Who said starting your own blog had to be hard?
It really isn’t!
In fact, it took me less than 5 minutes to set up my blog site and publish my first post. No, you don’t need to code or have a computer degree. The only thing you need is your willingness to try.
What I have here is a simple guide that tells you the exact steps I’ve taken to make my first blog. I promise you, it’s extremely easy. You’ll be starting your own blog in no time.
Before we jump the gun though, it’s important to understand your goal for blogging. Ask yourself,
Why am I blogging?
Are you blogging to make money? Share your personal life stories? Teach people in your expertise? Be the next viral hit of the year? Whatever reason you have, be sure you know your goal and stick with that.
Time is money, and you don’t want to waste either one. A clear goal will keep your eyes on the target and your feet on the right path; it’ll get you exactly to where you want to be.
What do I want to write about?
If you know what you want to write about, skip over to the next section. But do know it’s important to write what you’re passionate about, what you love, and what you care about. Because when you do, you’ll be more enthusiastic about writing, and readers enjoy blogs writers take joy in.
Not sure what to write? You can start with one of these top-picked blog topics.
Got one! Now what?
The next step is finding where to set up your blog. You’ll come across dozens of choices but my first, and most definitely last, choice is WordPress.
Why WordPress?
Most popular: Most bloggers would pick WordPress without hesitating. Take a look at Builtwith’s data. No other blogging site can compare with WordPress, so don’t make the wrong choice. Why choose AOL search if everyone uses Google?
Thousands of themes: No matter who you are — a photographer, a fashion designer, a business owner — WordPress has a theme tailored for everyone. They offer both premium grade and free themes. Whichever one you choose, it’s guaranteed to look stylish and well-designed.
Completely free! Whoever said, “there’s no such thing as a free lunch” didn’t think about WordPress. This is great if you’re a struggling college student or a first-time blogger looking to test the waters for blogging, so take this opportunity while you got the chance.
Extremely easy to use: If you can use Microsoft Word, then you can easily learn the ropes with WordPress. It’s all the basics that you’d be working with: blog post pages, themes, and customizations. Again, no computer degree required if you’re starting your own blog with WordPress.
Tons of customizations: With a click of a button, you can turn your blog into an incredible masterpiece. Change titles, select different themes, color in the background, add menu tabs. That’s only 20% of what you can try out.
Shareable through social media: Share your blog with the world through Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Linkedin, Tumblr, and Path. Inspire fans, build followers. Who knows, one day you might go viral.
Now that you know how awesome WordPress is, are you ready for starting your own blog? If you are, I give you…
My 4 Minute & 26 Seconds WordPress Blog Guide:
- Go to WordPress.com and click “Create Website.”
- Type in the name of your website under site address (mine was lovelemonpies.wordpress.com). Hit “Create Your Site and Continue.”
- Fill out your email, username, and password.
Note: You’re only allowed to have one WordPress account per email. If you want to make multiple WordPress blog sites, you’ll have to sign up for new email addresses.
- It’ll give you the option to look for a custom address, which costs a small fee. The price varies per name.
(It’s $ 18 if I want lovelemonpies.com. Do know that WordPress isn’t the only site that offers custom domain names. There are many other places to choose from, which you can check in “how to get a custom domain.”) But for the sake of simplicity, skip this step by clicking “No Thanks.”
- Plan type: “Select Free.”
For now. You can always upgrade it anytime you like.
Congratulations, you created your first blog!
Now for the fun part — writing! Simply click “start a post” and type away. Then, publish! See? Didn’t I say starting your own blog was going to be pretty easy? Just be sure you verify your email address. That way, your posts can be seen by the public.
Feel free to play around with the look of your blog. Post your pictures, fill out your profile, switch the themes. Be warned, it can get pretty addicting.
Once you get the hang of it, start thinking about optimizing your blog design. I’ll be posting up an article about the best blog designs soon, so I can give you some inspirations to look at. Otherwise, if you have any questions about starting your own blog, ask me.
Happy blogging!
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