The very basic of any blog running is to set up your own site on your hosting plan. In this articles, I’ll show you how to start a blog with Bluehost and WordPress in just about 30 minutes.
I’ve been blogging since 2016 and am a big fan of SiteGround, to be honest. However, the biggest con of SiteGround is that it can be quite pricey, especially for beginners who can rarely generate any income from their blogs.
Starting from €3.95/month for StartUp plan and up to €11.95/month for the GoGeek one (which I’m using for my 8 other websites), SiteGround is definitely not the best option for those who are not sure if they want to become a blogger and if they can earn money from it, nor those who just want to make a personal site only.
So, for this website, I decided to change my hosting and domain company to Bluehost, which is already popular among bloggers all over the world.
Actually, I haven’t been blogging too much here lately so I cannot pinpoint anything wrong with Bluehost, compared to both SiteGround and what I have read online.
1. Get Started
First thing first, you have to visit their homepage and choose “WordPress Hosting” to start buying the domain and hosting for your new website.
2. Choose the right plan
From here, I recommend you to go for either the first or second option, depending on your blogging goals. I recommend you go for the 36 months payment, which is more affordable in the long run.
3. Register your domain
Assuming you’re a newbie, simply create a new domain. If yours is already taken, you’ll be noticed and in this case, you have to come up with a new domain name.
The other option, “Use a domain you own”, means that if you already have a domain somewhere, you can use it with Bluehost’s hosting service. But that’s a different story and can be quite tricky if you haven’t started a blog before.
My pro tips: Buy both your hosting and domain at one place to keep it simple!
4. Payment and Verification
Next steps are about your personal information, e-mail address, payment methods, etc., so I will skip the screenshot here.
Once your payment is registered successfully, they will send you a verification e-mail like this one. Click “Verify your email” to officially set up your website with Bluehost now!
5. Set up with Bluehost and WordPress.org
WordPress.com vs. WordPress.org: You probably have heard a lot about these two WordPress sites, but what is what?
For a short answer, if you want to have full control of your site and go pro, go for WordPress.org. WordPress.com is more for blogging as a hobby, for example, if you see a website with that URL thisisablog.wordpress.com, you can say it uses WordPress.com.
OK, so from this step, you can log in your account (after verifying your e-mail). Next, you’ll be logged in to your Bluehost hosting and domain account, where you can start setting up your site.
On the right-hand side, you can see the “Add Site” button. If you have Choice Plus plan, you’ll be able to create up to three sites.
From this step on, Bluehost and WordPress.org will run their automatic set up, including:
- Choose a Site Name and Site Tagline for your site
- Choose which domain you want to run the set up (in case you have more than 1 domain)
- Install free plugins for your site. Don’t worry if you haven’t heard about plugins before since there will be an entire blog post about it!
Just let it finish its job. And you’ll have your sparking new WordPress site in less than 30 minutes.
So if you look at your site now, it will say Coming Soon, and it’s exactly what other people will see when they enter your website.
But for you as a blogger now, you can log in to the admin end and start customizing your site and creating content!
The Pros and Cons of Hosting with Bluehost
I know that there are many professional bloggers who don’t recommend Bluehost, but there are also a lot of bloggers who have been using Bluehost for years without any major issues. So it’s ultimately up to you to decide if Bluehost is the right hosting option for your website.
Here are some pros and cons of hosting with Bluehost:
Pros:
- Affordable pricing plans starting at only €2.65/month
- Easy setup process with automatic installation of WordPress.org
- Easy to navigate control panel and user interface
- Free domain name for the first year + free SSL certificate
Cons:
- Sometimes slow loading times
- Customer support can be hit or miss at times
- Limited storage space compared to other hosting providers
- Difficult to change the default domain to the one you want
I’ve been using Bluehost for roughly four years now, and yes, I do experience slow loading times occasionally, but overall I haven’t had any major issues with their service.
However, for the price, it is now not as good as it used to be a few years ago. But, well, it’s still fairly affordable.
So if you’re a beginner blogger looking to start your own website with minimal cost and technical knowledge, then Bluehost is definitely an option worth considering. It’s affordable, easy to set up, and comes with some great features for bloggers.
In the future, when you blog starts to grow bigger and you have more goals, more customizing to do, you can always change your hosting and domain provider to the one of your choice.
