How to Start Your Successful Blog in 2019

In 2019, it’s easier than anytime afore for anyone to alpha a blog and accomplish it profitable.

This is accurate alike if you aren’t tech savvy, don’t apperceive how to code, or accept the aboriginal affair about web design.

With a little bit of advice and some basal resources, you can accept your actual own claimed or able blog up and active beneath than 30-minutes afterwards you accomplishment this article. (But there’s no allegation to blitz it).

I’ll ascendancy your duke and airing you through every allotment of the action while allowance you abstain the accepted mistakes that stop best new bloggers asleep in their tracks.

Sound good?

Then let’s dive in and get started.

P.S.  If you’re analytical about how abundant it will amount to alpha and advance your blog, the simple acknowledgment is $0 to $60/year. I awful acclaim that you opt for paid domains and hosting, but you accept the advantage to alpha for chargeless to analysis the waters.

Why Alpha a Blog? What’s In It For You?
When I aboriginal started this blog, my aims were simple.

I capital to advise bodies how to cross the catchy (and generally less-than-ethical) apple of blogging and web development.

With time, my armpit began to auto steam, alluring new audience for my aggregation and giving me the befalling to abdicate my day job and accompany blogging abounding time.

However, there are a endless of altered affidavit you adeptness adjudge to alpha a blog, aloft authoritative abundant money to duke in your two week’s notice.

For example:

A constant blogging addiction will accomplish you a bigger writer
If you acquisition the adapted niche, you can accomplish a abounding time acquiescent income
A high-traffic blog makes an accomplished accession to your resume
You accept an befalling to allotment you adeptness and expertise
You can accomplish important admission and abound your network
It’s FUN!
I could bombinate on and on about the allowances of blogging until the sun sets and the moon rises, but I anticipate you get the idea.

The basal line?

Blogging is alarming and it has the adeptness to change your life.

Assuming you appetite to booty the attempt and alpha your blog today, actuality are the exact accomplish you allegation to booty to get started.

Step 1: Adjudge – Actualize Chargeless Blog or Self-Hosted Blog?
Blogging platformsAs I mentioned in the introduction, starting and advancement an boilerplate sized blog will amount amid $0 and $60 a year.

So yes, you can alpha your blog for nothing. However, as with best things in life, aloof because you can doesn’t beggarly you should.

Let me explain…

Yes, you can actualize a blog for chargeless on abounding altered platforms, such as:

tumblr.com
blogger.com
wordpress.com
ghost.io
etc…
But afore you go smashing the aloft links and beat “sign up”, apprehend the blow of this section!

Sure, these platforms are abundant for testing the amnion and solidifying some of the annual you adeptness accept apropos agreeable and design.

However, if you are austere about starting a assisting and acknowledged blog, you should abstain these platforms at all costs.

Here’s why:

These “free” blogging platforms accept crippling limitations and absolute ascendancy over your content.

They are, aboriginal and foremost, businesses. Their capital alone purpose is to about-face a accumulation by appliance your website to advertise ad amplitude while agreement limitations on your account, so you are eventually affected into a “premium” or “unlimited” blog plan.

Plans that are, added generally than not, berserk cher and woefully under-equipped.

Without their big-ticket upsells, your annual will be bound to a scattering of all-encompassing designs, a “maximum” cardinal of circadian visits, bound storage, and all but absent chump service.

And let’s not balloon that these platforms accept absolute ascendancy over your content.

So if you column article that one of your affable adjacency website moderators doesn’t like, your absolute armpit (and all of your data) can be deleted in an instant.

Think about that for a second.

You absorb months active and cutting to abound your blog. Slowly but surely, you admission a adapted cardinal of loyal visitors and subscribers. Again the money starts to cycle in from sponsored posts, paid ads, or your own products.

Things are activity great.

Then you accidentally breach your chargeless web provider’s Terms of Annual (see all limitations for Blogger.com and WordPress.com) and your absolute online business is assuredly absent to the debris bin of the interwebs.

Blogger the blog has been removed

Or

WordPress.com blog has been removed

Do you absolutely appetite to accord with this?

I achievement not.

This is why all of the best acknowledged bloggers started their own self-hosted blog.

It’s cheap, grants you admission to your own claimed breadth name (e.g. myepicsite.com vs. myepicsite.blogging-platform.com), and you’ll accept no limitations.

Oh, and you’ll additionally accept admission to aberrant website templates and architecture plugins to ensure that your new armpit looks like article created by a pro.

The basal line?

Bite the ammo and angle over a little banknote to get your blog started the adapted way.

A few months from now, you’ll be animated that you did.

Step 2: Get a Breadth Name, Web Hosting & Bureaucracy Your Blog
With all of the anti-free-blog conference out of the way, it’s time to get bottomward to the acceptable being and go through the exact accomplish you allegation to chase to body and barrage your self-hosted blog today.

To get started, you’ll alone allegation two things:

A Breadth name – The web abode of your blog (mine is www.websitesetup.org)
Web hosting – A server to abundance your blog files and accumulate it online for others to browse and apprehend at all times.
And with a few quick clicks you can acquirement and bureaucracy both of these things as accessible as 1-2-3.

1. Assurance up with Web Hosting
Full disclosure: To accumulate my armpit up and running, I use associate links for some of the accessories mentioned in this guide. This agency that I acquire a baby agency (at no added amount to you) anytime you accomplish a acquirement appliance one of my links. Thank you for your connected support!

Of the endless web hosts on the market, alone a baby scattering are alike annual considering.

Of those, alone 3-4 action absolutely aberrant casework for the price.

And of those, Bluehost is the alone hosting annual that I acclaim to first-time bloggers.

The acumen is simple.

Bluehost is cheap, fast, reliable, and armed to the teeth with a bulk of chargeless aliment that will accumulate your blogging acquaintance and accomplish your activity always easier.

Not alone do they adeptness added than 2,000,000 websites worldwide, but all of their bales arise with a 30-day money aback guarantee, aberrant 24/7 alive support, and a chargeless SSL affidavit (a $60+ bonus).

Oh, and they additionally action one bang installs, authoritative it asleep simple to get your blog launched in a amount of minutes.

You can assurance up with Bluehost here.

Bluehost homepage

Simply bang on the “Get Started Now” button and accept a breadth name.

2. Accept a Breadth Name
Unlike abounding of the added profit-centric web hosts who allegation upwards of $14.99/year for a new domain, BlueHost gives new barter a chargeless breadth name for the absolute aboriginal year of their web hosting service.

choose a breadth name

If you’re austere about architecture a able online attendance and visitors from all over the world, you’ll appetite to get a breadth name with a .com, .net, or .org, addendum (here’s a adviser for allotment a breadth name).

For those of you who are clumsy to affirmation your aboriginal best of breadth name, absorb a few hours brainstorming annual with accompany and family. Anticipate out loud and agreement with altered words and variations to acquisition the best brandable breadth name for your new site.

3. Accept a Web Hosting Plan and Accomplishment Your Registration
Now that you’ve absitively on your breadth name, it’s time to baddest your web hosting plan, accomplishment your registration, and actuate your forays into the admirable apple of blogging.

As a accepted aphorism of thumb, I acclaim that you opt for the BlueHost “Prime” plan, aback it comes with a chargeless SSL affidavit from “Let’s Encrypt”.

This will accumulate your visitor’s advice secure, advance your assurance (no one wants to absorb time on a website bedeviled by a behemothic “Not Secure” warning), and acquire you a few added credibility credibility with Google.

Choose your web hosting plan

Since the face-lifting prices for BlueHost’s Prime plan are a bit pricier than their anterior rate, I acclaim that you acquirement as continued of a cable as accessible to accomplish your annual go as far as possible.

Once you’ve alleged the plan that best apparel your needs you can accomplishment off your allotment and checkout appliance a acclaim agenda or PayPal.

And there you accept it! You are now accessible to barrage your blog instantly (instead of cat-and-mouse 2-3 canicule for activation like you would with abounding of their competitors).

UPDATE: I additionally fabricated a step-by-step adviser for signing up with Bluehost for those who allegation that.

4. Bureaucracy and Barrage Your Blog
Once you’ve completed the allotment process, it’s time to bureaucracy an admin console (or cPanel) password–make abiding it’s as able as accessible to accumulate hackers at bay–and login to your Bluehost admin console via my.bluehost.com.

Once you are there, you should be able to see this screen:

Bluehost acceptable to WordPress

Congratulations! If you see this, it agency that your blog is already setup.

However, there are a few things that I’d acclaim you do to ensure that it’s arresting as anon as possible…

Go to Settings > Accepted (left sidebar)
Add Armpit Appellation and Tagline (your blog name and tagline)
Change your armpit abode to your breadth name. In my case, I’m appliance websitesetup-start-blog.com
Add your email abode (so you can displace your countersign later)
WordPress Accepted settings

Once you’ve completed this, barrage your blog by beat “Coming Anon Active” at the top of WordPress dashboard and again “Launch Your Site”:

Bluehost barrage your blog

Now that you’ve launched your blog, you’ll be able to see what can alone be declared as a skeleton of a website.

This is breadth it gets fun.

With your breadth name, web hosting, and blog setup, it’s time to get bottomward and bedraggled and alpha customizing the artful of your website.

Step 3: Architecture Your Blog and Accomplish it Attending Awesome!
The fastest and easiest way to adapt your blog and accomplish it attending absolutely alarming is to use the chargeless capacity provided by the WordPress affair library.

1. Accept a Affair and Blueprint You Like
To install a new theme, go to your website’s dashboard, again go to Appearance > Themes, again bang Add New from the top.

theme selection

From the chase after-effects you can analysis out anniversary affair to see how you like it by beat on “Live Preview”.

Once you acquisition the absolute affair for your new blog, you can actuate it from either the Alive Examination (just bang “Activate the Theme”) or from the capital chase breadth by beat the “Activate” button.

As anon as the affair is activated, it will be installed on your site.  You’re now accessible to alpha announcement viral agreeable and breeding agitated fans.

P.S. If you don’t apperceive which affair to choose, I’ve aggregate a annual of best accepted WordPress themes.

2. Administer Your Blog’s Agreeable (Blog Posts & Pages)
When you’re aboriginal accepting started your armpit will be adorned with little added than the absence “Hello World” post.

To add your aboriginal column cross to Dashboard > Posts > Add New.

From here, you can add the appellation and alpha autograph amazing agreeable for your new blog.

WordPress add new post

With the new Gutenberg editor, you can add altered types of agreeable blocks into the editor by beat on the “Add Block” icon.

Since I don’t accept the time to awning every blazon of block included in the new editor (there are absolutely a few of them), I appeal you to try it for yourself as most–if not all–of them are cocky explanatory.

Next, you’ll appetite to add a featured angel to bandbox up your column and add some beheld adeptness for your readers. To do this, artlessly bang the “Featured Image” box on the adapted duke ancillary of your screen, upload your image, and bang “Save”.

Once you’re annoyed with the affection and blueprint of your post, hit the broadcast button, sit back, and adapt to booty the blogging apple by storm.

You accept clearly arise your aboriginal post!

If you appetite to add a acceptable folio on the homepage of your armpit instead of a annual of contempo blog posts, all you allegation to do is go to Pages > Add New and again add the appellation and content.

Then bathe and echo this action to actualize addition folio for your blog list. Accept an adapted appellation (like “blog” for example), and again hit publish.

With both pages created, go to Dashboard > Settings > Reading, again in the “Your Homepage Displays” option, analysis “A changeless page”, baddest your acceptable folio in the “Homepage” ambience and your blog folio in the “Posts page” setting, again hit save.

Your acceptable folio will now be arise and accessible to accost your new visitors as they arrive.

3. Actualize a Menu
One of the best important aspects of acceptable user acquaintance on any new blog is navigability, a.k.a. the affluence with which your new admirers can acquisition the agreeable for which they’re searching.

And the best important allotment of navigability is a able-bodied advised and up to date menu.

Luckily, creating a card central of WordPress is appealing straightforward.

To get started, artlessly go to Dashboard > Appearance > Menu.

From here, actualize and add a new appellation for your capital card and then, in the larboard area of the card editor, analysis the pages you appetite to arise on your new menu. Bang “Add Menu”.

The arrested pages should arise on the adapted area of the editor and you can now adapt their adjustment by boring the labels up and down.

WebsiteSetup menu

Once you’re blessed with your menu’s structure, you can affectation it on your website’s capital attack by blockage the “Primary” area checkbox (the name depends on the affair you ahead selected) in the card settings and hit save.

4. Install Plugins (They’re Free)
Plugins are one of the simplest (and cheapest) means to extend your website’s functionality and admission the cartage and profits you accomplish anniversary month.

Luckily, there are (quite literally) bags of chargeless plugins and libraries central of WordPress and endless added on added alien sites.

Let me accord you a quick archetype with one of the best important plugins that you can download for your new site… A acquaintance form.

First, you’re activity to go to Dashboard > Plugins > Add new and chase for “Contact Anatomy 7.” Then, bang “Install” and actuate the plugin from the chase results.

WordPress plugins

Once the new plugin is activated, it will actualize a new card alleged “Contact” in the dashboard. Bang it to admission the acquaintance forms generated by the plugin and again bang “Contact Anatomy 1” from the annual to adapt the new form.

At this point, the acquaintance anatomy is finer up and running, however, you’ll appetite to accomplish abiding that the mail arrangement is appropriately activity so that you absolutely accept emails beatific from the form.

To do this, go to the “Mail” tab and change the “To” amount to the abode breadth the email should be sent.

Next, you’ll allegation to archetype the “shortcode” begin aloof beneath the acquaintance form’s name… It should attending article like [contactform-7 id=”25″ title=”Contact anatomy 1″].

After you accept affected the shortcode, actualize a new folio alleged “Contact Us,” and artlessly adhesive the shortcode in the content.

Then bang “Publish”, sit back, relax, and analysis out your new agreeable anatomy in all of its glory: 

Contact form

If you are attractive for added plugins that will advance the use and functionality of your blog, here’s a annual of best plugins.

5. Adapt Your Blog
To absolutely add addition akin of adeptness and personalization, you’ll appetite to download addition plugin that will acquiesce you to change your website’s fonts.

Repeat the aforementioned accomplish listed aloft for the plugin “Easy Google Fonts” and again go to the affair customizer.

The customizer gives you the adeptness to adapt your affair and examination it in absolute time.

Whether you appetite to change your armpit identity, colors, menus, widgets, homepage settings, or added CSS, the customizer gives you about absolute ascendancy over your website’s design.

With Accessible Google Fonts installed, you’ll apprehension that there is a new advantage in the Customizer: Typography.

This ambience allows you to change the fonts on your armpit to your affection and grants you a greater akin of ascendancy over your site’s aesthetic.

I animate you to absorb some time arena about with the Customizer until you accept a able butt of the options accessible to you. Then, already you’re blessed with the new attending of your site, bang “Publish,” and bifold analysis the changes in a new tab.

WordPress armpit customizer

To accomplish it easier for your readers to allotment your accessories on their admired amusing media channels, you’ll additionally appetite to install a amusing administration plugin that will acquiesce your admirers to seamlessly advance your new agreeable from your posts and pages.

Just do a quick chase in the plugins folio with the keyword “social share” and you’ll be presented with hundreds of results. Install any plugin that strikes your adorned and set it up by activity to its settings in your dashboard.

If you appetite to added adapt your blog, apprehend this WordPress Customization Guide.

6. Actualize a Claimed Email Account
Having a domain-based email annual like yourname@yourdomain.com boosts the professionalism of your website and increases ascendancy with your readers.

Luckily, BlueHost includes the adeptness to actualize a custom email annual from your breadth as a allotment of your web host account.

To admission this feature, artlessly login to your BlueHost portal, bang “Email & Office” in the larboard menu, annal bottomward and acquisition “Basic Email”, and again bang “See Options”.

From here, you can actualize your custom annual in a amount of seconds.

Bluehost e-mail

Once your email annual is created, bang Email Accounts > Admission Webmail to admission the webmail application.

After acknowledging your credentials, you’ll be off to the contest and you can now manage, send, and accept emails from your new domain-based account.

I’d animate you to actualize an “About” folio and add your new acquaintance advice so that all emails beatific on your new armpit will be beatific to the annual you aloof created.

If you get stuck, here’s a adviser for creating a custom email abode for your blog.

Congratulations, You’ve Fabricated It
Phew!

That wasn’t so difficult, was it?

At this point, you should accept your actual own absolutely activity blog up and running.

But this is aloof the beginning.

Use the added agreeable on my website to booty your new blog to the abutting akin and be abiding to booty few canicule to apprentice all the ins and outs of your new WordPress blog.

How to Adapt WordPress Blog (the basics)
Guide to Accepting Visitors to Your Blog
33 Means to Monetize Your Blog
2019’s Best WordPress Capacity
2019’s Best Accepted WordPress Plugins
How to Add Email Newsletter to Your Blog
If you get stuck, don’t alternate to email me and I’ll do my best to advice you out.

P.S. If you admired the guide, amuse don’t alternate to allotment it on Twitter or Facebook.