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I started my blog on a whim one day in 2016 when I was stuck at home, bedridden with a concussion. Not sure what to expect, and without a clue what I was doing – but I started.
With blogging, you completely start from the bottom: square one. Personally, I knew nothing about blogging. Absolutely nothing. I have a friend who’s a YouTuber and does some vlogging as well, so that was basically the extent of my knowledge of this whole world on the Internet.
It all started with my obsession with Instagram, and seeing all of these mommy bloggers and their adorable kids and their sponsored posts – I’d love to be able to stay home like that with my kids (when I have them) and still make an income some day.
So I began following some of their blog posts, and they were great and all, but I wanted a little more than just some “day in the life” posts to read.
Through Instagram, and eventually Pinterest, I found this crazy world of blogs. And I loved reading other people’s posts.
In comes my third major concussion, leave from work, and the start of Maybe Jamie! The very first post I wrote explains how my blog came about.
But before my website launched, a looooooot (see how many o’s there are!?) of research was put in on how the hell to make a website. It was a lot of work and a lot of time, but with all my time off, I put in the effort and out came this little lovely blog Maybe Jamie!
How To Start A WordPress.org Blog
First things first – brainstorm a name.
I’m pretty sure I took like a solid week of back and forth between names. If you’re planning on turning your blog into a business one day, you’re not going to want something random like balletdancer46 as your website name.
I recommend playing with your real name somehow. I would have loved to just use my first and last name, but I plan on getting married in a few years, as well as still having my blog, so I didn’t want to have the wrong last name.
If you know what kind of specific niche you want to be in, you could think of a name that has to do with that!
Use the domain checker above to see if the name you want is available!
Once you feel like you’ve decided on a name, check social media platforms (just search for the name) and see if they have that name available as well. It’s not the biggest deal if they don’t, it’s just easier for people to find you at first if they all match.
So you chose a name, yes! Now what?
Registering Your Domain & Hosting
If you’re serious about your blog becoming a business one day, you’re going to have to dish out some money up front. Having your own domain makes you so much more credible, and makes you eligible for monetization in the future.
Your domain is your website name (aka “www.maybejamie.com”)
Head on over to Bluehost.com to get yourself started. Their site is super user friendly and you can get your hosting for just a few dollars a month.
Simply click the Get Started Now button and follow along! Sticking with a Basic plan to begin with is totally fine if you’re just a beginner.
If you found a domain name that is not already taken, you can register under New Domain.
This is the time you’ll create your account and fill in all of your information. This is also the time you pick the length of your Account Plan (the longer you choose, the cheaper per month it will be).
Then adding on any protection plans is totally up to you. There’s descriptions under each one explaining their benefits.
I recommend Domain Privacy Protection, as it will protect you from your personal information (address, phone number, etc.) from being readily available.
Once you add in your credit card to process the payments, your on to the fun part!
Install WordPress
Once you log into your Bluehost dashboard, you’ll be able to install WordPress.
This is the platform that your blog will live and breathe off of. Where you’ll design your site, write your posts – everything.
You’ll follow the prompts, and create a WordPress login. This login will take you to your WordPress dashboard where you will design your site and write all your posts. Make sure you remember it!
To get to the login page, it will always be www.YourUrl/wp-admin – (obviously replacing YourUrl with your own domain name).
Once you login to your WordPress account, you’ll see your dashboard. This will become your new best friend. Take a look around and get a feel for how everything works.
And there you have it! Your website is all set up! Your next step is to decide how you are going to design your site, and that’s the super fun part! Good luck!
Creating your own website definitely takes a little (a lot) of trial and error. So much research is put into learning how everything works, but I think it’s so important to learn as much as you can.
There are so many wonderful resources out there for helping to learn everything related to website building & designing, and blogging in general, and even a simple search on Google or Pinterest will give you loads of information.
Purchasing your own domain and using a WordPress.org platform allows you to OWN your website, meaning you can put whatever content on there that you would like, and you have the rights to it all. And you can switch everything up at any point if you feel you want to go in a new direction!
If you’re eventually planning on monetizing in the future, owning your own site is so so important.
Creating a blog was such a learning experience for me, and I’m so glad that I chose to do that. It’s been so fun learning so much new information and and applying any knowledge I previously had (I already knew a wee bit of coding!)
Having my own place to express myself, share my favorite memories, and help others out has been so great. It’s been a great creative escape for me and I can’t wait to see where it goes next. Some of my favorite posts include this one and this one!