected by default), and then in the text area below that, specify the domain name you want to use. Then select the extensions you are interested in, like .com or .net.
Here are a few tips on selecting your blog domain name:
- Make it as close to your blog name as possible.
- Choose .com if at all possible, but if not, use .net. Try to avoid other extensions if possible.
- Your blog name might be taken, if so, select another name for your blog OR add a postfix to your domain like: blog, site, tips, etc.
- Do not use hyphens, string the words together. Example: Side Income Blogging is sideincomeblogging.com
- Keep it as short as possible and easy to remember. Avoid using abbreviations.
- You can find more tips and a great deal more detail on selecting a blog name and domain name here.
Once you have a candidate domain name, enter it and press the blue Continue button. A section will appear below where you typed your domain indicating if that name is available, or if it is not available (note, depending on your screen, you might have to scroll down after pressing Continue to see this):
It may take you a few tries to find a domain name that is available. But keep at it! Once it says “Available! Order Now.”, you’ll know you found an available domain name.
If you contacted Live Support, and received a discount code, to the right of this screen, where the cost summary is, is a blue button that says “Use Promotional Code”. Press this button, and enter your promotional code to receive 20% off your first month!
You can now press the orange Order Now! button to continue the set-up process and configure your new domain!
Step 2 – Configure Your Domain
Step 2 is the domain configuration screen:
You can just accept all the defaults here, and press the orange Continue button to proceed to Step 3.
Step 3 – Product Configuration
Step 3 is the product configuration screen.
The main option is the billing cycle. This is the screen where you can specify whether you want to pay monthly or annually. The default is monthly, but don’t forget that if you elect to pay annually, you get 2 months free AND a free domain name.
Make the appropriate selection and press the orange Continue button.
Step 4 – Checkout
Step 4 will summarize your order at the top, and then down below, ask you for your payment and contact information.
Payment can be made either using Paypal or a credit card. The account information and payment screen is very straight forward, just provide the requested information along with your payment option and associated information. Press the orange Checkout button, and assuming your payment option works, you’ll see a confirmation page, confirming that your order was placed.
Step 5 – Hosting Set-up
What happens next? Literally, while you wait for your payment to be processed, TPH will set-up your hosting account. Within a minute, you should receive a message stating your account was set-up, and it will place you on your Dashboard login.
Once the set up is complete, you can proceed to step 6. If you have any problems, visit their website, and contact their live support. They are fast, friendly, and very helpful.
Step 6 – Install WordPress
If you’re here, I’m assuming you received a successful set-up message and you were able to login to your account. After logging in, you should be at the screen below:
Now, we’re now going to set-up WordPress on the website. Don’t worry, Traffic Planet Hosting makes it really easy…
Click on the Manage button where it says “WORDPRESS HOSTING”. A small pop-up will display, click on Service Management. You also do the same thing from the main menu, by choosing My Services, then WordPress Hosting from the drop down. Either of these options take you to the WordPress Hosting screen, which summaries your WordPress hosting accounts. Like myself (these are all screen shots from my account), you should have one account listed:
Click on the blue “Manage all sites in this account” button. This will take you to your Service Details page. Here’s mine:
Click on the Websites/SSL link on the left, to get this screen, or at least one that looks similar. Remember, I have 17 sites, so my screen is a little different.
Next to your new website name, you’ll see the white “Install WP” button. Click that, and you’ll receive the following small pop-up:
Click the blue Install WordPress link in the pop-up. The pop-up will change to look like this:
Use the default setting for the database name, and specify the email address for your admin user in the Admin e-mail field. I generally use my primary email address for this.
Once your Admin e-mail address is entered, press the blue Install button. After a few seconds, you should see the following, indicating WordPress was successfully installed (yes, it really is that easy):
Click the X to close the message, then the Close button to close the pop-up.
Accessing your new WordPress Blog/Website
Your login address (or URL) will be your blog’s normal URL, but with /wp-admin added onto the end. For example, if your blog’s address is: http://mycooldomain.com your administrative interface is: http://mycooldomain.com/wp-admin.
When you first visit your new site, you’ll still have couple of final set-up items to complete. The first allows you to select your language of choice:
The next screen will prompt you for some final WordPress set-up items:
Site Title – This is the name of your site. For example, for me it’s – “Side Income Blogging”
Username – This will be the username for your admin account. DO NOT use admin or Admin or Administrator. Use something private and unique that is not easily guessed.
Password – I would suggest using the default strong password.
Your Email – The e-mail ID that wordpress will use for administrator notifications.
Search Engine Visibility – I would leave it unselected.
Once these fields are completed, click the Install WordPress button, and you should get the following dialog:
Congratulations!!! You just set-up hosting and your new blog. Pat yourself on the back, and make a cup of coffee, you deserve it!
Next Steps
This completes the basic steps for how to start a blog, but there’s still more to do to fully optimize your site and get your blog really going:
- How to set-up WordPress Part 1 and Part 2
- If you don’t like the look of your new blog, visit How to install a WordPress theme to find themes to make your blog look different. My goto theme is the Genesis Theme and it’s tons of available child themes.
- Visit the How to Start a blog page for additional important how to articles for your new blog.
This article contains affiliate links. Affiliate links are links that take you to a product or service, and if you purchase that product or service, I receive a commission. There is no additional cost to you AND I only recommend products that I personally use and have bought myself.