How To Start A WordPress Blog Using Bluehost (Tutorial)

Tutorial: How To Start A Bluehost WordPress.org Blog or eCommerce Site

If you’re looking for information on WordPress blogs or launching your own blog or website using WordPress (wordpress.org, NOT wordpress.com) with Bluehost, you’ve come to the right place! In this tutorial, you will learn why a self-hosted WordPress blog is better than any other, how to install WordPress and simple step by step instructions on how to create a WordPress blog on Bluehost. You will also learn the advantages of starting your blog or transferring your blog to a WordPress.org site hosted by Bluehost. Try not to feel too overwhelmed; It’s simple and you’ve come this far – you’ve got this!

First of all, there is a difference between WordPress.com and WordPress.org. And while WordPress.com does have Business accounts, the limitations are still there and the price will cost you about $300 per year. I paid so much money before I finally wised up and realized my blog and I would be better off switching to a self-hosting service like Bluehost and using WordPress.org.

This blog post contains affiliate links to Bluehost. I am not paid for my opinions, only for referrals. I personally LOVE Bluehost, and would recommend it whether I was getting a commish or not. The reviews of Bluehost and the opinions expressed here are my own.

How to Set up your Blog on WordPress (easy step-by-step tutorial)

Setting up your blog on WordPress with Bluehost is actually really easy. When I first signed up I was a little nervous but soon realized I was totally overthinking it. So, don’t overthink it, it’s easy and takes just around 10 minutes!

You will be SO GLAD you switched over to your own self-hosted site and here’s why:

You’re in Control – You will have total control over your own website. The look, feel and theme capabilities will be endless.
It’s Easy – If you’ve been using wordpress.com, the Dashboard on WordPress.org through Bluehost looks the same! It won’t be like you have to relearn a whole new platform (whew!)
Awesome Customer Service – I have my sites hosted through Bluehost and their customer service is unmatched by ANY provider I have ever used. I have built dozens of WordPress sites and they are hands down, the best.
Make More Money You will have more opportunities to make REAL money with your blog, not just pennies from affiliates who don’t pay much in commissions.
Professional – If you are serious about blogging and making money, you NEED to be on a self-hosted site with wordpress.org and Bluehost. You won’t have to worry about the “Free WordPress” or “Created with a Free Blogger” text at the bottom of your blog or website anymore.
It’s cheaper to self host your blog or website with Bluehost. On average, you will save about $100-$200 per year in hosting fees. On wordpress.com I would have had to pay $300 per year for hosting alone. Yikes! With Bluehost, I only have to pay $107/year, which includes my domain, hosting and privacy. Totally affordable and worth it! P.S. WordPress.org through Bluehost is free!
Tons of Options – Widgets, Plugins and capabilities you don’t currently have using a free Wordpress.com or Blogger account
More Affiliate options You can use the Amazon, ShopStyle. Rstyle affiliates or other java based affiliate widgets with wordpress.org as opposed to wordpress.com
Analytics. That’s all I’m gonna say. If you think Jetpack stats on your free wordpress site is cutting it, you haven’t seen what Google Analytics can tell you about your readers or customers, and what they’re looking for! Trust me, a free Blogger, WordPress (or even a paid Weebly) site is not going to give you all your Analytics data. And you need this if you want to make money with your blog.

Look at today as the start of something awesome for yourself! It’s a big step in the right direction. And don’t worry, I will teach you all you need to learn about setting up your own blog using Bluehost and WordPress. You will be able to easily create a blog on your own and learn how to start a WordPress blog by the time lunch is over, or breakfast..or whatever time it is where you are right now. Freelance work and blogging totally changed my life and allowed me to work from home and make thousands of dollars, and there is plenty of free space for you to do the same thing. You can start a blog that earns passive income for just a few dollars a month. The small investment is certainly worth huge rewards you will receive! The reason paying for your blog services makes sense is: free blogs can get shut down anytime, especially if you are trying to use it to make money. Paying for your blog and host is the only way to go to protect yourself and your hours of blogs and content.

I have included a link to BlueHost for you that will allow for you to easily choose what works for you: Click here to start your blog on WordPress, (a new window will be opened) then you can come back to this page and I will walk you through the easy step-by-step instructions with the tutorial below.

I love the direction my life has taken since I quit my full-time desk job and started earning more than I did before – just by working freelance and using my blogs as a place to talk about my expertise and travels. It combines a few of the things I love the most: travel and working for myself!

If you’re looking to start a WordPress blog with little money, your smartest choice is Bluehost for your hosting. They are simply the best web host I have personally used – And I have done business with a lot of different services, hosts and website companies! My Bluehost experience has been stellar. Bluehost is one of the top web hosting companies of 2017 and you can start your own blog with them for as low as $3.75 a month! I don’t know any hosting with full capabilities THAT cheap. Not even Weebly. Which, by the way, if you are on Weebly, you can use with Bluehost. I recommend signing up for the 12-month hosting plan through Bluehost. It will save a lot of money in the long run by signing up for at least 12 months.

If you aren’t yet convinced that you can make money with a blog, think again. The new e-commerce strategies are Content with (or before) Commerce. In case you haven’t noticed, all of the top level e-commerce sites now have blogs. Why? People LOVE content and Google LOVES the SEO. Even if the only thing you sell is your expertise as a graphic designer or a consultant in whatever subject you’re an expert in, a blog is an excellent idea and it will pay off if you are utilizing it correctly and if it’s on the RIGHT platform.

Read: How I turned one single blog post into $250,000 AdWords value

So you see, you are as good anyone out there who is making money with a blog. I am living proof and there are more people who will say the same. There is still a lot of white space. But getting in and getting started NOW is important. Don’t settle for the free accounts. You will be limited. I learned this the hard way. I thought I was rocking and rolling with my blog until I switched over to WordPress.org and hosted it with Bluehost. Not only is it well worth it to pay for blog hosting, but it’ll also pay for itself in no time. Bluehost is one of the top web hosting companies in 2017 and you can start your own blog with them for as low as $3.75 a month! I don’t know any web hosting with full capabilities that’s THAT cheap. Not even Weebly. Which, by the way, if you are on Weebly, you can use with Bluehost. I recommend signing up for the 12-month hosting plan through Bluehost. It will save a lot of money in the long run by signing up for at least 12 months.

If you are interested in making real money off your blog, freelancing or turning it into a business, then paying for your hosting through Bluehost is ideal.

The financial benefits of using Bluehost with WordPress.org over a free blog service:

You can post your own advertisements, promotions, banners, affiliate links, direct advertising, etc. on your blog without restrictions-Thus making more money!
Earning substantial income on a free WordPress.com, Blogger or any other free blogging platform is very hard, if not impossible, as you are competing with your hosts’ advertisements. In fact, they are the ones making money from your traffic.
Most advertisers and companies won’t advertise on free blog sites as they seem too amateur or unprofessional.

Read: How A Blog Makes Money

There are many reasons for why you may want to choose Bluehost for your WordPress blog and I honestly believe they are one of the best web hosting providers. These reasons include:

It’s easy to use. Yes, ANYONE can create a WordPress blog easily with my tutorial below. Bluehost makes it very easy to create a WordPress blog.
Bluehost web hosting offers technical support.
Bluehost is extremely affordable and they offer cheap web hosting. You can have a blog of your own and the only real expense you need to pay is the cheap blog hosting which starts at just $3.75 per month.
You get a FREE blog domain.
WordPress through Bluehost is FREE.
Bluehost offers a guarantee in case you determine that it is not for you. If you sign up for Bluehost, but you are confused for any reason (such as how to set it up, picking a plan, pricing, etc.), you can always send me an email and I can help you out.
You will be self-hosted. If you want to monetize your blog, then you will want to be self-hosted.
You will appear much more professional to readers, companies, and so on if you are self-hosted on Bluehost than being on Blogspot.

First, you will need to go to Bluehost to do any of this. The best bloggers in the industry use WordPress.org with Bluehost, and you should too because you’re a superstar!

Tip: If you start a blog on Bluehost and are interested in learning more about how to start a blog on WordPress, continue to the tutorial below. Remember, if you sign up for Bluehost and you need help, shoot me an email and I can assist you!

Ok, ready? Click here to start the ball rolling!

TUTORIAL: How to start and create a WordPress blog on Bluehost

In this tutorial, you will learn how to: Start a WordPress blog on Bluehost. Don’t worry, it’s easy and takes just around 15 minutes!
Yes, in case you didn’t notice, I highly recommend Bluehost for blogging 🙂

1. Register your domain name (If you don’t already have your domain, click here to purchase a domain name and create a blog) You can get your domain directly through Bluehost, which will make signing up and whole process alot easier. When I first signed up for Bluehost, my domain was registered with iPower and while the transfer over to Bluehost was relatively easy, It did take about 7 days to get moved over to Bluehost. (Side note: This is one of the reasons why I chose to leave iPower because it had pretty horrible customer service and they were charging me $200 year for hosting and services I wasn’t even using. So, take my experiences and go with a provider who is awesome from the get go and save yourself a huge headache!) If you register with Bluehost you will get a FREE DOMAIN name for the 1st year. Easy peasy! 🙂 You’ll get a better rate if you do the 12 mos, too.

If you decide to get the free domain, just continue on to the next step and you can buy your hosting plus get the free domain all in one go!

2. Choose the best hosting package for your blog needs and buy hosting for your blog. To receive the cheapest price to start your blog, you may choose the Basic Plan. Unless you are planning on some serious content, it should be what you need. The Basic Plan is only $2.75 per month if you sign up for 36 months. If you sign up for a 24-month plan, then the price is $3.95 per month. Again, this is very affordable, especially since I was paying in excess of $59 per MONTH for Shopify! NO KIDDING! I did that for over 8 months. I totally wasted over $500 on a website that I ended up scrapping and having to rebuild later. DON’T DO THIS. WordPress has a great WooCommerce plugin that’s FREE and it’s so much easier to use than Shopify’s e-commerce site. Even if you purchase the 12-month plan with Bluehost, your total price is only $59 a year, which pales in comparison to what I paid on Shopify. Ugh, you live and learn.

3. OK, assuming you chose The Basic Plan, which is all you’ll need right now to get started; skip the Plus and Business Pro. (note: Yes, you can always change it or upgrade later if you need to)

4. You will be asked to choose a new domain name now if you don’t already have one registered. Type in your chosen domain name and press Next.
If you do have a domain registered already that you want to use for your blog, proceed to “I have a domain name” and press Next

5. Add Domain Privacy Protection, it’s only about $11 per year and worth every penny! Why? So people can’t find your address and contact info! Keep your private information private.

6. Uncheck any of the extras that are listed, unless you really want the extras. (I didn’t add any on my account sign up, fyi)

When you are ready to create your blog, follow the steps below to buy hosting for your blog:

Go to Bluehost and click the “Get Started Now” button.
Click on the hosting package you want (I chose the pro package because I knew I would have multiple websites/blogs. If you know you’ll only have 1, go with the Basic Plan)
Enter the domain name you registered earlier
Enter your account details and payment information
Next, choose your password (an ideal, secure password is one that contains letters, numbers and special characters/symbols)
Now: Connect your domain and your hosting! You can skip this section if you purchase your domain through Bluehost
NOTE: If you buy your domain through another hosting account such as iPower, Go Daddy or other, then you will need to log into your domain account with them and go to Domains located in the CPanel and either change the DNS or unlock the domain you wish to transfer over to Bluehost. Your domain provider should be able to assist you with this and it shouldn’t take longer than a few days to fully transfer over. While it’s transferring, and once it has transferred, you will be informed by Bluehost of it’s progress.
Go to the main Dashboard in Bluehost and scroll down to where you see “Website” and press “Install WordPress” on Bluehost. This is probably the most important step that you’ve been looking for. If you want to start a WordPress blog on Bluehost then continue reading:

8. If you need the link to get to this screen above, check your email. You should have received a welcome email from Bluehost, find and click on the button that says “One Click Install.” If you have clicked on the Install WordPress, you will now see a Mojo screen. Press “Continue Installation” to proceed.

9. Select your domain for WordPress installation. Now you will need pick your domain name which is installed from the dropdown menu.

10. Once you’ve selected your domain you want to use, now press “Next”

11. You should now see “Advanced Options.” This is where you choose your username and password for your WordPress website. Use something unique that cannot be guessed easily!

12. Tick the box “Automatically create a new database for this installation”

13. Click “Install Now.”

Voila! You now have created an official WordPress blog on Bluehost! 🙂 Time to celebrate!!!

Now for the fun part: Blogging and picking your own blog theme! There are so many awesome WordPress themes available for free or you can buy one from Mojo Marketplace for around $59. Make sure whatever theme you buy is mobile friendly, though! Have fun and good luck!

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