Want to start a blog?
If you’ve made it this far, you have probably put a fair amount of thought and research into it. Maybe you have a favorite blogger and you recently read their blogging how-to article. Or perhaps you saw a post about how to start a blog on Facebook or how to start a blog on Instagram.
If that sounds like you, then you’ve come to the right place! Blogging has become easier than ever thanks to platforms that take the complicated HTML coding out of blogging, making it accessible to anyone who has great ideas to share with the world and the interest in putting their words to paper (or keyboard, in this case). That being said, blogging for beginners can still be tough if you’re not quite sure where to begin.
Click here to start your blog and just follow the steps below to get you started in 15 minutes.
Enter Bluehost and WordPress. These two platforms are user-friendly and great for beginners.
There are lots of blogging platforms to choose from, but Bluehost takes many of the complications out of how to start a blog for free.
At this point, you may be wondering how to start a blog with Bluehost and WordPress.
Websites that use Bluehost have a number of benefits, including:
Bluehost domain login: You can access your Bluehost console and control panel from any computer, anywhere by simply inputting your domain and password into the Bluehost domain login.
Bluehost webmail: Check emails on your browser using the Bluehost console or through the Bluehost app. You also get a Bluehost email domain so emails sent through Bluehost appear to come from your blog’s domain name. Cool, huh?
Bluehost support: Although Bluehost tries to make everything as user-friendly as possible, sometimes you’ll have questions that require calling in the experts. Sometimes things break. Bluehost offers 24/7 technical support via live chat and phone for any questions, issues, or errors you encounter.
Bluehost WordPress hosting: Wondering how to start a WordPress blog with Bluehost? Bluehost has an easy installation process which makes creating your WordPress blog easier than ever.
Ready to get started? Just click here and start your WordPress blog on Bluehost, and keep reading to learn how to start a WordPress blog in 3 steps on Bluehost hosting.
How to start a WordPress Blog on Bluehost
1. Bluehost domain hosting: find & register your domain name
The first step towards making your blog with Bluehost and WordPress is to get a domain name. Your domain is your Bluehost website space.
Just click here to get a domain name and create your blog. Then you can follow the steps below to start your blog.
When a web hosting site like Bluehost provides domain name for your website, you can think of it as giving your website a name and a place to live.
A website’s domain name is essentially the site’s name and where it can be found on the internet. For example, if you host a website at wordpress.com/yourwebsite, then wordpress.com is the domain. Have you thought of a name for your blog? If not, you can pick something related to the topic you plan on blogging about, your company’s name (if you have one), or a personal hobby you’re interested in discussing on your blog. Some bloggers even choose their own name!
For some, picking a blog name can be as hard as choosing a name for a new baby. At some point, you may have second thoughts about your first pick. That’s ok! If you ever want to change your Bluehost domain name, you can pay $10 to have the new name added to your account.
With Bluehost you can get a FREE domain for 12 months if you take your web hosting with them for one year.
With this you can save a good amount of money, you get a cheaper hosting if you pay for at least one year in hosting. For me the best option is to take 36 months of hosting because you will pay only 2.75$ per month for your website hosting.
Bluehost domain pricing
If you need an additional domain you can also buy your website domain directly from Bluehost.
For your website’s domain, you can choose between .com, .org, and .net. Bluehost domain fees vary by domain type: .com costs $11.99 per year, whereas domain fees for a .org is $8.99, and a .net costs $12.99.
2. Choose hosting for your blog
Now that you’ve got a domain for your website, you’ll need to choose a hosting package. Bluehost offers a variety of hosting packages depending on how many sites you’re looking to run and how much storage space you need. This section will review the different packages in detail so you can choose the one that’s perfect for your blogging project.
Bluehost’s most popular hosting option is shared hosting. Using shared hosting means that your website will be physically stored on a server that is shared by other websites. This option is practical and affordable, so it’s very popular for entry-level bloggers and small business owners.
Concerned that using shared hosting will have a negative impact on your blog? Don’t be! To keep the speed of service equal for all blogs, both large and small, the Bluehost CDN (content delivery network) regulates and monitors each site on the server to ensure high-traffic blogs aren’t drawing too many resources away from smaller blogs.
Still have concerns? You can look into Bluehost VPS services as an alternative. Bluehost vps is similar to shared hosting in that your website will share server space with other websites, but instead of sharing a common pool of resources you’ll have your very own slice of the server space.
Signing up for Bluehost with a Bluehost new account
To signup in Bluehost, go their homepage, hover over “products” in the top left-hand corner of the navigation bar, and click on “shared hosting.” This will take you to a page where you can select your preferred hosting plan. There are three Bluehost plans to choose from with different benefits packages and price points.
Once you have your account setup, you can simply login in the future with the name of your domain and your password via the bluehost domain login portal.
Bluehost hosting plans
Jumping back to the metaphor of the domain being where your website lives, like any living situation, your website will have to pay rent. Your website’s rent will be in the form of Bluehost domain fees you pay on a monthly basis.
Bluehost hosting fees are structured into three tiers of Bluehost hosting plans: Basic, Plus, and Choice Plus.
At the entry tier of the Bluehost shared hosting plans, the Basic plan is designed for just one website that doesn’t need more than 50 GB of storage space. Plus, you can make up to 5 email accounts for multiple users or purposes, if needed.
The Basic plan is probably enough to get you started as a first-time blogger, but we’ll break-down the other tiers as well in case you have a bigger project in mind or are interested in expanding down the road.
One step up from the Basic plan is the Bluehost Plus hosting plan. With shared Plus hosting Bluehost, you enjoy all the benefits of the Basic plan plus Bluehost unlimited domain hosting (meaning an unlimited number of websites), email addresses, and storage space. If you know right off the bat that you’re interested in running multiple blogs, this would be the route to take.
The third and final tier is the Choice Plus plan. With that plan, you get everything from the lower plans in addition to advanced back-up. The back-up feature gives your data an additional level of insurance, so if you ever run into a situation where you would lose your data (like developer error, server outage, or hacking), your data will be backed-up by Bluehost and easily retrievable.
How much does Bluehost cost?
Bluehost cost varies because their plans have different price points based on the specific services they include. Bluehost shared hosting plans will cost $2.75 per month at the Basic level and $5.45 per month at the Plus and Choice Plus levels.
These rates are some of the lowest available for website hosting. In contrast, HostGator pricing begins at $5.95 per month for their basic plan.
Keep in mind that you can purchase services for different lengths of time which will also impact pricing. Contracts are structured on a month-to-month basis in addition to increments of 12 months, 24 months, or 36 months. Going with the 36-month package will get you the lowest possible monthly rate.
Longer contracts also eliminate the risk of your website expiring at the end of each month if your hosting isn’t renewed on time. An expired website means fewer visitors and less traffic which can hurt your business.
As a bonus for your first year, your fees will be discounted. After the first year, the Bluehost cost after first year will increase due to the Bluehost hosting renewal price. Your hosting price will increase to the standard, non-discounted price. Your Bluehost renewal price will cost anywhere from $7.99 to $14.99 depending on the tier of your package.
WordPress optimized hosting
For the best experience with your WordPress blog, Bluehost also offers WordPress optimized hosting. Bluehost’s managed WordPress solution, called WP Pro, offers ultra-fast speeds and an integrated all-in-one dashboard for WordPress blogs.
Bluehost WordPress pricing comes in three tiers based on what features and services you would like: Build, Grow, and Scale.
The “Build” tier is Bluehost’s entry-level package and costs $19.99 per month. The Build package will get a starter pack of services including site analytics, daily backups, malware protection, privacy protection and access to Bluehost’s marketing center.
The “Grow” plan clocks in at $29.95 per month and “Scale,” the highest tier package, is priced at $49.95 per month. A nice benefit of these higher tier plans is that you’ll receive Bluehost support and WordPress Live Ticket Support to help you quickly resolve any issues you may run into.
Both WP Pro and Bluehost’s standard hosting service will get you started on how to start a blog with Bluehost and WordPress.
If you’re unsure of which option is best for you, read a Bluehost domain review by a respected blogger in the space you’re looking to break into (i.e. cooking, home remodeling, photography, etc.) to see what they suggest. Bluehost reviews written by respected voices in the industry can teach you a lot about the different service Bluehost offers and how to best take advantage of them.
3. Connect your domain and your hosting
What if you want to host your blog using Bluehost but already have a domain you purchased elsewhere?
Note: If you purchased your domain on Bluehost you just can skip this step.
This is a common scenario. If you bought your domain through another site like GoDaddy, Namecheap, or HostGator you can still connect your domain to your Bluehost com website hosting plan.
If this sounds a little confusing, no worries, think of it this way: your domain is like your website’s address and the place where your website is hosted is like the property your house sits on. If you want to invite a visitor to your house, you’ll forward them your address so they know how to find you. Doing a Bluehost domain transfer will ensure anyone looking for your website will be pointed in the right direction.
To connect your third-party domain with your Bluehost hosting account, you’ll first have to login to the account you have with your domain provider. Each provider has different instructions on how to do this, so here are links to step-by-step instructions for some of the most popular domain providers:
Simply follow the steps in the linked how-to’s (or if your domain provider isn’t on this list, google “how to point my domain to a website hosted elsewhere” along with the name of your domain provider).
4. How to start a blog WordPress: Install WordPress
Wondering how you can use Bluehost to start a blog for free?
Here’s where the fun really begins! This section will teach you how to create a WordPress blog on Bluehost and how to start a blog for free (since WordPress itself is a free tool).
WordPress is one of the best blogging platforms for new bloggers because of how user-friendly it is. By using a Bluehost website builder like WordPress, instead of having to dive into complex HTML coding to build your blog, WordPress takes care of that for you.
It’s pretty easy to install WordPress on BlueHost. Instead of having to mess around with manually installing it, BlueHost walks you through each step and automates the most complicated aspects of the installation so you don’t have to do them. This article from Bluehost about How to Create Your First Web Page on WordPress is also super helpful!
See, blogging for beginners isn’t so hard after all!
After you install Bluehost WordPress, one of the first things you’ll do is choose a theme for your free blog. Your theme determines the overall organization and aesthetic of your blog. Some themes are free and others cost money.
While there’s no right or wrong when choosing a theme, some may be more compatible with whatever it is you have in mind for your blog. For example, if you’re a photographer or you run a jewelry shop and you want to feature images of your creations, you’ll want to go with an image-heavy theme. On the other hand, if you’re a journalist or writer looking to showcase your written work, you’ll likely prefer a theme that lets you display and organize text-heavy posts in an appealing and efficient way with less emphasis on large, high-resolution images.
Keep in mind that you’re not locked into the first theme you choose. You can experiment with a couple to find the one that works best for you, and if you ever tire of it or need a change of pace, you can easily download a new theme.
You can have a look at some of the WordPress themes we have created if you want to start a blog with style.
That sums up how to create a WordPress blog on Bluehost.
Bluehost template examples
Time to get artistic! Bluehost and WordPress have a ton of customization options for setting up the overall look, format, and style of your blog.
If you like to experiment, you can jump right in and start playing around with some of the site templates until you find something you like. For those of you who like to take a more careful approach to setting up your page, you can check out some pre-existing templates and Bluehost blog examples to see what’s working for other bloggers.
A great place to start your research is the Bluehost website. Bluehost has a ton of how-to articles and educational guides for a Bluehost student to take advantage of. Check out this list of The Best Magazine WordPress Themes and Building a Better Website with WordPress Themes. To explore more of Bluehost’s helpful resources, take a look at this list of our latest WordPress blog posts.
On a final note, are you planning on using your site to manage a small business or for Bluehost ecommerce? Google and Bluehost have partnered up to offer WordPress hosting solutions to Google Domain users.
Bluehost email
All tiers of Bluehost hosting service allow you to have an email address connected to your domain. Your Bluehost email address will use your Bluehost email domain, meaning any email you send will appear to come from your name@your domain.com. Pretty cool, huh?
Set up is fairly easy, too.
Before setting up your Bluehost email, decide how you’d like to access your inbox. Bluehost offers both browser-based webmail and an email client you can access from your desktop or mobile device.
- If you want to set up your Bluehost email through an email client like Outlook, Apple Mail, or Windows 10 mail, click here to see Bluehost’s step by step guide. Simply scroll down and click on your email client of choice to see the specific set-up instructions.
- Using an app instead? The same link also has guides for how to set up your Bluehost email on your phone. Scroll down and click on the links for Apple devices, Android devices, Blackberry, and Windows Phone 8, and then follow the simple instructions for your device.
- Prefer to check your Bluehost email using a browser? You can do that too! Follow these instructions to set up Bluehost’s browser-based webmail service. Keep in mind that you’ll need a webmail client for this. If you already have one in mind, Bluehost will walk you through how to connect it to your Bluehost account. If you don’t have one in mind, you can choose one of Bluehost’s three built-in webmail clients. The clients they currently use are RoundCube, Horde, and SquirrelMail.
Now you’re all set! To check your email, simply use the Bluehost login to Bluehost webmail from your browser or access it through your desktop email client or Bluehost app.
Sign up now Bluehost
There you have it! Your very first Bluehost blog. In three easy steps, you’ve learned how to create your WordPress blog with Bluehost hosting and can now begin posting some cool, engaging content.
Here’s a quick recap on how to start a blog with Bluehost free hosting:
- Find & register your domain
- Choose hosting for your blog
- Connect your domain and your hosting
- Install WordPress and build your blog with the Bluehost website builder
Keep a couple things in mind when choosing your Bluehost host plan. Each plan has different features along with a different price. Be sure to choose whichever one fits your project needs best! Longer contracts have a lower overall monthly rate, so choosing a 24 or 36-month option will save you money in the long-run.
If you’re a business owner using your Bluehost WordPress blog primarily to support e-commerce, you may eventually want to look into Bluehost Windows hosting because it’s optimized for e-commerce.
Pretty soon, your followers will be asking you how to start a WordPress blog on Bluehost. Or better yet, how to start a blog and make money!
Now that you know the in’s and out’s of how to start a WordPress blog in 3 steps on Bluehost hosting, you’re ready to get out there and make your own.
Ready to get started? Sign up now with Bluehost!