How To Create Your Blog

How To Create Your Blog

In this part you?ll start a blog on WordPress.

It?s simple ? if you want to be a successful blogger you need to run your blog on a successful platform.

Let me give you an analogy ? if you wanted to open a successful restaurant, would you use ingredients you could find for free? Of course not because who knows what you kind of ingredients you would be getting at no cost. You would start with the best ingredients you could afford.

Lucky for you ? it doesn?t cost much to get started blogging (in other words, it?s the cheapest business you?ll ever start). You can get a good quality restaurant up and be running without breaking the bank. Plus if you decide you don?t want to be a chef, you get a 100% money back guarantee. Not bad!

Where to get started

WordPress is the #1 blogging software in the world. If you want to start a WordPress blog for cheap, going with Bluehost to run your blog is the answer.

I?ve used Bluehost to start three companies (including this website). In fact, the first time I used them was in 2005.

You can start your blog with Bluehost for as low as $2.95 a month (a discounted rate I personally negotiated and that is available only through my link on. Plus they give you a free domain name if you go with the 12-month hosting plan (that?s a $15 value).

The best investment you can make is signing up for the 12-month hosting plan through Bluehost. You save money by signing up for at least 12 months.

If you change your mind later, you can get a refund at any time. In six months if you decide to get a refund (you won?t because you?ll enjoy blogging so much), you can get a partial refund for your unused time.

Why pay for hosting?

You can find free blogging services like Blogger where you could start a blog. I already mentioned how that would be like using free ingredients to cook with and start a restaurant.

Here?s what?s important ? if you ever want to:

?              make money off your blog

?              make money off your freelancing

?              build a successful business

?              have a professional looking website that attracts visitors and customers

you have to pay for hosting.

The reason is simple ? customization and flexibility. Free blogging services like Blogger don?t allow you to add all of the features available with paid hosting. Such as:

?              shopping carts

?              advertising

?              speed enhancements to improve the user experience

?              free add-ons to make your site look better

?              access to thousands of free WordPress plugins (custom functions and features so that each blogger can tailor their site to their specific needs)

I?ve been building online businesses and e-commerce websites since 2000. I would never in my life start a new website with a ?free? blogging or ?free? website platform. If you do, within months your website is going to start growing, and you?re going to have to switch to a paid platform anyway. You will have thrown away all that time (and lost money in the process).

I?ll give you another analogy. With free hosting, it?s like renting an apartment that has steel walls. You can?t use a hammer and nails to hang pictures, install shelves, put up wallpaper or hang a TV mount.

With paid hosting, your apartment is like a modular office space you can customize however you want. You can move the walls around, put nails in to hang pictures everywhere you want, install shelves, mount five TVs around the place, etc. Heck, you can even cut a hole in the wall and stick in a new window if you want.

You need to be able to customize your site if you want to make money.

For example, if you want to make money from advertising, advertisers prefer professional looking websites. A professional looking website is much harder to get with the free blogging services, which is just one more reason to go with a hosting platform like Bluehost.

Why Use Bluehost?

Here is why I trust and recommend Bluehost to new bloggers:

?              Amazing 24�7 support via phone, e-mail, or chat. If you have questions on getting started or setup, you can get help quickly and easily

?              It?s easy to get started. My 15-minute tutorial walks you through step-by-step how to get started blogging. It really is that easy to start a WordPress blog.

?              FREE blog domain ? Bluehost will give you a domain name for free such as www.MyAwesomeBlog.com

?              100% Money Back Guarantee ? Bluehost has a 30-day money back guarantee

?              FREE WordPress setup. WordPress is the blogging software used by the majority of bloggers. Bluehost includes an easy setup for adding WordPress.

?              Reliability ? Bluehost websites are up 99.9% of the time. Reliability is important because if your blog is down, you don?t make any money! I lost over $5,000 in one day before when GoDaddy was hacked and my website was unavailable.

?              Self-hosting. If your goal is to make money from your blog you have to have a self-hosted blog. Self-hosting just means you are paying to host the blog yourself using a service, as opposed to using a free service that hosts it for you.

?              You?ll look professional ? Free blogs like Blogger, Tumblr, or WordPress.com limit you in various ways and appear less professional than self-hosted blogs.

?              It?s cheap! Price matters. And when you have quality and price, it?s a win-win for you. Bluehost starts at just $2.95 per month (a discounted rate available through my link) which is less than a cup of coffee!

When you are ready to get started. There are a lot of blog hosting companies you might come across. As someone who has been in the online business since 2000 and has started three successful companies using Bluehost, invest in yourself and check them out.

Naming your blog

What if you can?t think of a name for your blog?

One challenge of getting started blogging has nothing to do with writing or setting up the blog. It?s figuring out what to name your blog!

You might think all the good names are taken! It just takes time to find the right one for you.

Even if you can?t think of one yet, you can get your blog setup and finish up the name later. I?ve worked on a lot of websites where we had an idea (our adoption website) and started developing it, only to settle on a name weeks later (NRFA.org).

If you?re stuck on picking a name check out the book

Action Items

1.            Sign up for a blog host (Bluehost is the one I recommend) and get WordPress installed. You can follow my step-by-step instructions.

2.            Start thinking about a name for your blog