Today I have a guest post from Jon at The Money Shed. Jon’s written before for me on things like making money from home and matched betting – he’s all about getting stuff done and bringing in cash and is very knowledgeable. This post contains affiliate links.
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When you decide to create a blog it can seem there is quite a high learning curve involved at times. What is WordPress? How do you install WordPress? What is self hosted? How will I link my domain name? Can I really create website from scratch?
Maybe you just want a creative outlet for your writing, maybe you want to build a blog you can earn money from via paid sponsored posts or promoting affiliate links to your favourite online retailers.
Having your own self hosted blog comes with some HUGE advantages compared to going for one of the free options such as Blogger.
Advantages for going self hosted include :
- Owning your own URL
- Being able to receive better technical support
- Having your data backed up
- The ability to customise your blog more
- You own ALL the content
- The ability to monetise your blog
- Being taken far more seriously by brands and their PRs.
Some people will have you believe that setting up a blog is quite a technically long winded process but actually it can be all done and dusted in 15 minutes. I’m going to break it down to just two simple steps and you’ll be up and running!
Now before we get going I am going to make the assumption that you already know the domain name you want for your blog. If you don’t then now is the time to give it some thought as you don’t want to fall into the same trap and everyone else when it comes to choosing your domain name.
Step 1 – Sorting out website hosting and domain
To do this we are going to take advantage of a great discount we can get on web hosting which will mean we can run up to six websites (if we choose to!) and get our domain FOR FREE for only £2.75 a month!
Using This unique link and putting in the code TMSPRESTO on the after selecting the DECA Package and at the checkout and you will get a HUGE 50% off your hosting! What makes this deal so great is not only the price or the UK based support but the fact we get our domain name FOR FREE instead of having to pay out an additional £10 for our chosen name.
Bish Bash Bosh! All Sorted! So that’s a great website hosting package (the Deca one!) and your free domain all bought as one for just £33 for the year. (Including VAT!!)
With 24/7 UK based support available you will always be able to get help with any issues that you might have. Your website will also be backed up every day, completely free, as part of any HostPresto package. This will mean that if your website is hacked or you make a mistake when working on your theme files that you will not lose your entire website. This is a great confidence boost as it will allow you to experiment a little more and if you make a huge mistake you can just have your backup restored and as someone who has been blogging for a number of years having that safety net is a life saver!
Step 2 – Install WordPress
WordPress is the de-facto software when it comes to running a blog. In fact over over 58% of the blogs out there run on it and 27% of the Internet is powered by WordPress!
Installing it is a breeze thanks to the fact the HostPresto offers a facility called Softaculous. This offer a ‘one click install’ for whichever web software you want to install in your hosting space, INCLUDING WordPress!
In here just go to Blogs and then click on WordPress! Follow the instructions through the install, you will see that is is clever enough to know which domain you are associated with.
Two quick words of warning. Make sure you set the ‘Choose Protocol’ to be ‘https://www.’ and if you are wanting your blog to be at the root of your domain (ie, www.myblogsite.com instead of www.myblogsite.com/blog/) then make sure the ‘In Directory’ field is blank.
You will now get the chance to give your blog a name and a description and create an admin account which is what you will use to access your blog and update it.
That’s it! All the ‘complex’ stuff is now over!
Easy to do and in less than 15 minutes you now have set up a self hosted WordPress blog with your own domain name!
Now comes the creative part where you get to fill the blog with whatever you want and choose your own design using one of the thousands of WordPress themes available!
If this is your first adventure into blogging you will find the Totally Blogging Free Online Course absolutely vital. With over 40 modules it will take you through setting up your first blog through to earning the absolute most you can from it and everything in-between.
Happy Blogging!!
Gosh, I remember when I did it 6 years ago, I winged everything, this is helpful
Yeah I think a LOT of people wing it at the start. Especially 6 years ago when decent information about how to setup and run a blog used to be hidden away or worse still, hid behind a paywall of some kind!
Lovely guide to setting up a blog. I faffed around for ages setting my first one up.
Tinkering around can be half the fun when you are just getting started I always fine. Playing around with themes and plugins to get both the look and feel of the site you want to run is just part of the journey ;)
Great guide. I had no clue to begin with, but lucky for me, my brother is a web developer and set it all up for me! I am learning though, and the guide is very simple to follow.
Wow you were lucky to have your brother there to help you out. I remember I used to ‘borrow’ books from the Library in the very easy 2000s so I could at least get a grasp on how to set up a pretty basic website.
I might be setting up a blog for my son soon, so this will come in very useful. Thank you for doing the hard work for us!
No problem at all. So many parents now seem to set up blogs for their Children. I guess it helps them feel that they have a creative outlet that they can use as they grow up.
Great post from Jon. I surprised myself with how easy I found it to set up my own websites with ease.
Yeah it’s great just how easy it is now. Everything is very much ‘point and click’ when it comes to setting up your site and getting it running no matter who you use!
Wow that is quick. I’m sure it took me a lot longer to set mine up. Wish this was around then. I’m looking for a new host by coincidence, need to do some research. Great post x
Well if you are looking for a new Host I can’t recommend HostPresto enough! Especially with the discount above it makes it a great buy!
Excellent, this is super useful for anyone looking to start from scratch. My blog is 11 years old now and has evolved so much in that time. Mich x
Wow 11 years! That’s amazing, I bet it really has changed as new themes and experiences have come in to play that you can offer your readers so they can engage with your content better!
I wish I had read something like this when I was setting mine up all those years ago. Very useful!
Yeah same here. I felt very much alone when I saw setting everything up at the start many, MANY years ago. Thankfully everything is so much easier to do now no matter what your level of expertise.
Great easy guide. It’s so easy and quick to set up a blog isn’t it, lovely so many people can share their experiences together
Thanks for the kind comments. It really is so easy and quick to set up a website now and the possibilities for what you can do with that space are endless!!
This is a lovely guide. So useful for new bloggers.
It sure is. It just goes to show how easy it is now to setup a self hosted blog compared to the ‘old days’ lol
I can remember setting up my blog 8 years ago, I had no idea what I was doing – this would have been so helpful back then
Hey Sarah! Yeah I think most of us had no idea back then lol. Thankfully it’s much easier now for those starting out!
such an informative content! i got great ideas while reading this, thanks for sharing it!!
Thanks for the kind work Clare! I do love blogging as it really gives you the chance to flex those creative juices!!
Oooo I am looking for a new host – thank you
Well I can’t recommend HostPresto enough. UK Based, UK Support, Fantastic Prices! What’s not to love!!