You’re here because you want to know how to start a blog? That’s awesome!! I’m excited to help you navigate your way on this journey. Are you ready to take the first steps?

Warning there is a little salty language and real talk in this post!

Starting your own blog is so much easier than you think. You need zero technical knowledge. When you are ready, all you have to do is purchase the hosting package, get in touch with the tech geniuses at Siteground and they will set up your WordPress blog for FREE! You can go make a cup of tea and by the time you come back, your website will be ready!

Blogging in the old days:

When I started blogging almost a decade ago, people were not so forthcoming with information about how to start a blog. People were building blogging careers back then but that was a handful of people. Magical people.

Making Money with a blog was possible and I knew it!! I wanted a slice of that pie god dammit. I started two blogs before I started my craft blog Heart Handmade UK. When I started Heart Handmade, things were a little different. I was determined. Of course, hindsight is a magical gift and I wish I had this guide back then because I would have skipped using a blogger blog completely. It would have saved me a lot of money, not to mention the fact that I could have earned a tonne of money if I had implemented the right strategies.

Wrongly, I thought that I needed to be blogging for X amount of years or receive X amount of page views but that is complete bull.

How To Start A Blog For Dummies

All those years ago, I definitely needed Blogging for Dummies guide to help me understand it all in a way that actually broke everything down into manageable chunks and made sense to ME.

Back then, there really wasn’t a guide like that, that made any sense to me… I took a blogging course but it focused more on making friends and networking. The course as was great but over the years, I’ve had to figure out all of the tech crap myself. Not to mention the making money part. It has all been tried and tested strategies and I’ve finally figured it all out – and that’s not much help to anyone but me unless I share it, right?

So, Let’s Break It Down 

Because I have chronic illnesses I need to break any task I tackle into more manageable chunks, which is exactly what we need to do now.

What can we achieve immediately? Tackling any task like this is the most efficient way to get things done TODAY (don’t wait for some horse shit excuse). As I mentioned I have chronic medical conditions, yet I manage two blogs and wrote two books within a 90 period. It is possible. If I can do all of that with only a few hours of energy per day, you can start your blog TODAY!

How To Create A Blog The Easiest Way Possible

So, Why start a blog?

There are many reasons which I’ve actually outlined in another post, 25 Reasons To Start Your Blog This Year

A few to get you started:

• It’s the cheapest way to start a legitimate business.
• You can make money from the very beginning, while it may not be a lot of money it’s possible to grow your blog and income quickly if you have a plan. (Download your free 20-page blogging planner or get your copy of the 60-page bloggy business plan and start planning your profits today)
• You can boost sales for your MLM biz or Etsy business
• Build your freelancing career
• Have a Creative outlet
• Share your knowledge
• Support people
• Earn extra money while you work

These are all awesome reasons but you can take it even further! There is SO MUCH POTENTIAL to explode your blog and reach. Not to mention your income.

Earn money your first-month blogging:

In the first month of starting this blog, I earned £275.63 from Start A Craft Blog income alone. Mostly from affiliate sales but also info products.

• Siteground – £60
• Amazon associates – £70.10
• eBook affiliates – £40.32 (originally paid in usd so exchange rate meant it wasn’t a rounded number)
• Planner sales – £60 (the planner you can get for FREE when you start your blog TODAY)
• Group board trackers – £21
• Brit Co via Shareasale – £34.21 (originally paid in USD)

I started this blog mid-April 2017 as a case study. Partly, I wanted to prove to myself that my strategies were solid and the success I received with my craft blog wasn’t just ‘lucky’. Two extra things I wanted to prove:
1. it’s not a get rich quick scheme and
2. Smart strategies are required not page views

Don’t Fall Into A Trap

Honestly, I am getting really tired of reading posts about ‘how I got 10,000 page views in my second month blogging!’ Oh yeah? You did? Is your blog about personal finance by any chance? Or did you have about 50 posts on your blog before you launch?

It’s a trap. To help those bloggers earn even more money by telling you how to make money.
You might be reading this and saying ‘aren’t you doing the exact same thing?’… the answer is yes and no. Most of my money comes from my craft blog (about 80%) and the income reports shared on this blog are about income earned as a craft blogger.

My main goal for this blog was to help you start a blog that makes you happy and to do that, I want to show you that it doesn’t have to be overwhelming. You don’t need a blog that earns you 6 figures every month. While more money might help you afford a cleaner for your house, so you can spend more time with your family… 6 figures every month isn’t necessary to do that. At all.

I just wanted to let you know what was possible to earn in your first month with a smart strategy in place. Seriously, I know that you are busy and you want someone to hold your hand, give you clear, simple instructions and tell you what works, what doesn’t and what will save you a shit tonne of time.

How To Start A Blog In 2018

Got your blog name? That’s going to be your URL (also known as a domain name, they’re the same thing) it looks like this —> https://clarityavenue.co.uk

Now To Choose The Hosting:

If you were having a party at your house, you would be known as the host. A hosting company is your blogs house. Your blog is the party. The hosting company makes it all work and that is where you can purchase your domain name.

If it turns out that you aren’t happy having the party at your house anymore, it’s entirely possible to move your party. It’s also possible to move hosting companies. I’ve done it about 4 times until I settled on Siteground and I LOVE them!

I want to save money. Can you make money blogging on Blogspot?

NOOOOO!

My cousin had the same question for me. She’s starting her own beauty blog, and we’ve been walking through all of the advice that I’m sharing with you today.

Do you want to make money blogging? The biggest reason you SHOULD NOT use a free blogging platform is that brands are a lot less likely to want to work with you. If you don’t believe enough in yourself to invest in hosting that costs less than $3 a month, why would a brand want to invest in you? When you don’t invest in yourself to commit to hosting, it also waves a bit of a red flag that says more likely to flake out and not meet deadlines. Goodbye potential brand sponsorships!

What do I do then?

Luckily for you, there’s a simple solution. Sign up to blog hosting today and save 60% with Siteground. You can get hosting for as little as £2.95/$2.95 per month (60% discount included).

Free Blog Business Planner When You Start Your Blog Today

If you purchase your blog hosting via  this link, email me a copy of your receipt and you will receive a copy of my 50-page blog business planner (£15 value) and get a 1 hour strategy session to help you set up for success (£95 value). Not ready to start a blog today? No problem, you can still buy the blog planner here.

Because you are my awesome reader and amigo, you will receive up to 60% discount on the monthly hosting price (that you can lock in at the discounted price for up to 3 years) when you set up a blog today!

In my opinion, based on almost 10 years blogging, I think it’s best to start with a the ‘Go Big’ hosting package (still less than $/£4 a month) that offers you at at least 20 GBs of bandwidth. It allows for growth. Within 5 months of starting this blog I would have outgrown that plan. 

Why would I want to use WordPress?

Nearly every blog you visit utilises WordPress. They’re the industry standard, and they’re incredible. It’s easy to use, easy to navigate, very straight forward, and just fantastic to use.

A few of the main advantages of using WordPress:

• Custom domain address
• Personalised emails @yourdomain.com
• Space to upload files and images
• Access to lots of customization options for web design
• Access to a lot of plugins that mean your blog can do almost anything.

If you decide to start a blog on one of the free platforms (like I did) you might end up having to pay a freelancer to help you move (like I did) and customize everything for you. When quite honestly, it’s not worth the money. When using a free platform, not only do you cost yourself money by being unattractive to brands, but it will also end up costing even more money. I wish I had started my blog via a self-hosted platform, but I let fear and uncertainty stop me. That was stupid of me. I could have monetized a lot earlier.

Choose From The Best Hosting Plans On Siteground

Do yourself a favour and start a blog that makes you look like a pro even if you’re a beginner by starting on WordPress using Siteground hosting (scroll down for video).

A Self-hosted WordPress blog is one of the best platforms to start blogging and making money. Full stop.

Siteground fits perfectly into most WordPress hosting needs. It can handle any suitable medium traffic site quickly. (Don’t forget to download a caching plugin, more about that later). A Siteground* WordPress hosting package should be at the top of anyone’s list. And, you can get up 60% discount when you purchase your hosting package today. You can start a blog for as little as £2.95 PER MONTH (with the 60% discount).

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Why Siteground?

There are many reasons why you should choose Siteground for your WordPress blog, and I honestly believe they are one of the best web hosting providers. I spend £70 PER MONTH for the awesome features they have on cloud hosting but I host three websites on there. You can start your blog on shared hosting for less than (£/$)3 PER MONTH! Are you kidding me? Hurry up and start!

Clearly, I am more than willing to pay more each month for exceptional service and support like I get from the hosting company I use now. But that’s just MY DECISION and I decided to go with managed cloud hosting is based on 3 terrible experiences with previous hosts and what I’ve learned after almost 10 years doing this.

When I first started blogging, I stupidly went for a free platform and when I decided to go with hosting I couldn’t afford to be choosy. It ended up costing a frigging fortune but at the time I took what worked based on what I could afford and I was totally convinced that I was saving myself money. It was a terrible way to choose a hosting company but we do what we can with what we’ve got.

If you look at the options my blog hosting company offers, you will see they offer a LOT of awesome features and incredible support that other hosting companies do not offer. I’m like goldilocks with hosting companies and I’ve found the one that is just right. 

Learn How To Create A Blog With WordPress Through Siteground (with 60% Off Siteground Discount Coupons Applied)

For a lot of people, when they think of WordPress, they think of a ‘blog’. Honestly, the possibilities are endless with WordPress. While WordPress is one of the biggest blogging platforms around, it’s also a way to build many different types of websites, including self-hosted online shops/stores. Today, though, I want to show you how easy it can be to get your blog, or website, up and running quickly and I mean, in less than 10 minutes.

Let’s start with how to start a WordPress website! 

Get your hosting sorted and as soon as you purchase hosting, use the Live Chat option and ask Siteground to install WordPress for you. It’s totally free to do so and can save a lot of headaches

 

>> Grab Hosting From Siteground* they will setup your WordPress blog on the hosting platform FOR FREE! You just have to contact them via LiveChat after purchase.

Let’s just start at the beginning!

1. DECIDE ON THE PLAN YOU WANT

> SiteGround* has three plans: StartUp, GrowBig and GoGeek.

The cheapest and most basic plan is the StartUp. I recommend WordPress bloggers start with the GrowBig plan because you pay for one year hosting up front and the GrowBig plan allows you room to grow.

Click on the little plus at the bottom of the grey box to see all the features for each plan. The GrowBig plan is a great plan because it can accommodate up to 25,000 visitors a month. Heart Handmade is on over 100,000 visitors a month, and I want to keep growing. Upgrading is not a problem.

The GrowBig plan includes something called a SuperCacher. What’s a super cacher? According to Siteground;

“It increases the number of hits a site can handle and boosts the website loading speed. The SuperCacher includes four different caching options for maximum optimisation of your websites. ”

It’s very budget-friendly starting at £3.95 a month because you can get 60% off the Siteground* regular price of £9.95 a month. Prices above are shown with discount offer included.

If you’ve already got an existing high-traffic site, then the Go Geek plan is for you.

SiteGround is already well known for their customer service, but their GrowBig and GoGeek plans come with even more support. Priority support is available for the GrowBig and GoGeek customers

Remember what I said about locking in prices? If you are serious about blogging, then lock in three years worth of hosting at the introductory price.

Time To Register Your Domain

Type in your new blog name, or your current blog name if you already have one.

If your website name is available, you can move on to step 3.

The Account Info:

Fill out your account and client information.

Next, fill out your payment and purchase information.

Before you can submit payment details, you need to agree to their terms of service.

Woo! That’s the hosting purchased. Now we install WordPress, and then you can access the back end of your blog and start customising!

The best part of choosing SiteGround* as your blog host… is that using the LiveChat option, they will walk you through the WordPress installation process OR DO IT FOR YOU FOR FREE!!!!

When you get chatting to a member of the SiteGround team, ask them if they can set up your WordPress site for you and send over your login details. And that’s it! The whole process.

If you want to do it yourself:

It’s not that difficult to do.

First, go to the My Accounts tab and navigate to the cPanel (control panel),

Click on WordPress in the section titled ‘AutoInstallers’.

Click on the Install button.

After you install, fill in the information that follows.

Choose Protocol – keep it the same.

Choose Domain- from the drop down menu

In Directory – if in doubt, leave it blank.

Site Name

Site Description –You can leave this blank and update it later via WordPress

Admin Username – This will be the username you use to log into your WordPress blog backend. DO NOT use your email address here or the username that you use on social media as hackers will be able to access or guess those details easily.

Admin Password – This is the password to access WordPress dashboard. Like I’ve said before, you should use a program like LastPass to generate strong, secure passwords and save them safely.

Admin email – Enter your email address

It is possible to install your theme via SiteGround, but it’s just as easy to do it via WordPress.

Click Install and BOOM! Hosting Done!

A NOTE ON PASSWORDS

 

I use something calledLastPass*, which has a master password and then stores allll the passwords you have. You can generate insanely strong passwords. Do that.

>> Visit LastPass and Protect Your Passwords!!

 

>> CLICK HERE TO VIEW ALL THE RESOURCES I USE TO GROW MY BLOG DAILY.

That’s the hosting taken care of. A Round of applause and another cup of tea for you! Now you get to the fun part of customising your blog!

After you set up your hosting, go to http://http://www.YOURBLOGNAME.COM/wp-admin, it will look like this:

Then login with the details provided by:

>> SiteGround*

When you access the admin section, you should generate a secure password.

Navigate up to the top right hand corner where it says ‘Howdy, admin’ and click the little menu.

You will create your site tagline and when you scroll down, you have the ability to generate a really secure password.

Then save.

You can also change the colours of the admin area. I prefer it all grey and much lighter.

I chose light.

And that’s it! You can play around and choose a theme that you like. Press buttons, start to design.

You should consider purchasing the Genesis framework*. I purchased it for my craft blog Hearthandmade.co.uk to increase site speed and improve the overall structure of my blog. I highly recommend it and I will be installing it on the new blog.

>> Click to Check Out The Genesis Framework

You can also purchase themes for the Genesis framework*. The theme that is used on Heart Handmade is called Glam Theme*.

The ClarityAvenue theme is called:

>> Victoria by BluChic

There are lots of free themes that are completely fine, you can always purchase the framework later on but it saves a lot of hassle to do it now. Of course, do it if you can afford it. Do not get into debt!

Play with your new site and get excited! If you are thinking about designs and logos but have no idea what to do, you can purchase pre-made logos or find designers on sites like Etsy* and Creativemarket*. I use both of those sites regularly.

ACTION STEP: Set Up Blog Hosting and customise your WordPress dashboard TODAY!!

Check out some of these themes and try to keep them as clean looking as possible. People don’t like cluttered sites.

The post How To Create A Blog The Easiest Way Possible + A Free Planner appeared first on Clarity Avenue.