How To Start A WordPress Blog On Bluehost
In this tutorial I will explain you step by step how to start a wordpress blog on Bluehost. You can go straight to Bluehost by clicking here while following the following steps. Bluehost is a great and cheap hosting company with 24hs 7×365 support, they give you a FREE domain and free SSL certificate ( allows your site to be “https” instead of only “http” ) that I strongly recommend you install. My experience with Bluehost has always been more than satisfactory.
Blogging is a wonderful activity, it has the power to change your life, lets you connect with other people. It is another way of growing as a person, at the same time can give you the chance to be independent and work from home or anywhere in the world.
If you want to learn more general aspects of starting I recommend reading my guide How To Start A Blog
Bluehost is one the world’s best companies. It is worth to pay for blog hosting, starting at only $ 3.95 per month. I recommend you to pay for 12 month plan or longer. But the best deal is to pay for 36 months because the monthly rate is much lower. Having a self hosted blog is the best way to build your authority.
Summing up, here is why Bluehost is a great option:
- More than 2 million people use it and top bloggers and influencers recommend it.
- You get a FREE domain
- You get a FREE SSL certificate that allows you to have a secure “https” version of your site.
- 24/7 support. In my experience I’ve seen the support team are very responsive.
- You can install wordpress with just one click
Click here to open Bluehost in another tab so you can follow then the steps below.
How to start a WordPress blog on Bluehost
Click on the Get Started Now green button to continue to the next page.
Step 1. Select your plan
Here you need to choose if you are going pay for 12,24 or 36 months. In terms of pricing, 36 months is the best option as it has the lower monthly rate.
Step 2. Register your domain
Here simply you choose your domain name.
Step 3. Enter your information
Then you enter you personal information and also choose whether you want privacy information or not. If you choose NOT to have privacy information then someone can go to whois and check you are the owner of that site and get also your email. Spammers usually take advantage of this information and then send spam emails. It is up to you if you want this extra security level.
Step 4. Install WordPress With just 1-click
Now that you have paid for your domain name and hosting you can login to the cpanel page ( this is the control panel for your hosting account) and click on the button “install WordPress”. Sometimes it can happen that your WordPress domain can take some hours before being live and you will see another server name instead of “https://yoursite.com”
Step 5. Install SSL certificate
If when you go to you site you see it starts with “https://” you can skip this step. But in my experience sometimes is not like this, so you need to install the SSL certificate that allows your site to be a secure site. You can follow this guide to do it : https://my.bluehost.com/hosting/help/free-ssl If you have problems or doubts about it you can contact the support team by chat or phone and they will kindly help you.
Step 6. Choose a theme
The design and “look and feel” of your site is a very important aspect. If when starting you want to use a free theme I recommend you Generate Press, because it is lightweight and optimized for mobile. However, I strongly recommend you to have a well design and professional theme, because it will allow you to configure and change the design of your site easier. A good source of themes is Theme Forest.
Step 7 . Install WordPress plugins
This is the list of WordPress plugin I recommend you to use. There are other alternatives for each, you can experiment and try what’s the best for you.
- Yoast SEO plugin. This plugin will add a tab at the end of your article where you can see the SEO optimization for the keyword you selected. It will tell you what you need to improve in a very simple way. Also will give you a readability score based on your text writing.
- Akismet plugin: this plugin will prevent spammers to comment on your site
- Q2W3 Fixed Widget: this plugin will leave fixed any widget on the side bar. That means that when scrolling down people will still see your banner. Why is this good? Because it increases the conversion rate, so more people will click on your banner ( that can be a display ad or an image link to some product offer for example)
- Autooptimize: Optimizes your website, concatenating the CSS and JavaScript code, and compressing it.
- Elementor: a free drag & drop page builder for creating landing pages.
- Pretty link plugin: this plugin lets you create redirect links that “look pretty”. Instead of having an affiliate link like “https://kwfinder.com#a593fde3c285f73019fae39c7 ” you can create link like https://safarinomad.com/kwfinder
- Pinterest Pin It Button On Image Hover : this makes that your images show a Pin it button. In this way people can share on Pinterest and increase your traffic.
- Social Warfare: for adding sharing buttons.
- Wordfence Security : for protecting the security of your site
- WP Super Cache: having a cache makes your site faster.
- Wp-Insert: for adding display ads in your site.
In addition, I have a 7-day blogging course by email where I go more in depth with technical aspects of blogging, how you can money with it and my best tips. You can subscribe below.
