Starting Your Own Blog | Part 1

I’ve been asked by several people recently on how they can start their own website on the cheap.  Digging in a little deeper it usually turns out that a blog would meet most of their needs. This is the first of a multi-part series on how to start your very own blog using my favorite blogging software WordPress.

You have two options when starting your own blog.

1. Sign-up for a blog at one of the blogging providers like wordpress.com, blogger.com, or typepad.com. This is probably the easiest and in most cases free – that is until you want to do some customization like your own domain name.
2. Get your own domain name and web hosting package and set it up yourself. This is what we’ll cover in this series. It’s a little more involved but, the flexibility and what you’ll learn in the process is well worth the extra effort.

For  a more complete breakdown of the pros and cons of the two options you may want to check out WordPress.com vs. WordPress.org.

What You’ll Need: Below is a list of things you’ll need to get started. Remember to write down your usernames and passwords when you sign-up, you’ll be using them as you go.

1. Your own domain name – www.whateveryoulike.com. Register your own domain name at a reputable Registrar like GoDaddy. This should cost you around $10 for an available domain.
2. A Web Hosting Package. This is the actual server where your blog will live. I happen to use and like 1and1 because they are fairly reliable and extremely cheap. Make sure the web hosting package supports PHP programming language and MySQL databases. The beginner package at 1and1 costs $3.99 per month and has everything you need.
3. Blog Software. We’ll use WordPress. Download the latest version from WordPress.org.
4. FTP Client Software. FTP stands for File Transfer Protocol and this will let you copy files from your computer to your web host’s server. FileZilla is good and free.

That’s pretty much all you’ll need besides a computer and internet connection which you have if you’re reading this. You may have noticed that when registering your domain name that they also offer web hosting and, when signing up for web hosting they also offer domain name registration. I like to keep them seperate to not be tied to one company in case I want to switch web hosting companies or registrar later on.

Security Tip! You’ll be creating usernames and passwords as we go along. Make sure you create a strong password to avoid any problems with your blog getting hacked later on. As a guideline use at least 10 characters and mix letters, numbers and symbols.

Pointing Your Domain to Your Web Host

A domain name is just a user friendly way of calling up a not so friendly IP address – something like 74.125.155.103 which happens to be google.com. Now isn’t it easier to type in google.com in your browser? This is where DNS comes in. DNS, Domain Name System, tells computers which domain name is which IP address.

Login to admin.1and.com or your web host and click on manage domains. Enter your domain name and click on check domain. You’ll be given the option to point the DNS to 1and1. Choose this option. You may also be asked about MX servers. Go ahead and use the 1and1 servers too if you want to setup an email address on your domain. You will then end up on a screen that gives you two DNS servers. They will look like NSXX.1AND1.COM. Write these down.

Login to GoDaddy.com or your registrar. Click on Domain Manager and select your domain. Click on the Nameservers button and change the default servers to the two DNS servers you got from the step above. Submit the changes.

You should then receive email notifications from both your web host and registrar about the changes you just made. These changes take around a day to take effect across all the DNS servers across the world so be patient. Once it’s done you should get another email from your web host the DNS changes are complete.

In the next step we’ll be uploading the WordPress files using FTP. Read Part 2.