STEP 1: CHOOSE THE RIGHT BLOGGING PLATFORM (WORDPRESS)
The question, “How do you start a blog?” has many alternative answers. You can do it on blogging platforms like:
- Blogger: e.g. yourfashionguy.blogspot.com
- Hosted WordPress: e.g. yourfashionguy.wordpress.com
- Self-Hosted WordPress: e.g. yourfashionguy.com
The first two options are free. But they can also be clumsy and ugly, don’t you think?
WordPress is by far the most popular and fastest growing blogging platform. According to a recent web technology survey, millions of people use it, including me. That’s because WordPress makes it easy to create your blog.
WordPress is amazing because it’s….
Free to use including themes and plugins, which we’ll get to shortly.
Easy to use, even for a beginner, and you do not have to have previous technical knowledge to use their dashboard. Ever used Microsoft Word or Google Docs? That’s how easy WordPress is to use.
Secure and safe as they are constantly updating their software to help you stay safe and free of hackers.
Very customizable with literally thousands of themes and plugins that are super simple to integrate and allow you to do just about anything you want.
Now that we’ve established WordPress as our blogging platform let’s go a litter deeper.
WordPress.com vs WordPress.org (Self-Hosted)
There are two types of WordPress blogs. Don’t pick the wrong one! Here’s the difference between WordPress.com and WordPress.org.
If your interest is to start a WordPress blog to make money, advance your career, or gain followers a self-hosted WordPress.org blog is more professional. It’s called self-hosted because you own the blog and the domain name.
WordPress.com offers users free hosting services and a free domain name (that ends in . It’s easy for beginners as well. So what’s the catch? You do not own the blog.
With WordPress.com you will experience limited control. WordPress.com chooses the ads they will place on your site so that they can make their revenue on your free blog site. So you will not be able to add any ads or easily make money from your blog with that version. If you are a non-profit the ads will be annoying for your audience.
You are limited to the amount of storage you can utilize and if you want to have a better domain for your WordPress blog, then you will have to pay for the upgraded service to receive these better features.
You are also limited with the design. While you have the option of customization, you will still have to adhere to the free list of themes that the WordPress provides for you. However, you can purchase a theme upgrade for approximately $30 per year.
The other disadvantages you can expect from using a free blogging platform are outlined below in more detail:
The free blogging platforms aren’t really free.
Free blogging platforms (like Tumblr, Medium, Blogger, or WordPress.com) come with TONS of annoying limitations that just enslave you. So, now we’ve established a self hosted WordPress blog as the right choice.
Since you’ll be using a self-hosted WordPress blog, you will have to find a hosting company. There are several hosting companies available in this industry including HostGator and BlueHost just to name a couple. Initially, you will sign up to receive their hosting services, and then you can install WordPress on their servers with 1 click.
How much does a self-hosted blog cost?
Turns out, not much.
What you will pay to set up your blog is less than a movie ticket.
But first, you’ll need a blog domain name – usually sold for $15 but I’ll tell you how to grab it for FREE.
Second, you’ll need a hosting account.
Source : https://howtostartablogonline.net/
