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Blogging is one of the best ways to combine a creative outlet with a business opportunity! It’s also a great opportunity to build community and connect with people with similar interests.
It’s a very simple and quick process to set up a blog and get started! But first, you’ll want to nail down a few details. What niche do you want your blog to be about? What do you want to call your blog? What are your goals with your blog? Who is your target audience?
A niche is the primary topic of your blog. While some posts may deviate a little from your chosen niche, the majority of your content will revolve around your niche. The most successful blogs typically have a specific niche. Some popular niches include travel, food, home design, pets, investing, finance, sports, health/wellness, fitness, weight loss, crafts, business such as real estate, legal, etc.. The list is long! Another popular option is a lifestyle blog, which is broader and can cover many different topics that cohesively revolve around a lifestyle.
Once you have a niche chosen as the foundation of your blog, it’s time to name your blog! It’s always a great idea to use a name that incorporates what your blog is about, but you can also be more generic if you plan to blog about a variety of topics. (I kept it generic and chose Simply The Davises in case I wanted to change the niche in the future.)
Next you’ll want to check and see if your domain name ideas are available. You can do this at https://www.bluehost.com/domains.
Which brings us to another very important aspect of setting up your blog for success – using a self-hosted platform over a free platform.
It’s important to have your blog on a self-hosted platform!
If you are serious about blogging, especially as a means of generating any income, your site should be on a self-hosted platform. For comparison, sites like SquareSpace, Wix and WordPress.com are hosted platforms. They often allow you to start a blog for free. They’ll give you a domain, which incorporates their name within it, like “myblog.wix.com”. The blogging platform is also serving as the host to your content. And since you’re not paying for these services, they usually have heavy restrictions within the terms of service that could easily be overlooked and result in losing your entire blog overnight if you’re found to be in violation. There are also limitations on bandwidth, memory space and customizations. Templates are limited and oftentimes very basic.
If you want your blog to look as creative, professional and polished as many of the blogs you’re seeing online today, you need a self-hosted blog. WordPress.org is the best blogging platform out there. It’s relatively easy to learn and has loads of creative and useful plugins and professional-looking templates available. While WordPress.org is providing your blog tools, Bluehost is the third party behind it powering your blog and keeping it online and backing up all your files.
WordPress.org + Bluehost web hosting
WordPress.org is the most popular blogging platform out there. It’s easy to learn and has loads of creative and useful plugins and professional-looking templates available. While WordPress.org is providing your blog tools, your hosting service is a third party that’s providing the power to your blog – keeping it online and backing up all your files.
Bluehost is a fantastic web hosting service, super easy for beginners and lots of tools and features for the experts. I’m far from expert level and have greatly appreciated their prompt customer service by both phone and chat any time I need help!
Bluehost has very competitive rates and some amazing deals for new customers that we look forward to sharing with you very soon!