Blogging is an incredibly rewarding experience; it’s one of the few times in life that you truly reap what you sow. Write a great post, and readers will find it, churn out the same old opinions as everyone else, and you’ll get lost in the crowd.
There are some excellent platforms to blog on: WordPress.com, Ghost.org, Medium.com. But if you’re serious about blogging, eventually you’re going to need to take control of your own content. There are tons of benefits to controlling your own content. Firstly, you’re your own boss, no one can censor you; Secondly, you decide if there’s advertising on your post, and if there is, it’s you that profits; Thirdly, you have total control of your site, you can change platforms, redesign, customize the code, as much as you please; And perhaps most importantly, there’s the pride of ownership of saying “This little part of the web is my corner.”Step 1: Choosing a host
Starting your own website might sound like a big step, but really anyone can do it. Companies like Hostgator are set up to make it as simple as possible. The first step is to choose a hosting package. Hosting is space on a webserver. That’s where you’ll store all your text, images, and videos too if you have them. Hostgator has several shared hosting plans. Shared-hosting means that your space will be on the same server as other people’s space, instead of having a whole server to yourself—think of it like renting an apartment, rather than renting an entire building. (Who knows, maybe one day you’ll need that whole building, but starting out, a few rooms will do.) Sometimes it’s tricky deciding which package to choose, but there’s no need to over-commit. Sign-up to the lowest priced package you can. Remember, you can always upgrade later if you need SSL, or want to start a second blog.
Step 2: Register a domain
A domain name is how people find you online. You need a good one if you’re going to stand out. You want it to be memorable, but unfortunately most short domains, such as “mykickassblog.com” have already been registered. Think up some names, things that are personal to you might be more likely to be available. But remember, if you use something really crazy, and you go viral you might be stuck with it! Do you really want tell your bank manager that your business’ name is thepurplefrogsbingbong.com? Hostgator have a tool to help you find a domain. Just type in your preferred choice and click “Search”, it will tell you if the domain is available.
Step 3: Installing WordPress
Amazingly, you own your own website! How awesome is that! Now it’s time to get your blog up and running. There are lots of blogging options, but the one chosen by most of the world is WordPress. It actually powers almost 1 in 5 websites, when people say blog, they often mean WordPress. Best of all, WordPress is free! Open up your email and find the welcome email that Hostgator have sent you. You’ll see that there’s a link to your cPanel (which is simply short for "Control Panel"). Use the username and password provided and log in to your cPanel. Look for the “Quick Install” button, and click it. Then, find the “Popular Installs”, you’ll see that WordPress is at the top.


WDD Staff
WDD staff are proud to be able to bring you this daily blog about web design and development. If there's something you think we should be talking about let us know @DesignerDepot.
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