How to Start a Blog in 5 Minutes
First step to start a blog, you’ll need your own domain name. (This is also called the “URL,” or web address.) You’ll also need “hosting” for your blog. Hosting is simply your blog’s home on the Internet.
Bluehost is widely regarded as one of the best hosts to use if you’re just starting out. It’s affordable and easy to use.
Plus, it only takes five steps to get your blog up and running – in five minutes.
Step 1 to Start a Blog: Register Your Domain
You first need to brainstorm what you want to call your blog. I ran through a bunch of possible names before I settled on “Afford Anything.”
Once you’ve thought of a name, head to Bluehost. Follow this link to view the plan best for you for affordable prices for hosting.
When you get to this page, you’ll be prompted to select your plan:
If you’re just starting out, the basic plan should be good enough. Hit the green “select” button and you’ll be taken to the sign up page.
Assuming you’re just getting started, you probably don’t have a URL yet. If that’s the case, enter the URL you want in the “new domain” box.
Step 2 to Start a Blog: Set up Your Hosting Account
On this next page, you’ll fill out your account and personal information:
After this, you’ll get to the “package information” section. The longer your hosting plan, the cheaper the package. Select whichever option you’re most comfortable with.
You’ll get a full refund if you cancel within 30 days.
Next up, it’s time to pay. (Hey, at least blogging has low overhead, right?) Enter your credit card information here. Check off that you agree to the terms of service, and click “submit.” You’ll get a congratulations, plus offers for various upsells.
Once again, feel free to ignore the extra services offered here. You don’t need these to start your blog!
Scroll to the bottom and click “No thanks.”
All right, now you’re registered, but you need a password. Click “create your password.” Go crazy with this (and make sure you remember it) to prevent people from hacking your account. If you can’t come up with something, you can take the easy way out and click “suggest password.”
Step 3: Install WordPress
Give yourself permission to feel a little giddy right now. You’re about to become a blogger! This is what you’ve always wanted, right? #lifegoals
Bluehost makes it extremely easy to start blogging as WordPress comes pre-installed with your site. Awesome, right? There’s literally nothing else for you to do here, so let’s move on.
Step 4: Set up WordPress
Okay, so WordPress is installed. It’s time to get a beautiful “theme” (that’s blogging-speak for ‘design’) for your blog.
A theme allows it to look nice and shiny. You may be okay with the default WordPress theme, but in order for your blog to stand out, you should personalize it a little.
The good news is that there are numerous themes available for free to get you started, and Bluehost gives you a preview of some of the popular ones.
Once you’ve selected a theme, you’ll see this message pop up: “All Done!”
Click on “start building” to set up your blog. Alternatively, you can check out your Bluehost account from here, but you can also do that later. Let’s get to the fun part – you’re almost done!
Step 5: Set up the Blog
It’s time to put the finishing touches on your blog. Overall, you should be on the dashboard page now.
Finally, this is what’s known as the “back end” of your blog/WordPress. This is where you’ll make all the behind-the-scenes magic happen.
Click on either “business” or “personal” – whichever one applies to you.
After that, you should see this menu of options. Bluehost is nice and lets you know that your site is currently displaying a “coming soon” page, so you can keep working on it in secret until it’s ready.
All in all, once you’ve written and published a few posts and are happy with how it looks, you can click the “launch” button.
Lastly, you can always change your site title and description later, so don’t sweat it if you can’t come up with something amazingly witty right away!
With that, you’re all ready to give blogging a try! Good luck!