How to Start a Blog

Step 1: Visit Bluehost

Use this link to visit Bluehost. Then click the “Get Started Now” button.

Step 2: Select your blog’s hosting plan

You should start by selecting your plan. If this is your very first one, you should go with the basic one – at least until you explore your options. The one called plus should be able to cover all your needs once you get going, and you should consider the pro version once your popularity skyrockets.

Step 3: Input your blog’s domain name

Your domain name has a say in the success of your blog, so you should take your time to come up with something new. Just type in the desired domain in this “new domain” box and Bluehost will show you whether it’s available or not. If not, it will provide you with a list of similar names for you to choose from.

Step 4: Register for Bluehost

After you pick out your domain name, Bluehost will take you to the registration page where it will be required from you to fill in your personal info, including the billing data. A couple of minutes are all you need.

Step 5: Select your hosting options

Pay additional attention to your hosting options. Obviously, the 12-month package has the lowest price, but the other two are great when you want to make a long term investment.
You can feel free to uncheck the rest of the boxes – you can always get them later when you find them necessary.

Step 6: Launch your WordPress blog with Bluehost

Congratulations, we are almost there! Once you have your domain name and web hosting connected, it’s time to set up WordPress. Go to your Bluehost cPanel account, find the ‘My Sites’ section and click Install WordPress. That’s the famous one-click set-up offered by Bluehost that makes blog creation a breeze.

Now, if you go to your site’s URL, you will only see a ‘Coming Soon’ page because the site hasn’t gone live yet. For this, you’ll need to set up and design a WordPress site before launching it, but I’ll get to that later. Once this is done, go back to the cPanel and hit ‘Launch.’

Step #6: Find the right theme (blog design)

The first thing your blog’s front end needs is a face (design and layout). You want to create an environment that is both eye-catching and practical. In the long run, you want your visitors to easily find information on your site. You don’t want visitors to be discouraged by the colors you choose or the non-intuitive and unpractical way in which information is displayed. Your design can cause instant distrust of your blog or immediate acceptance. Start your search for a theme as soon as your WordPress platform is installed. The look and feel of your new blog rely on the theme you choose. Your readers will first notice the overall appearance, before even taking a look at the content. Choose a theme that looks great, but also works for your unique content needs. The default theme that comes with your WordPress blog installed is Twenty Nineteen—while it’s a good starter theme, you’ll want to choose a theme that is unique and compatible with your niche. There are more than three thousand themes available on WordPress.org.

A premium WordPress theme has the average price of $40

Among the 10 most popular free themes on WordPress.org, only 3 come from third-party developers (not developed by WordPress.org or Automattic). They are: Swift, Zerif Lite, ColorWay

Here’s a quick checklist for choosing your theme by searching within the blog dashboard:

• Read the description. Most themes come with a short description of features and functionality. Reading it can help you figure out if the theme matches your needs.
• Check for responsiveness. Aim for a responsive design that will work on desktop browsers and mobile devices. This is recommended by Google.
• Check the ratings. Star ratings will be visible in the preview and under theme details to give you a clear idea of how good the theme is.
• Preview the theme. Preview the theme (demo) to get an idea of the overall look, layout, and how customizable it is.

If you find a theme that takes your breath away, cool down. Once you install a theme you like, don’t be surprised if it doesn’t look quite right. It is just a skeleton of your blog. To make it appealing, you’ll have to fill in content (text, photos, videos, etc.).

Should you choose a free, premium or a custom theme when setting up a blog

For many visionary novice bloggers, the world is not enough. The stash of free themes does not satisfy their particular desire for the look and feel they are going for. There are two other options you can take a look at, premium and custom themes. But they incur a cost, sometimes a tiny one, at other times a considerable amount. Premium themes are created by both single developers and dedicated showcase websites. The price range for single-use licenses ranges from $30 to $500, depending on which premium theme you choose. Custom themes are created by an individual developer (coder and designer, or agency) who will either customize an existing theme or create a brand new theme for you. While coming with clear-cut advantages, they are not the ideal choice for a beginner blogger due to their high cost. Prices to customize a theme, ranging from $500 to $2,000, depending on the features you want.

Recommended reading: The Best WordPress Themes for 2019

Blog theme customization

Installing and setting up your new theme is quite exciting; these steps confirm that you made a good choice with WordPress as your blog management system. Remember, your Dashboard is the place where it all happens in the back end, including the option of installing your theme. Once you login to your account, you are now able to choose one of the default WordPress themes provided by Bluehost. Keep in mind that you can always pick another theme from a WordPress.org repository.

After selecting a theme of your choice, you are now ready to log in to the WordPress dashboard.

Once you login to your WordPress dashboard, you will be prompted with the “Welcome” message and you can choose to accept the help provided by Bluehost for selecting the type of website you are about to create. Or, you can always do it on your own.

If you click on the Bluehost button in the left-hand corner, you will see the page with various tools that are designed to help you create your own blog. Click the “Launch” button and you’ll be seen online within minutes.

After clicking the “Launch” button, you will just need to fill the two most important fields for your site. The title and description, which will tell your future visitors what is your site all about.

Congratulations, you just learned how to create a blog. Your new blog is ready for launch, so get ready to learn how to blog!

Recommended tutorial: The Beginner’s Guide to Managing WordPress Blog (including Video Tutorials)

Now you should learn what it takes to customize your blog, make the necessary tweaks to make it stand out and please your readers.

Step #7: Write content and promote your blog

So far, you’ve captured a domain name, chosen your blog site and set up the theme, and you are ready to go. Your framework is complete. Now comes the moment of truth. You must learn how to write blog content – in the blogging world, any useful information that you bring to readers can be called “content.” It must be something people will want to interact with and come back to get more, something of value. The next step is to figure out what content you need to make for your new blog and the best practices you should follow. Whether your blog is to be composed primarily of words, photos, graphics, audio, video, etc. – the content will be the bait that draws your crowd. Few will come just to see your new site. Without great content, even the most well-designed, tightly-structured blogs will ultimately fail. The framework of the web is code – but the attraction of the web is the content found there.

Three things your content should do

1. Your content speaks to a specific audience and provides value to them in some significant way. If this sounds suspiciously like our Commandments, you are right. Drill the idea into your mind and never forget it: It’s not about you; it’s about them.
2. Your content should be easily accessible and attractively presented. Your presentation must equal the quality of your content. Here again, don’t cut corners on low-quality graphics or designs. Everything about your blog must attract your visitors and encourage them to interact with your content.
3. Your content may be commercially purposed, but should never be commercially focused. Never greet your visitors with pop-up ads and giant banner ads. Greet them with content and reasons to engage with that content. Let them know you are there to help them, not to use them.

As a blog owner, you might get overwhelmed by all the available types of content and methods you can deliver it to your readers. You have to remember that the content delivery method is less important than the actual content and its quality. Wondering how you can create quality content? It’s simple. Here are three simple steps approach you can use to make great content of any type:

• Point: State your main idea and point you are covering.
• Prove: Give an example of the idea you are covering.
• Perform: Give a simple way to execute the idea.

There are two blocks you need to worry about, pre-launch and post-launch contents:

Pre-launch content

Before you start writing your day-to-day blog posts, you will want to make sure static pages (such as About us, Contact, etc.) and other parts of your blog (Sidebar, Footer, etc.) are filled with the suitable information. Let’s explore each of these content areas.

• About us: The most traditional page on any blog is the About page. This page tells new visitors to your blog what it is all about, who you are and why you run a blog about the particular topic. Depending on your niche and your style, the information you provide can be “all business” or personal and fun.
• Contact: This page allows visitors to your blog to communicate with you at any time. It can be a simple page with your email address plus social network links, or you can use a simple contact form that visitors can use to communicate with you without leaving your website.
• Sidebar content: Your sidebar is the smaller column to the left or right (depending on the theme you selected) of your blog’s main content. In the sidebar, you could include your blog categories, the most popular posts, ads, etc.
• SEO meta tags: You will need to prepare content for the SEO titles and description tags of each page (not seen on the actual page, but you need to have it ready).

Post-launch content

• Blog posts: The blog post is an entry (article) that you write on a blog. It can include content in the form of text, photos, infographics, or videos.
• Cornerstone content: Cornerstone (or evergreen) content continues to be relevant to its readers and gives them value years after the publish date. It is always fresh and up-to-date. It remains informative and retains its original quality. As its name implies – it is timeless.

Recommended reading: How to Write Blog Content – Posts, Pages, & More

Content is not limited to written material but easily overlooked. It is often best to utilize numerous forms of content and give your audience more than one way to obtain knowledge.

Recommended reading: 100+ Types of Digital Content You Can Make

To produce quality content, you will have to use your originality and imagination. However, you have to understand that some content performs better than others. But again, you should start creating content that you feel comfortable with, right for your readers, and for your blog.

Start promoting your blog

You’ve learned that the content will be the bait that draws your audience. You can write the most compelling copy the world has ever seen and design a blog interface that would sell people their own shoes…if no one sees the blog, though, all your work is in vain. Marketing and promotion happen every time you engage with your current and future readers. The success of your blog promotion will depend on the ability to engage in your niche. Let’s look closely at the advanced and straightforward promoting/marketing activities you could be taking to become an authority and successful blogger:

Let your friends know about your blog

Inform everyone you know about your new endeavor. You should include your blog name and URL in your email signature, list it on all your social media profiles, and use every opportunity to get the word out about your new undertaking.

Submit your blog to search engine

It only takes a moment, and it will help to get your blog indexed. To submit your blog URL to Google, sign in to your Google Account and go to the Submit URL option in Webmaster Tools. For extra credit, submit your site to Bing.

Submit your blog to bookmarking sites

Bookmarking sites can offer your content to a lot of potential viewers who are searching for content within your niche. You should this every time you publish a new blog post to spread the word out. Some popular social bookmarking sites are Scoop.it, Reddit, etc.

Be active in your niche

Get active on relevant blogs, forums, and social pages. Blogger communities are a good way to connect with other bloggers within your niche. You can engage, build friendships and help each other in spreading the content.

Be active on social networks

Your business is unique, and you should make use of the social media avenues that best fit your own niche and style. Choose the one (or ones) that best fit your needs and become an expert at leveraging them to help reach your goals.

Comment on other blogs

Commenting on other relevant blogs is a great way to build relationships with top bloggers within your niche. This will help you make them and their readers aware of your existence as well as developing your personal brand within the topic.

Guest blogging

Take the relationship a step further and offer to write a guest post for other websites. Just be sure your work goes on reputable sites and that the content is directly related to your niche. Guest blogging is an excellent way to build an online presence.

Start building your mailing list

Once your blog gains new fans and readers it’s a good idea to collect the email addresses of those who want to be notified of new articles and offers. As people come to know and trust you, they will respond better to your promotional efforts.

Advertising on the web (paid traffic)

Appropriate and well-informed use of paid media can help you gain exposure and attention before your organic (naturally derived) traffic takes hold. Paid traffic avenues include Google AdWords, and Facebook, to name a few major ones.

Recommended reading: How to Promote Your Blog and How to Increase Blog Traffic (100+ Hands-on Tactics)

Remember that you can always find other ways to promote your new blog. Rely on the blogging fundamentals: a clear and well-functioning blog, focused and helpful information, engaging conversation and practical advice. Your authority will come from helping and giving advice to other people, your fans or readers.

Step #8: How to make money blogging

Monetization is the process of translating your blog activity into earnings. You should keep in mind that blogging isn’t all about making money but instead creating useful content that will attract readers and make them come back for more. After producing great content for some time and by engaging with your niche market, you will become a recognized expert who will be able to build a significant list of followers and subscribers. Only then you could consider adding content that will generate income.

Blog monetization channels

How to monetize a blog? There are several options from which to choose. You should use the ones that prove most useful to you:

Running ads on your blog

There are seamless possibilities for you to run ads on your blog. Regardless of your niche, you can opt for ads that are specific to what you are writing about or ads that simply better serve your advertiser’s purposes. Google Adsense is one of the most popular choices for ads.

Enrolling in affiliate programs

Affiliate programs are ways of teaming up with retailers to promote their products and benefit from successfully carrying out sales through a commission. Some things that you need to consider when enrolling in affiliate programs:

• the number of affiliate sales will strongly rely on the number of visitors you have
• you need to be credible enough for your visitors to click on your links
• you may want to consider placing a notice on your Terms of Use page that you do use affiliate links

There are a few popular online platforms that offer many affiliate programs you can enroll in Amazon Associates, ShareASale, etc.

Selling your products and services

If you are more on the creative and entrepreneurial side, you may want to consider using your blog as a venue for selling your products and services. Use this advantage especially when your blog gains in readership, authority, and popularity. There are plugins that you can easily integrate into your blog and start selling, such as the WooCommerce plugin. It comes with product pages, cart, checkout, secure payments, etc.

Writing and selling an Ebook

Another great opportunity to make money is to gather existing content from your own blog and offer it as a downloadable ebook. Your ebook can be sold independently if your blog has a commercial platform (such as Bigcommerce), or it could be sold elsewhere. A great publishing opportunity is offered by Amazon and their KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing) program.

Sponsored posts

Advertisers are always looking for exposure and are willing to pay you for placing a sponsored post on your blog. Those posts usually promote advertiser products or services and are a good way to earn some additional income for your blog. In the future, if you’re able to build one of the most popular blogs and become an authority in your niche, the advertisers would approach you to publish their posts.

Recommended reading: How to Make Money Blogging

As you can see, there are numerous ways to monetize a blog. Consider the possibilities, and then choose the method or methods that best suit you and your audience. As a minimum, you should – from the very start – begin compiling a mailing list of your readers through subscriptions. Then, when you are ready to recommend products, you will have ready access to those who want to hear what you have to say.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is a blog?

Some people still don’t know what is a blog? A blog (shortened from the phrase “weblog”) is known as many things—a digital magazine, diary, newscast, collector’s meeting place, a showcase for your art, information sharing, teaching hub, a place to learn and…well, almost anything you want it to be. A typical blog combines text, images, videos, and links to relevant pages and media on the Web. Blog readers can leave comments and communicate with the author. In fact, dialogue and interaction are a popular part of a blog’s success.

How to start a blog for free?

People often wonder where to start a blog, but several blogging platforms allow you to create a blog for free. All you have to do is to choose the one you like, register an account and start blogging. For example, you can start a free blog on WordPress.com, Blogger or Tumblr in a matter of a few minutes.

But you need to understand a few things when starting a blog for free:

• If you open a BlogSpot account, your free blog name will be in this form: “blogname.blogspot.com” or “blogname.tumblr.com”. In the blogging community, this type of blog is the sign of an inexperienced beginner who likely won’t be taken seriously.
• You’ll be subject to rules and restrictions set by the platform. They may limit or prohibit you from using ads, or they may even place their own ads on your blog. If you’re serious about blogging, you’ll want to move away from this option sooner than later.

How to make a blog the right way? I strongly suggest setting up a WordPress blog, and I covered how-to in this blogging guide. If for some reason, the free blog is the only option for you, then create an account on one of the free blog platforms mentioned above and check them out.

What is a niche and how do I choose one for my blog?

If you’re unsure what a niche even is, you’ve come to the right place. In short, a niche is a topic that you write about most often, or even exclusively, in your blogs. Think about the countless of ‘healthy living’ blogs – they give advice on, well, healthy living. They often offer some interesting recipes, share insight into great exercise routines, talk about which foods you should avoid, etc. Leading a healthy lifestyle would be their niche. Brainstorm to find your topic Following is a process that can help you determine which niche is best for you:

• Make a list of your interests or hobbies. Which topics fascinate you? List them all, for instance: golf, fishing, yoga, playing games or cooking.
• Next, list accomplishments you are proud of, such as musical talent, artistic talent or sports achievements.
• Now, list difficulties you have overcome or defeated, such as: losing a significant amount of weight, recovering from a financial setback or managing a disease.

During this exercise, you will get a better feeling for the topics that resonate with you. The ones you are most passionate about are the best candidates for your niche. The reason is that while blogging is an enjoyable process, most people give up after a few months because they lose interest in it. You don’t need to be an expert on the topic that you choose, but it is necessary to want to learn more about it. It’s necessary that you’re excited about it. When you’re disinterested in the topic, the readers will notice and they’ll stop coming to your blog; it’s as simple as that. Narrow it down Once you’ve found your topic of interest, it’s a good idea to narrow it down. If you’re super excited about yoga, for example, choose the type that you’re interested in the most. Is it Hot and Bikram yoga? Kundalini? Something else? If you pick too broad of a topic, it’ll be difficult for you to stand out from the crowd. Speaking of yoga specifically, just by doing a simple Google search of it, you’ll find countless big blogs covering this topic. You’ll only be making it harder for people to find your blog.

Recommended reading: How to Find a Niche for Your Blog (Step-by-Step Guide)

What should I blog about?

More often than not, people think they should blog about popular topics where they think money grows on trees. And while the truth is that you might be able to attract the larger audience if you write about smartphones instead of blogging about something specific like tuna fishing, that’s the wrong way to go. In the case, it would show that you write about something you might not completely understand and love, and it would result in an unsuccessful blog that not even you would enjoy.

Instead, you should start writing a blog about something you love and follow. Even if it is a smaller audience, your passion and expertise will attract just the right people. You will be able to connect with them, which will help you to grow and even earn money from it.

Which is the best blog site?

As you might have already realized, there are more than a few blog sites that can easily catch your attention. Although the answer depends on your needs and wishes (where each platform has its good and bad sides, of course), I’m a strong supporter of self-hosted WordPress.

Some may argue the fact that having a self-hosted WordPress site is the best option, but you can’t dispute the fact that it is the most popular blogging platform in the world. WordPress will let you own and control the blog.

How much does it cost to start a blog?

Starting a self-hosted blog is not as expensive as you might have initially thought. If you choose to host
your site with Bluehost that I recommend, you can have the environment ready for as low as $2.95 per month!

While usually, a domain would cost you around $15, with Bluehost, you will get one for FREE! The basic package also includes a free SSL certificate (which protects data transfers on your site and makes it safe), 50GB of storage and unlimited bandwidth which means you can have as many visitors as you are able to attract to your site. And this is more than enough to start with.

Do bloggers make money?

You can definitely make money blogging. The amount of money will depend on many factors and it won’t happen overnight but if you put enough effort you could be making extra income or even make a living from your blog.

When you are just starting a blog, don’t get disappointed if blogging won’t buy you a new car in the first few months.

How much money can you make from a blog?

It depends on many factors. Are you just starting out or you already blog for some time and have a group of people who trust you? Is blogging your primary focus or do you manage a blog just in your spare time? And how to make a living blogging?

According to Glassdoor, bloggers in the United States on average earn $30,000 per year. Obviously, some earn a lot less, while there are influencers who have millions of people following them and can earn more than $100,000 per year. Some even say blogging for money gets them more than a million-dollar per year.

Do you want to know how to make a living blogging? If your blog is completely new, you will have to work hard before getting that first paycheck.

Also, passive income needs time to start increasing. Different advertisements and banners will make sense only after you have a well-established blog. While it is possible to get a few bucks per click on a Google ad, you will have to develop your site and build an audience before that becomes a reality. So, when starting out, you can expect only a fraction of a dollar for each click, but do not let that discourage you. Everything has a start, so does your income from a blog.

How do I find a profitable niche for my blog?

So, now you have your topic of interest, you’ve narrowed it down, everything seems to be going great. What now? How do you start making money off of it?

Do a market search

Well, the first thing you should do is check out the competition. A simple Google search for your niche would suffice. You can also check out social media networks, even paper magazines to figure out your competition and see whether you’ll have the audience you want. You can use free SEO tools to get insight into the volume of searches so you can know what you’ll be dealing with.

If there are too many searches with a lot of competitive sites, you might want to narrow your topic down even more. Explore all the possible keyword ideas that would be of interest to the audience, so that you can find that sweet spot between great demand and low competition.

Check out how profitable your niche is

If you want to make money off your blog, you need to find out whether the niche you’ve chosen is profitable and how much do bloggers make in the same niche. You can once again easily check this with a Google search. When you type in your keywords, are there any ads that pop up as the first result?

When brands or businesses are paying to advertise the products or services related to your niche, you’ll know you’ve picked a good topic, and you’ll be able to monetize your blog with ads.

A better way for monetizing a blog might be through selling affiliate products. Amazon, for example, has a nice affiliate program that allows you to get a 10% commission when your blog sends a buying customer to them. Going back to the yoga niche, you could link to Amazon affiliate products like yoga pants, mats, etc.

Who is your ideal reader?

It’s a common misconception that a specific type of blog post will attract the right person when it’s actually the audience itself that dictates what a blogger should write about. This is why you should always have your ideal reader in mind when creating a profitable blog.

Once you have an idea of who your ideal readers are, you can adjust the language you use in blog posts, the tone of voice, the type of products you’ll market to them, etc.

Knowing the age group of your audience will help you determine their probable spending power, which will, in turn, let you know what types of products to promote. The lower their spending power, the cheaper the products you should market, and vice versa. It will help you determine your style of writing. If your audience is advanced in your niche, you can use topic-specific jargon, if they’re not, you’ll want to keep it simple.

Having a specific reader in mind will help you center your posts towards them, making writing easier, and your new job more enjoyable.

Should I start my blog on WordPress?

WordPress is truly a superior choice when starting your own blog. It’s the most popular CMS in the world for several very compelling reasons. Apart from having complete control over your blog, if you create it on self-hosted WordPress.org, you will experience several more exceptional benefits.

The platform is very intuitive and user-friendly, and it’s very easy to install. You can have your blog up and running with just a few simple clicks.

WordPress comes with plenty of customization features. There are thousands of themes to choose from to make your blog enticing and attention-grabbing, and there are also thousands of plugins for adding more functionality to your blog, including SEO plugins for optimizing your content for search engines.

So, to answer the question: you should definitely start your blog on WordPress, particularly self-hosted WordPress.org. You don’t have to worry about security, updates, or slow-loading pages, as you can quickly create a powerful blog that readers will absolutely love.

What to do if I already have a free blog?

For starters, don’t worry. If you decide to switch to a self-hosted WordPress, you can quickly and painlessly move your free blog to your new host.

Most of the free blog sites allow you to export the content. And WordPress features a ton of tools that will automatically import the content to the new blog. If you are running a Blogger, let me show you how to move it to WordPress, step-by-step.

How do I learn WordPress?

I always love to hear that someone is interested in WordPress or to learn blogging. That’s because I have been working hard to gather the knowledge and experience I had been collecting for many years in the business.

I have dedicated an entire section of our site to learn WordPress where you can level up your WordPress skills and understand the best practices.

The section will guide you from the very beginnings of your WordPress site to advanced techniques that will teach you how to develop a unique site that both you and your visitors will love.

How bloggers get paid?

There are two main categories we can talk about when it comes to getting paid as a blogger. One is passive income while the other requires you to engage in some actions.

Passive income is an always popular option since it allows you to earn money even while you sleep. While the concept is very tempting, you should understand that it isn’t entirely true. While you are able to get paid all the time, you still have to work hard on the advertisements and different systems if you want to get the best out it (earn as much as possible). This usually includes:

• Displaying Google ads or other advertising platforms/networks
• Affiliate links (you get a percentage for sale that comes from your site)
• Adding textual advertisements & links

The active income may bring you more cash, but it needs more involvement. You can earn money by:

• Having Course Sales, Training, and Coaching
• Writing & publishing sponsored posts and listings
• Selling products directly
• Writing ebooks
• Podcast sponsorships

These are just some popular ways of earning money while blogging. Learn more about it through my beginner’s
guide with tips from 33 experts.

What to do if your domain name is taken?

Unfortunately, gazillions of awesome domain names have been already taken; especially if you aim for the most popular .com domain. But don’t worry; if you can’t get the domain you want while registering for a hosting account, Bluehost will help you by letting you choose one later. Just by clicking the button, you can skip the registration of the domain. That will give you time to do some research and thinking. Try thinking about other options or maybe another extension like .net or any other that may be a good fit for your blog.

I have put together a guide to help you come up with a great domain name, so take your time and consider all the factors before registering a domain.

How do I switch from HTTP to HTTPS on Bluehost?

Recently, Google started to penalize sites that aren’t secured. News about unsecured sites started to spread like wildfire, and everyone wanted to get their site on the safe list. And so should you; having a secure website have more than a few benefits:

• People will be more likely to stay on your site
• If you sell something or ask visitors for email addresses or different personal information, they will know the information will remain visible only to you
• Google will not penalize your site by showing an alert that your blog is not safe

To make your blog safe, all you need to do is turn on the SSL certificate. It controls the data transfer on your site and makes it unreadable to nosy people who might sniff the data from an outside. But before you start worrying that only tech savvy-experts know how to do this, let me show you how you can get a FREE secure connection in just a few steps:

Login to your Bluehost account (Use the login information you received via email after creating an account)

If not already selected, choose “hosting login” tab

Click on “My Sites” from the menu

Hover over the thumbnail that represents your site

Click the “Manage Site” option that will show up over the thumbnail

Select the “Security” tab at the top

Turn on the “Free SSL Certificate” by clicking the switch to “On”

After toggling the switch, you should wait up to one hour before the changes become visible on your site.

To quickly identify if the SSL certificate was successfully installed for your domain, check for the icons next to the URL of your site.

If using Chrome, you should see a little green lock followed by the word “secure” or the name of the site. This will indicate that the certificate has been successfully installed and that your blog follows the rules. Congratulations!

If not, Chrome will show a little information icon (a circled letter “i”). If you click on the icon, it will tell you that the site is not secure, and warn you about leaving sensitive information on that site. Now you can imagine how terrible that looks like when Google recommends not leaving any information on a site.

Please note that you can turn on the certificate only after your domain registration is fully completed. To make sure it will work; wait at least 24 hours before turning on the certificate.

How to Start a Blog PDF

This guide takes you from learning the basics of blogging to becoming a talented blogger.