Part 1: Choose a Domain
The domain is the URL. For example, the domain for this blog is www.theyogimovement.com.
Here are my tips for choosing a domain:
A. What is your passion? I chose theyogimovement.com because my passion lies in teaching people how to find inner peace and happiness by committing to a 24/7 yogi lifestyle.
When that domain was available I jumped for joy!
B. Think long term. What is your brand? Would it be better to buy your name as the domain or a fun and niche specific name that’s catchy and easy to remember?
C. Research your domain. Think of a few and Google them. See what comes up in the search. Are there a lot of similar domains out there you’re competing with? Check social media and see if you can also claim it on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and Google+. A good site to check is Name Check
D. Check your domain here and see if it’s available!
Good Luck!
What do you want your domain name to be?
Part 2: Sign Up For Bluehost
Next, you’ll want to choose a plan to become self-hosted. A self hosted blog means that you have total ownership of your blog, and you have total freedom over design and how you monetize it.
There are a ton of hosting providers out there, but I recommend Bluehost for their amazing customer service, their 24/7 support and live chat (with chat transcripts for reference to your email), and the fact that I’ve never had a problem with my site.
I suggest the Starter Plan. This is the plan I started with. When your traffic builds, and your blog uses it’s resources (believe me, it takes awhile), Bluehost will contact you to tell you it’s time to upgrade.
Choose to pay one lump sum, and three year plan. You’ll save a ton of money, and it’s better for Search Engine Optimization (We’ll get into SEO more later!).
Bluehost has great rates and gives you ONE domain name for free if you decide to host with them!
The Domain Whois Privacy shields your personal address and phone number from being displayed to the public.
You might be thinking, “Isn’t it important to have a backup service?” Most Definitely!
Bluehost will backup your site daily with your basic plan, and you can always restore it to the day before, so there is no need for this extra expense.
(I recommend other Vaultpress for real-time backing up, but we’ll talk about that later.)
There is no need to sign up for anything else besides Whois Privacy in addition to your hosting plan.
Part 3: Install WordPress
(the one and only)
WordPress is the only blogging platform I recommend. You’re going to have to learn to be a little techie, but it’s worth it, and that’s why I’m here! If you don’t see the answers you need from my blog, please email me and just ask!
Note: Don’t ever start with another platform because you think it might be easier, but you have the intention of switching to WordPress later. It’s a bigger pain to migrate than to learn WordPress right now!
One of the main reasons I LOVE Bluehost is because you can install WordPress with one-click.
Other hosting providers will make you upload the code and go through extra steps to install. I have no idea how difficult that process is, but I know that i’d rather just click and be done!
The install should begin, and you will see something to let you know that it’s in progress. Once it’s complete, you’ll be able to click ‘view credentials.’
WordPress will give you your name and password. Write this down & change it later!
Your login for wordpress is always your domain name with /wp-admin listed after it.
For example, if your URL was http://www.myawesomesite.com, your login would be http://www.myawesomesite.com/wp-admin
You are now a blogger!
Welcome you to this exciting and awesome community! Your world is about to change forever (that’s a good thing)!
Final Step: Choosing Your Theme – Genesis and Studiopress
At this point, you’ve probably been clicking around in WordPress. Maybe you’re a little confused, but super excited at the same time, right?
I know the feeling.
Don’t get overwhelmed. You’ll learn everything step by step, and pretty quickly.
Before you start blogging and posting, you’re going to want to choose a spectacular theme, which fits perfectly with your vision. If you start posting before you choose a theme, it will be tougher to switch and upgrade later.
Genesis is the absolute best platform to go with because all of the customization’s happen in the StudioPress theme design stylesheet and not the functions.php.
I know. I just threw a lot of big words at you. I’ll explain more later, but just know that’s super helpful and important.
What this means is that if you have updates, or ever decide to change themes, no changes are made to the code in Genesis or WordPress. It stays clean, so it’s seamless if you want to change. I have changed themes many times, and I own five StudioPress themes.
I LOVE them!
They are super easy to work with.
Other great benefits are:
- Community forum
- They create and update their own plugins
- Their websites are responsive. This means the look of your site will transform itself to work across all devices.
- They test their themes with WordPress before they upgrade
- Their support is stellar
I discuss more of this in my free webinar, but I want the best for you, so just trust me!
Once you hop on over to StudioPress, you’ll see a showcase of themes.
Once you choose your theme, you’ll be prompted to sign up and pay throughStudioPress.
Note: You’ll only have to pay for Genesis once. Once you have it, it’s yours. If you want to change themes in the future, you will only have to pay for the theme design. You can keep a copy of Genesis and your themes on your hard drive, but StudioPress will also save a copy under your username, on their site, for your convenience.
You’ll have to log into StudioPress to retrieve the Genesis Framework, and your theme that you purchased.
Download them.
Important: Keep them in .zip Format.
Next, you’ll have to log into your WordPress
Go to your Dashboard ——> Click Appearance ——> Click Themes
At the top of your screen, you’ll see <Add New> Click That.
Then, you’ll get a page that asks you to upload the theme in .Zip format.
You’re going to have to upload Genesis.
Click Choose File. Find and select the file on your hard drive. Then click, Install Now.
Then, you’ll upload your theme the same way.
You’ll go back to your WordPress Dashboard. Click Appearance ——> Click Themes.
Activate Genesis. Activate your theme.
Your StudioPress site and login comes with a set of simple to follow instructions on how to set up your theme!