How to Start a Blog in 15 Minutes

Adam Entrepreneurship, Side Hustle

Why Blog

  • It’s a great outlet for your creativity and thoughts.
  • It allows for feedback from a like-minded community.
  • Writing helps improve your thinking.
  • It’s the lowest cost start to a side hustle out there.
  • Revenue and income are incredibly scalable.

What You Need

  • A domain name.
  • A host for your site.
  • WordPress and a Theme
    • X-Theme
    • Good free alternative
  • Basic Plugins
  • Social Media Accounts

Domain Name

In order to pick a domain name, you most likely need to choose a topic. What interests you? What’s your angle? Is the blog for fun or for profit (or both)? Is it easy to spell and remember? These are just a few of the considerations before choosing a domain name.

In my various businesses, I’ve used Hostgator, Hostmonster, and Bluehost. Bluehost is probably the easiest starter hosting you can choose and they give you the domain name for free with your purchase of an account, so I’ve used them for illustration.

First head over to Bluehost, who happens to be having a big sale at the moment.

What does Bluehost give you?


Click get started and choose a plan level.

You can always upgrade so no reason you can choose the bottom level. I’d personally pick the “plus”


Now you need to pick that domain name.


If you choose something already taken you’ll get a screen like this, offering you other similar options.


If it works you’ll see this screen.


Install WordPress

Log in to Bluehost and click “Install WordPress”. It’s pretty simple.

If you have any problems, Bluehost has a very simple video that shows how to do the install so I’m not going to fill my screen with 90 screenshots. Watch the video with it’s easy to follow instructions.

Themes

After logging in, it’s time to set up the wordpress basics.


What’s a theme? A WordPress theme provides all of the front end styling of your WordPress site. It gives you overall style, look and feel, including font, colors, widget locations, page layouts and lots of other stylistic details.

In addition, a good theme also makes using plugins, tools, and analytics WAY easier. So while there are a lot of decent looking free themes in the WordPress Directory, if you are in this for the long haul it’s a smart idea to just spend the money on a Premium Theme that’s going to make your life a lot easier in the future.

I started with a free theme with a name I can’t recall, but once I got serious I switched all my various sites to X-Theme, a top rated premium theme, that has provided an amazing level of functionality, drop and drag design, incredible customization, and integration with everything I need. I love it as do several other quality personal finance bloggers I’m friends with.

X-Theme costs $65 and they regularly update and add functions and have amazing support. I’ve asked questions in their customer support forums and have detailed, actionable answers in hours.

Install your theme. That option can be found under the “Appearance” section in your wordpress sidebar. Choose “Upload” and pick the file you purchased above.


Done!

Now you’ve got a blog.

Head over to the pages and posts section and get started! We’ll be doing follow-ups in the future on how to get started, get readers, and get traction.


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