How to Start a Blog
Disclosure: This page contains affiliate links.
Last updated September 12th, 2022
Welcome to my step-by-step guide on how you can start a successful blog from scratch!
Welcome to the best time of the year to start a blog!
If we haven’t met before, I’m Taylor Stanford. As a newly married wife, office manager, and nursing student, I started this blog as a “side hustle” to try and earn a little bit of extra money each month.
That “side hustle” has now become my full-time six-figure earning job.
Today, I decided to spill my secrets and explain step-by-step how you can start your own successful blog.
Today I’m going to be talking about:
Why this is the best time to start a blog.
Free stuff and discounts that are being given to help people create blogs.
How I got started as a blogger and how much money I make now.
What you need to start a blog today.
How to start a blog step-by-step.
What to do after you start your blog.
This blog post is long, so you might want to copy this link and email it to yourself so you can come back later if you don’t have time now, or you can enter your email below, and I’ll send you this post, plus a whole FREE 6-day course on how to start a profitable blog.
How to Start a Profitable Blog From Scratch Email Course
Why this is the best time to start a blog:
I'm so glad you're seeing this right now because this is the best time of year to start a blog. A few of the reasons this is the best time of year to start a blog is that starting is over 50% off; blogging is more profitable this time of year because more people are spending time inside on their devices. So, your chances of starting a successful blog increase around this time every year.
Free stuff & discounts to help new bloggers:
I know many people reading this are currently laid off, furloughed, working from home, or just not working right now due to the recession and because of that, I want to try my hardest to help you start a successful, profitable blog.
To help as many people as I can, I'm giving my 6-day email course on blogging away for free to anyone who starts a blog using the post below. This way, you can have your blogging path laid out for you by a full-time six-figure blogger, so you don't have to go through the confusing struggles I went through to get started.
It will teach you how to write blog posts, monetize your blog, and use social media to grow your blog.
EXCITING UPDATE: On top of getting that course for free, it's currently 50% off the cost of starting a blog through Bluehost (just for my readers), plus they are going to give you a free domain name (aka .com!) to use on your new blog.
Bluehost is the company I used to start my blog that now earns six figures, and the one I will be showing you how to use in this guide.
Now before I teach you how to start a blog, I want to tell you a little bit about how I started. If you don't care how I started and just want to learn how to start a blog, scroll until you see the header "What do you need to start a blog?"
How did I get started blogging?
Shortly after getting married a few years ago, I had a pipe dream of traveling a bunch and being a stay-at-home mom one day. But, I guess I didn't understand that my job wasn't just going to pay me to stay home and not work.
We were super poor (I mean super poor). We couldn't even afford to go on date nights, or stop by Starbucks for coffee, and we didn't get to go on a honeymoon.
Eventually, I got sick of constantly feeling poor, living for the weekends, and being a slave to a job I hated. So, I headed to Pinterest to try and figure out how I could make money from home. That way, I could hopefully be a work-from-home mom, pay down our debt, and save for a house. I came across people saying if you wanted to make money, "Take Surveys" or "Transcribe Audio" or "Freelance Writer," so I tried it all….
I kid you not when I say after working for a month on all the above things I had made like $9.
I mean, great, that's $9 extra dollars, but that would buy me like two Starbucks coffees, not allow me to live out my blogger dreams of working from home.
After failing at surveys and everything else, I started to come across pins like '"How I Made $10,000 Last Month Blogging".
After seeing tons of pins like that, I decided to bite the bullet and invest the $70 into Bluehost to start my blog.
What happened after I started my blog:
I thought the day after I started my blog, I would make $300, and to my surprise, I couldn't even figure out how to make it look good, how bloggers made money, to begin with, or how to install plug-ins. So, needless to say, I certainly wasn't making money.
I got so annoyed with all the bloggers talking about how much money they made blogging because they had inspired me to start a blog, but none of them were actually teaching you how to blog successfully.
During my frustration, I promised myself that If I ever actually figured out how to have a profitable blog, I would help other people who wanted to find a way to make money from home.
By the 7th month of blogging, I had more than replaced my income and quit my job.
By the 14th month, my husband left his job to work on my blog with me.
Now in 2022, I make over $10,000 every month from my blog, and we get to live in our dream house, drive our dream car, and go on vacations I couldn't have ever dreamed of taking before.
I finally recently decided that it's time to keep my promise to myself and share my best blogging advice to help people like you build blogs that will change your life.
Trust me; there is no reason I'm special. I had no clue what I was doing when I started. YOU'VE GOT THIS!
What do you need to start a blog?
Don't be nervous! As I said, you don't need any special knowledge, equipment, or a lot of money to get started blogging!
To start a blog, you are going to need:
A computer.
An internet connection.
An email address.
A Computer: The reason I say you need a computer is that it is hard (but doable if you must) to scroll through this guide and sign up for a blog at the same time from your phone.
If you are on your phone right now but have a computer, copy this link and email it to yourself so you can follow along when you get to your computer.
Internet connection: You need an internet connection to sign up for a blog.
Email Address: You need an email address just to sign up for your blog account. It doesn't need to be an email address just for your blog; you can use any email!
Side Note: don't let your mind get the best of you. You've got this!
If you feel hesitant to start your blog right now, I get it! I was reluctant to spend the money for Bluehost to create this blog because it is a lot of money (especially for a poor newlywed like I was), and I had no idea If I would ever get it back. But I'm so glad I did it because my blog hasn't failed. Instead, it has become a full-time job.
And just like I didn't fail, I know you won't fail! just to make sure:
I MADE YOU SOMETHING: I created a FREE 6-Day email course that will teach you step-by-step how to start a blog, design your blog, and create money-making content. It will completely kick-start your blogging success.
It is much like this blog post but with more detail and step-by-step. It gets sent straight to your email every day so that you won't lose it, and you can come back to it anytime.
Here is what the FREE email course goes over:
Day 1: How to start a blog from scratch with no experience (& get a free domain name)
Day 2: How to make your blog look ready for readers.
Day 3: How to write killer blog posts & make money from them.
Day 4: Other ways bloggers make money.
Day 5: How to start using social media as a blogger.
Day 6: How to stay motivated & not overwhelmed when it comes to blogging.
Free How to Start a Profitable Blog Course
Learn how to start a profitable blog from scratch in this FREE 6-day email course. Trust me; you won't need any prior blogging knowledge.
How to start a blog
The way I tell people to start blogs is a little different from most people because I don’t tell people “choose a topic” or “choose a niche” repeatedly because, truthfully, I don’t think it matters.
When I started blogging, I talked about my style and affordable designer dupes (since I couldn’t afford authentic designer pieces), then spoke about simple but tasty food. Eventually, I started talking about travel, and during that time, I also spoke about money-saving tips, and I made money during each of those times.
I say all this because I genuinely think you can make money blogging about anything if you are determined to do so.
If you want to talk about lifestyle topics, do that. If you want to talk about fitness and parenting, you can do that! You can blog about anything!
So the way I will walk you through blogging doesn’t have you start by picking a topic. Instead, I will begin by talking about choosing a name, and then I will walk you through creating your blog.
Let’s get your blog started!
Naming your blog
Don’t stress about naming your blog. You can always change the name or choose the name later! That being said, I do have a few tips that I think might help you pick a name if you want to start your blog and choose the name later.
Tips for coming up with a domain name:
Use a .com people are used to .com’s.
Don’t misspell words if you can help it. The reason why is that if you tell someone, you run into “My website is candy cane dot com.” they won’t think to type in “kandeekayne.com” when they get home.
Use something simple that covers everything you want to talk about. I started with smartandsimplistic.com because that name can cover anything I want to talk about.
Another thing…
If you are going to talk about many things, give your website a name that works with all the topics, for instance:
Naming your website after yourself (That’s how I ended up with TaylorStanford.com.).
Calling it “lifewith(your first or last name here) “.com.
If you just want to talk about one thing, you could consider something like:
“greensforchange.com” if you just wanted to talk about a plant-based diet.
Can’t come up with a domain name?
Don’t worry about it, you can set up your blog without a domain name and still claim your free domain later. Not having a name for your blog is no reason not to get started, because like I said you can always claim your free domain name later!
If you are struggling to come up with a domain name don’t hesitate to click the contact button at the top of the page and reach out to me and we can talk about it!
2. Sign up for Website Hosting
This will be the most intensive part of this guide but don’t worry, it’s super simple! so don’t stress it.
First, you are going to want to click here to open Bluehost in a new window, while leaving this post open.
Those of you using this post to create a blog, will get a special discount for my audience only from Bluehost plus you’ll get my blogging email course for free so you won’t have to navigate blogging alone.
It normally starts at $7.99 a month, now for you guys, it starts at only $2.95.
Bluehost has been great every step of the way. Every time I have contacted their customer service they have been so helpful, and that is the number one reason I continue to recommend them.
What you get with Bluehost: 1 free domain, hosting, and more than 50% off.
Let’s get started! (I’m so excited that you’ve made it this far and are really going to do something that could change your entire life for the better!)
By now, in another tab you should have a page that looks like this:
You will go ahead and click “get started” which will take you to a page where you can choose a hosting plan. I recommend getting the “basic” plan because it really comes with everything you need to start a profitable blog. It is what I used for my blog.
After you click “select” on the plan you want you are going to be taken to a screen like the one below:
If you know the domain name you want to use, you can enter it in “new domain.” If you already bought it before, enter it in “I have a domain name.”
After you fill out any of the options I mentioned above, you should be taken to this screen:
Here is where you will fill out the information for your account. This is the info you need to access your account, or you would give if you ever had to talk to Bluehost’s tech support team so remember the email you use.
Also, don’t worry about creating a new email for your website before you sign up for Bluehost, no one will see this email besides you, and you shouldn’t get a bunch of spam emails from Bluehost, so you don’t have to worry about that either.
After you fill out your account information and scroll down, you will see this:
I recommend signing up for 36 month “account plan” because it saves you the most money; however, you can only sign up for 12 months that is totally fine too!
The only “package extra” I recommend adding is “Domain Privacy Protection” this makes it so that no one can access your personal information. If you decline this the first few days after starting your blog, you may get a lot of phone calls. If you can’t afford Domain Privacy (I couldn’t when I started), just block the calls as they come in so those people cannot call you from that number anymore.
After you choose your plan and package extras, it’s time to pay (yes, it is really just that easy)
After you pay in a few minutes, you will receive a confirmation screen letting you know everything went through. After that, you will want to click “create account” so that you can actually access that blog you just created.
After you click “Create Account,” you will be brought to a screen to create a password for a Bluehost account. This is the password you will use to log into Bluehost to access your blog, so make sure you remember it!
Woohoo! we almost have a blog. How exciting? Super exciting.
You will be living your dreams in no time flat after this.
This is a pretty simple step, so I will just drop the pictures of the steps below, but make sure to write down your password or save it somewhere.
After you click “Create Account,” you will be taken to the following page, where you can finally go login to that blog you just created.
After you click “Go to Login,” it should go to a login page where you can type in all that account info you just picked out.
Once you login you will be prompted to create your website.
Once you click “Create your website,” you will be prompted to select how much help you want on your blogging journey.
I recommend selecting the option for “A little help” because as you go, you will get helpful tips and tutorials.
If you click “No help needed,” you won’t get any of those helpful tips and tutorials. If you click “Built for you,” Bluehost will get your blog started for you for an added expense. I don’t think it’s worth the cost because you’ve got me here showing you what to do!
So “A little help” is the best option.
After you click “A little help,” you’re brought to a screen where you pick the purpose of your website.
I recommend picking “Blog” no matter what option you choose in the long run. You will be able to customize your blog and add a place to sell items, offer services, or showcase your talents, so don’t worry about not wanting to select blog because you think you might want to do those other things someday. You can add all of those things to your blog.
After choosing “Blog,” you will be prompted to select WordPress as your website editor or Bluehost’s Website Editor. I recommend choosing WordPress because it truly is limitless. So you’ll click “Get Started.”
In addition to being limitless, it’s classic because it’s been around for years there are tons of free tutorials, plugins, and design elements you can add to it that you can’t add in Bluehost’s website builder.
After you click “Get Started,” you will be brought to a form where you select the type of website you’re creating and who you are creating it for so Bluehost knows what they should put on your website to help you get started.
There are no right or wrong answers here. So you can answer however feels right.
After that, it’s time to give your blog a name and tagline. Don’t overthink this because you can change it anytime if it doesn’t feel right down the road.
In the section that says “What do you want to name your site,” put whatever your domain name into words. So my domain name is TaylorStanford.com, so I would put “Taylor Stanford” as my site name.
In the section that says “What’s your site’s tagline,” add a brief sentence about what you think you might be blogging about. For my site, it would simply just be “Sharing my journey of building a life and business I love.”
As I said, these can be changed, so don’t overthink it. No one will really even end up seeing your site title or tagline. So if you don’t know what you want these to be, you can just type in like “Blank” and “Blank” and go back and change it later.
After you click continue, you’re going to be prompted to pick a theme for your blog. I recommend choosing a free theme because you can be just as successful with a free theme. Unless you want a specific premium theme, then totally use the premium theme you want. You just don’t need a paid theme for success.
The theme I recommend is the “Ona” because it’s simple to navigate for your readers, and it’s easy to read content on.
For me, it was right there on that first page of themes on the bottom row, second to last.
Once you choose your theme, you're basically done and ready to start writing blog posts, customizing your blog to personalize it, monetizing your blog, and growing it by sharing it.
You'll be brought to the main Bluehost page you'll see every time you log in to your blog.
Now you can be done for the day, or you can keep working on your blog.
To work more on your blog, you can use any of the listed shortcuts, or you can click "Log Into WordPress" to get to your blog and do anything you want that isn't listed as a short cut such as like edit your navigation menu, create a new page (like an about page, or contact page).
If you ever feel stuck or want to do something to your blog but aren’t sure how I highly recommend checking out the blogging resource center. You can type in what you’re struggling with, and it will populate articles written by Bluehost and WordPress experts that will most likely help you solve that problem.
If that doesn’t work, there are even more free resources on Google; just search whatever problem you’re having followed by WordPress like “How to add a contact page in WordPress” that’s been my strategy since I started my blog. I’ve been able to find out everything I’ve needed to know to build a now six-figure blog.
What’s next?
Next, I’d recommend taking the free course I give to anyone who starts a blog using this guide. All you have to do is fill out the form below this section, and I’ll send over the course within one business day.
I recommend starting with lesson 3 because you’ve already completed lessons one and two by starting a blog. Lesson three will help you customize your website to make it personalized to you. From there, it will help you begin to write blog posts that will actually engage people. Then It will help you start to monetize your website.
If you have any other questions, don’t hesitate to reach out!
Form for to get my 6-day blogging email course for free!
Thanks so much for listening to me / reading me go on and on about how to start a blog. I know this post was long, but blogging has 1000% changed my life for the better, and I love sharing it with people.
Especially when it is currently more than 50% off to start a blog.
Here is what the FREE email course goes over:
Day 1: How to start a blog from scratch with no experience (& get a free domain name)
Day 2: How to make your blog look ready for readers.
Day 3: How to write killer blog posts & make money from them.
Day 4: Other ways bloggers make money.
Day 5: How to start using social media as a blogger.
Day 6: How to stay motivated & not overwhelmed when it comes to blogging.
Free How to Start a Profitable Blog Course
Learn how to start a profitable blog from scratch in this FREE 6-day email course. Trust me; you won't need any prior blogging knowledge.
That’s it! You created your blog. Can you believe it was really that easy?
THE OTHER PARTS OF THE SERIES!
You are ready for part two; which you can get by clicking here. We will be talking about how to pick and install a theme!
Here are the links for all of the series:
Part 2: Choosing and Installing Your First Theme (for free)
Part 3: Creating Your First Logo (for free)
Part 4: Plugins You Need For Your Blog (free)
Click below to pin this image to your Pinterest so you can save it for later!
I'm just a small-town girl who built a blog that changed my life and now I'm sharing my life to hopefully help you realize you are capable and worthy of your dream life.