By Zac Johnson
Have you ever wanted to have your own little spot on the internet to call your own? Great news — it's easier to do so than ever before, and if you want to get it done correctly, it can only cost you a few dollars per month.
I first started my blogging journey back in 1995. However, it wasn't until 2007 that I started my own blog, where I got to share my personal stories, expertise and online training courses with my readers. This helped me to build a powerful platform where I was no longer just an independent marketer, but a brand of my own.
Follow these three simple steps to get your blog live in no time:
1. Choose a niche and name for your site.
The first and most important things to do is select a niche topic for your blog, and come up with a good name for the site. The niche of your site is going to be extremely important, as you will want to always create content around this topic. The more niche-focused your content, the easier it will be for your site to become an authority in said niche and rank in search results.
As for the name of your site, you can get quite creative with this, but it should relate to the content focus of your site as well. If you are going to build a blog to promote your expertise or personal brand, I highly recommend you name the site after yourself, for example.
2. Set up your web hosting and domain name.
Every website or blog on the internet needs to have web hosting for the content to be stored online. For this to happen, you need to have a server that holds all of your site information and makes it easily accessible to a global audience. You will also need to have a site URL or a domain name: This is what someone will type into a web browser to access your site. You can see a full breakdown of how web hosting works here.
The good news is, you really don't need to know anything about the technicalities, as it's all pretty much automated by web hosting companies these days. When it comes to hosting, you have two options: free and paid.
Sites like WordPress or Blogger allow you to create a free website, but you won't have a domain name, and you will also have to abide by their rules. With paid hosting, you can pay a few dollars a month and get set up with your own hosting plan and a domain name (around $10 a year).
Most shared web hosting platforms will now offer one-click WordPress installations as well, which means you will never need to mess with software installation, coding or anything else that might seem out of the ordinary. To learn more about WordPress, I recommend you visit YouTube and search for any questions you might have. There are so many different options and components to WordPress that YouTube is simply your best resource for information.
3. Start using publishing your content.
Once you've created your free hosting account or went live with a premium hosting and domain name of your own, it's now time to create the first content for your site. If you chose to use WordPress, this can all be done through your WordPress dashboard area, where adding new posts and pages is as simple as using a text editor like Microsoft Word.
It may take some time to master the concept of using a CMS and writing out your own content. The first content you should create for your site is an "About Me" page. You could also add a welcome page to your blog and as well as a few categories to your site. As you continue to add new content to your blog, you'll see it all start to come together.
Congratulations! Your blog is now live.
At this final stage, it's important to remember that nothing magical is going to happen overnight. Blogging is all about content creation, and the more often you blog, the more your audience will learn about you and benefit from your content. With that being said, it will also take some time for your content to rank in the search results and for people to find your site. To speed up this process, be sure to share your blog content with friends, family and your social followers. Good blogging takes time, but it may just end up being one of the best decisions you've ever made.
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Zac Johnson has 20 years of experience in the online marketing and business space.