How to Setup WordPress.org & Bluehost

Hey y’all!  I’m back with the next lesson on how to get your blog up and running.  In case you missed it, I did share my First Five Tips for Starting a Blog last week, and I am assuming you all have gone over Tip #1 from that post!  And if you’ve signed up to receive my free resources, you’ve probably already been going over your “Starting a Blog Basic Checklist” that I sent directly to you (Not signed up yet? Click here to get the checklist to your inbox!).  Which means you are now ready for Tip #2, specifically, How to Setup WordPress.org & Bluehost.

Like I mentioned in the previous post, there are a variety of blogging platforms out there, but it’s important to be clear about what your goals are when it comes to starting a blog.  My tutorials here are going to help people that are interested in starting a blog that could potentially have the power to earn them money someday…because we all like extra income, right? Why not do it while you write and share your passion?  So anyways, in order to do this, WordPress.org is going to be necessary to allow you to do this without any kind of limitations.  WordPress.org is going to be able to give you full control and customization of your site and it’s functionality. You can add plugins (no idea what that is? No worries. We’ll get there!) and run ads to make money, as well as choose whatever theme you want, just to name a few things!

So Tip #2 from my last post was “Pick a Blog Name and Platform“.  By now you’ve been brainstorming a blog name and a domain name.  Your blog’s domain name is the web address that people will type in to visit your site, for example, mine is www.bessharringtoncarter.com.  Your blog’s name or title does not have to be the same as the domain name, although I would recommend it for consistency’s sake.  For example, no one is going to remember a site title of “Healthy Lifestyle Blog” when the domain name/URL is www.risingsunjournal.com.  Yes that is a totally random example, but you get what I’m saying.

Alright, so let’s do this.

First up let’s get your Bluehost account set up and get you that domain name.  (For disclosure, I personally use both WordPress.org and Bluehost and have been extremely happy with them and their customer service is amazing.  I would not recommend it if I did not!  I am an affiliate of Bluehost and may make a small commission if you decide to use Bluehost for your web hosting needs. I appreciate your support!)    Click here to open Bluehost in another tab so you can follow along step by step for set up!

How to Setup WordPress.org & Bluehost

Step 1:

Go to Bluehost and click the “Get Started Now” button, as shown below.

Here you can choose the package that is right for you.  I recommend selecting either the “Plus” package or the “Prime” package, both are on sale for $5.95/mo right now.  Whichever you decide suits your needs, simply click “Select” below the package of your choice and you will be taken to the next page.

Step 2:

Get your domain!  If you already own a domain (if you bought it from another site such as godaddy.com) you can input it on this page, or you can get your free domain through Bluehost.  Type in your desired domain name and click “next”.

FYI, if a domain name is already taken, Bluehost will notify you and it will look something like the image below.  I used my own domain name since I know that is already taken to give you an example.

Once you select “next” you will be taken to the payment portion of the page to complete your account set up.  Here you will see different options in the drop down menu box for “Account Plan”.

The 36- or 60- month plan is the best value but it’s entirely up to you.

Enter in all of your details and then click “Submit” at the bottom of the page.  Once you do this, you will receive an email confirmation to the address you put on file that will look something like this:

This email has your account login attached and will give you access to what Bluehost calls the “cPanel” (the control panel).

Step 3: Installing WordPress

On your cPanel page (If you aren’t taken directly there, you can navigate there by going to “hosting” then “cpanel” in the menu bar options.  Under the “Website” section, click “Install WordPress” as circled below:

You will then be taken to a page where you will enter in the domain name you wish to set up with WordPress.  Select your domain name from the drop down box and click “Next”.

Then follow the prompts to enter in your Site Name, then a username and password for your site. Check that you understand all of the boxes on that page and click “Install”.  When the installation is complete, you will get a “Installation Complete” confirmation message on the page.  Click on the link to view your credentials, and once you do this you’ll be taken to a page that will have your WordPress login information, including the link to your admin side of your blog.

CONGRATS! You’ve installed your very own self-hosted WordPress blog.  To login to your WordPress site at any time, you will enter in “http://yourblognamehere.com/wp-admin”, enter in your username and password and Voila! You’re in the dashboard of your blog where all the magic happens.

The next step here is to customize your site by selecting a theme.  We will touch on that next week!  This is where the creativity and your own personal touches are able to start coming out in the blog’s design.  I want to dedicate a full post to it since for me, this is when the “fun” really starts!!

Check back next week, y’all, cause we are going to dive in!!  And if you haven’t already signed up to receive my free blogging resources and email newsletter, you can do so right here!  I’ll send you the “Starting a Blog Basic Checklist” straight to your inbox 🙂

xo,

Bess