How To Start A WordPress Blog With Blue Host

So you’re going to start a blog!

First off, let me say congratulations.

This is your first step to being able to work from home and have the freedom to do what you choose. 

The happiness I get from working at home is something I’ll be eternally grateful for. 

I wouldn’t change it for the world.

Having a blog has allowed me to be able to make money each month like these.

As you can see this is recent earnings as of writing this Bluehost Wordpress setup guide.

Here’s another screenshot of the commission from another offer I promote. You can see daily sales coming in.

This is something that I linked to from one post and it still makes me money. It’s only small but it all adds up.

This one is again from just one piece of content. This is only a very small commission but it’s stacking and growing each month.

Won’t be long till it’s closer to $200 a month.

This is another offer that I’ve created pieces of content for.

As you can see, it’s not millionaire money but it’s enough to work at home and have more freedom in my life.

To be able to take my son to school and pick him up each day is priceless and it’s all down to having a blog and working from home.    

This is not all the offers I promote either. 

The possibilities are endless. 

You can do the same.

Whatever it is you want to blog about, you can with a WordPress blog. 

So anyway, I’m sure you want to just get stuck in and start your own blog.

What you’re about to do will take about 15 mins and your first blog will be up and running.

In this step by step guide, we will be using Bluehost to host your domain and set up your WordPress. 

Bluehost is one of the most affordable and trusted hosting companies. 

Wordpress recommend Bluehost as the number one choice for hosting. 

You also get your Domain for free with Bluehost.

And hosting is cheap, being as low as $3.95 a month.

It’s super easy to set up as well because they offer one-click Wordpress install.

No installing WordPress through some complicated cPanel backend.

It’s all super easy with Bluehost as you’re about to find out. 

So anyway, let’s do this!

How To Start A WordPress Blog With Blue Host.

The first thing to do is…

Click here to choose your domain name.

You’ll then see a page like this.

Then click the green get started now button.

That will take you to a page to select your plan.

It’s up to you what you want to go for. The basic plan should be perfect for you as you are just setting up your first blog.

You can always change or upgrade later if you need to.

Choose Your Domain.

Once you’ve selected your plan it’s time to choose your domain. 

Click here to choose your domain name.

I presume you don’t already own a domain, so put your domain name in the new domain box and click next. 

Note: .Com domains are the most trusted and I would recommend you going for a .com if possible. 

Also, make sure your name is congruent with what you talking about on your blog. 

Don’t call it makemoneymom.com if your site is going to be about chicken recipes. 

Also if the domain you want isn’t there then try a prefix or suffix.

Here are some suffix examples you can put on the end of a domain.

So say you wanted topgaming.com but it wasn’t available you could try topgamingspot.com.

Here are some prefix examples to put at the start of a domain.

You can check now to see if the domain you want is available.

Once you’ve put your domain in the left box you’ll get taken the account information page like this.

Fill out those details then choose your package information. 

If you want to get a better deal then choose 24 or 36 month option.

12 months is fine though, and that’s you covered for the whole year then.

Also,

Uncheck the package extras as it will make it cheaper for you. 

They aren’t necessary.

You can always add them later if you want them.

Then it’s time to put your payment info in. 

Note: If you want to use PayPal then click the see more payment options button.

Now you’ve done that you’ll be prompted to create a password.

Do that step. And write down your password so you don’t forget it.

Once you created your password you’ll get the congratulations message.

Simply click the login button.

I’m not sure if it makes a difference on this next step but it might worth verifying your Whois domain records quickly before you forget.

Keep your Bluehost tab open and open another tab and check your email.

You should have an email now that says something like…WHOIS Verification for yourdomainname.com 

Just open that email and click the green Verify Your Email button.

That’s it and your domain will be verified. 

Next, carry on where you were.

Pick a Theme

You should now be on the pick a theme page after logging in.

Choose a theme that Bluehost provides for free.

And don’t worry if you don’t like any that much as you can always choose a different theme later on.

I’ll go more into themes after the basic set up.

Once you’ve done that you’ll see a screen with a blue button that says start building.

Click that button.

You should now see the welcome to WordPress page. 

It asks you to choose business or personal. 

Choose which one you want or choose I don’t need help.

Once you’ve done that, you should now see the Bluehost WordPress dashboard.

More Wordpress Theme Options

So, as I said before there’s plenty of options when it comes to WordPress themes.

The Bluehost’s ones are good but there’s plenty more available which might be more suited for what you want. 

Firstly you’ve got the free themes that you can access via the WordPress backend. 

To find them you need to click the appearance tab, then themes tab.

Once you’ve done that, click the add new button.

You’ll then come to a theme search page

This is where you’ll be able to look through all the free themes that WordPress has available.

Some are good and some not so good but there’s’ plenty to choose from and they’re free which is perfect if you’re on a budget.

Simply search through using the features, popular, latest and favorites tab or you can search manually.

There’s so many so you should be able to find something you like.

Any you like the look of simply hover your mouse over it then click preview.

If you like it then click the install button and activate it.

You must remember to activate the theme once you’ve install it as it won’t be live otherwise.

Premium Themes

If you want something more special then you may want to buy a premium theme. 

This theme, for example, is a premium theme I bought from Theme Forest.

This theme is called Soledad and it’s my favorite theme as it’s got soooo many customizable elements and features. 

It also has dozens of amazing pre-built themes you can install.

Call it the theme with dozens of themes built in.

It really is powerful. 

Theme forest is the place to go when looking for a Wordpress theme as they have so many to choose from.

Feel free to check them out if you want something a little nicer.

Uploading a theme manually

If you invest in a premium theme then it’s pretty straight forward to install.

SImply head the themes page that you were just on then click upload theme.

Once you’ve clicked that you’ll be prompted to choose a file for the theme you want to upload.

Simply click the choose file button and add the themes .ZIP folder. 

Once the theme is uploaded make sure you click activate and then your theme will be installed and active. 

Next, we have plugins.

Installing Wordpress Plugins

So, if you don’t know what plugins are then let me explain.

So say you have your blog, and you wanted to add something like a social sharing bar.

Something like this social sharing plugin which is at the top and bottom of this post.

Then you would install a plugin which would do that.

For example,

The social sharing bar is called Social Warfare and to add it, you would get the plugin by downloading it form Social Warfare.

You would then upload it to your plugins area on your WordPress backend.

I would advise not to install too many plugins as it will slow down your site.

It’s best to use only necessary plugins.

Here’s a list of recommended free plugins (that I use). 

• Contact Form 7 – For adding a contact form to your Contact page
• Easy Table of Contents – For adding a table of contents to your posts (good for SEO but not essential)
• EWWW Image Optimizer – Increases your page speeds by way of image optimization
• Google Analytics – Shows you all your website traffic stats
• Lazy Load by WP Rocket – Helps speed up page loading times
• Limit Login Attempts – A security plugins to stop multiple login attempts 
• Social Warfare (free or pro version) – Great for Pinterest users!
• TinyMCE Advanced – Adds more font options when creating blog posts.
• Wordfence Security – WordPress Firewall developed specifically for WordPress and blocks attackers
• WP Fastest Cache – Helps speed up your site
• Yoast SEO – Love this plugin, it’s great for on page SEO

NOTE: Some themes require a few extra free plugins to be able to get the maximum functionality. 

This is completely normal if the theme requires it.

Just don’t go crazy adding loads of plugins that you don’t really need. 

The ones I mentioned above are all free (except the pro version of Social Warfare) and they can be found by searching the WordPress plugin database.

I’ll show you how to do now.

To add a plugin simply click the Plugins tab then Add New on the sidebar on the WordPress backend.

You’ll then get taken to the plugins area which you can then search for the plugins you want.

Like the plugins in the recommendation list I gave you.

then once you find the plugin you want, click install and then activate it.

If you have a plugin you’ve downloaded from somewhere else,

Like a premium plugin like Social Warfare for example, then you can add it manually by clicking upload plugin.

Then once you click Upload plugin you’ll see the option to choose a file to upload.

This is where you upload the .ZIP file of the plugin you want to upload.

All plugins come in a .ZIP file so don’t worry you don’t need to convert any files.  

Simply click choose file then select the plugin you want to install from your computer.

Then click install.

NOTE: Make sure you activate your plugins once you’ve installed them.

If you want to activate or deactivate any plugins just head to the “Installed Plugins” area.

That’s where you can access all your plugins.

So now you’ve done that, you’re good to go!

Congratulations! Give yourself a big pat on the back. 

You now have your own piece of internet real estate.

Hosted with Bluehost and WordPress installed.

I suggest you have a look around and click all the side tabs on the left and see all the options and get to know your way around the WordPress backend. 

At the minute your site will look pretty basic as it has no content. 

So this is where the real work begins.

It’s time to get working and creating some awesome blog content!

Recommend for you: How To Write Great Blog Posts Quickly – 6 Steps To Writing Articles Faster

I’m proud of ya! You are now a bonafide blogging badass! 💪

I wish you the best of luck and don’t expect this journey on the road to true freedom to be easy.

It will be hard, but it’s soooo worth it!

Anyway, it’s time for you and me to part ways till the next time. Speak soon and good luck 😎

Feel free to pin this now and come back later if you can’t finish the set up till later.