Blog - Luggage Guru

by Daniel | Last Updated September 20th, 2022 We may earn a commission for purchases using our links, at no cost to you. Learning how to set start a blog using WordPress might seem intimidating at first but once you get started it really isn’t that difficult, if anything it is fun!One of the best things about starting a blog is that it really is quite cheap (just a few dollars a month).Bluehost is one of the most popular hosting services available and one of the most affordable.Below I am going to take you through the basics of setting up a new blog using WordPress and Bluehost. When starting a new blog WordPress is the most popular CMS (Content Management System) on the planet, with over 455 Million websites using WordPress, This is over 35% of the entire internet! Some of the more well-known companies using WordPress include Bloomberg, CNN, TechCrunch, NBC, The Wall Street Journal, and CBS just to name a few.With such a large proportion of the internet using WordPress it only makes sense to use WordPress as your CMS. Blogging can also be a very lucrative career, with some bloggers earning well over $100,000 a month with their blogs! Although this is not the norm, it is still possible to make a living from blogging. You just need to be focused and willing to keep learning and never give up. Bluehost is a very popular web hosting company that is commonly used with WordPress and hosts over 2 million domains! Some of the benefits of using Bluehost with WordPress are: 100% compatibility with WordPress and all of its features and pluginsAmazing support that is available 24/7 from very knowledgeable qualified professionals via live chat or phone.99%+ uptime, meaning your website will almost never be offline which helps to create a good user experience.Your website will be self-hosted which is a huge plus as It gives you the most control of your website and the ability to monetize it the way you choose to.If you are not totally satisfied with their service BlueHost offers a 30-day money-back guarantee.Fast server speeds also help with user experience and google rankings. As for price, Bluehost has a variety of plans to suit almost anyone's needs.Starting as low as $3.95 a month, if you sign up through my link you also get a free domain (for the first year). Generally, the longer you sign up for the more you can save in terms of monthly price, so I recommend signing up for a minimum of 12 months and preferably signing up for 36 months as this is the cheapest option Bluehost offers. Read How To Start A Travel BlogRead Best Blogging PlatformsVisit Luggageguru's homepage for more stories. https://youtu.be/55t-zIC42ak I mentioned earlier in this post that Bluehost is one of the best options for hosting your WordPress blog/website. Here are some reasons I believe it is worth it: When you sign up you receive a FREE domain for your new blog.With Bluehost, you have access to expert technical support 24 hours a day 7 days a week.Bluehost offers a 30-day money-back guarantee just in case you decide it is not right for you.Bluehost is very affordable and won’t break the bank which always helps when you are starting out.Scaleability, Bluehost offers you the ability to scale your business with ease.As your business grows you can easily upgrade your plan as you need with just a few clicks.When you sign up to Bluehost you can use WordPress for FREE Choose and install some plugins to help improve your blog and make it easier to manage. What are plugins? They are basically small programs that you can install to your WordPress website that can manage different aspects of your blog.There are both free and paid plugins to choose from.Here are a few: Yoast SEO When building a website or blog, SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is a major part of ranking your website on search engines such as Google or Yahoo so you can reach more people who will be interested in your content.Yoast is one of the best plugins for SEO and is totally compatible with WordPress.It has the ability to help optimize your keywords and can also analyze your blog for readability. It also optimizes your images by naming the image title with a related keyword to your blog post. Jetpack Another very popular WordPress plugin is Jetpack.Basically, it helps provide security to protect your website from unwanted spam and malware.It also has real-time backup to protect all of your content and can send you emails and push notifications if there is any downtime on your website.Another feature Jetpack provides is the ability to optimize the images on your website so they load faster (this is an extremely important part of SEO) W3 Total Cache W3 Total Cache was initially launched in 2009 and has since become quite popular with over 1 million installs.This plugin basically helps your website load a lot faster which helps with browser retention, as no one really wants to wait around for a website to load.It has a free version you can use or you can opt for the Pro version if and when you need it. Akismet Using Akismet is relatively straightforward and will help to reduce the amount of spam left on your blog comments or contact forms.This anti-spam plugin can automatically analyze your website or blog and cut out any content that could be classified as spam.This is highly recommended as your comment sections can easily get overrun with spam. How to start a Blog Using WordPress and Bluehost. Step 1: Register your domain name. To choose your new domain name you can click here and follow the simple steps, or just enter the domain name you want in the search bar below and click 'check availability. After you have done this continue reading the steps below. This is the first step in creating your new blog, you will need to think about what you want to call your website and what you want your domain name to be. Take some time with this as it's important that you choose the best name that will help describe your blog and also be a name you are happy with using. For me, choosing Luggageguru took a bit of time but once I did choose it I was happy as it almost perfectly describes what my website is all about. When you have chosen the desired name for your domain Bluehost has a very easy process of acquiring it here. Remember, If you sign up for at least 1 year you will get a free domain included. This is a great idea as you will automatically save money by getting a free domain, and if you want to save even more money you can sign up for the 36-month plan which offers the lowest monthly cost Bluehost currently offers. To get your free domain and set up your hosting follow the steps below. I recommend choosing the 'Basic' plan as it is probably more than enough to begin with. Step 2: Purchase hosting for your new blog To start a blog with WordPress that is using Bluehost is rather easy. Keep reading below to see the costs involved with blogging: First of all, to get the cheapest hosting price for your blog you should select the ‘Basic’ plan as it is only $3.95 per month through my link when you choose the 36-month option. If you decided that you don’t want hosting for that long you can choose the 24-month plan which will bump the price up to $4.95 per month.The next option would be the 12-month plan which will bring the price up to $5.95 per month. This is still relatively cheap considering you will get a free domain if you sign up for the full 12 months. If you do decide to choose the 12-month plan it will cost you $71.40 for the entire year which is still quite good.Remember though, if you do sign up for the 36-month plan it will cost $47.40 per year (for 36 months), so you will effectively be saving $24 per year.Personally, I would choose the 'Basic’ plan for now because the ‘Plus’, 'Choice Plus’, and ‘Go Pro’ cost a fair bit more and are not really needed at the beginning of your blogging journey. It is very easy to upgrade to these plans in the future if you do decide you need the extra features.So when signing up you don’t really need to add any of the ‘Package Extras’ as they are not necessary just now.And remember, when you sign up with my link for 12 months or longer you will receive a free domain. Why you should sign up for at least 12 months of hosting. Month-to-month hosting really isn’t effective as it creates more problems for you and takes your focus on running your new blog.Also, you will not receive a free domain so it will end up costing considerably more. And you don’t want to have to worry about renewing your domain every month!Basically, the longer you sign up for the more you save and the less you have to worry about your domain expiring and losing business due to your website being down. So on average, it will cost you about $71.40 per year (or $142.20 for 36 months) which are both really great prices! To create your new blog, follow these steps below to buy hosting: Head over to Bluehost and click the button that says ‘Get Started’Choose the plan you would like. (I recommend the 'Basic’ plan)Now you can either create a new domain or if you already have one you can just enter that into ‘Use a domain you own'Next, you can enter your personal information and payment choice. Step 3: Install WordPress on Bluehost Ok, So this is where you install WordPress onto Bluehost and finally get going on your blogging journey! This section is relatively straightforward if you follow the steps below. Once you have created a password for your account, Bluehost will take you through all the necessary steps to get your blog up and running. Bluehost will now ask you to choose a theme for your blog. If your not 100% sure of which theme to choose don’t worry! As you can easily change the theme at a later date. If you still can’t decide it’s totally fine to scroll straight to the bottom of the page and click ‘skip this step’.Next click on the button ‘Start Building’The next screen will prompt you to choose either ‘Business’ or ‘Personal’. This is totally up to you and if you're not sure you can click the button ‘I don’t’ need help’. Once you have completed the steps above your Blog is ready to go! From here you can start to work on creating exceptional content and also choose how you want to design the look and feel of your blog. Here are some tips and tricks that will help you build your audience and make the most out of your WordPress website. To begin with, creating your first post is easy! Once you are logged in go to the left-hand side of the page click ‘Posts’ Adding images is done by clicking ‘Media’ which is also on the left-hand side of the page.For sending newsletters or emails to your subscribers or setting up an email list, I recommend using either GetResponse or Convertkit. They both have great support if you need it and plenty of features to help you make the most of their platforms.There are a few really good themes you can use to create and design your website/blog.Acabardo is a really straightforward theme that focuses on extremely fast loading pages which is very important for SEO, this alone can help your rankings on Google.Also, Genesis is another great theme to consider and one of the most popular themes out there. If you don’t want to pay for a theme there are free options through WordPress that you can use. To find them make sure you are logged into your WordPress account then go to the left-hand side of the page and click 'Appearance’ and then ‘Themes’. Here you will be able to try the free themes and see if any of them suit your needs. Here are a few blogging-related posts I have written that are worth reading: Read How To Start A Travel BlogRead Best Blogging Platforms