Even years before the term “blog” spread through the Internet, people were writing personal stories in different online formats. Back in the ’90s, individuals had been writing online journals and diaries where they were able to express feelings and share information. Since then, those diaries evolved into the whole blogging industry, and blogs quickly became a trend that everybody wanted to follow.
It’s time for you to learn how to start a WordPress blog of your own.
Today, blogs have become more than just a way of expressing yourself. They have become a way of life. Some people will occasionally write personal stories, while large enterprises will invest thousands of dollars into their blogs. Blogging has developed into a career and dream job for many individuals who can now work from any location in the world.
Getting started with WordPress
Now, whether you imagined your blog as a hobby or a potential money-making machine, first you need to make it. We will skip the motivational speeches and assume that you already set your mind on creating a WordPress blog. Oh well, you can even build a blog from the comfort of your couch if you have a laptop.
We want you to understand that there are various blogging platforms you can choose to set up your blog. But in this article, we are going to focus on the most popular blog site – WordPress.
So, how do you start a WordPress blog?
Before getting into details on how to set up a blog, it is important that you understand the differences between WordPress.org and WordPress.com.
For starters, WordPress.org is an open-source CMS and thus available for anyone to download and use for free. Many developers, designers, and coders who loved the platform got involved and built a large community around it.
WordPress.com is a commercial project (service) that uses the WordPress.org system to power itself up.
Setting up a WordPress blog
Even if you’re just starting out, we strongly recommend going with the self-hosted version. Yes, there will be a higher learning curve and probably more work from your side, but having your own site that you get to control is priceless, and it definitely pays out to invest extra time into the management. You will be able to install any themes, plugins, and services that you wish, run ads, and monetize the blog the way you want. There are practically no limitations to a self-hosted WordPress blog.
Before you can install WordPress, you will need web hosting which can store all the files, manage your domain, and take care of your site.
For the purposes of this tutorial, we have chosen Bluehost which is a fantastic and popular hosting company that lets you start a WordPress blog for as little as $2.75 per month! With Bluehost, even the lowest-priced option gives you a Free domain, an SSL certificate that will make your site more secure, an option to install WordPress through a few clicks, and 24/7 support.