How You Can Start a Beautiful Blog (2024)

I want to show you how you can start a beautiful blog in 5 easy steps. By following these steps, you can set up your website in less than an hour. Writing a blog is a good medium for sharing your thoughts and ideas with the world. If you’ve ever wanted to start a blog but don’t know where to get started, you can use this step-by-step process as a guide.

STEP 1: Choose a Topic You Will Write About

Before you get started, decide on a specific topic you will write about or create content on. The more specific the topic (niche) is, the better it will be for SEO purposes. SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization, which is a practice of improving visibility when people organically search for certain topics and keywords. For example, let’s say you decide on food recipes as your topic. You can be more specific and write about food recipes for a healthy lifestyle, KETO food recipes, or easy food recipes for busy moms. If you choose drinks as your topic, you can focus on a type of drink such as coffee or tea. However, you don’t always have to write about a specific topic to have a successful blog. There are plenty of successful blogs that include a variety of topics. People will always want to read blogs that offer good and unique content.

In addition, your topic should be something you are passionate and knowledgeable about such as your hobby, life experiences, or expertise. More importantly, think about how you can provide value to people reading your blog. People search for things on the internet to find information about a specific topic and readers will want that information based on other people’s experiences and perspectives.

STEP 2: Create a Domain Name

Once you’ve decided on a topic, it’s time to choose a domain name. A domain name is the name people type in the web browser to get to your website (e.g. www.google.com). I would suggest coming up with a brand name rather than going for a generic name. A brand name brings personality and uniqueness to your blog. For example, I personally chose The Finance Dream as my brand name as it represents the aspiration for financial freedom and I wanted my blog to provide educational information to help people achieve their financial goals.

There are many domain names and extensions to choose from. However, you will find that most generic domain names are already taken. If your name is already taken, you can add words like “a”, “the”, or “my”. If you prefer not to add words, you can choose different extensions such as “.net” or “.org” instead of “.com”. However, I highly recommend sticking to “.com” because most people will type “.com” by default as it is the most popular extension. For example, if you owned www.thefinancedream.net, you would most likely bring traffic to my website, www.thefinancedream.com.

You can buy domain names from one of many different domain providers. I went with Google Domains because I also have my primary email connected with Google. They offer domain names for $12/year and it includes privacy protection if you don’t want your contact information for your domain available to the public.

STEP 3: Choose a Web Host

In order to get your blog and domain name online, web hosting will be necessary. Web hosting is a service that places your website online. It’s essentially like buying or renting a space for your website on the internet. There are many web hosting companies you can choose from. The web host I recommend and will show you in this guide is SiteGround. I recommend SiteGround because:

They offer web hosting plans as low as $3.99/month.
All plans include WordPress installation so that you can install it right from the dashboard.
All plans include free installation of WooCommerce if you plan to build an online store.
All plans include free SSL (certification) and free website email (i.e. yourname@domain.com).
You can get a full refund within 30 days from signup if you are unsatisfied for any reason.

1. Choose Plan

For beginners, I recommend going with either the StartUp plan or GrowBig plan because they provide more than enough web space for a starter website. You can always choose to upgrade in the future when your website gets a lot more traffic.

2. Choose Domain

You can register a domain name directly with SiteGround, but it costs $18/year compared to Google Domains which costs $12/year. If you buy a domain from Google Domains or another provider, you need to make sure to set up the custom name servers which I will show you how to do in this guide.

3. Enter Account and Payment Information

For the hosting period, you will want to select 12 months period to get the best deal ($3.99/month) and I would skip over all extra services like SG Site Scanner as it is not necessary in most cases.

4. Set up custom name servers (if you have a domain name with Google)

In Google Domains, go to “My domains” and click “Manage” next to your domain name.
Go into “DNS” and select “Custom name servers”.
Click on “Manage name servers” and copy and paste the two name servers provided.
- ns1.siteground.net
- ns2.siteground.net
Click “Save” and make sure to also click on “Switch to these settings”.

Once you have completed these steps, give it 5-10 minutes for the activation to connect the servers.

STEP 4: Install WordPress

WordPress is a free, open-source CMS (Content Management System) you can install on your web host. WordPress allows you to customize a website or blog without any coding experience using plugins and themes. It is one of the most popular software used to create a website or build a blog with ease.

1. Under the Websites tab, click “Site Tools” to access the SiteGround Dashboard.

2. Go to “Install & Manage” under the WordPress tab and select WordPress.

3. Set up your admin username, password, and email.

4. Once setup is completed, you can log in to WordPress through the admin panel and access your WordPress dashboard.

STEP 5: Design Your Blog

The first thing you want to do is install a theme for your website. A theme is basically a group of files that changes the overall appearance of your blog or website. Choosing the right theme is very important as it sets the tone of your website and adds personality to your content. Fortunately, WordPress makes it easy to install a theme.

In the WordPress dashboard, you can browse the WordPress themes by going to Appearance -> Themes -> Add New.

WordPress has a lot of free themes you can choose from, but you will find that most free themes are limited in customizability unless you buy the pro version of the theme. Choosing a free theme should be fine if you want to keep your website as simple as possible. However, if you want additional customization features I would suggest getting a paid theme. Most paid themes have features including better mobile responsiveness and more design options. As a result, your website will look more professional and you will be overall happier with the design of your website.

If you are like me and love to customize, I highly recommend going with a page builder theme and plugin such as Kadence. A page builder like Kadence allows you to build fast-loading websites with features such as drag and drop header/footer builder, custom column layouts, backgrounds, dual buttons, icons, etc. Kadence extends on the native WordPress Gutenberg block editor so that you can create your website without any coding knowledge. This also means that the theme is lightweight and has no extra bloat so that your website will have good performance. You can check out my home page which I built entirely using Kadence as an example. Kadence also features a full library of starter templates that are easy to modify and build on. Here is how you can start using the Kadence page builder:

1. Install the Kadence theme.

Search for “Kadence” in the Add Themes page and install the Kadence theme.

2. Next, install the Kadence Blocks plugin.

Go to Plugins, Add New, and search for “Kadence” in the search bar. Install “Gutenberg Blocks by Kadence Blocks – Page Builder Features”.

3. For even more customizability, purchase the Pro version of Kadence Themes and Kadence Blocks.

Kadence Theme Pro offers premium features such as header addons, hooked elements, ultimate menu, fixed elements, header/footer scripts, and Woocommerce addons.

Kadence Blocks Pro offers premium blocks and features such as image overlay, post grid/carousel, video popup, pro form addons, animating on scroll, custom icons, dynamic content, custom fonts, premium design library, and page-specific scripts.

With this bundle, I honestly think you can build any type of website and make it look professionally designed without any coding knowledge. If you look at my blog website, T he Finance Dre am, I designed it entirely using Kadence Theme Pro and Kadence Block Pro. Now you might be thinking, it doesn’t look impressive and that’s okay. I’m not the best designer, but it is exactly how I wanted it to look. This is the benefit of the Pro version. There is no limitation on how you can design your website. Kadence also includes starter templates that you can use if you don’t want to build your website from scratch as I did. Here are some examples.

The beauty of page builders is that you can design your blog and website the way you want it. If you’d like to build your website with Kadence Blocks Pro and Kadence Theme Pro, you can purchase them as a bundle on their website for $129/year. You might be thinking this is a steep price, but you have to remember the monthly cost is almost the same as a Netflix subscription. I would think of it as an investment for your future and the possibilities and opportunities your website can bring to you. Kadence also has a forum community and good support from my experience if you have any questions about the theme.

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