Follow this complete beginner’s guide to learn how to start a blog from scratch and start blogging today using the most popular platform.
Starting a blog is really easy. You should be able to set up everything and get a brand new blog within the next 10 minutes following this detailed blogging guide.
Summary – How to start a Blog?
If you are in a hurry and want to skip the detailed steps of starting a blog or simply want to skim through the main steps, here’s a summary of the main steps on how to start a blog within the next 10 minutes.
- Sign up for WordPress hosting with Bluehost.
- WordPress will be automatically installed on your blog.
- Login to your new WordPress blog with the username and password.
- Install WordPress themes to change your blog design and install plugins for additional blog options.
Follow the process in the detailed guide below with each step of starting a blog explained in further detail.
In this guide, you will learn how to start a blog using WordPress, a popular blogging platform that powers almost 30% of entire websites in the world.
Additionally, we will use Bluehost, one of the officially recommended hosts by WordPress itself for blog hosting.
Here’re the main steps that we will go through in this quick guide that will get started with a blog completely from scratch.
- Steps for Starting a Blog
- Change Your Blog Design with WordPress Themes
- Configure Best Settings for your Blog SEO
- Extend Blog Functions with WordPress Plugins
- Start Blogging – Create Content – Posts / Pages
This guide is mostly action-oriented and provides you with a step-by-step process of starting a blog from a complete beginner’s perspective.
Easy Steps to Start a Blog
This is a comprehensive guide on how to start a blog covering all the steps in detail. If you have some technical expertise, you can simply refer to the summary section of the steps on how to start a blog above.
Let’s start with the step-by-step process of starting a blog or a website in detail.
Step 1: Sign up for WordPress Hosting
You will need a hosting service where you can install the blogging software and upload all the files to your blog. Hosting is the place where your blog or website files will live and will be served to anyone who requests them.
Bluehost is offering an exclusive deal to help you get started with your first blog. Use our discounted Bluehost link to get an exclusive hosting deal for your blog.
The Bluehost discount coupon will be applied automatically to the page, offering you the best possible deal available for Bluehost anywhere on the web.
Click on the Get Started Now button to start the process.
Step 2: Choose your Blog Hosting Plan
Bluehost provides you with a few different pricing plans to choose from depending on your needs. If this is your first time starting a blog, the basic option can be the most suitable one.
Once you have decided on the right plan for your blog, click Select the Plan to proceed ahead.
Step 3: Choose Domain Name for your Blog
Domain Name is simply the name of your blog on the web. Start by searching your desired name and see if the name is available to register.
If you have registered a domain name already using other services such as NameCheap, enter your existing domain name under the “I have a domain name’ section on your right.
You get a free domain name included with Bluehost hosting plans, so it might be worth claiming one.
Make sure you have selected the correct extension (.com or anything you want) as per your preference if you are buying a new domain.
You can also choose a domain name later if you don’t find anything suitable immediately. Use these domain name generators later to help you find a perfect available domain name.
Choose your blog domain name and click Next to proceed.
Step 4: Create Your Blog Hosting Account
You will now need to enter a few personal details, including your billing address. This information will be used by the hosting company to create an account for you.
You can also sign in with your Google Account to make the process easier.
Step 5: Confirm Hosting Package Information
Make sure the right account plan is selected on this page. You can start with the Basic 12-month plan or choose the 24/36 months plan if you want to get an extended discount for the next three years. Select or deselect other options as per your requirements on this page.
The exclusive discount won’t be available when you renew the hosting after a year. So please take some time to choose the right plan. You can see your total amount based on the plan and options that you choose at this stage.
You can see your total amount based on the plan and options that you choose at this stage.
Step 6: Enter your Payment Details
You will need to enter your billing information for the blog hosting plan that you have chosen.
Read the fine print details and agree to the terms of service and other policies of Bluehost hosting. Check the box that you have read and agree to their terms and click on the Submit button to proceed.
Step 7: Login to your Blog Hosting Account
Bluehost will create an account for your plan and ask you to create your password if the purchase is successful.
Create your password for the Bluehost hosting account that you will need to log in.
Click on Create your Password button to proceed with your account.
Make sure you set a strong password for this account. You can use the Suggest Password button to create a random strong password that you can then save at a secure place.
Check to confirm that you have read and agree to Bluehost’s Privacy Policy and Terms of Service. Click next to proceed.
If your password is accepted, you should see a success message. Click on Login to get started.
Click on Log in and Bluehost will now take you through the steps of setting up your WordPress blog.
Bluehost automatically installs WordPress on your site saving you a huge amount of time. How cool is that?
Step 8: Setup your New WordPress Blog
You will be asked you pick a theme for your blog to get started. WordPress themes help you change the looks and design of your blog.
Don’t worry if you don’t like any theme designs at this point. You can always change this later and we will see how to find good WordPress themes later in this post.
You can select “Skip this step” at the bottom to proceed without selecting a theme.
You should now see a final success message and can proceed to start building your blog. Click on Start Building to go to your newly installed WordPress Blog.
Step 9: Welcome to your New WordPress Blog
Bluehost will now welcome you to your new WordPress blog screen. You can follow along with Bluehost’s guided steps for creating the type of blog you want.
Or click the ‘I don’t need help‘ link on this screen.
Step 10: Launch your New Blog
You will now see an option to launch your new blog and make it available to everyone. Following Bluehost’s automatic installation of WordPress, your blog should be displaying a coming soon page.
Click on the “Launch” Button to start launching your new blog.
You will be finally asked to fill in your blog title and blog description before you make it available to everyone.
Congratulations, you now have a new WordPress Blog!
You will see a brand new WordPress admin dashboard for your blog.