This is for Julie who sent me a cryptic SMS last night, asking if I have to pay to blog!
I started off with Blogger. In fact, I still use Blogger for my Simply Aesthetic Blog. It's fast, it's free, and you just need a Gmail account to get started. Best part is, it's pretty intuitive, so even a technophobe can set one up in minutes. The template choices are pretty limited, but it's no big deal. Modifying the overall look is easy, with adding elements and rearranging them at a click of a button.
And then there's WordPress. Also has a free version, but I really don't think there's any advantage over Blogger, and the latter is much easier to use. The "paid" version takes a lot more to get used to it. When I first played with WordPress 3 years ago, I hated it! BVut now that all my sites are built with WordPress as the engine, I've comne round to the many advantages, particularly how much Google loves it.
I think this is the type of blog Julie wants. So here's how to go about it!
Step 1: Buy a domain name
The domain name is what people type into the browser to look for your site. It needs to reflect you or your interest if it's a personal blog. Most people choose their names as the domain name of choice. I used to own christinecheng.com. But when I gave it up, it was quickly taken up by another Christine Cheng. So I had to settle for drchristinecheng.com.
For Julie, julielee.com is already taken. Actually some domain name traders have taken it, in hope someone by the name of Julie Lee would buy it off them for a pricely sum. For her, an option would be to try julie-lee.com or julielee.me. The .me TLDs are for personal websites.
My favourite domain name supplier is Godaddy.com. I've used the for years. A .com name costs US$10.69 per year. Namecheap is slightly cheaper (by about US$1), but I find their site less user friendly. Now I will buy my GoDaddy domain names by accessing their site through Dubli's Shopping Portal, and I get a 10% rebate.
Some hosts will provide a domain name for free as part of the hosting package, so I'd just use GoDaddy to source for an available name first.
Step 2: Buy A Hosting Package
The host stores the content of your blog. Hosting used to be very expensive, with limits on data stored, bandwidth transfers, etc. Now it's so cheap that you can even find hosting for US$10 for an entire year!
I've tried a few, but my favourite is Apthost.com. I think they give a free domain name too, but I had already purchased my domain name, so didn't take up their offer. I like Apthost as the server speed is good, minimal downtime, and setting up WordPress is a cinch!
Step 3: Configuring It All
Once the host has sent you the welcome e-mail with nameserver & access details, it's time to go back to the Domain Name trader to manage your domain name. All you have to do here is set your nameservers to the ones in the host e-mail. The pointing may take some time to be established. Patience is needed at this time.
Then go to yourdomain.com/cpanel and login with the details given in the host e-mail. Cpanel is quite confusing for a newbie. Full of icons! The one you need to look for is a smiley face labelled Fantastico Deluxe. Click on that and it takes you to an installation page. On the left side, thre's a column of numerous applications it can auto install. Look for WordPress. Click on that & fill in the options. The only ones that matter are e-mail (choose your own rather than default), blog name and blog description. The just save and exit.
Step 4: Configuring WordPress
If you go to www.yourdomain.com, you'll now see the default WordPress template. Ugly blue thing. And a Hello World message. To change all this, you'll need to go to www.yourdomain.com/wp-admin. This is the control centre of your blog. From there, you can add theme, search for a nice one and install. You have hundreds of free themes to choose from!
Then you can add in plugins and widgets to personalise your site.
After that, just add posts and blog away!
That's a very abbreviated version of how to set up a blog. Blogger's easier, right? I had so much help from Shi (my SEO coach, buddy of many years and Chef Trainer of Finggle.com) and Thomas, my web designer. Then attending a couple of courses and reading a huge book gave me essential "aha" moments. I'm no expert, but I can now set up a blog from scratch in a couple of hours. Being anal about aesthetics, choosing the right template is what takes longest. Then it's prety much a case of installing & activating my favourite plugins, and I'm done!
