Learn how to start a blog in

less than an hour.

Follow the step-by-step instructions we used when starting our blog, which now has reached
more than 20 million people and has been featured in the New York Times, TIME magazine,
and on the TODAY show.

How to Start a Blog: An In-Depth Tutorial (with video)

1 Choose Your Domain Name and Host

2 Set Up Your Blog

3 Design Your Blog With a Theme

4 Select the Best Plugins for Your Blog

5 Start Blogging with Compelling Content

Watch the In-Depth Video Tutorial

 Choose your blog name and get your
blog hosting.
STEP

01
• •

The first thing we did when starting our blog was go to Bluehost and
register our domain, which is free with hosting. We’ll explain hosting
in a moment, but let’s talk about your domain name first.

Your domain name is an important part of your blog because it

creates a first impression—it is the name of your blog. Also known
as your URL, your domain is also your address on the web. For
example, our domain name is www.theminimalists.com.

So, what do you want to call your blog? Maybe it’s YourName.com.
Maybe it’s YourBusinessName.com. Or maybe it’s a creative brand
name you thought up. If you’re having a hard time thinking of a
good domain name, try Wordoid, a wonderful naming tool that
will give you plenty of great options. Just make sure you don’t buy
the domain from them since Bluehost will give you a free domain.
(If you’ve already purchased a domain elsewhere, that’s okay, too,
because Bluehost will make it easy to transfer your existing domain
during the set-up process.)

Once you’ve decided on a domain name, you’ll need to set up

hosting for your blog. While WordPress itself is free (see Step 2
below), you need a reliable place to host your WordPress blog (your
blog needs to exist on a server somewhere on the Internet).

For hosting, we recommend Bluehost for several reasons:

Outstanding Customer Service. Bluehost’s customer service is
100% US-based. With hold times that average less than 30 seconds
and 100% in-house, on-site staff in their Texas offices, you can rest
assured that the person helping with your site knows how to help.
In other words, if you have any questions, they will help you through
the entire set-up process.

Great Pricing. TheMinimalists.com is a Bluehost affiliate partner,

which means that in addition to using their service, we also receive
a commission for referring new customers. To be fair, though, we
would still use Bluehost even if we weren’t an affiliate—we’ve used
them for a long time. Ergo, we don’t recommend Bluehost just
because we’re an affiliate (every hosting company offers a similar
affiliate program); we recommend Bluehost because they are the
best, most reliable option. Plus, because we’re a partner, Bluehost
offers a 50% discount for The Minimalists readers: only $2.75 a
month for the first year. That’s an outstanding price!

Free Domain. When you sign up for hosting, Bluehost will give you
a free domain name, which allows you to avoid the upfront and
recurring fees associated with purchasing a domain on your own. If
you’ve already purchased your own domain name, don’t worry; you
can still use your domain with Bluehost (it’s just one extra step).

Money-Back Guarantee. Bluehost offers a 30-day money-back

guarantee, so there’s no risk if you change your mind.

Reliability. Bluehost’s facilities are world class. They have their own
datacenter and they build their own servers. Their headquarters
includes over 50,000 square feet of office space, a custom-built
20,000-square-foot datacenter, and enough backup generators to
power a city.

Friends & Family. Many of our friends and family also use Bluehost
to host their blogs.

So, now that you’re ready to get started, go to Bluehost and click
the “Get Started Now” button.

On the next screen, you’ll need to select your hosting plan:

You’ll notice that prices range from $3 to $6 per month, depending

on whether you want a basic, single site hosting plan or a more
robust plan that allows you to create multiple sites.

Note: Because we’re an affiliate partner, Bluehost offers a special price

for The Minimalists readers: only $2.75 a month for the first year. That’s a
significant discount.
Once you’ve selected a plan, you’ll be taken to a screen with two
options:

If you still need to register a new domain, you’ll use the left box
followed by your desired extension (e.g., .com, .net, .org). If you
already purchased your domain somewhere else like GoDaddy.com,
don’t worry, because Bluehost will provide you the information you
will need for easily transferring your domain.
After selecting your domain you’ll need to fill out some personal
information:

Once your registration is complete, you’ll see a congratulations

page indicating that a confirmation email was sent to your inbox. Go
to that email and click the confirmation link.

After that, click the “Create your password” button.

 Start your blog by adding WordPress.

STEP

02
• •

Next you will install WordPress, which is free. Don’t let the word
“install” intimidate you, though. It’s much easier than it sounds and
Bluehost does all the work for you.

On this next screen, you’ll be prompted to create a password:

After creating your password, you’ll be directed to a Log In screen.

Click “Log In”:
On the next screen you’ll be shown several theme options. Simply
scroll to the bottom of the page and click “Skip This Step” (you’ll see
why in a moment):

Yay! WordPress is now installing and will be completed shortly.

Next, click “Start Building” to go to your new WordPress dashboard

and we’ll move on to Step 3:
 Pick a simple theme to make your blog
your own.
STEP

03
• •

A theme allows you to control the specific look and feel of your blog
without the need for coding expertise or design knowledge. In other
words, a good theme helps you to design your blog exactly how you
want it to look. If you’re not a coder (I’m certainly not a coder), then
a theme makes the design work a million times easier.

We use BYLT for our theme, a platform created by SPYR. They have a
number of beautiful, simple WordPress themes to choose from, and,
in fact, you can purchase the same theme we use if you like.

Simply go to BYLT’s site and find the theme that best fits your
desired aesthetic. Their themes are feature-rich; plus, once you buy
your theme, you will have the same team supporting your work that
we trust to support ours.
Once you purchase the theme you like, you’ll be able to download
your WordPress theme (a .zip file) from your BYLT Dashboard.
Save this file to your Desktop because you’ll need to upload it to
WordPress in just a moment.

Remember how easy it was to install WordPress? Well, installing your

theme is even easier.

Now, you should already be logged in to your WordPress Dashboard

but, if not, go to my.bluehost.com, enter your new domain (or
username) and password and click “submit”:
From here, go to “My Sites” and click on “Log in to WordPress”:

Then, in your WordPress dashboard, go to Appearance > Themes:

Next, click the “Upload” button:

Then, click the “Upload Theme” button followed by the “Choose

File” button.

Find the .zip file you downloaded from your BYLT Dashboard (this
is your theme file) and click the “Install Now” button to install your
beautiful new theme on your blog:
Once installation of your theme is complete, you’ll see a
confirmation page indicating that your theme has been installed
successfully.

Click “Activate”.
 Add two key blogging plugins to find your
readers and track stats.
STEP

04
• •

Plugins are third-party appendages that add additional functionality

to your blog.

It’s best to keep your number of plugins to a minimum and install

only the best plugins, because too many plugins—as well as
unreliable plugins—can slow down your site. We use only a few
plugins at The Minimalists (see below).

In your WordPress dashboard navigate to Plugins > Add New and

search for, install, and activate the following free plugins one by one:

Yoast SEO is the defacto standard SEO plugin for WordPress. For
details and everything you’d ever want to know about WordPress
SEO read Yoast’s Definitive SEO Guide.

Google Analytics for WordPress by MonsterInsights allows

you to track your blog’s traffic easily and with lots of interesting
data: overall traffic, traffic sources, views per author & category,
automatic tracking of outbound clicks and pageviews.

Jetpack by WordPress.com is a WordPress plugin that

supercharges your self-hosted WordPress site with the awesome
cloud power of WordPress.com.

Finally, so people can receive our blog posts via email, we

established a free Feedburner account. Constant Contact (affiliate
link) is another great email-subscription option. (By the way, if you
don’t already subscribe to The Minimalists via email, you can here.)
 Write compelling content to create a blog
that your readers love.
STEP

05
• •

Congratulations! You started a blog, and now it’s time to start

blogging. This is actually where the fun begins.

Now that you have your own blog, you get to make it yours; you get
to turn your vision into a reality. So tinker away:

Content. Start writing and publishing the content for your basic
pages: create an About Page, Contact Page, Start Here Page,
Archives Page, and any other page you want in the header of your
new blog.

Design. Experiment with various color palettes, fonts, and design

elements within your theme.

Logo. Create a basic logo using a program like InDesign, Photoshop,

or a text editor (note: even though we have no design skills, we were
able to use Apple’s Pages application to create our simple logo after
downloading some free vector art and choosing the typeface that
best suited our aesthetic), or you can hire someone like 99designs to
design a professional logo.

Photo. Add a photo of yourself (pro tip: you can start with a well-
lit selfie, but when you get a chance, get some professional photos
taken; they’re well worth the cost because people identify with
other people more than they identify with logos).
Images. Spice up your blog posts with high-quality stock photos
and images: Paul Jarvis (free), Unsplash (free), Library of Congress
(free), iStock (fee-based), Shutterstock (fee-based).

Comments. Determine whether or not you want comments on your

blog; they are often a useful way to receive feedback and directly
engage with your readers.

Social. Establish a social media presence on Twitter, Facebook, or

Instagram (or all three).

Ongoing. Keep tinkering with your blog until you obtain the right
look and feel.

Publish. Start writing new blog posts. Publish at least once a

week so you can build an audience. Below you’ll also find 20
recommendations to improve the writing on your blog, as well as 15
reasons you should start a blog and 3 reasons not to start a blog.

We hope you have loads of fun expressing yourself on your new blog.
We’re certain it will be a huge growth experience for you during the
coming months. Wherever you’re going, make sure you enjoy the
journey ahead.
 How to Become a Blogger:
Video Tutorial
If you prefer to watch our process for setting up a blog, we’ve created a step-by-step
instructional video, How to Start a Successful Blog Today, which shows the entire starting-
a-blog undertaking.