How To Start a Blog
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Most of us live our lives under the assumption that we have to work 8-12 hours a day or more to get a little free time on the weekends. I’m not against hard work but life is so short that it does make sense to work smarter. I honestly believe starting a blog is one of the smartest ways to make an income online and get some of your life back.
It does take time and hard work but once it’s set up you can make passive income with your blog, which means it can make you money without having to constantly be working at it. So no matter what you’d like to make your blog about, I’m sure you can monetize it and make passive income with it because there are just so many ways you can make money with a blog.
So, why haven’t you started your blog yet? Are you possibly afraid to do something you haven’t done before? Maybe you’re thinking… I don’t have a clue where to start, I’m not tech savvy. Well the good news is… you don’t have to be.
With the right tools you can easily start a blog and as you move forward there are so many awesome things you’ll learn. When I first started I didn’t have a clue about starting a website but with Bluehost and Divi it was super easy. They practically hold your hand and walk you through and with Divi you can see everything live as you build your site with their drag and drop builder. It’s really amazing.
Don’t let fear paralyze you and keep you from God’s best, we need to live our lives and not be afraid. So here I’ll take you step by step to start your blog today and you can go from fear to FREEDOM… you’ll be so happy you did.
Freedom…. Here we come!
#1 Set up your blog with Bluehost
HelpForYourLife uses Bluehost and I honestly believe they are like the Best web hosting provider out there and you will be self-hosted; so if you want to monetize your blog, you need to be self-hosted. Bluehost is one of the officially recommended hosts by WordPress, which is a big deal! Oh and speaking of freedom… free blog sites will restrict you from certain types of freedoms. Free blogger sites will not allow you to monetize and they own your website, not you. This is HUGE and why you need to be self-hosted… I really can’t emphasize that enough.
Bluehost includes:
- FREE Domain Name for 1st Year
- FREE SSL Certificate Included
- 1-Click WordPress Install (FREE with Bluehost)
- 24/7 Support
- Extremely Affordable (Starts at Only $3.95/month)
Okay, now you can go to Bluehost.com and click the green Get Started button
#2 Next you can select your plan
Now when you look at the pricing, it is amazing how even their most expensive plan is extremely affordable! Also, for $2 more than the basic plan you can get their Choice Plus plan. Either way it is completely up to you and the Basic plan will work just fine.
Just click the green Select button under whichever plan you choose.
#3 Now you’ll want to enter your new domain name
Your domain name is your web address, like helpforyourlife.com. Don’t worry if you aren’t sure what you want it to be, you can come back to this. If you are sure, enter the name and click next.
#4 Next you can fill out your account information
#5 Then you’ll pick your plan and other options
First you select your plan. I do recommend the 36-month plan because you really get the best value for your money. If you can only afford the 12-month plan that is great as well. Just commit and you will reap the rewards!
Secondly you’ll pick the package extras. I suggest unchecking everything except for Domain Privacy Protection. You can choose the others if you want but you definitely Need the Domain Privacy Protection.
#6 Now you’ll enter your payment information
Read and agree to Bluehost’s Terms of Service, Cancellation Policy and Privacy Policy. Click the green submit button.
Congratulations! Now you have a blog and hosting.♥
Now you’ll just create a password
Then go to the login page for your new Bluehost account
On the login page you’ll Click the Hosting Login, enter your Domain Name, Password and click Log In
🥂 Yay! Now your done buying hosting and Bluehost will automatically install the WordPress software on your domain name. How awesome is that!?
Pick a Gorgeous, Easy To Use Theme for your Website
Now to pick the perfect theme for a real professional start, I want you to be set up for success! Some of the themes are free and you can start with one of those BUT the one thing you want to keep in mind, is that they are not as customizable as the paid themes and this can be a huge problem. However, with a paid theme like Divi by Elegant Themes, it’ll definitely save you a ton of time and you’ll get a much better design.
For HelpForYourLife, we chose Divi by Elegant Themes because they are extremely user friendly (drag and drop), extremely customizable and very affordable. It is so easy to design beautiful websites without ever touching a single line of code! Above all, they are very inexpensive – only $89/yr or $249 Lifetime Access and you get a TON of stuff! When you purchase Divi, you also get access to the entire Elegant Themes market. In other words, what you get for the amount that it costs, will blow you away. Divi is the best! ♥
Pick a Professional, Easy To Use Email software for your Website
Do you want everything you need to build, grow and succeed online? Of course you do. You can easily grow an audience for your small business, send awesome emails, create social ads and sell online with this all-in-one digital marketing platform from Constant Contact… and guess what? No experience or technical skills required.
7 Must-Have Plugins for your Website
#1 Akismet Anti-Spam (Used by millions, Akismet is quite possibly the best way in the world to protect your blog from spam. Your site is fully configured and being protected, even while you sleep.)
#2 Google Analytics for WordPress by MonsterInsights (The best Google Analytics plugin for WordPress. See how visitors find and use your website, so you can keep them coming back.)
#3 Jetpack by WordPress.com (Bring the power of the WordPress.com cloud to your self-hosted WordPress. Jetpack enables you to connect your blog to a WordPress.com account to use the powerful features normally only available to WordPress.com users.)
#4 ManageWP – Worker (We help you efficiently manage all your WordPress websites. Updates, backups, 1-click login, migrations, security and more, on one dashboard.)
#5 Smash Balloon (This is the #1 Social Media Feeds Plugin you’re not going to want to be without.)
#6 Smush (Reduce image file sizes, improve performance and boost your SEO using the free WPMU DEV WordPress Smush API.)
#7 Yoast SEO (The first true all-in-one SEO solution for WordPress, including on-page content analysis, XML sitemaps and much more.)
Make your Blog Beautiful
Design and add content. This is the best part of all and if you decided to go with Divi by Elegant Themes, you will be so thrilled! All the customizing you can do is endless and you can start, even if you know nothing about making a website. Add your awesome content and your images to make your blog beautiful!
It is pretty simple to get started but it will be a work in progress, as you watch your blog grow and grow.
With this set up you can definitely monetize your blog!
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Thanks for reading this, I hope you start a blog and crush your goals!~♥