How To Start A Blog On Your Own .COM Domain Name Web Address… For The Non-Geeks
by Steven Chang
Welcome to “How To Start a Blog” blog! This blog has taught thousands of people how to start a blog on your own domain name (your own web address). Whether you are setting up a blog for your own personal use, or for business or profit, at the end of this step-by-step guide you should be able to go from completely clueless to having your very own fully-functional blog, ready to go.
Let me list a summary of what’s included on this page. You may click on any step below to jump straight to it, but I recommend you follow each step as outlined here:
Step 1: Start with a purpose
Step 2: Register a domain name
Step 3: Buy web hosting
Step 4: Point your domain name to your web host
Step 5: Check that your domain name is live
Step 6: Install the blog software with a few clicks
Step 7: Customize your blog
Step 8: Start blogging, and your free “35 Best Practices for Bloggers” guide
Be sure to subscribe to this blog for more nifty blogging tips & tricks; receive case studies of successful blogs and how you can do the same; get free information on how to start a blog and make money from it; how to start a blog for your business, become famous, get out of debt, lose weight, or whatever it is that you want to accomplish in life – believe it or not, a blog can help you do all that!
Step #1: Start with a purpose
The very first thing you need to decide is what your blog is about. In fact, don’t even think about starting a blog until you have thought this through.
To help you, ask yourself what you are passionate about, and see how you can enrich the lives of other with your passion.
Ask yourself these questions and make sure you have definitive answers before proceeding with creating your blog:
What is the purpose of my blog?
What value am I providing with my blog?
What can my readers expect to get out of my blog?
Step #2: Register your domain name
Once you’ve picked your topic and decided the purpose of your blog, it’s time to get a name for your web address.
Go to http://www.wholesalerdomains.com and start searching for your desired domain name:
Ideally you would want to include your topic in your domain name. For example, if your blog is a collection of funny email forwards, then something like “funnyonly.com” would do just fine – sorry it’s taken, and that’s my wife’s blog 
You may have to keep trying new names as good names are most likely registered by someone else. Search for the .COM of your desired domain name, if you absolutely can not find a .COM of your liking, then you may have to settle for a .NET or a .ORG web address extension.
It may also be a good idea to register the 3 most common extensions (.COM, .NET, and .ORG) of your domain name to secure your “brand.”
Step #3: Buy Web Hosting
A good name needs a good home – and that’s where web hosting comes in. A web hosting account is where the blog software, content, images, and data is going to reside.
I run many blogs and websites, so I spread my sites across different hosting companies. Here are a few web hosting companies that I recommend and have personally used for years:
Hostgator ($3.96/month) – see below for instruction on how to get your 1st month hosting for $0.01 (1 penny).
WholesalerDomains ($3.99/month)
For beginners, I recommend Hostgator – you can try out their service for just $0.01 (1 penny!) for the first month. When you sign up for their Hatchling or Baby Plan, be sure to enter the coupon code “1CENT”:
So, for around $10 you can get a blog up and running – later I will show you how to earn an income through advertisements and other means that will not only cover the cost of running a blog, but create passive income (and turn it into a real business if you would like – be sure to subscribe to my blog to learn more!).
After you purchase web hosting you should receive an email with your account information – this is important so please save it! In that email it will also tell you what the Nameservers are for the web host – note that down because you will be needing it next.
Step #4: Point your domain name to the web host
This step is important because it tells the domain name where it is going to look for your web host.
Login to your WholesalerDomain.com account and click on the “Domain Manager” menu link. A new window will pop up and your domains will be listed. Click on the domain name and you will see this screen:
Now click on “Set Nameservers” and copy and paste the 2 Nameservers your web host has provided you.
Once the Nameservers are updated there will be a lag time for your ISP to be notified of this update. Usually this will only take a few minutes, but could take up to few hours.
Step #5: Check that your domain is pointing to the web host
Now type in your newly registered domain name into the web browser and you should be getting a Hostgator Getting Started page that looks like this:
Or a really bare-bone webpage that looks similar to this:
If you see a webpage that’s other than “This webpage can not be found,” then congratulations! You have just completed the most boring steps of starting a blog.
Step #6: Point-and-Click install the blog software
When it comes to choosing a blog software, WordPress is by far the most popular blogging software being used.
In fact, it is so popular that the web host’s control panel has a point-and-click installation available (long gone are the days of FTP and HTML editor!).
Login to your web hosting’s control panel (usually cPanel) by going to:
http://yourdomain.com/cpanel
and substitute yourdomain.com with your actual domain name, then type in your login credentials (check your web host welcome email, it should be in there).
Once logged in, scroll down in the cPanel and you should see an icon that says “Fantastico” – this is the tool we want to use to install your blog:
Once you get to Fantastico you will be presented with a bunch of software that you will be able to click-install (okay, don’t get too excited now!).
Click on “WordPress”:
Then “New Installation”:
Then proceed to completing the installation form (read the form instructions!) and the rest of the installation steps:
Note: Do not worry about screwing things up or if you have entered the wrong information here. Things can always be reverted back or changed once the blog is set up.
Once installation is complete your blog should be up and running! Check out your blog by typing your domain name in the browser.
The following steps are completely optional, but highly recommended.
Step #7: Customizing your blog
To make your blog unqiue, you may want to give it a new facelift. In WordPress these “faces” are called Themes and there are tons of free ones out there.
Just head over to http://wordpress.org/extend/themes/ and browse or search for a theme that fits your topic.
Alternatively, there are themes that you can buy which makes your blog stand out even more (they tend to be more feature rich and only a limited number of people use the same theme as you).
Once you’ve got a theme picked out, go ahead and download the theme file (a .zip file).
Now go back to your web host’s cPanel account (http://yourdomain.com/cpanel -> substitute yourdomain.com with your real domain name) and click on File Manager icon:
Then you would want to browse to public_html/[blog root]/wp-content/themes folder
If you installed your blog in the root directory then it will simply be public_html/wp-content/themes
Once you are in the /themes folder click on “Upload file(s)” link and upload the theme zip file you’ve downloaded.
Once the file is uploaded the zip file will show up in the file manager. Click on the file name and then click on “Extract File Contents:
Now the theme is ready to be activated. Go to yourdomain.com/wp-admin and login to the WordPress Dashboard (this is where you can post/edit/delete blog posts and pages, and change settings for your blog).
Once logged in click on Appearance -> Themes link and you will see a thumbnail of the newly uploaded theme under “Available Themes”:
Go ahead and click on the thumbnail and activate the theme. Now your blog has a new face! Check it out in the browser.
Step #8: What’s next?
Start blogging!
Start by creating your “About me” or “About us” page that tells the world what your blog is all about and what your readers can expect. A mission or vision statement will fit nicely in this page if you choose to.
Then go ahead and set up your initial blog post categories. You can always add/edit/move categories in the future as you see fit.
Now, would you like to:
- Improve your blog
- Earn significant money with your blog
- Become more savvy with your blog design
- Increase traffic to your blog
- Increase comments on your blog
- Draw high quality partners to your business with your blog
- All of the above?
I have put together a special report for you – 35 Best Practices For Bloggers – that you can download and learn all the secret tips & techniques to make your blog successful.
Take a look at some of the tips you’ll find in this report…
7 Ways to Write Great Blog Headlines
7 Ways to Get Great Ideas for Blog Posts
7 Ways to Get More Comments at Your Blog
7 Ways to Make Money from Your Blog
7 Ways to Improve Your Blog Design
Even if you take just one of these 35 tips I give you I promise you will see an improvement in your blog
Step #9: Questions, Comments?
Last but not least, I want to hear from you!
Did this tutorial help at all? Do you have any questions about blogging, or any technical questions? Was anything missing or something you would like to add?
Please use the comment form below to give me your feedback.
Please click on the "Like" button if you enjoyed this article!
171 Responses
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From the Blog
Steve,
Now that I’m up and running, do you have any recommendations on ways to have some of my blogs picked up by search engines etc.? I read through your 32-step manual and found it helpful, although I’m still a bit fuzzy on how best to flag keywords and use other tools to generate traffic.
Hey Craig,
Yes, leave a link to your blog or your blog post whenever possible. For example, when you made this comment on my blog, there was an opportunity to leave a link back to your blog.
Make it a habit, after you’ve published a blog post, of submitting your blog post to every relevant blog carnival.
You should be able to see some results with blog carnival alone.
Although not free, I recommend you check out SEOLinkvine if your blog is in a more competitive market.
It all boils down to getting your blog out there, but I do not recommend you drop links on other websites or blogs out of convenience, that would be spamming.
Thanks for your great question. I will be writing more about blog marketing on my blog to help you further.
Thanks,
Steve
» Hatchling Plan
•Single Domain
•UNLIMITED Disk Space
•UNLIMITED Bandwidth
•Shared SSL Certificate
is this true because in your l
pictures the available diskspace is 250mb
i realy would like you to tell us what they are realy offering for 4$ a month thanks in advance
Hi Yahia,
Good catch. I have a reseller plan with Hostgator (to host my clients’ websites) so I’m able to allocate space for each account/website. The screenshot you saw above is an example account that I set up for one of my sites that I allocated 250mb for.
Go with whatever Hostgator tells you on their website. For blogging purpose, really the only 2 plans you should be considering is between the Hatchling and the Baby plan.
If you just have one blog, go with the Hatchling. If you plan on having multiple blogs on multiple domains, go with the Baby plan. However, upgrading (or downgrading) your plan can be done easily by contacting support, so go with what you need right now.
Hope that helps you?
Steve
Hi Steve,
I am in the start up process of blog now. I have my domain(through Go Daddy) and I am gathering that a web host “must” be purchased from somewhere, correct. That being the case, I can go with with “any” web host and use my Go Daddy domain purchse and then load WordPress or any other equivalent?
Thanks
Allen C,
My Fitness Chef
Hi Allen,
Yes, web hosting and domain registration can be through separate providers. You can also purchase web hosting from GoDaddy as well.
You just need to point your domain name to your web host’s name servers (see Step #4 above).
Thank you,
Steve
Steve,
Is there a simple way to feature a Twitter feed on a blog homepage? I was hoping to place one along a sidebar on my site, quatrodad.com, but I can’t seem to figure it out. I’m guessing it’s pretty doable …
Craig,
You’ve got plenty of options here. Simply go to Plugins -> Add New in your WordPress dashboard. In the search box type in “twitter” and you’ll see plenty of Twitter related plugins. The first one, called “Twitter”, seems like it will do the job (click on Details link to see screenshots).
Thank you,
Steve
Where do I go to check the email that’s set up with my blog? And how do I upload my own pic from my iPad 2 as my header? And thanks for this post, it’s helped me all the way through so far!
Hi Haley,
Have you already set up the email account in your web host’s control panel (ie. yourdomain.com/cpanel)?
If you are hosted with Hostgator, you can access your email via the web at yourdomain.com/webmail
Alternatively, you can configure your email account to be checked via Outlook or another desktop email client.
As far as using a picture from your iPad as your blog header, I’m going to make a wild guess here since I don’t own an iPad (yet). You will just need to browse to your WordPress dashboard from your iPad, then choose the picture file to be uploaded as the blog header.
Let me know if this helps steer you in the right direction. I’ll also confirm this with a friend who has an iPad.
Thank you,
Steve
Have a look at this:
http://ios.wordpress.org/