Step one: pick a domain name

Oh hai! By the end of this post, you’ll own your own blog. The first thing you get to do is pretty fun: you’ll pick the domain name (the “URL”) for your blog! For instance, the domain name of this website is startyourblog.co. Domain names are pretty cheap (you can usually get them for around $15/year).

The first thing we want to do is see if your domain name is available. For this, we use Siteground’s domain name tool, which makes it really easy to register a domain name and start a blog all in one go. Siteground is the web hosting site we recommend using as well, so we’ll dive into that more in a bit:

Enter the domain name you want into the box at the top of the screen. You can pick the extension that goes at the end, too: like .com, .net, or even things like .coffee and .photography. The most common (and one of the cheapest) is .com.

Step two: pick your hosting plan

After you pick your domain name, the next screen will allow you to select a hosting plan. To own a website, you need to rent some space on the Internet where your website will live. Siteground is the hosting company we recommend because you can buy hosting at a good cost, and they’ve been wonderful to work with in the past. We recommend choosing the cheapest option if you’re just starting out:

You pay for hosting one year at a time ($3.95 × 12 months = $47.40). Pro tip: You can choose to buy more than one year, and you’ll receive a bigger discount.

Step three: the checkout process

For the checkout process, just fill out your information at the top, and then at the bottom, you’ll see a few add-ons.

Domain registration is required since you’re registering a new domain for your blog; however, the rest of these add-ons are completely optional, and you don’t need them to actually start your blog. If you want to save money, you can uncheck them. Here’s what they do:

• Domain Privacy hides your contact information from the public. We usually leave this enabled, but if you’re comfortable with your contact info being in an Internet “address book,” you can uncheck this.
• Siteground Security Scanner periodically scans your blog to detect malware. We’ve always unchecked this option. You can always add it later!

(Your add-ons might look a little different depending on the domain you choose.)

Step four: set up your blog

After your purchase is complete, proceed to the Customer Area and you’ll see the Account Setup screen. This is where we’re going to set up your blogging software.

Select that you want to start a new website and click “Proceed.”

We’re going to be using WordPress, which is the most popular blogging software in the world! It’s completely free to use, and it powers around 30% of the Internet (yes, really). It’s what Alexa uses to write her blog, Fooduzzi, and it powers other blogs too (like the official blogs of Katy Perry, Martha Stewart, Microsoft Windows, TechCrunch, The Walking Dead). Kinda cool, right?

1. Under “What type of website do you need?”, select Personal/Blog.
2. Under “Do you know which software you are going to use?”, select WordPress.

On the next page, you’ll create your blogging account. This is the account you’ll use to log in and write posts on your blog.

1. Enter an email that you check often. This is where you’ll be notified when people post comments on your blog.
2. Enter a username that is easy for you to remember. If you can’t think of anything, I recommend using your first name with no capitalization. Pro tip: Don’t use the username ‘admin.’ Mark’s nephew could guess that.
3. Enter a strong password. Use something unique that other people won’t be able to guess. Make sure you remember what it is – in a few moments, we’ll use it to log into your site for the first time! Pro tip: It should go without saying that you probably shouldn’t use something like Password123.
4. Scroll past the themes – you don’t need them right now. You’ll get to choose from lots of them once you log into your site.

When you click “Submit” at the bottom of the page, Siteground will set up your new blog! This usually takes about a minute.

After it completes, you will be the proud owner of the newest blog on the Internet! *Go you!*

You’re finished! Let’s look at your blog!

You can now visit the domain you purchased earlier, and you’ll see a brand-spankin’-new blog waiting for you.

Right now, the only post is some Siteground filler content (you can delete this later), but what we’re going to do now is log in.

To log into WordPress, go to the domain you purchased, but add /wp-admin to the end of it:

www.example.com/wp-admin

Enter the username and password from the previous step. This will take you to the Admin Dashboard, where you can control your site by adding posts, customizing your theme, and much, much more.

Bonus Stuff

Get to know your new blog by exploring the Admin Dashboard: your control center for creating new posts. Or use our website for simple tutorials and recommendations on getting started: learn how to write posts, join a blogging community, or check out many more resources.