Posts Tagged ‘hosting’

March 16th, 2015

How To Start Your Blog

by Rahimah Sultan






Starting your own blog doesn’t have to be complicated or expensive, although it can be intimidating. I am going to show you how to start your blog today and eliminate some of the confusion.



Today more people than ever are online. This presents a great opportunity for you to have recognition, income, fun and to share your ideas with like-minded people.



You may have considered setting up a blog on a free site. This sounds good, but you’ll have no real control and the company that owns the space makes money from your time and hard work by placing advertising on it and selling you upgrades.


You will not be able to sell your products on that kind of blog.



Since you do not own the blog there is no security. If the blog gets hacked the hacker can steal your domain name and you may never get it back.


No matter what kind of blog you want to start, using a free site is not worth that risk.


Here are a few tips for how to start your blog today and avoid the problems of a free site.



Pick Domain Name


Decide on a topic that interests you and something that you absolutely love for your primary business or topic. Take some time and think it through thoroughly, because you will have a tough time trying to change it later.


Always use a .com extension whenever possible as opposed to a .net, .biz or some others. Most people automatically use .com when trying to find an online site. Then choose a related domain name.


I suggest using a domain registrar such as:


http://www.godaddy.com
http://www.namecheap.com
http://www.networksolutions.com
http://www.onlydomains.com



There are many more domain registrars available. It does not matter where you buy a domain name. You can Google registrars and compare costs. Do not use any of the extras that they offer, just your domain name. Your hosting company will have the services you need.


Once you have your domain name you can point it to your hosting company’s servers. This gives you total control of your site.



I do not recommend using your hosting company’s domain registration services, as that can sometimes lead to problems. Just use a regular listed domain registrar and then change your servers through that registrar to point to your hosting company.



If you do not plan to sell your blog in the future, I suggest using your own name. If that is a common name and is already taken, add your middle initial or a word at the beginning or end or something that still identifies you and your topic and is unique.



Choose Web Host


There are plenty of hosting sites from which to choose. I suggest the one I use which offers web hosting, an email follow up system, video producer and more for your advertising needs, and it is VERY cost effective.

Create your site at your hosting company by logging in and using the web host manager to create a new account.



Install Blog


Go to WordPress.org (NOT WordPress.com) which is a free platform and download the software and install it at your hosting company. There are instructions on the WordPress site. It is not complicated and takes only a few minutes. Once you have installed WordPress, you are ready to start posting.



Do make sure you use unique creative user names and passwords for security reasons, and write them down as you go so that you can access everything on your site if something happens to your computer.



I hope these few tips help to de-mystify how to start your blog.



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