How to Create Your Own Website, Blog, Online Store

A lot of people are asking me how to create your own website, whether it’s a blog or an online store.  Today, a website, blog, Instagram, youtube, or other online presence is beginning to become an integral part of an individual’s portfolio.  Continue to read below if you’re interested in creating your own website and building your own online presence.

Create Your Own Website or Blog

There are plenty of platforms for creating a website and you do not need coding experience to create one.  In fact, you can create one in a matter of minutes.  The tough part in my opinion is generating ideas for your website or blog.  If you have a good idea, then you’re 80% done!

I use WordPress.org (do not get confused with WordPress.com – free limited customization) for this blog and I think it has one of the best platforms for creating personal websites and blogs.  WordPress has an Appstore (also known Plugins) which allows you to quickly add apps to your website that assist in managing content to creating content for your website.  Visit www.firststepfortune.com/calculators/ to check out the calculators I created for this blog leveraging plugins.

There are other platforms like WIX, Weebly, Squarespace and others that you can create websites relatively fast with drag and drop features.  However, as your website becomes more and more advance, WordPress may be in your best interests.  Also fun fact, WordPress powers roughly 28% of the World Wide Web (at the time of this posting).

eCommerce (Online Store)

If you are interested in creating an online store you should look into platforms like Shopify or Weebly.  I used Shopify for my own online store and was able to spin up the site in a matter of minutes with a successful checkout, payment process.  I have colleagues who use Weebly to create and host there online store as well and you can choose which platform is right for you, based on your business’ needs.

How much does it costs?

The typical question when asked how to create your own website or blog is “How much does it costs?”.  Well there’s two things that you need before publishing content on your website that unfortunately, costs money.

1. Domain Name – your websites URL or name (i.e. www.firststepfortune.com).  Think of it as your own personal property on the web that no one else can use.  Once you buy it you have own it for the entire year and ongoing years as long as you pay to renew it each year.
2. Web Hosting – Once you have your domain name, you need to pay a service provider to host your website and content.  To put it in simple terms, when you create a website with images, web content, videos, etc you need a place to store all of it and to make it available to anyone browsing your site.  Web hosting, makes your content, images, videos, available and stores it for you at a relatively low cost.

www.FirstStepFortune.com uses Blue Host for its hosting as it is one of the recommended hosting provider for WordPress.org.  It is also relatively low cost and offers free a free domain as well as an easy 1-click installation to set up WordPress.

To answer the money question there’s ball park ranges.  For a first time website/blog you can expect to pay anywhere from $40 – $120 per year.  For an eCommerce platform you can expect to pay anywhere from $200-500 per year due to the payment processing capabilities.

Steps to Create Your Own Website or Blog

If you chose to go with WordPress.org and blue host for your web hosting, follow these steps.

1. Visit Blue Host
2. Chose your hosting service plan (basic, plus, prime)
   1. They are currently offerring free domains if you sign up through blue host.
3. Create your domain for free or add in your existing domain.
4. Determine your package information (recommend do not pay for SEO Jumpstart – there are free plugins for this)
5. Once you make your payment you have successfully set up your hosting.  You should land on bluehost.com landing page.
6. Select “Install WordPress” from the icons available on the landing page of Blue Host
   
   
7. Choose your domain from the dropdown for which website to install WordPress on.
8. Create your admin credentials (username and password)
9. Once the installation process is complete, visit www.<enteryourdomain>/wp-admin and log in! (If your domain was www.cookies.com, your admin site to manage your content is www.cookies.com/wp-admin)
10. You successfully created your website!

If you have any questions or comments that you would like to add to this page please let us know below!