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Starting a blog should not be a problem. In fact, the number of people starting blogs is increasing every day. It seems that almost every person or business has a blog these days.
But if you’re like other people, you may not know where to begin or get started. Starting a blog can be daunting if you don’t have all the necessary skills.
Sign up on Hostgator starting at $2.75/ month
The great news is that the free step-by-step guide in this post eliminates any confusion from the process, and only requires just basic computer skills. So if you’re 10 or 90, you can learn how to start a successful blog in less than 30 minutes.
How To Start A Blog With Hostgator
3 Things To Become A Successful Blogger
- Setting up your blog properly
You are going to learn exactly how to create a WordPress blog, which can be done from any computer, tablet etc. WordPress is the major popular blog platform presently. In this step-by-step blogging tutorial, I am going to show you PRECISELY how to create a successful blog and configure WordPress so that you get the best out of it.
- Having a passion for your topic
What is a blog? Blogging is a way of sharing your knowledge with the world. Choosing a topic you are passionate about makes the process of creating a successful blog so much faster and easier. So what is your passion?
- Learning from others
I am not feeling shame to admit that when I first started learning how to create a blog I made a lot of mistakes. You can benefit from more than 7 years of my outstanding experience so that you will avoid such mistakes.
Why Do You Need To Start A Blog?
- Make income
Blogging can be very profitable if done properly. Most of the top bloggers in the world obviously earn an amount of money, but even a part-time blogger can expect to make a good profit if things are set up correctly.
- Recognition
Most of the top bloggers today are known through their blogging experience if no one will even hear about them. They write quality blog post that helps newbies and others to achieve their goals and got shared by thousands of people.
A successful blog can gain you a LOT of recognition in your respective field. Many bloggers are known as professionals or experts just because of their blogs, who knows, you may be the next one.
- It’s Fun!
Blogging is fun and is a great way to expose your ideas to those who need them and share what you love to do with them. There is nothing like helping-minded people who need certain information to achieve a simple task.
Getting Started – Create a WordPress blog
WordPress is very secure and always updating its software so there’s hardly a worry of having your blog attacked by a hacker. No wonder why companies like Sony, NASA and even most university blogs are using WordPress platforms to build their website.
It’s HIGHLY customizable. There are thousands of WordPress free themes and plugins that add more functionality to your website without spending any money.
While the other blogging platforms are generally all pretty great, nothing in my own view has ever come close to the freedom and customization options that WordPress offers bloggers. So without a doubt, go with WordPress.
Why Avoiding Free Blogs?
As a blogger, you have many options for setting up a blog for free on different websites. This sounds great, but there are some huge disadvantages to using a free blog site:
Problem #1: Free
They won’t get enough blog space Instead; they make money off of the time and hard work you invest in writing your blog by selling your ad space.
You have no absolute control over what is being advertised on your blog and you will not get a penny of the money they get from selling this ad space.
Problem #2: No total control
Free blog sites don’t give you FULL access to the range of features that you need to become a successful blogger. In the step-by-step tutorial on how to make a successful blog, I show you some tips and tricks you can use to completely optimize your blog. Unfortunately, most of these things can’t be done on a free blog site.
Problem #3: Poor security
The truth of the internet is that at times sites get hacked. If this happens to you when using a free blog provider, the hacker can steal your domain name, which means that you will lose your complete site and may find it difficult to get it back.
Blogging for beginners
Start a Blog With Hostgator
So, I strongly recommend that you stay far away from free blogging sites. It is just not worth the risk and hardworking, no matter what type of blog you are creating.
The great news is that buying your own domain can prevent all of these issues and it is inexpensive. In fact, the cost is even cheaper than a “free” blog because there are no hidden fees.
In the step-by-step tutorial on this blog, I will show you my method which costs less than $4 per month to host your blog.
Start With A Self-Hosted Blog
To create a successful blog, you need to start with a self-hosted blog on your own domain from day one. Setting up a blog with self-hosted is easier way and less expensive than you think.
Blogging For Beginners Step 1:Choose a domain name
The whole process of getting your blog set up and ready should only take you about 20 -25 minutes.
Before you can start blogging you need two things:
- Pick a domain name.
- Web hosting
Step 1: Choose A Domain Name
This is a very important aspect, you need a good domain name for your blog for people to find your website online.
Finding a domain name and Web hosting provider
Domain name – This will be your blog address where people locate you over and over again. For example, my Domain is www.entrepreneursclass.com.Your new blog domain name may be www.Yourname.com.
You will need to choose a name that is unique and very descriptive, so your readers will immediately know what your blog is all about. Alternatively, you can use your own name. For example, www.Johncow.com. You can also add your middle name if your name is taken.
My preferred Domain Register
Several top bloggers use their own name as their domain name. This has the additional benefit of avoiding someone else from registering your name.
Once you have a good domain name, you will need to select a domain extension. The best extension is .com, but .net and .org work very nicely as well. I would advise you to stay away from other extensions such as .us .info or .biz, as they are not as familiar to some people.
If you find out that your desired domain name is already registered you can try adding simple words like “the”, “best”, or “the best” to the beginning of the name, or you can try including dashes between words such as the-best.com.
Click here to read more on how to choose a good domain.
The cost of a domain name is just $10/year even less. There are many domains registers online where you can register your domain but I will show you where to register your domain in less than one minute
Choose Web Hosting
A web host is a company that hosts all of the log files and delivers them to the user when they type in your blog name. Standard web hosting is a must in order to have a blog.
Registering with a bad host will doom your blog from the start. Visitors will be frustrated with slow page loading times and you may often find that your blog is simply not working at all which may be annoying your visitors not to visit your site again.
There are hundreds of different web hosts you can choose from, but my recommendation for your blog is Hostgator. In fact, Hostgator is the web host I use for all my blogs including Entrepreneursclass.com before I moved to Siteground.
This is for a few reasons:
- Hostgator offers a free, simple installation of all the popular blogging tools, including WordPress
- Hostgator have been recommended by WordPress some years back and currently host over 2 million websites.
- They offer effective 24/7 customer service via email, phone, or web chat.
- They offer a money-back guarantee in case you are not satisfied for any reason.
- Because Hostgator is a top-quality web hosting and it cost a bit more ($4.99 per month) than those low-quality hosts.
Click here to sign up with Hostgator and save 60%
If you have any trouble setting up your blog with my tutorial, just contact me and I will do it for you without paying a dime. Hostgator rewards me when you purchase through my link, so my services are free of charge!
Step 2: WordPress Setup
What To Learn:
- How to sign up for Hostgator Account
- How to add a new domain to Hostgator
- How to install WordPress on Hostgator
Installing WordPress on Hostgator only takes two minutes, to get started, you need to sign up on Hostgator to get login details.
1. Click here to sign up on Hostgator to get 60% off
When the new page opens, Click on get started as seen in the image below.
- Select your plan. The Hostgator Hatchling plan is the one I recommend for a new blogger. Click “Sign Up Now” to choose your plan.
NOTE: If you only want to install more than ONE domain, then click on the second package which is $5.95/month. You will get FREE SSL Certificate with this plan.
Step 3-Type in your domain name in the left box and then click “next” to see if it is available.
If you have a domain name already and want to use it for your new blog, type your existing domain in the right box where you have ‘’I Already Own This Domain” and then click “next”.
But if you just want to register a new domain, then click on ‘’Register a New Domain’’ Only use the right box if you have a domain registered.
Make sure you have registered your domain before with Namecheap.com
Once you have added your domain name to HostGator, then the next step is to choose your hosting plan under Billing Cycle.
Step 4. You need to choose your HostGator hosting package and options
There are many options but I preferred one is 36 months plus 40.20 % off but 12 months plus 25% off or 24 months plus 36.53% are also good choices.
NOTE: You can also choose to be paying every month if you can not avoid 12 or 24 months.
Type your username and enter the four-digit number in the column
Step 5: Enter Your Billing Information.
Step 6: I unchecked all the boxes when I sign-up.You can check Secure and Accelerate your site to protect fraud etc. Also, you can add them later if you need them but now make sure you unchecked them.
Step 7: Check I have read and agree to the terms of service, then click CHECK OUT NOW!
NOTE: The amount you will pay depends on the PLAN you choose.
Step 8: Once your account is set up (usually just a few minutes), you will be sent the login details into the email account you provided when you are signing up. The information will contain your billing login details, control panel login details and nameservers.
The details will look like these:
You can log in to our billing system at http://gbclient.hostgator.com/login, using the email address we sent this email to, and the password i0YPi0bRV
- Shared Plan: Baby
- Your Control Panel: https://gator2041.hostgator.com:4089
- Username: blogtreqa1
- Domain: theblogging.net
- Password: vuevv2313
- 1st Nameserver: nbe65041.hostgator.com2nd Nameserver: nbe5044.hostgator.make sure you check your email and all the information will be there.
If you register your domain with any domain registrar such as NAMECHEAP, you need to point it to the Hostgator server before you can install the blog.
Step 9: Pont Your Domain Into Hostgator Server.
Go to namecheap.com, on the dashboard, and click on Manage in front of the domain you want to configure.
Then locate the NAMESERVERS at the left-hand side and select CUSTOM DNS.
Copy the Hostgator name server and paste it in the space as shown above. There are TWO nameservers, the first one on the first line and the second on the second line and click save.
Step 10: Log in to your control panel through the link provided by HostGator with username and password.
Example:
Link: https://gator2041.hostgator.com:4089, then enter your username and password.
Step 11: Now that you have logged in to your control panel account, we can easily install WordPress. First, make sure you close any pop-up windows if there are any. Then look around at the top of the control panel and locate “Get Started with WordPress Today”.
You will now be logged in to Mojo Marketplace automatically and directed to the WordPress install page. Click on the “Install WordPress” button to get started.
Select your domain from the drop-down menu and fill the space”.
- Admin email: Your email address
- Blog Title: The title of your blog
- Admin user: Your username
- Name: Your first and surname
NOTE: Leave the space in front of your domain that says install/path/here empty.
After filling in all the spaces, then click on Install WordPress.
Once you click on install WordPress, it may take up to 3 minutes to install. After the installation is complete, you will see the message that your installation is complete.
On the left side click view credentials to get the login information to the dashboard of your blog. This will also be sent to the email you provided during the installation.
Check your email and locate quick-install, you will see all the login information there.
Sign in to your new blog and check it. To log in, click the admin URL like this www.myblog.com/wp-admin. (where “my blog” is your domain name) then insert your username and password.
Congratulation you have successfully completed Hostgator WordPress Setup and your blog is live.
Having trouble installing your blog? Get help here
This is how to start a blog on Hostgator. As you can see, it is very simple, with no stress.
Step 3: Customise Your Blog
Now, that your blog is live, it is time to customize it to make it look attractive. I have put together a step-by-step guide to customize your blog.
Related Post
- How to start a blog in 2023
- Best web hosting for small business
- How Do Bloggers Make Money
- How to Start a Review Blog And Make Money
Oyundoyin Anthony
Oyundoyin Anthony is a blogger and an affiliate marketer that offers helpful contents to people who are looking for different products for their needs. He enjoys helping people to achieve success in their business.
Uh hi ya! Umm I kinda need a little help with the last part. See I installed WordPress.. went to the email to see link sent.. clicked on the link to my website but it says error. Refused to connect and didn’t send data..? Why I wonder
Was it the link to sign in to the dashboard? Can I see the link?
It was both urls to my site and admin login. I had to connect my nameservers(on HostGator) to my domain (on namecheap). Problems solved and now my site is live!
Congrats Kiara.