How to Start a Blog for Free – A Beginners’ Guide
If you love turning your words into a creative expansion of your thoughts, blogging is one of the most popular ways to do it. Around 4.4 million blogs are posted every day, it is high time to get started with your own blog. However, many might be staying away from blogging because of the cost that comes with it. With that thought, we are writing here to illustrate how you can start a blog for free. Even if you are a beginner and do not have any clue about designing or developing a website, this article will help you to get started with your own blog. Before getting into the details, let us share about some basic introduction regarding the technical elements that you have to know. Before going into the details, we will answer the following questions:
- What is a domain?
- What is hosting?
- What is WordPress?
Let’s get into the details:
What is a Domain?
Domain is an integral part of any website. In simple words, domain is the identity of your website. It is the address on the web where your website will be visible.
For example: the domain of Facebook is facebook.com, the domain of YouTube is youtube.com. It is the address they will use to visit to your website. There are two parts of the domain. The name of the website is the domain name and the later part of the website is called extension. In the above example facebook is the domain name, and .com is the extension. Many things depend on the domain name as well as the extension.
For example: .com, .net, .org etc. are examples of popular extensions and there are variations in price based on the extensions. So the identity of your website is domain. It is like the address of the place where your website lives.
What is Hosting?
All the information you put in your website, the images, videos and content you use in your website is stored in hosting. If your residential address can be compared with the domain, then the house you live in can be compared as the hosting. As your house has an area, hosting has storage. Along with that, your house might have additional features such as fire space, in house music setup etc. same goes to specific features that are present on the hosting such as if there is any domain included, number of email accounts, security and so on. In simple words this is the explanation of hosting and it is an essential part of any website.
What is WordPress?
WordPress is a website creation platform. This is also known as a content management system based on which you can create your website. In simple words, it is a platform that gives you the floor to create your website with built in free themes. Along with that there are many paid and premium versions of themes that you can use to design your website. In WordPress there is a feature called plugins. These plugins are tools and add-ons that give special features to your website. Compare this with pizza topping. You can add your favorite topping on your pizza similarly you can add plugins to your WordPress website. With the blend of theme and plugin, you can have a ready to go website in no time.
Now, as you are familiar with the terms we will be using, let’s get into details of how you can start a blog for free.
Step 1: Get Free Domain
As discussed before, the domain is the identity of your website. This is the very first step you have to take before getting started with your website. The domain should represent the name of your blog. For example if you are writing about gadgets, an example of your domain can be gadgettalks.com. To get started with a free blog, the first step is to fix the name of your website and get a free domain. But at the same time nothing in the world comes for free right? There are few reliable domain providers who can give you domain names for free. Some of the popular and reliable source from where you can get free domains are:
Dot.tk allows you to have free domain for a year and after one year you have to give the renewal fee of your domain to keep it active. In case of ionos, they do offer free domain for one year too with some additional features. Along with that there are many hosting providers who includes a single domain with the hosting plan too. Have a look at the 10 best free website hosting companies to have a clearer idea on which hosting provider offers free domain with hosting. Once you have found out the accurate source to get your domain from, you can check the availability of your domain and have the address of your website ready.
Step 2: Get Free Hosting
As we said before, hosting is equivalent to the place you live in, so you better pick a suitable place for your website too. Among the plethora of hosting providers there are some hosting providers who offer free and almost free hosting. Free hosting is time bound and almost free hosting costs you a very nominal amount per year which can be considered as close to free. You can have a look at this list to of the top free hosting providers. As your plan is to start a free blog, we will be highlighting a few free hosting providers who are suitable and well fitted for hosting blog websites.
WordPress
As we mentioned above, WordPress is a platform that enables you to host and manage your website. On top of that, WordPress is the most recommended hosting provider for blogging because of its specialty. The good news with WordPress is that they provide a subdomain with the free hosting and 3 GB storage. This amount of space is good enough to get you started with a free blog website. If you pick WordPress as your hosting, you will have some additional advantage which we will elaborate on in the later part of the article.
Wix
Wix is another hosting provider that can be used for getting free hosting. This platform is most suitable for students who want an easy to use platform for free web service. Wix’s free hosting offers subdomains with the hosting plan. Along with that, Wix provides a variation of website templates you can choose from. Wix’s hosting plan also includes 500 MB storage for your website. If you are planning to start a free blog website, Wix can be a great help to you.
Google Cloud
Google cloud offers free hosting for 12 months. The interesting element of Google is that it provides a $300 credit that you can use on different Google products. This free hosting service is suitable for small businesses and students alike. You can enjoy different features and products of Google while you are using the free hosting.
Amazon Web Services
Amazon is also well known for their hosting service. Their hosting comes with a 12 months free trial. If you want to get started with your blog for free, using the hosting of AWS (Amazon Web Services) can be a feasible option for you.
From the above option, you can select the preferable website hosting provider easily. After sorting out your domain and hosting you are almost halfway through of having your blog website. If you want our recommendation, we will suggest picking either WordPress or BlueHost based on your requirement. These hosting providers are more suitable for creating blog websites for free. Now let’s have a look at what you have to do next.
Step 3: Get a Free Theme
If you want to start a blog for free the next step to get started with your free blog website is to pick a theme that matches with your requirement. Once you have the domain and hosting ready all you have to do is pick a theme for your website. There are plenty of WordPress themes from which you can pick. As you want to create the website for free, you have to pick the theme that is free. With the help of the free theme and required plugins you will be able to have your website ready very easily. In order to reduce your hassle of finding out a proper theme for your blog we are narrowing it down for you. In the following we will indicate to one our listings from where you can select the blog based on your preference.
Before you make your pick from the above listing, we will like to shed light on a few things you must consider before picking the theme. As this guide is beginners, we want to dot the i’s and cross the t’s so that it is easier for you to make the decision to start a blog for free.
Things to consider before getting a free theme:
- Responsiveness: Responsiveness refers to the theme being completely visible from all the possible devices. A responsive theme will give a similar experience from laptop as well as from mobile. As the majority of visitors come from mobile devices, it is important to ensure your free blog is responsive and retina ready.
- One click demo import feature: The majority of the website theme comes with the one click demo import feature. You can easily import the demos if this feature is available on your theme. If you pick a theme that has the features ready then it will be easier for you to get started with your free website. You can import from any of the pre made demos and tweak a little to have your website ready.
- Built in page builder: Assuming that you are a beginner so it will be easier for you if a theme comes with a built in page builder. A page builder is a tool that you can use to customize the theme. The best part about having page builder is that you do not require any coding or technical knowhow. With the help of the page builder you can easily customize the website.
- Plugins: Plugins are life savers when it is about WordPress themes. These plugins offer additional features and options that you can integrate with your website. You can go through this list of plugins to get an idea of the different types of plugins that are present and how to integrate them with your website.
After you have installed the WordPress theme, your website will be ready to use and post your first blog and start a blog for free. Ensure you have done the necessary tweaking such as putting information about your blog to the website. Once these are done, you can create your very first blog post. For a step by step guide on how to make a WordPress site, check out this detailed article.
