[Starting a Successful Blog] Lesson 10
Hello there!
Today we are going to roll up our sleeves and create your very own blog, step by step. Today's lesson will be divided into 3 parts:
- Part 1 — Choosing between a self-hosted website with a blog or a free blogging platform
- Part 2 — OPTION 1 Free Blog: Creating a free blog account OR
- Part 3 — OPTION 2 Self-Hosted Website:
- Registering web hosting account
- 1-Click Install WordPress
- Changing Your Theme
- Installing Plugins
*NOTE: This is going to be a VERY long post because we are going into the details.
If you remember, in Lesson 2, I talked about how registering for a web hosting account should NOT be your first step. If you think about it, from your first lesson up till the last lesson, you have spent a lot of time working on the foundation of your blog before launch.
Can you imagine the amount of money you have wasted paying for a host for nothing while you're laying the groundwork?
But today's the day because you've done what you should and now you have to make a decision.
So, do you go for a self-hosted paid website with a blog or go for a free-hosted blog?
PART 1 — Choosing between a Self-Hosted Website with a Blog or a Free Blogging Platform
In this part, we will compare a Self-Hosted Website with a Blog from a Free Blogging Platform using the following aspects
- What is it
- Cost
- Control
- Design & Themes
- Customization
- SEO
- Making money from your blog
- Examples
- Why WordPress?
- The Difference
Followed by a conclusion.
WHAT IS IT?
SELF-HOSTED WEBSITES
For a self-hosted website, you will need 3 things: a domain name, e.g. yourwebsitename.com, a hosting account and a content management system (CMS).
Your domain name is like your online address and the hosting account is like space rental for your online home. Carl Cheo explains this very well with his detailed infographic.
FREE BLOGGING PLATFORMS
Also known as a hosted blog, free blogging platforms, as the name suggests, allows you to sign up for a blog for free. Unlike self-hosted websites, you won't get your own domain name.
It will take on the name of the blogging platform, e.g. yourwebsitename.wordpress.com. But they take care of the hosting and provide you with a content management system (CMS).
COST
SELF-HOSTED WEBSITES
- Domain: Can range from free (DreamHost gives you a free domain (for the life of your hosting plan when you sign up a hosting account with them) to US$9.99 to even thousands of dollars for premium domain names.
- Hosting: Can range from US$5.78 to US$99 a month depending on which hosting package you opt for.
- CMS: Most CMS are free.
FREE BLOGGING PLATFORMS
Free but free blogging platforms also offer you upgrade options like having your own domain name. You probably pay a few bucks a month.
CONTROL
SELF-HOSTED WEBSITES
You own your content, you have control over your website from installation to maintenance. You can definitely outsource the creation, maintenance and management of your website, but that obviously costs money.
So if you are gonna do it yourself, you definitely way more control in terms of designing your website, how you want your content to appear, managing your content. And it's your responsibility to ensure that your website is live, backing up your database and when things goes wrong.
FREE BLOGGING PLATFORMS
You do not own your content, unless you actually create your content outside of your blog before uploading it to the platform.
It's also a breeze to not have to maintain and ensure that your website is always live and backed up.
DESIGN & THEMES
SELF-HOSTED WEBSITES
You're spoiled for choice. From free to paid themes, there are plenty available. You have control over how you want your website to look and feel.
FREE BLOGGING PLATFORMS
From limited to hundreds of designs & themes offered by different blogging platforms.
CUSTOMIZATION
SELF-HOSTED WEBSITES
High degree of customization. From keeping your website simple to shredding it to pieces and rebuilding it from scratch.
Tons of free and paid plugins and widgets available for various functions and tools that you might need on your website, such as contact forms, countdown timers, social icons and so on.
FREE BLOGGING PLATFORMS
Limited customization. Again, because it's free, the blogging platforms restrict the degree of control you can have over your blog otherwise the platform will be in trouble if every blogger is trying to deconstruct and reconstruct their blog every now and then.
Limited functions, especially bandwidth, memory space and media storage space. Meaning you probably can't have large photo and video files on your blog.
SEO
SELF-HOSTED WEBSITES
You have full control over how you want to optimize your website for the search engines.
FREE BLOGGING PLATFORMS
Limited. Determined by the blogging platform.
MAKING MONEY FROM YOUR BLOG
SELF-HOSTED WEBSITES
You can run ads, have opt-in boxes to sign up for your mailing list, to having unlimited landing pages to market your products and services. You have plenty of options and control over how you choose to make money from you blog on a self-hosted website.
You can definitely brand yourself as an influencer and authority with a branded website.
FREE BLOGGING PLATFORMS
You can't run ads, you cannot have multiple opt-in boxes to sign up for your mailing list, you can't have landing pages to market your products and services. You have limited options and control over making money from your blog. It's most likely as an influencer where you endorse products and selling affiliate products.
You can sell eBooks and information products but in terms of branding and exposure, it looks less professional which discounts your potential to scale your business.
It's more limiting to make money using a free blog.
EXAMPLES
SELF-HOSTED WEBSITES
- CMS (Content Management System)
- WordPress
- Joomla
- Concrete5
- Drupal
- SquareSpace
- Hosting
- DreamHost
- BlueHost
- HostGator
- WPEngine
- Domain Providers
-
- Name.com
- GoDaddy
- NameCheap
(Most hosts provide domains too)
FREE BLOGGING PLATFORMS
- WordPress.com
- Blogger
- Weebly
- Tumblr
- Wix
WHY WORDPRESS?
SELF-HOSTED WEBSITES
WordPress.Org - For internet marketers and bloggers, it's CMS with higher degree of control and customization.
Personally, I find it easier to pick up learning and using WordPress. And from a content perspective, it's easier to manage our blog posts, pages and so on.
FREE BLOGGING PLATFORMS
WordPress.com - Having used both WordPress.com and Blogger when I first started blogging, I realized that WordPress has a community of bloggers which makes it fun to blog and exciting to create a following.
THE DIFFERENCE?
SELF-HOSTED WEBSITES
WordPress.org is a CMS that you can install to your hosting account and set up your website.
FREE BLOGGING PLATFORMS
WordPress.com is a free blogging platform where you can create an account to have a blog with an existing community of bloggers.
Part 2 — OPTION 1 Free Blog: Creating a free blog account
WordPress.com
Head over to WordPress.com and you will see 4 options. Select the top left: "Start with a blog" and it will lead you to "Pick one of our popular themes to get started or choose from hundreds more after you sign up." So you choose 1 of the 3 or just click on "Skip for now" to choose your theme later.
Next you will have to "Enter a name or keyword" which will become your blog URL. For example, if I key in "happykillercarebear" it will show you whether it's available, together with other paid options.
There are 4 plans to choose from, and as you can see, WordPress says that the "Free" account is "Best for students".
Complete your sign up by entering your email address and a password.
Blogger
The cool thing about blogger is that it's owned by search engine giant, Google. So all you've got to do is head over to Blogger and click on "Create your blog" and it will prompt you to choose, verify and then log in to your gmail account.
When you're done with that, all you've got to do is:
- Give your blog a "Title"
- Pick a nice and impressionable "Address"
- Choose a "Theme"
And then just select "Create blog!"
Basically creating accounts these days are really similar and easy, so you can head to the following platforms if you think WordPress.com & Blogger are not suitable for your needs.
Part 3.1: Registering web hosting account
Head over to DreamHost to sign up for a web hosting account. Instead of the usual price of US$7.95 a month, you will be paying only US$5.78 a month because of my affiliate referral.
So it's a win-win situation where you get a huge discount of US$50 from your first year of hosting instead of paying the full US$119.40, and I get paid a small commission for referring you this good deal!
If you want to find out more about why I recommend DreamHost, you can read more about it here.
After you've clicked on "Get Started Now", you will see the image above.
All you've got to do is to fill in your email address with your preferred password, then click on "Continue."
Which will lead you to this screen above, which prompts you to key in a domain name.
Be sure that it's what you want because you can't change it later.
When you've decided, select "I want to register the domain" and then as you scroll down, you will see "The domain is on us"—which means you get a free domain!—and then just click "Continue".
You'll see the above, and simply click on 1 Year - $5.78/mo and then click "Continue".
Select "Install WordPress"! It's that easy!
Then click "Continue".
All you've got to do next is to fill in your details and then at the end of it, click "Place order now".
Part 3.2: Setting Up WordPress
You'll receive an email from DreamHost Installer Robot and all you've got to do is click on the first link to create an admin user.
When you click on the link, you will be redirected to a page where you are asked to create an admin user with your preferred email address, the admin user name and a strong password.
After that, you will be directed to your website dashboard which will look something like this:
But definitely way more empty than this one.
Your to-do:
- On the left panel, select "Settings"
- Click "General"
- Site Title: You can just name it as your URL. For example, mine is The Write Motive.
- Tagline: Give it a nice catchy tagline that sums up the essence of what your blog is going to be about.
- Click "Save Changes" right at the bottom of the page.
- Select "Settings" again
- Click "Permalinks"
- Select the 5th option, "Post name" for better SEO.
- Click "Save Changes" right at the bottom of the page.
And you're good!
Part 3.4: Changing & Customizing Your Theme
So now you've decided on a theme, be it free or paid. It's time to...
Change Your Theme
- On the left panel, select "Appearance"
- Click "Themes"
- For free themes by WordPress, simply scroll all the way to the bottom, and you will see:
- Twenty Seventeen
- Twenty Sixteen
- Twenty Fifteen
- If you hover over the theme, you will see "Activate" & "Live Preview". Click on "Live Preview" and you can see how your website will look like with that theme. If you decide to go with it, then simply select "Activate".
Now if you've decided to upload a theme, be it free or paid, all you've got to do is scroll to the top and you will see "Add New".
- Click on "Add New",
- And you see "Upload Theme" in the same spot.
- Click on "Upload Theme".
- You will see "If you have a theme in a .zip format, you may install it by uploading it here."
- Click on "Choose File" to select the theme in its zip format.
- Then simply click "Install Now".
And there you have it! A new theme!
Customizing Your Theme
Well, maybe you want to change some colors here and there. So all you've got to do is
- On the left panel again, select "Appearance"
- Click "Customize".
- Have fun with it and remember to "Save Changes" every time!
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