Starting A Blog

I have had a blog for a little over a month now.  I must say that I have learned a lot since beginning my journey.  Life With Less Money has definitely been a learning experience for me.  Starting a blog has not been as easy as I thought it would have been, yet it has not been as difficult either.  I like learning new things.  So, the blog definitely keeps me busy with learning.  I thought it would be nice to keep a journal of things that I have learned about getting a blog up and going, especially since I will be having my daughter to set up a blog of her own for computer class this year.  I homeschool my youngest child.    I am listing a couple of things that I have learned below.  I am not tech-savvy,  just a mom trying to learn new things and develop a nice blog. For this post, I will only discuss setting up the blog.  I will continue to post in the future on new things as I learn them.

What type of blog do you want to have?  Free or Self-Hosted

First, I decided that I wanted a self-hosted blog. Having a self-hosted blog meant that I would have to find some hosting company to host my blog.  It also meant that I would be paying a small monthly fee to have my site hosted.  The upside is that I would be getting a site with a name such as makeitorfixit.com  as opposed to makeitorfixit.blogspot.com.  Way too much name to remember. From all the information that I have read, self-hosted is the way to go and it offers more freedom to do things on your blog.

However, I could have decided on a free blog.  Having a free blog meant that I would just sign up with the same company that would host my site.  I wouldn’t have to pay a monthly fee to anyone either.  But remember the long domain name that I would have also; makeitorfixit.blogspot.com.  I was sold on a shorter name.  Though, I have seen free blogs that are popular also.  A successful blog is always how much work you put into it.

Setting up my Self-Host Blog

First, I had to find someone to host my blog; a web host. The web host is a type of internet company that lets you put up your site online and allow other people the ability to view your site.  I hope that sounds simple enough.  I went with hostgator.com.  I went with this company because I researched online and it seemed to have gotten great reviews.  Plus, at that time, they were offering a free month of service for signing up and I wanted a .com site.  The free month gave me time to see if I actually wanted to have a blog.  If you go to their site, hostgator.com, you will be able to see where they offer a 20% off when you first sign-up.  I signed up on the free month, (not sure if that is still available), however, with the plan that I selected,  it now costs me $8.95 per month after that free month was up.  There is a cheaper plan than the one I have. There are also other web host companies that offer cheaper amounts. You have to fully research them.  I will stick with hostgator for now and work on trying to reduce my monthly fee with them.  If you are not trying to get a .com site, you can go with other companies, such as wordpress.com or blogger.com that will allow you to have a site for free. 

After I signed up with hostgator, I clicked the Install WordPress button and then the work began.  You can start blogging right off the bat almost.

On the next follow-up post, I will talk about deciding on what theme page (the appearance of my site….) I wanted for my site.  You start off with an automatic default theme page.  Trust me, you can change it easily.

Just throw your fears to the side and start your own blog!