I want to start my own blog. A blog that I OWN. I want my own domain. I want to design the blog to my liking, etc . So where can I do this? Cheaply. Is there a good domain company out there who will help you start your own site? I'm not all that savvy in html and what not but I know some of the basics. I just need to get started. I had a blog on blogspot for awhile. It was going good until I ran into a few friends who lost their blogs. on blogspot I'd rather not create a free blog to wake up one morning to find it's gone. Any suggestions are appreciated.
GoDaddy and Host Gator are 2 places you may want to check out. You can buy domains and get hosting. GoDaddy for example has a free one page site builder, much like a regular blog for example. Always look for coupons before making a purchase too. That can save you a nice chunk of change. Good luck.
Hi Katie, Are you wanting a blog for fun or for business? If it's just for fun, any of the basic web hosting and domain companies should do for you, like those mentioned above or Blue Host, etc. They are all pretty much compatible in price. You can usually get a domain name for less than $10 and then hosting costs will vary - quite cheap at first and then if your blog grows in content and traffic, the hosting cost will grow along with it. Most of the hosting companies will have some type of video tutorials to help you set up a basic blog/site. It's been years since I've messed with them, but I suspect that is still the case. If you are wanting to build a blog for business purposes, I would suggest you consider a business building program like SBI instead of the option I just outlined above. It will make a huge difference in your final outcome as it is designed to walk you through, not just the site building aspect, but the critical business building aspects that help you achieve business success. Yes, it is more costly initially to go that route, but it saves you a lot of money down the track as well as a lot of frustration and headaches. Blessings, Angie
You can practice on a site like weebly.com But I suggest that you get your own domain and hosting and use wordpress. Its more flexible you could use it as a blog or a website.
GVO has a site named affiliatewebsitegenerator.com and if you'll rent hosting with them they will actually set up your site for you... Of course later on you can change it to your liking. Also you get a lot of free bonuses with GVO like a video creator and a webinar tool plus their auto responder is quite cheap comparing to the competition! Good luck Art
If it's just for a blog you can easily just buy a domain for about $10 and then use a free hosting service to host it. I was doing that for years and didn't have any problems.
Katie, listen to Angie if you want something that's going to work for you. I tried GoDaddy a few years ago and thought I was going to pull myself bald headed! It was so frustrating that I just walked away from the internet for a while. Then, I stumbled onto SBI, and it's been a blessing and a half. SBI is a class act, and you definitely won't wake up and find your blog gone! Best of luck on your endeavor
Katie, I highly recommend that you use GoDaddy to buy your domain name. Usually yourname.com is best. HostGator or Bluehost for hosting. DO NOT use GoDaddy for hosting, it is horrible. What are you thinking about blogging about?
Free samples, Coupons, Sweepstakes, Giveaways and Contests mostly. I will occasionally accept to review products if I can ever get the ball rolling. I was hoping I could somehow turn this into a full time job making a some-what of a steady income.
I appreciate everyone's feedback and help! Thanks! Just a few more questions. I really just want a basic website with basic features. Here's a quick draft I drew up kind of depicting what I want my website to look like.. Bare with me, i'm no artist. I want to have maybe 7-10 posts per page. Would this be a basic 3 page design? What does it mean to be a 3 page design, a 5 page design, or even a store design?
Hi Katie, WordPress provide the best blogging platforms. They have two versions. WordPress.com is pretty much like Blogger. The other, wordPress.org is free but can be used with an own domain name and hosting. It has hundreds of themes to choose from, you can design your blog to look literally any way you like. So, buy hosting from any company you like; HostGator, GoDaddy, Bluehost or whatever (I use iXwebhosting). Then install wordPress, it's free. Customize it the way you want.
I have a Blogger blog, too. So, I understand where you are coming from. It is an okay place to start out when you don't have any money for hosting or knowledge of HTML. The platform that I recommend for blogging that you own is Wordpress.org (not Wordpress.com, which is the free site). You will need to learn a bit about how to use this platform, but the good news is that you aren't required to learn any code to create the blog. There are some other blogging websites that you could use like Wix, Weebly, and Joomla, I don't know much about them, though. From what I understand Wix and Weebly are "drag and drop" so it is pretty easy to learn their systems. You can purchase domain names at several companies: GoDaddy.com, HostGator, BlueHost, and NameCheap to name a few. They also offer web hosting services for you blog.
Make sure you do the self hosted option when starting your blog. That way you own the content and control everything about it. Also I would advise to stay away from free themes and do a paid one for the on going support and updates that free themes sometimes don't get.
Katie, I would imagine by know you have a WP blog up and running. I hope you're happy with your choice of domain name, hosting service and template. I've been using WordPress since it first came on the scene and have become pretty proficient with it. A lot of the tips and tricks I learned, I learned from from the Lynda dot com library and a trainer named Morten Rand-Hendriksen. This guy understands WP, as he's a contributor to the open source code. If you want to take your WP blog to another level, Google him. He has a lot of great tips and tricks on his web site.
