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Best way to start a blog? - Wyatt - 05-22-2014 12:47 PM
Hi,
I am looking to start a review blog of tennis strings. I want something that could be free/cheap originally but up-gradable so when I grow I have the flexibility to add some functions. I really like the design on this website thegamefanatics.com.
I want to eventually make some money off of this so any tips on setting this up would be appreciated.
- Jake - 05-22-2014 12:53 PM
Google's Blogger.com or Wordpress.com are 2 free blog hosts you could start at. Blogger has no paid upgrades, Wordpress.com charges for adding your own Domain Name obtained elsewhere. Blogger seems pretty tolerant of what their blogs are used for, you can un Adsense ads for revenue without any revenue sharing like some other free hosts offer.
Wordpress is the industry standard blog platform, 17% of the top 1 million sites use Wordpress. Anyone serious about blogging or those who need to upgrade with ecommerce plugins, etc. are best uf using the standard version of Wordpress on a paid host, costing roughly $5-$8 a month, many $8 shared hosts are "unlimited" allowing multiple sites.
Examing that thegamefanatics.com site, I see it runs Wordpress and what appears to be the NEWTGF theme, though it appears to not be mentioned anywhere on the internet, they also are using a few plugins to customize the site.
It has a bit of a gallery, Pinterest look, try searching for Pinterest wordpress themes.
- 045 - 05-22-2014 01:01 PM
Quite simply the way to go for you is to start at wordpress.com with one of their free sites. Although you might find a few restrictions which limit you, the service is free. If you need to upgrade in the future, cheap hosting (for example ours start at $5 month) will allow you to get a wordpress site up, your own domain name, and your own email. If you pay for hosting you will find it a lot less restrictive and you will get better support.
We have written a guide if you want to see just how simple setting your own domain up and obtaining hosting can be -
http://www.computergeeks2go.com/101guides/how-to-register-a-domain-name-and-set-up-hosting-in-5-simple-steps/
If we can be of any service to you, please feel free to conact us with any questions.
- Arun Kumar IP - 05-22-2014 01:02 PM
If you want to just start your blog, choose Blogger as your blogging platform.
Once you become popular then you may purchase your .COM domain.
- mark n - 05-22-2014 01:11 PM
You'll need a domain name and hosting account - both can be registered for fairly cheap (GoDaddy for the domain, HostGator for the shared hosting account).
Next, use software like Wordpress (http://www.wordpress.org) as your content management system. Since it can be used as a blog right out of the box, it will be relatively quick and easy to set up. There are numerous free themes you can use, that can be downloaded off of that site.
Start off by writing articles, and lots of them. Make them unique and full of useful content that is not seen on other similar sites.
The hardest part about blogging is that you're going to be "writing to nobody" for a long time - possibly even up to a year -- until you start really getting noticed and ranked on the internet for keywords. Unfortunately, it will also require you to promote your site on a daily basis - get other relevant sites to link to it, promote it on social, etc. Promoting the site will be far more tedious than actually writing the content for it.
Good luck!!
- Nuha - 05-22-2014 01:22 PM
As you have a plan to make money with blog so you must need to buy a own domain and hosting. There many free hosting provider around the internet but free hosting has some limitation. You can't use Ads and there server is too slow that you can't get the visitor once someone visit your site. Godaddy and Namecheap is the world famous domain and hosting provider. You can easily buy a domain and hosting from there.