How to Create a WordPress Blog

I started my blog using the WordPress platform and I have found it a great technology to publish your content online.
A WordPress theme provides flexibility and customisation features that Facebook could never provide.

It is the foundation to the success of this blog which currently receives over 300,000 hits per month.
If you’re looking for an easy way to create a web presence and start sharing your ideas online, the best way to do this is to create a blog. Millions of users around the world already express themselves and share their thoughts by means of their personal blogs.
The advantage of having your own WordPress blog that is self-hosted with your own domain name, is that you “own” it.
It is good to have a Facebook “page” or a Tumblr blog but they are owned by someone else and you can have a web presence there but under their “terms and conditions”
They are a rental. You never know when they will change the rules, ask you to leave or even demolish your house.

Build and Own your Online Assets

To build an online asset that you control and is fully flexible and can customise as you want then you need to own your domain with your own blog (website) and host it yourself.
If you are a writer, photographer, designer or just someone who wants to write about something personal and to hear opinions of others – a personal blog is something you can find new and exciting. Cheap and efficient, too. In the modern day, no special knowledge is required to create and maintain your own website. Actually there is a simple way of creating a WordPress blog in a matter of minutes.
In order to start a website, regardless of its nature and purpose, you need two things: a domain name and hosting.

The jeffbullas.com blog is hosted by Bluehost Web Hosting. For only $3.95 a month, Bluehost can help you set up and host your blog. Because JeffBullas.com is a Bluehost affiliate partner, my readers can use this link to receive a 50% discount off the monthly price and a free domain name. 

Why WordPress?

The WordPress blogging platform is the most popular software in the world with Wikipedia reporting

• WordPress is used by over 14.7% of Alexa Internet’s “top 1 million” websites
• It manages 22% of all new websites
• WordPress is currently the most popular CMS (Content Management System) in use on the Internet
• It was first released on May 27, 2003
• By December 2011, version 3.0 had been downloaded over 65 million times

It is also one of the easiest to use due to its flexibility and user-friendliness.
So how do you start a WordPress blog less than 5 minutes and start blogging?
Let’s go!

 Step 1: Choosing a web host

There are many hosting companies out there, but for a WordPress site, Bluehost should definitely be at the top of anyone’s list. Bluehost is the only hosting service officially recommended by WordPress and has been the number-one recommended hosting service for their platform for almost 10 years. There are many reasons why Bluehost is so highly recommended, but here are just a few:

• Premium customer service, reliability and usability
• Easy-to-use control panel
• Custom-built servers to provide the most stable and reliable hosting environment
• Quickly get started with our one-click WordPress install provided by MOJO Marketplace
• Expert, in-house technical support provided 24 hours a day, 7 days a week
• Unlimited websites, email accounts, and domains – all on one account at an affordable price
• No gimmicks, no contracts. Enjoy the comfort of a 30-day money back guarantee and the option to cancel at any time.

And to sweeten the deal even more, if you sign up through this tutorial, you’ll get a special offer of shared hosting at $3.95/month for 36 months, as well as a free domain name for a year!
To set up your hosting account with Bluehost, follow the steps below. It will speed up the process to think of a domain name you want to use and to have your credit card for payment ready to go before you get started.

Step 2. Set up your hosting account

To get started, go to Bluehost’s home page and click “Sign Up Now.”

 Next, you need to choose a domain name for your site. If you already own a domain name, you can enter it here, and you will just have to go through a few extra steps to make sure you get your DNS pointed to Bluehost. If you don’t already have a domain name, you can purchase one from right in the sign up process, and the best part is, it comes free with your new hosting account purchase.

Once you’ve entered a domain name, you’ll fill in your personal information.

Then, you’ll choose which hosting package you want. Normal, shared hosting is priced at 12, 24 and 36-month terms. To help save you money, the longer term you purchase, the lower the monthly rate will be. For example, by choosing a 36-month hosting term, you can get the great introductory rate of $3.95/month. And, because you’ve chosen to host with Bluehost, if you ever need more than a shared hosting account, Bluehost provides seamless upgrades to VPS or dedicated server hosting accounts from inside your control panel.
There are few other offers provided at sign up, which you can include at your discretion. One I recommend is Domain Privacy, a paid service that allows personal information to be kept private on WHOIS databases.

 

After you’ve filled in your information and chosen your hosting package, click the “Next” button to complete your purchase. You’ll then be asked to create a password for your account. You can use the Password Generator to create a strong and secure password, or create one yourself. It is required to have both capital and lowercase letters, a number, and a special character (?!#, etc.) in order to have a strong enough password to protect your account.
Now that you are all signed up and are able to log into your account, you can get started installing WordPress!

Step 3: Installing WordPress

This may seem like the most complicated step, but Bluehost has worked hard to make this one of the easiest things for you to do by using the new MOJO Marketplace for installing WordPress and other applications. In your cPanel, scroll to the section titled “MOJO Marketplace” and choose the “One-Click Installs” button. This will take you to a page inside MOJO Marketplace called Scripts and Platforms. The blog section is at the very top, so all you have to do here is click on the WordPress icon.

This will open the installation window. Click on the green “Start” button that will start the WordPress installation process, which has a few easy steps.

Step 1: Choose where you want to install WordPress

This can be any domain on your account, or a subdomain or a folder for one of your domains. Next, click on “Check Domain,” which will make sure the domain is assigned and pointing to your account. You may get a warning that you are overwriting files, but as long as you don’t have another website built yet, you can check the box and continue. This is mostly to make sure that you really want to install in that location. If you do have other sites built, you will want to make sure you’re not overwriting something important.

Step 2: Show advanced options

This section allows you to set up your own username and password for your WordPress install. IT is recommended to use a different username than “admin” and a very strong password. Make sure that the “Automatically create a new database for this installation” box is checked, unless you have a database already set up that you want to use.

Step 3: Agree to “T’s & C’s”

After you’ve read the terms and conditions, check the box indicating that you’ve done so, then click “Install Now.”

 Now you’ll see the progress page, which will show you how far along the installation is. Once WordPress is fully installed, it will provide you with your site URL, the admin login URL, your username, and password. You will get a copy of this information, except your password, in your email as well. Make sure to keep it in a safe place.

Now you can log into your WordPress site by going to the admin login URL. Enter your username and password, then click “Log In.” This will take you to your WordPress dashboard. From here, you can control everything to do with your WordPress site, such as creating pages, writing posts, and changing the appearance.