Hey everyone! Today I’m going to talk about starting your own website. It’s been almost a year since I’ve had my website, and I couldn’t be happier! This website has allowed me to share my crochet experiences and tutorials with others as well as connect with other crochet enthusiasts. I don’t know too many people in my area that crochet, so it’s great to connect with others who share the same passion as me. My fiancé Tony helped encourage me to get started, and the rest, as they say, is history!

Starting your website can be a rewarding experience. You can use it to blog about anything you want! Whether you’re a foodie and want to review different restaurants or recipes or a DIYer with an eye for easy kids crafts, your website can be a platform to inspire and teach others what you know.

Starting your own website isn’t as hard as you might think it is. Let me repeat: Starting your own website isn’t as hard as you might think it is. It only takes about 10 minutes to get started. Yes, you heard that correctly, 10 minutes!

With hard work and great content, you can actually start making an income with your website. Yes, this is possible! If you’ve always dreamed about working from home, starting your own website is a great way to begin. The costs of starting your own website is super cheap! AS LOW AS $3.95 PER MONTH!

The only purchase you’ll need to start your own website is for website hosting through Bluehost. We’ll get to that in a minute. Below are some of my tips on how to get started with your own website.

PICK A DOMAIN NAME & SET UP HOSTING

Picking a domain name (or name for your blog) can be so much fun! When choosing a name, you want to choose a name that’s easy to remember. Write down a few different options and see what you like best. It’s also a good idea just in case the name you chose is already taken. You want a name that is uniquely your own since this is going to be your own blog.

CLICK HERE to head over to Bluehost to make sure your domain name is available. You want to type in your ideas under “New Domain.”

Bluehost is a web hosting service. This means you’re renting a space online for your website to live. Again, for only $3.95 per month, you can’t beat it! That is cheaper than going to a fast food restaurant and much healthier too!

There are many different hosting companies out there, but I find Bluehost to be the best. My experience with them has been wonderful. I also find it to be the easiest hosting service to use as you can complete your integration with WordPress all in one place.

Once you have your domain name, you’ll want to choose your plan on Bluehost. For new bloggers, I recommend using their basic plan as it’ll cover everything you need. This includes your domain name for free! You can pay in one lump sum that’s good for 12 months, which will save you some money in the long run. Remember—you are starting a business, so there’s going to be some cost upfront.

You might be thinking, “Can’t I start a blog on a free blogging platform instead of paying money for one?” Yes, you can, but you won’t earn any income. Years ago, I started up a blog on one of these free platforms. It was awful! I didn’t know how to code anything, my blog looked unprofessional, and nobody was visiting my site. With all the hours I spent fixing problems along the way, I wasn’t creating quality content. Please, PLEASE, invest in yourself and your business and set up a self-hosted website. You can also cancel at any time if you change your mind. Another perk with Bluehost is they have people you are able to chat with that can help you out if you run into any issues along the way. They have helped me a few times when I made a mistake.

Once you have your domain name and you’ve chosen your plan, you’ll need to fill out all of the information. Under “package information” you don’t need any of the ad-ons to get started. After you fill out your payment information, you’ll create a new password and proceed to the next step.

INSTALL WORDPRESS

WordPress is a blogging software you’ll use to publish your content and make edits to your posts. I highly recommend using WordPress as it’s free to install and you can do it all through Bluehost. When logged into your Bluehost account, click on the “website” section and find the blue WordPress icon.

Next, select your domain. The next page shows you “Installation Settings” where you’ll agree to the terms of service. Click Install Now.

Once your installation is complete, you want to click on “View Credentials” and write down your Admin URL, Username, and Password. You have the option to change these to something you’ll remember, but you’ll need them when logging into WordPress for the first time.

Next, type your Admin URL into your web browser and login to your WordPress account. Congrats! You can now begin creating content for your blog!

CUSTOMIZE YOUR BLOG

This is one of the fun things to do with your blog as you can be creative and decide how you want your website to look like. You want to make your website prettier than it is now, but also have something that will invite people to visit your blog over and over again. WordPress offers some free blog themes for you to choose from. You can also choose from some of the premium themes, which are paid themes. If you still don’t find something you like, you can search online to find something that speaks to you. You want something fun and unique, but also affordable. It is all about, again, being you. People are visiting the website because there is only one you and they want to hear what you have to say.

I ended up searching Etsy for a WordPress theme and came across this Etsy seller. Her designs are wonderful and fit exactly what I was looking for. They are also affordable, so it was a win-win for me.

Again, when looking for a design, you want to take your blog seriously as this is your business. Even if you’re not sure if it’ll turn into a career, you should treat your website as such. You may need to invest a little bit of money upfront in order to make your website a reality. The goal is to have people keep coming back to see what you have to say. You want to appear professional, but also show off your personal style.

I hope you enjoyed this installment of starting your own website. I hope I’ve helped encourage you to start your own website and show you that it isn’t as hard as you thought it would be. With hard work and patience, I know you’ll be able to have a beautiful blog all of your own!

If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to comment below. I’d love to hear from you! I’m always happy to help anyone that is interested in starting your own website! I know many people were helpful to me along the way when I was getting my feet wet.

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