Before I started my own self-hosted blog, I was very intimidated on the idea of making your own website or blog. I have no knowledge in computer programming with very little computer skills. However, through continuous reading and perseverance, it finally paid off. I never thought before that is easy to setup and start your own blog with the help of plenty information in the Internet.
No one taught me personally how to make a website. All of the knowledge I got came from reading and watching videos about blogging and website building. At first, I tried using blogspot.com because it is free. However, because of many limitations of a free blog, I decided to buy my own domain and web hosting and build it using WordPress platform.
What do I Need to Make My Own Blog or Website?
This is a very good question for people who wants to make their own, professional-looking blog. There are several things that you should have in order to start your journey on making a blog. I will list the most important ones that I think you need based on my experience.
1. Perseverance
If you want to make your own website by yourself, it will require hard work and perseverance. It is not easy at the beginning especially if you don’t have the skills and knowledge how a blog works. Without perseverance, it is very hard to begin and finish what are you doing.
2. Some Computer Knowledge
Like what I said earlier, I don’t know computer programming but I do know how to make emails, searching the Internet, following instructions and the simple things about Internet and computer.
If you know how to follow instructions, then you will have no problem about starting your own blog. There are many resources online that you can get to help you learn what you don’t know. That’s what I have done before making my first website, I searched the topics I want to learn and I’m amazed of the information I get from the Internet.
3. Money
Money is very important in making your own self-hosted (not free) blog because you need to buy a domain and web hosting. In particular, you need to have either a PayPal account or a credit card that you can use as a payment method for purchasing your own domain and hosting.
I would recommend to use PayPal in order for you not to divulge your credit card number every time you buy online. If you still don’t have a PayPal account, you can sign up here for free.
However, if you have no money or you don’t want to spend, you can try to make one using blogspot or WordPress. The downsides here are your domain will be longer and you will not have the full control of your site. With free WordPress hosting, you cannot place Google Adsense and other ads which can be a source of income for your blog.
If you want a good-looking and professional blog like this blog of mine, you should spend for it. I will assure you that you will get your investment back for your site many times more that what you spend as long as you are ready to work hard.
4. Basic Knowledge of English Grammar and Writing
Unless your website will be in Filipino or other language, a basic knowledge on English grammar and writing will definitely be needed when making your blog. I believe you know how to compose a correct sentence in English. Don’t worry, it’s not hard to learn and there’s no late in studying English. You may begin now!
Think of Your Topic
A topic can be anything. However, I suggests to choose a topic or niche that you’re interested or knowledgeable the most. If you want to learn how to select a niche, you can visit this post that I made: Choosing Your Niche
Picking the right niche will be very vital before starting your own blog so you could begin the first correct step in making a great website. To give you an example, the niche of this blog is about personal finance. So when I registered my domain, I choose a word related to finance or money (learn financial education).
Some of the most common niches about blogging these days are make money online, personal finance, stocks, investing, food, gadgets, movies, showbiz, business, music, sports, and a lot more. If you have your own profession, you can choose it as a topic of your blog. I know many bloggers that writes about topics related to their profession or job.
Two Necessary Components of a Website
A blog or website should have two components before it become live or “online”. You cannot make a blog without these two components that I will discuss later in this article.
1. Domain
A domain is the address of you website or blog. It is the one you see in the address bar of every Internet browser you are using. It is like a piece of land where your house is located. It tells where your house is. Similarly, your domain will tell the people where is your website in the Internet by typing and looking for it.
As much as possible, your domain or domain name should be closely related to your niche. For example, if your niche is about investing your domain name could be smartinvestingblog.com. If you can make your domain name shorter, the better so it can be easily remembered by your visitors.
Before you can have a domain, you should register for it similar like buying a land. If, for instance, the domain is already registered, you cannot buy it anymore, you should change the name to a different one. There will be no same domain names that will exist, it is always unique.
I buy domain names for my other blogs using Namecheap, the leading domain name registrar and web hosting company that was founded in 2000. If you want to get the domain that you like, you should register for it immediately or other people might get it. Domain registration is always, first come, first served basis.
2.Web Hosting
A web hosting is where your domain resides. It is like the “house” of your domain. A blog or website cannot exists without a hosting, both should be together to make a blog. Normal websites with just hundreds of visitors per day require regular web hosting. However, for blogs with tens of thousands of visitors per day sometime require a dedicated hosting to take care of the traffic.
There are lots of web hosting companies out there and each one has different benefits from the others. The most common web hosting that most bloggers and website owners used are HostGator, BlueHost, DreamHost, JustHost and more. All of my blogs are hosted by JustHost but I also highly recommend HostGator.
When choosing a hosting company, you should know how much is the hosting plan they give in comparison with other companies. In addition, it is also good to learn how they support their customers and what are their feedback. Customers’ reviews are very important so that you can get valuable insights from them whether to choose or not the hosting you are studying for.
What Blogging Platform to Use
I personally recommend to use WordPress because it is easy to use and setup. One good thing why WordPress is very good for newbie is the plenty of plugins that you can use to your blog which really helps a lot.
For those of you who want to have their own blog but you don’t know what to do or how to begin, I can help you setup your own blog for free. Please visit this post to learn more: I Will Help You to Setup Your Own Blog for Free
Disclosure: Some of the links in this post may be affiliate links. If you click on the link and purchase the item, we will receive an affiliate commission. In addition, we only recommend products and services we use personally and/or believe will add value to visitors and readers.
