The year is 2020. A very contagious virus has started spreading around the globe. Everywhere you look, you see more and more companies scramble to keep their staff and employees safe by urging them to work from home and honestly, who wouldn’t want to stay home, in the safety of their room and still be able to do what they love and on top of that, make money?
Starting a blog can be a life-changing milestone experience in your life. A blog is basically a regularly updated website where you can publish new content on as frequently as you wish. It gives you freedom to do something you truly enjoy doing regardless of your age, location and experience level. Plus, making money of course! If not having enough money is what keeping you away from executing this idea, well it shouldn’t! You really can start a blog without spending too much money upfront.
In this post, we’re going to show you how to start a blog on a budget. As a matter of fact, the best way to launch a new blog is to do it on a budget. This way, you wouldn’t have to worry about wasting your savings until you get a good hold of how things work in the blogging world.
Ok. Let’s not delay any further! Here’s a simple guide to walk you through the steps you need to take to start a blog on a budget.
First and foremost, if you have no desire to earn from your blog, then you can do that for free through a free platform such as Blogger or WordPress. However, if you’ve got money on your mind, you need to choose a budget web hosting provider. A host is a company that houses your blog. The host keeps all your website files safe and sound and makes sure that people can easily access your blog by clicking on a link or typing your URL. Of course, this doesn’t mean to choose the cheapest hosting plan around. Of course, the process of selecting a hosting plan that best suits you could be a little confusing. You may find many articles on Internet that list down speed, features, security, support and track record as the criteria you need to take into consideration when choosing a hosting service.
You sure need some ideas as to how much you should spend on hosting depending on your need. Reading this article can help providing you with some perspective. Some of the best suggesting out there are:
· Bluehost: Bluehost offers an excellent all-around service for new WP users. Bluehost is beginner friendly and offers 24/7 support to answer all of your questions and help with troubleshooting.
· HostGator: HostGator is one of the best budget hosting providers.
· A2 Hosting: This provider offers a great deal of hosting plan and fastest loading time.
· SiteGround: You need to pay for a year of hosting upfront. But this hosting provider sure has an excellent performance and customer support.
· Hostinger: Hostinger’s cheapest plan starts from just $0.99/mo when you choose a 48-month payment plan.
· GreenGeeks: GreenGeeks is considered the best Green Hosting provider in the US, Canada and Netherlands.
· DreamHost: DreamHost offers a true pay-per-month plan that allows you to pay for your blog hosting provider each month. No strings attached!
· Namecheap: Namecheap domain marketplace is what set them apart from other hosting companies. You can find thousands of domain names on Namecheap that have already been registered and are now for sale.
The combination of blogging platform and web hosting that today most bloggers use is a WordPress blog, hosted by Bluehost. WordPress is a publishing platform that has been around since 2003 and now powers more than 60% of all blogs on the Internet. Meanwhile, Bluehost is one of the longest established companies in the blog hosting industry. In fact, Bluehost is the only hosting service officially recommended by WordPress.
To set up a blog, first you need to buy a domain name for your blog. Your domain name is the web address people type in the internet address bar to open and see your blog. There are host sites that offer free domain registration. Of course on WordPress.com or blogger, you can just select a name for your domain for free. If you choose to buy your domain name, it would be easier for you to connect your domain to your hosting provider. BlueHost offers free domain name registration with their standard hosting plan. To check the availability of the domain name you have in mind, use the search box. We recommend to choose a domain name that is easy to remember and spell and gives a hint of what your blog is about. If it’s available, you’ll be asked to enter your account information.
After choosing your hosting plan and paying for it, proceed to set up a password for your account. Make sure to check the Domain Privacy Protection box. After creating your Bluehost account, go to cPanel and click on WordPress and select the domain you chose earlier and continue with WordPress installation. As mentioned earlier, WordPress is the blogging software that almost all bloggers use and if you are using a host other than Bluehost, at this point, you would need to install WordPress. This is the last step where you’ll select your domain name and password to access your new WP blog. Keep in mind that this is different from your Bluehost domain. Bluehost is your hosting and WordPress is your blog. Click Start Building to login to your new blog.
Now proceed to choosing your blog theme. Your theme is the design and layout of your blog. Here, you can either go to appearance>>themes and choose one of the free themes provided or you can purchase a theme from an affordable designer where you can customize the colors and styles of the theme. In fact, there are many free WP themes out there such as Deep Free theme. Deep Free is one of the best free WP themes and has functional features that can be used immediately after importing. Deep free WP theme is also the best choice for Elementor users. With Elementor page builder you can edit your blog and see the changes immediately after applying the changes. Deep Free theme is also compatible with popular page builders such as visual Composer, King Composer, divi Builder and WPBakery Page Builder. Deep theme has fantastic support that constantly update their library and resources and are there for you whenever you need help with installation or run into any problem.
One last thing to take note of however, is considering a social media scheduling service and email service for your blog because being able to engage with your most loyal and engaged readers never hurts, right? Now guess what? You’re all set! Now navigate your WordPress dashboard and start creating posts for your blog.
