So you’re ready to start a blog!  Congratulations!  You have made it farther than alot of people, because most of the time, people let their fear prevent them from ever getting started.

Don’t be nervous.  Here I have a step-by-step tutorial on how to start a blog in 2024 (THE RIGHT WAY!), and I’ve included screenshots to guide you along the way.  Let’s get started.

Disclaimer: This post may contain affiliate links, which means I may receive a commission, at no extra cost to you, if you make a purchase through a link. Please see my full disclosure page for more information.

Think about why you even want to start a blog in the first place.

Do you want to share your ideas and knowledge with others? Do you want to create an online business? Do you want to build up your existing brand? Do you want to make an income from your blog so that you can work from home and spend more time with your family?

Whatever your goals are for your blog, you need to get clear on them before we even start it, so that we know what goals to work towards. 

What is your passion? What is your area of expertise in? You need to have enough knowledge about the topic to be able to create consistent, valuable content, and enough passion to keep you going when you want to give up.

Blogging is hard work and can sometimes be discouraging. You have to be able to work past the feeling that you want to give up. So what are you passionate about?

However, the most profitable blog niches include:

• • • • • Food and recipes

        • Digital Marketing

        • Health and Fitness

        • Personal Finance

        • Blogging/Making Money Online

        • Personal Development/Self-Care

Well, I’m an ICU nurse by trade, and helping people fulfills me in a way that nothing else can. Apply that principle to the blogging world, and I love helping blogging beginners start their own, successful businesses.

I knew nothing when I started my first blog and spent years trying to figure it all out. I want to help you skip all that and get to the good part- your successful blog.

Key Takeaway: You have to figure out what makes you stand out in your niche.

Are you filling in the gaps that exist in this niche, or are you simply echoing what others have said?

Think about it like this: Why would anyone read this blog? You have to figure out what your “it” factor is and play that up. What makes you unique?

After you decide on your niche and audience, think of a related blog name.

If you could convey what your blog was about in a name, what would it be?

If someone only read your blog name, what would they think it was about? This helps your target audience to find you more easily and helps you to stand out in your niche.

It can also make you rank higher with Google if your blog name contains keywords. However, a descriptive blog name makes it hard for you to change it later if you decide to change your niche.  Here are some tips to keep in mind:

• • • • Make your blog name memorable and unique.
      • Don’t make it too long
      • Make sure it is easy to spell.

Technically yes, there are free options, such as wix.com and blogger.com, and they promote that they are easier to start a blog on.

Don’t fall into this trap!

If you want to monetize your blog and earn an income from it, these web hosts that offer free hosting restrict blog monetization on your website. Additionally, you can’t get a custom domain name (like theblogplanner.com).

The free blogs only offer a shared domain name (like theblogplanner.blogspot.com).This looks unprofessional to your customers, readers, and everybody.

There are fewer customization options with free hosting websites, and necessary add-ons (like Google Analytics) are not offered.

(Also, if you are wondering what the heck a domain name is, see step 05 for more information.

Related: Can you Make Money with a Blog?

Both platforms are by WordPress, however, WordPress.com also limits monetization. The free version of WordPress (the .com version) comes with ads on your website, whether you like them there or not.

And the domain name will be shared, like theblogplanner.wordpress.com. Unprofessional!

Key Takeaway: Self-hosted WordPress.org is what I recommend.  Self-hosted WordPress.org allows you to have a custom domain name, (like theblogplanner.com), offers advanced customization options, and does not limit you on ways you can earn an income from your website, as long as you follow their policies.

What is web hosting? If the domain name is the web address of your website, then web hosting is the home where your website lives. It stores all of your website’s files. You wouldn’t have a website without it!

BigScoots is the hosting provider that I use and I highly recommend it.  It has phenomenal 24/7/365 customer support.  Hosting plans start at just $6.95 a month (and hyou can actually pay monthly if you prefer, rather than annually!).

With BigScoots, all plans come with free SSL certificates, proactive monitoring and protection.

I have also tried Bluehost and have nothing but good things to say about this platform. Hosting plans start at just $2.95 a month (but I recommend the Choice Plus plan that they offer for only $5.45/month.  The Choice Plus plan is still affordable, but offers you more security, backups and storage). 

With Bluehost, all WordPress plans come with a free domain for one year, 24/7 customer support, a free SSL, custom WordPress themes and one year of professional email service. 

One of my favorite features of Bluehost is that it installs WordPress for you.

What is a domain name? A domain name is your website’s equivalent of a physical address. 

• • • • • memorability

        • effective branding: your domain name helps communicate your project or business in a way that aligns with your brand’s values and mission.

        • credibility: a domain name is more professional looking than those with a free domain name, like theblogplanner.wordpress.com custome-mail address: allows you to create a unique and professional email address like [email protected]

        • SEO (Search Engine Optimization): a domain name with relevant keywords can rank higher with search engines.

Of note: My blog name is “The Blog Planner” and my domain name is theblogplanner.com.  I wanted to mention that mine happens to be the same, so maybe it is less confusing to you.  Your blog name and domain name don’t necessarily have to be the same, but I think I recommend them be the same so your audience can find you more easily.

1. Go to Bluehost.com. Click on the button at the top of website that says “Get Started“.

3. Under the “Create a new domain” option, enter in the domain name that you decided on earlier.

4. You will be directed to a screen to enter in your information to create an account.

At the bottom of the ‘Create your Account’ page, you will see your Package Information, detailing how much your selected plan will cost.

Note that all plans are billed annually, so the price displayed will reflect the price of hosting for a 12-month service term.

Enter your billing information at the bottom to keep going.

After the checkout process is complete, you will receive an email on how to login to your web hosting control panel (cPanel).  This is where you will go if you need customer support from Bluehost, and also where WordPress will be automatically installed for you.

You will then be guided through a series of questions to help your customize your website.

yoursitename.com/wp-admin/

directly in your browser (second screenshot).

I tried downloading those beautiful themes that people sell on the internet, but I could never get my website to look like the beautiful demo did, even when I uploaded the demo documentation.

With Elementor, I was able to download a complete template bundle (there are free and premium templates available), where the design for multiple pages (home page, about page, contact page, blog posts, etc.) was already done for me.  I was able to easily customize the templates to my preferences, without having to use any CSS code.  Hallelujah!

I did end up paying for the premium version of Elementor, so that I could have access to more customization options, but this is not a necessity.  I currently use the Divi page builder, simply because I wanted this particular website design that I have now. However, I miss the ease and available options of Elementor.

At the top of the Plug-ins screen, click the button “Add new plug-in”. Search for “Elementor“.

Select “Elementor Website Builder – More than Just a Page Builder”.  As you can see at the bottom of this plug-in information box, there are over 5 million active installations of this plug-in!  That means a ton of people are using it too! Click the button “Install now”. Then click the “activate” button after that.

For more plugins that I recommend, visit my Resources page and look under “Website Resources“

For a complete checklist with EVERYTHING you need to do before launching your blog, submit your email address below.

In this blog post, we walked step-by-step through the steps to start a WordPress blog.  Have more questions? Comment below or email me at [email protected].

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