So, you want to get started making money online and build your first website. Excellent.
Other webmasters online will tell you, “you need to pick a product or service before you start your website” or before you start any forms of affiliate marketing.
I don’t agree with this at all. I feel that what needs to be decided upon – let’s keep it simple – what is your subject.
What will your website be about?
Although this seems like a very simple question – it really starts the overall thought bubbles forming, in terms of what your website will be about.
What are your interests? This is often a good place to start. What are you passionate about?
Then, what you’re passionate about – can you turn that passion into writing? Writing, and writing more, and writing endlessly, on that given subject?
This is really what’s important when it comes to deciding on what you will build your first website about.
Set Up a Website on WordPress using BlueHost
OK, let’s say you have that out of the way. You know what your website will be about, and you want to get a website set up to start the writing process.
WordPress is a great pick for a lot of people, because you can set it up with not a lot of programming, HTML or “web” knowledge for the most part. Let’s start with the first few things that you need to do.
The very first thing you need is a domain. If you don’t know what domain to buy, or need help picking a domain, see my guide on buying your first domain name.
Once you have a domain, you need to set it up. I’m going to use BlueHost to show you how to do this. I used Go Daddy for many years, but eventually found they were scamming me left and right and my sites were always down. So I moved to Blue Host. My sites are online all the time now, they load faster, and I haven’t had a downtime since I started.
Assign a Domain in Blue Host to Set Up the Sub-Directory and Sub-Domain
The first thing you’ll do in Blue Host is go to the domains area. Go to the Assign button.
Once you click assign, you’ll see the following.
Basically what we’re doing at this step is telling Bluehost, yes I want to “set up” this domain. Choose addon domain. The concept here is we’ll create a folder in this step, that basically will be a repository for our HTML files. If we don’t do this assign step, then we don’t have a folder to place our files in for our website.
Do not edit the “create a new directory” field. The field will automatically be filled out and match the name of your domain. DON’T CHANGE THIS!
A folder will get created under your public_html folder. This is what you want, in order for your website to work properly.
Once this is done, click assign this domain.
Domain is now Assigned – Set up Website using WordPress
OK, next step! All aboard the WordPress express. Click on the Advanced button in the bottom left of your WordPress panel.
Scroll down and look under the software heading. Look for “WordPress Manager” click on this
Click the install button at the top left.
Choose an installation URL. Note: Do not use HTTPS. It is better to use HTTP, and then install a plugin to manage your SSL set up.
If you are restoring a website using a plugin like Updraft, it’s especially important to use http. Using https will break your site.
Choose the domain you’re setting up in your list of drop down domains.
WordPress Set Up – What Fields are Important in the WordPress Manager Set Up Process?
The only other fields that are important is the admin username and password. Once WordPress is set up, you’ll be able to login to it from www.yourdomain.com/wp-admin . The username and password that you set up in this step will be the set of credentials that you use, to login to the /wp-admin area.
The site name and site description can both be edited later.
You’ll have the option to install some plugins under Select plugins, but these can also just be installed from the plugins tab – so it’s optional.
Setting the language is important if you don’t want it to be English by default.
Themes can be chosen later, so that part is also optional.
I would recommend not to change anything under the Advanced Options area. Do not change the database name or the table prefix columns.
Auto upgrades are not required and can break your site. It’s better to update your WordPress instance, and plugins when you’re looking at it – to test after, and make sure the site’s still online.