If you want to know exactly how and where to start your first blog, you can get started with this beginner-friendly tutorial.
Even if you have ZERO technical knowledge you can still get started and be up and running with your own website within a matter of minutes. If that sounds crazy, keep following along because it’s true!
But hold up! Do you even know what you’re going to blog about? If you need help picking a niche, check out my 6 step process.
I’m going first recommend you start your first blog at Wealthy Affiliate for three specific reasons:
- They make it incredibly easy to launch a website even if you know nothing about it it.
- It’s an all-in-one platform that not only provides hosting for your website(s), but also complete training, tools, and a community of other bloggers who can help you out. If you want to start a blog that earns money, this is training you need to check out. You can read my full review of Wealthy Affiliate here for more info.
- You can start for 100% free to test it out before you even put down any money (or a credit card). If you decide the platform isn’t for you, you can create a blog elsewhere, like Bluehost. But I recommend you at least give it a chance.
Note: if you just are looking for basic hosting to start a blog, follow my tutorial here for Bluehost.
Starting with a free website at Wealthy Affiliate
If you’re a COMPLETE beginner and know absolutely nothing about starting a blog, you should take advantage of the free website builder offered at Wealthy Affiliate.
It’s really sweet because even if you aren’t really sure what you want your blog to be about, you can start one for free and delete it if you change your mind.
It’s not exactly as easy to do that after you purchase your own domain. Ok, well maybe it’s easy but it’s not cheap!
Note: In this tutorial, you’ll be building a blog on the WordPress platform, which is one of the most popular blogging platforms in the world.
Ok, let’s get started!
You can watch this video if you just want to follow along with me that way [step-by-step instructions found below]
Step 1: Create a free account with Wealthy Affiliate
Before you can do anything, you’ll be required to sign up for Wealthy Affiliate. This platform will teach you how to get a website up and running, to creating content, to getting traffic, to earning money! It specializes in teaching a monetization method called affiliate marketing, but you’re not limited to that and there are different ways you can make money with your blog.
If you’re really wanting to create a blog that ultimately earns money, this training is a great place to start. Signing up is easy and it’s free to get started. If you’re really leary about giving your email address out, you can always use an alternative one.
Step 2: Access the website platform
Once you have created your membership, you’ll have access to the dashboard. From there, you can click on the website tab on the left-hand side, and then the Site Builder tab.
Step 3: Install your website
Here’s where you’re going to install the site. First, click “on a free domain”.
You’ll notice you can also do this on a domain you own, which is something you can do if you choose to upgrade your membership. As a free member, you won’t have access to build our own domain yet.
(You can easily buy your own domain and transfer your free site to your paid site later)
Now here’s where you’ll be able to name your website and pick a theme.
You can name your site whatever you want. At this point, considering you’re building a free website I wouldn’t put too much thought into it if you aren’t sure. You can always delete it and start over.
After you name your site, you’ll choose a theme. Just pick whatever looks attractive to you, you can change it later if you want.
Step 4: Build your site and get your login details
Click “build my site!” at the bottom, and it’ll only take a minute before you’ll see a screen that has all your login details.
You’ll get your own password and admin login URL, which is the address you’ll be able to go to and log in to your WordPress website from anywhere, without accessing Wealthy Affiliate.
However, you can easily access your website directly from Wealthy Affiliate with one click with the “login now” button.
Step 5: Log in and access the back end!
Now you’ll find yourself at your WordPress dashboard, which is where you’ll be able to add and edit your content, site layout, theme, plugins, etc.
WordPress has a little bit of a learning curve, but you’ll get the hang of it. The WordPress platform has made adding and creating content much more user-friendly (I think) than when I first started using WordPress back in 2013.
You’ll be able to find a lot of WordPress help and tutorials within Wealthy Affiliate, so don’t stress about it.
IMPORTANT NOTE:
If you decide you don’t want to pay for a premium membership to Wealthy Affiliate, I wouldn’t recommend continuing to use the free website you built there. It’s mostly just for getting started and testing it out. If you upgrade later, you can easily transfer your free site to a domain you purchase.
If you decide you do not want to upgrade but are still serious about creating a blog, you should probably check out hosting somewhere else like Bluehost.
Bluehost is purely a hosting platform, it isn’t like Wealthy Affiliate. You’re not going to get training or anything with Bluehost, but it will provide you with hosting for your first blog and since it is just hosting, you can get it for pretty inexpensive.
I don’t know if Bluehost has Wealthy Affiliate beat for how easy it is to get started, but it’s a pretty close alternative.
Either way, if you’re serious about starting a website that earns money, you’re going to need your OWN domain.
That was the easy part! Now let the real work begin…
You have your first blog, hooray! Now comes the fun part – actually creating your blog and learning your way around a WordPress dashboard! It’s OK – it’s not that bad. You’ll get the hang of it.
If you’re interested in hosting a blog somewhere else, you can follow along with my Bluehost tutorial here.
If you need any help or have any questions, drop me a comment down below.
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