Blog Lesson 4 - Get Your Own Blog in 3 Easy Steps

Step 1. Get a Domain Name

When you have a free blog your address will look like this www.myblog.blogspot.com or www.myblog.wordpress.com, however, when you are ready to own your own blog the first thing you need to do is buy the domain name. I have used 123 reg for all three of my domain names and have found them to be very good, if anyonelse has a recommendation please leave a comment.

Step 2. Hosting

The next step is to purchase hosting, this is basically who stores all your pages. I use Laughing Squid and they cost around £4-5 per month for each site. 123 reg also do hosting if you want to stick to the same company as your domain name. UK2 and UK Domains also do hosting packages.

Step 3. Install Wordpress

Unless you know how to code your own site (!) it is widely recommended that you install wordpress. Wordpress, in basic terms, is the bit you see when you visit a site, it’s the graphics, the header, the posts etc.. It provides you with the platform on which to start publishing. There are lots of techy types that will be happy to install wordpress for you, for a small fee (Dave has done both of my sites).

Alternatively, if you already have web development knowledge or are able to follow step by step instructions I can recommend this ebook - Wordpress Guide. It is written in a very simple and straight forward language, and takes you through the whole process step by step, I think it costs like £3.50 so it’s a bargain too. Ignore the sales page which sells it as a money making machine blah di blah, it’s a basic manual that will take you through getting started. I know the person who wrote it through a group I’m in so if you have any problems when ordering it, let me know.

If any of my fellow Brit Parent Bloggers can add to my limited knowledge in this area please step forward even if it’s just to share how you got up and running, I think that would be helpful.