How To Start A Blog

Are you finally ready to begin the journey of making money online?

The good news is that anybody (beginners or non-techies) can create a website using this easy and practical steps provided in this post.

Starting an online business in a process built upon a series of the steps summarized below:

• Step one: Choosing a niche
• Step two: Creating a buyer persona and defining your unique selling proposition.
• Step three: Creating a website for your business.
• Step four: Content creation
• Step five: Optimization
• Step six: Monetization
• Step seven: Promotion

In part one of step three I wrote a detailed post explaining three things you need before setting up a website: domain name, hosting and website platform.

In this post which is part two of step three, I am going to give you an actionable step-by-step to teach you how to create a website for your online business.

 

Why Do You Need a blog?

 

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• You are in control: Unlike in social media platforms and other free content creation platforms where rules change, in a site, you define the terms rules.
• Your competitors have them too: Consumers always research before they make buying decisions. I am sure you do not want to remain irrelevant to them because you are not doing what other online businesses in your niche are doing. Creating a website for your business will help you to be found by those consumers.
• It will be a resource center: A site acts as a portfolio where you can showcase your skills, projects, and This builds social proof and credibility for your audience. Creating a website for your business can also help you find new job opportunities because a site acts as a resume.
• Be where your customers are: Research shows that more than 2 billion people have access to the internet daily worldwide. Imagine that 90% of this people are looking for information online or purchasing different products, would you not like to have a platform you can provide that value? Creating a website for your business will help you to be accessible to this people because it runs 24 hours.
• Influence: Having a website sets you apart as an authority and agenda setter. Your fans will look up to you for information and other value propositions from your site.
• Low cost of setting up: With the existence of cheap hosting service providers and easy to use website builders and content management systems (CMS), creating a website for your business has become easy even if you’re a non-techie and complete beginner.
• Networking: A website will help you to connect with and get discovered by other influencers in your niche. This is highly beneficial to your growth and learning development.
• Be international: Any resource on the internet is accessible to a global audience. Your website is one of those resources meaning that you will make an impact both locally and internationally. Thus, creating a website for your site before starting an online business will open doors to better partnerships and opportunities in international markets.

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What Do You Need Before Creating a Website for Your Business?

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1. Niche

A niche is a specific segment of your target audience that shares common characteristics and problems.

You cannot serve all customers on the internet-you will undoubtedly be overwhelmed and lose focus. For this reason, you need to choose a niche before starting an online business.

Examples include fitness, marketing, food, politics, and fashion among others.

For more information on niches refer to this article: 3 Quick Hacks of Finding Your Niche Now

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2.  A buyer persona and unique selling proposition (USP)

A buyer persona defines who your customers will be, what they want to accomplish, which goals drive them, how they make buying decision and why they need your services and products.

On the other hand, USP is the selling point or advantage that will give you a competitive advantage over other online entrepreneurs in the niche you are targeting.

It is that characteristic of your products or unique way of doing things that will ensure that you succeed in marketplaces where other people have failed or have left gaps. You need to have a precise definition of the two before creating a website for your website.

For more information on these two refer to this article: How to Create Accurate Buyer Personas and Unique Selling Propositions.

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3. Domain name, hosting service provider and website platform

You need these three before creating a website for your business.

A domain name is a network address, which users and search engine with use to access your website. For example, Google.com, Facebook.com, and Yahoo.com are all domain names.

A web hosting service provider has servers and data centers that store your website resources. When internet users enter your URL or domain name in the browsers, the search engines crawl all the servers available on the internet and delivers the results to the users, which will be your web pages. Examples include SiteGround, BlueHost, Hostgator, Dreamhost, A2hosting, and Hostwinds among others.

A website platform is an environment where you will design and build your website pages and other resources. Examples include WordPress, Wix, Squarespace, and Weebly among others.

For more information on the three refer to this article: Three things you need before setting up a website.

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4. Know the type of website you want to build There are many types of websites, such as blogs, e-commerce sites, membership sites, academic sites, personal portfolios and news sites among others. To get a comprehensive list of all the type of websites read these two articles here and here. Every website has a unique design and requires different resources, such as themes, hosting and plugins, which serves its purpose better. For this reason, understanding the type of website you want to create before starting an online business will help you to make the right choices on different resources required from the beginning to the end.

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A Step-By-Step Guide to Creating a Website for Your Business

 

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Before we Dive into creating a website for your business, first let’s gather all the resources we need as shown in the table below.

This is just a hypothetical example just to give you a mind map of what you need before starting out.

Resource	Chosen Alternative
Niche	Fitness
Buyer Persona	Overweight teens struggling with self-esteem and body image
Unique Selling Proposition	Provide highly actionable and practical programs as opposed to theoretical information
Domain Name	Transformteen.com
Hosting Service Provider	Bluehost Shared Hosting
Website Platform	WordPress
Type of website	Blog

Why Bluehost?

• Recommended by WordPress.org: If you are using WordPress as your website platform, you want to choose a host that is recommended by WordPress.org.
• Popularity: Bluehost powers over 2 million websites on the web, which means they are reliable.
• Money-back Guarantee: If you test out their services and do not like, Bluehost has 30-days money back guarantee.
• Available support: Bluehost has a vibrant support system through chat, email, forums and knowledge base support, such as the Get started Guide.
• Affordable: Their shared hosting plan starts at $3.95, which is cheap and affordable considering the features available. The good thing about Bluehost is that it has a wide range of hosting types and plans, which you can upgrade to when your website begins to grow.

You can also check out Bluehost’s managed WordPress hosting, which starts at $19.90 per month.

Additionally, if you want a cheaper alternative for managed WordPress Hosting take a look at SiteGround’s managed WordPress hosting in this link. You can also check out my full SiteGround review here on the 10 reasons why I love SiteGround.

Why WordPress?

• Popularity:Over 25% of websites are powered by WordPress see them here in this showcase.
• Theme and plugin ecosystem:WordPress has over 1million+ plugins and themes which are all free.
• For both technical and non-techies: If you are not the technical kind of person like me, why pay over $200 to hire a developer for something you can create for yourself by following these simple guidelines.
• Availability of resources: There are countless blogs, websites and YouTube channels dedicated to teaching non-techies and beginners how to make the best use of the WordPress platform.

PS: I am talking about WordPress.org, not WordPress.com. Read a comparison of how the two are different WordPress.org vs. WordPress.com.

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A Step-by-Step Guide to Building A Blog

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STEP ONE: VisIt BlueHost

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Use this link to visit Bluehost and get a 50% reduced cost.

Once on that page, click on the “Get Started Now” button. See image below.

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STEP TWO: CHOOSE A PLAN

 

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Bluehost has three plans available in the shared hosting type: basic, plus and prime. All are good for you, but we are going to choose a basic plan because we are just starting out. Once your website begins to get traffic, you can upgrade to a higher plan.

Click on the “Select” plan Button to be directed to the next step.

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STEP THREE: ENTER YOUR DOMAIN NAME

 

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The good news is that Bluehost offers domain names for free, you do not pay for it as part of the hosting package.

If you are still struggling with this step and can’t seem to make up your mind, proceed to the next by clicking on the “Choose later!” link at the bottom.

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STEP FOUR: CREATE AN ACCOUNT

 

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In this step you will complete five essential activities: provide contact information, complete package information, enter billing information, agree to terms and conditions and finally submit the application. See the images below.

Firstly fill out your contact information and other personal details……

Secondly, complete the package information, such as choosing the duration and purchasing additional services…..

Finally, provide payment/billing details, agree to terms and submit the application.

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STEP FIVE: INSTALL WORDPRESS

 

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After completing step four above, you will receive an email with your Cpanel login details.

Visit Bluehost and login to your Cpanel dashboard.

In the Cpanel, navigate to the website section and click on the “Install WordPress” option.

You will be redirected to Mojo marketplace, a site that allows you to install WordPress at a click of a button without navigating through multiple steps. Click on the “Start” button.

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After clicking on the start button, you will be taken to a page where you will be required to select the domain you want to install WordPress on. Just select the domain you registered while you were purchasing the Bluehost hosting package and click on the “Check Domain” button.

You can choose to edit username, password and site name details in the advanced settings, then click “Install.”

 

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Wait for a few minutes for the installation to finish, and a screen with your WordPress login credentials will appear.

Login to your WordPress dashboard with those credentials and begin the next processes.

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So What Do You Do Next Now?

 

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1. You can head over to Bluehost and signup for a hosting package with a 50% free offer if you have not already done so by now.
2. Visit Bluehost Get started Guide to complete any other task recommended in the Cpanel, such creating an official email account and adding SSL certificates among others.
3. Read this article to learn 10 things you must do immediately after installing WordPress.

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My name is Hildah Mwende. I am a freelance writer and a blogger.  Find a comprehensive list and description of all my competencies and specialties here.

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