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Saturday, May 18, 2019

Starting your own blog on budget

Starting a blog can seem overwhelming and intimidating. Quite interesting how I started as a 'nobody' blogger, it's quite interesting to start a blog but knowing 'why' is important.
Why start a blog?
Blogging has quickly become one of the most popular ways of communicating and spreading information and news.It’s a great way to express yourself and also a fantastic way to share information with others.You become a better person and a better writer.The best reason? You can make money doing it

1. Pick Your Blog’s Name and Domain
2. Find a Hosting Provider
3. Choose a Blogging Platform (CMS)
4. Find Your Niche and Decide What to Blog About
5. Choose a Theme and Design Your Blog
6. Create Your Essential Pages (About, Contact, Hire)
7. Develop Your Content Strategy
8. Commit to a Regular Publishing Schedule
9. Use Free Photos and Designs to Stand Out
10. Publish and Promote Your Posts (to Start Earning)
Can you start a blog for free in 2019?
If you’re just getting into learning how to start a blog, you might be worried about the cost of building and hosting your own blog. Luckily, today that isn’t much of an issue. There are tons of ways you can get started blogging today (in half an hour or less) that are absolutely free.

Free blogging platforms like Medium, Tumblr and Blogger are awesome resources for testing things out.

And these options are great… if your blog is a hobby.

However, if you’re looking to build a business out of your blog or make money blogging, I would highly recommend some of the paid (yet still very affordable) options that I’m going to cover below. If you’re on the fence about whether to use a free or paid hosting provider to get started… here’s why you should consider (an affordable) paid hosting provider:

When you go with free, you’ll have a lack of control over how your blog looks and acts.
Most free services have limits on monetization.
Switching or upgrading to a better service eventually is a hassle.
There’s a lack of support if something goes wrong.
Free blog hosting services can disappear overnight.
All of this is to say that you should think about your plan and what you want from your blog before you get started.

While it’s perfectly fine (and easy) to learn how to start a blog for free, sometimes a little investment in yourself up front can go a very long way toward paving a future that’s much more lucrative.

How to Start a Blog (on the Side) in 10 Easy Steps and About 10 Minutes
Let’s get one thing out of the way first: The only thing standing in the way of starting your own blog is you. It’s easy to say that you don’t have time or you’re tired from work or that it’s too much effort. But that effort is what makes starting a blog so worth it.

The bar for how to start a blog—and what constitutes great content—has been raised in 2019. And if you’re starting a blog looking for extremely quick results (i.e. earning money from a blog tomorrow), you’re going to be disappointed. You need to set realistic expectations.

This isn’t to say you can’t start a successful blog in 2019. In fact, there are more opportunities than ever. It’s just that you need to make sure you’re not falling into certain traps early on. Traps like…

You think you can make a bunch of money writing about something you aren’t familiar with or passionate about
You’re not committed to publishing regularly and interacting with your audience
You want quick results without putting in the work
Here’s a dose of reality: The most popular, successful and profitable blogs in 2019 are all run by people who care deeply about the subject matter they’re writing about. They’re committed and excited to post. And they know that running a blog is an investment that will only bring them bigger returns the more they keep at it.

And as long as you’re on the same page, your blog will be a success! Let’s dive into the first step of this starting a blog tutorial.

1. Pick Your Blog’s Name and Domain
First, it’s time to pick a domain name for your blog, select the blogging platform and hosting you’ll be using and in order to get your blog live and readable online.

The combination of domain name & hosting  (recommend to all bloggers I know) is WordPress hosted by Bluehost. You’ll get a 65% off discount if you sign up using the links in this post, as I’ve gone out and set this deal up with Bluehost. They’re super simple to start a blog with and there’s a money-back guarantee in case things don’t go as planned.

click here to start your blog on bluehost

How to Start a Blog in 10 Easy Steps 


Choose your plan.

Next, you’ll select a hosting plan. Remember, hosting is the service that actually gets your blog online and keeps it live on the Internet. Personally, I recommend choosing the Choice Plus plan because it comes with Domain Privacy, which will protect your personal information (your full name, email address, phone number and home address) from being published anywhere online. Instead, Bluehost will guard that information on your behalf.

Choosing your plan will look like this right here. Just click the green “Select” button on your plan of choice:

How to Start a Blog Step 2 Bluehost web - marked up

As I said above, I recommend choosing the Choice Plus plan, so that you’re getting the Domain Privacy feature that’ll protect your personal information online, but any of these plans will do as you’re starting your blog—and you can add the domain privacy in later during the checkout process for around $1/mo.

Pick your domain name.

Next, you’ll get to the page where it’s time to choose the domain name for your blog:

How to Start a Blog Step 3 Bluehost web-cropped

Once you get to this step in the checkout process, just type in the name of the domain name that you’d like your blog to have .

If your domain name of choice isn’t available, you can either try another option that comes to mind—or (what I recommend) select the option to choose your domain name later after getting the rest of your account squared away and taking a little more time to think the name through. Here’s where you can click to choose your domain later:

How to Start a Blog Choose Your Domain Name 

After either choosing your domain name or opting to select it later, you’ll be taken to the final step in the sign up process—creating your account. you can start with blogspot as a beginner,I started with blogspot http://petrovarh.blogspot.com/?m=1its free but bluehost is preferably better

Create your Bluehost account.

Start by filling in your account details like your name, email address (it’s super important to use an up-to-date email address because this is where your login details and account information will be sent) and address. If you don’t want to enter your information manually, you can connect your Bluehost account with your Google account. Either works!

Start a Blog Easy Today 

Select the right hosting package.

This is where you’ll choose an account plan based on the price you want to lock in and how far in advance you’ll pay.

How to Start a Blog Package Information

Note that Bluehost only offers options for you to pay 1, 2, 3 or 5 years upfront. They don’t offer a monthly payment option (because hosting companies that do offer monthly payments charge a lot more). Even still, with whichever plan you choose, the price works out to be a great deal for starting your own blog and getting it online today.

Which pricing plan is best?

Personally, I recommend choosing the “Prime 36 Month Price” if you want to lock in the lowest possible price for your hosting. it secures your blog hosting at their lowest rate (and gets you domain privacy) for the next 3 years. And because this low pricing for new customers only applies to the first payment you make, if you were to choose the 1-year plan, your pricing may go up after that first year.
That’s why if you choose the 36-month plan, your pricing will be locked in at this low rate for 3 years. For that reason, I recommend going with the longest duration plan that your budget can spring for.

You DON’T OWN your blog

It might sound silly at first, but you don’t actually own your blog. It’s hosted on someone else’s web property and they can delete it if they want to. They have done so in the past, and keep doing it in the future. Which means all your hard work on your blog, all those countless hours of writing blog posts might have vanished with seconds.

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