Want to start a treat website and blog but don’t know where to start? I know how frustrating it can be to deal with technical stuff when you really just want to have a website and blog to share your passions. Whether you want to start any type of treat website, or you want to become a more successful blogger, I hope these tips will ease your technical troubles.
Ready to start a beautiful treat webiste and blog? You have two options:
Hire a web designer to do it for you. Custom designs usually cost hundreds to thousands of dollars, but they are certainly an option if you have the money to spend. Be sure to ask for references and wait times before you make a payment. It is best to have an outline done and I will show you a template to follow in my next post. Another area, is to have content prepared so there are no delays in language, content, and posts.
Do it yourself. I’ll explain how to build your own self-hosted WordPress website below. It will cost you as little as $2.95 per month in hosting, plus the cost of a theme (free to $130). There are so many tools in WordPress’s Freemium and Paid Market. Including various tools that could come from your hosting provider.
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Start your own Website: the basic steps
Here are the basic steps to set up a self-hosted WordPress treat blog that is both beautiful and functional. Your blog will have your own domain name and your own distinct look, and it will be able to scale with you as your blog grows. When you’re starting a treat blog, I recommend following these steps for a greater shot at success.
1) Name your blog and buy a matching domain name.
Domain names are short, memorable and typically end in .com (yourblogname.com).
Cost: Could be as low as $10 per year. The key here is something unique, short and catchy. A website provider may allow you to registrar the domain and website.
Example Providers: Godaddy or BlueHost or AWS
2) Find a reliable web host.
A web host stores your website and makes it accessible to the world wide web. In other words, your website “lives” on your web host’s servers.
Cost: $2.95 per month and up
Example Providers: Godaddy or BlueHost or AWS
3) Install WordPress.
WordPress is top-of-the-line, industry standard blogging software. Many providers are including WordPress by default as software to host your website.
Cost: free!
4) Install a WordPress theme.
Your WordPress theme will determine the look, feel and functionality of your website. This is where your bread and butter for design techniques come from. Templates can range anywhere from free to $150. Some may also come in forms of two, parent and child themes.
Cost: free to $150.
5) Set up Google tools.
Google offers invaluable tools and services like Google SiteKit which incorporate Analytics, Search Console, Page Insight and many more. I will cover those details in another post.
Cost: Free Plug-in and Tools from Google (need to register a Gmail account)
6) Install WordPress plugins.
WordPress plugins extend the functionality of WordPress in certain areas. For example, one of my recommended free WordPress plugins helps prevent spam comments.
Cost: Most are free with paid advanced features! (I will cover WordPress plugins I recommend in another post)
7) Customize your website
With installing those themes and plugins, configure your website to look the way you want it to look. I will share with you the various ways to customize a website to look and navigate the way to your desire.
8) Start blogging!
Publish those changes, pages, posts, recipes, stories and photos.
Cost: hard work! (I will cover recommendations for WordPress Blog posts, pages, photos, and much more).