If you are interested in learning how to start your own blog, this post will guide you through the technical process.

My goal is to not only help you get everything set up quickly and easily, but to also help save you time, frustration and money! 🙂

3 Things You'll Need to Start Your Blog

Domain Name - The URL of your website (for example, mine is www.taratierney.com).
Web Hosting - The place where all your website files (pages, photos, graphics, etc.) are stored. All websites need hosting in order to be viewed on the internet, so you will need to rent out space on a server, which you can do at monthly rate, yearly rate, etc.
WordPress - A free, yet powerful, web publishing platform you can use to create your own website or blog.*

* You want to make sure this is WordPress.org NOT WordPress.com... the latter has a lot of limitations.

What I'll be Going Over in This Post

I am going to help you get set up with a self-hosted WordPress site using Bluehost as your domain and web host provider.

A self-hosted WordPress site is best choice if you want full control over your blog without limitations.

This is the platform I have always used and I highly recommend starting with it right from the beginning as this allows your blog to grow with you. If you use a different platform, you could run into "a wall" and have to switch later, so if you don't want to deal with the potential hassle of all of that, set yourself up right from the beginning!

1. Set Up Your Domain Name + Hosting

Head over to Bluehost and click the green "Get Started" button.

2. Choose Your Plan

I would start with the basic plan for $3.95 a month as you can always upgrade later if needed.

3. Choose Your Domain Name

Your domain name is going to be something you're going to be using for a while, so choose something you love that also reflects what you do. I recommend something that is easy to spell, doesn't include hyphens and isn't too long (6-10 characters is a good goal.) In addition, I would recommend using a domain that ends in ".com"

Click here if you'd like some more tips on how to choose a domain name.

4. Create Your Account

Fill in your name, address, phone, email, etc. and then choose your account plan. The more months you pay up front, the cheaper the monthly hosting cost is.

5. Choose Your Package Extras

I recommend getting Domain Privacy + Protection (protects your personal contact information from marketers, spammers, and unwanted solicitation) and Codeguard Basic (automatic daily site backups).

6. Enter Payment Info

Fill in your credit card info, check off the agreement terms, then hit submit!

7. Choose a Password

Click on the green "Create your password" button.

Enter your password, read the terms, and check off the box. Then click the blue button.

Once you've created your password, you should this screen. Click the blue button to login.

8. Pick a Theme

Choose a free theme to get the look of your site started. You can change your theme later if you want.

If you'd like me to help you design your site, check out my website design services!

9. Start Building Your Site

Click on the blue button to login to your WordPress dashboard.

10. Choose Which Kind of Site You'll be Setting Up

11. Begin Designing Your Blog

Browse around the dashboard and familiarize yourself with the customizing options to make your blog your very own!

The sidebar on the left of your dashboard contains everything you need to build your blog.

Here's a Quick Summary of Things You'll Probably be Using the Most:

Posts - This is where you'll be creating new blog posts.
Media - This is where you can upload photos, graphics, and other media.
Pages - This is where you can create new pages for your site, like About, Services, Contact, etc.
Appearance - This is where you can find new WordPress themes, customize your colors, add pages to your menu, etc.
Plugins - This is where you can find special add-ons, widgets, and features.