There are tons of ways to start a blog out there, but if you are looking to start a WordPress blog for your side hustle business, this is for you.
My name is Tammie Allen, and I am going to show you how to start blogging for business. I started my first blog in 2007.
Currently, I have two WordPress blogs– Tammie Allen to help with getting a side hustle started, and She Wore Curls to help inspire Black women to take the natural hair journey.
I am not ashamed to admit that when I first got focused on business blogging I made a lot of mistakes that cost me both financially and emotionally. One was paying over $3100 to have my WordPress blogs built.
All worked out in the end. But at the time, I would have appreciated someone telling me straight:
Investing thousands on a website is not a smart thing to do.
I want to keep you from going through what I did back then because you can start a WordPress blog of your own in just minutes. And you don’t have to be a techie to do it.
Now I know that attempting to start a blog for your side hustle business can seem overwhelming and intimidating, but you don’t have to worry. This free guide is all about blogging for beginners.
You will learn how to start a WordPress blog on Bluehost that is professional looking and meets your business needs and the needs of your readers, in just 10 easy steps.
Let’s get to it!
Why you need a blog for your side hustle business?
You need to start a blog for your side hustle business because blogs are a revolutionary marketing tool.
Think of them as a mini-magazine that gives businesses a vehicle in which to promote their products and services. They build brand awareness and attract attention in a way that advertising can’t do.
Regardless of the size of your business, you simply cannot ignore the benefits of blogging.
- It’s a great way to gain credibility as an expert in your niche.
- You can sell your products to your email subscribers.
- It drives tons of traffic to your websites.
- It helps grow your business if you’re looking to expand your market.
If you want more details around growing your blog and creating great content, head over to my blog post: How To Boost Your Business Growth Using A Blog Strategy.
HOW TO START A WORDPRESS BLOG FOR YOUR SIDE HUSTLE BUSINESS
1. Pick a Niche For Your Blog
First thing first. Before you learn how to start a WordPress blog you need to have a niche in mind.
When picking a niche for your blog, choose a topic that you know about. Think about your life, your experiences, your profession, your family, your hobby, or your cause.
Whatever you find yourself thinking and talking about most could be the focus of your blog. For example, you might love food and obsess over the food industry. That’s fine.
However, the subject “food” is broad and generic. Try to narrow it down a bit so the blog will have focus and appeal to a specific group of people.
So instead of blogging about food, maybe you’ll focus on budget foods for just $10 a week. Or recipes requiring a single bowl or 10 ingredients or less, for example.
Or you could narrow things down even more and focus your blog on just 30-minute meals. There’s no end of topics based on your food-loving life.
Sometimes it can be a challenge to sit down and really think about topics that are interesting and important to you.
To figure it out, pay attention to which magazine articles that catch your eye, which shows you watch most, which books attract you, which cuisines you cook most, or what you’re doing when you lose track of time.
If you still can’t figure it out, ask your friends to tell you what you obsess about most when it comes to your knowledge and education.
2. Brainstorm and Choose a Blog Name
The second thing you need before you learn how to start a WordPress blog is a name.
Once you’ve decided on a niche, brainstorm, and choose a blog name so that you can buy its domain.
When it comes to blog names for businesses, broadly speaking, you can go one of three ways:
- Use your own name. So you could have YourName.com,YourName.net, YourName.biz, YourName.us, or YourName.info – whatever you decide to go for. I chose this option with tammieallen.com.
- Use the name of your side hustle. Examples that come to mind here are Kim George of Your Chic Geek and Renae Bluitt with In Her Shoes.
- Use a keyword. Your blog name includes a keyword that your customers or potential visitors may likely type into search engines. An example of this is Melinda Emerson, whose domain name is succeedasyourownboss.com.
Using word tools is another option to help you brainstorm creative blog names to start your WordPress blog.
Word Hippo
Word Hippo is a tool that helps you find similar and opposite words, words that rhyme, translations, definitions, and word forms.
Rhyme Zone
Rhyme Zone finds words that exactly rhyme, homophones, words with similar spellings, descriptive words, words that sound similar, or words that closely relate with the word you typed in the search box.
One Look
The wildcard feature that One Look has is perfect for finding words when you don’t know what word you’re looking for or how to spell it.
It also has a reverse dictionary feature that you can use to generate a list of words that relates to concepts such as large birds, soft cheese, and/or green fruit.
It’s okay to get creative when brainstorming blog names, but I encourage you to come up with names that are simple, short, and easy to spell. Avoid using numbers, hyphens, and trademarks.
3. Buy Your Domain Name and Hosting
Now it’s time to create your blog for your side hustle business. To ensure everything gets set up correctly, follow these step-by-step blog set up instructions.
Several companies offer domain names and web hosting for small businesses. In my opinion, Namecheap is the best domain registrar for small businesses, and they are pretty darn cheap. For just $8.88, you get a domain for a year.
Note: You can reserve your domain names at any time, and you don’t need to wait until you have a blog.
When it comes to web hosting, the popular three companies are Hostgator, Bluehost, and Siteground. All three offer domain registration. You can check Namecheap out for hosting too.
But I suggest buying your domain name and hosting from separate companies. It makes it easier to move your blog to another host if something goes wrong.
Looking for a .com? Get your .com for just $8.88 with Namecheap.
To keep things simple, I based these instructions on how to start a WordPress blog for your side hustle business on you purchasing your domain and hosting from Bluehost.
They’re perfect if you’re a new side hustler bootstrapping your business because they offer free domains for the 1st year.
A. Getting started
Head over to Bluehost homepage, click on “Get Started Now,” and create an account. The next page will show 4 different hosting packages.
You will see:
- Basic $3.95 per month
- Plus $5.95 per month
- Choice Plus $5.95 per month
- Pro $13.95 per month
I recommend the Plus plan. It has everything you need, including unlimited websites and email storage. When you’re just getting your side hustle started, don’t overspend. Go with what you can afford.
After selecting your hosting plan, you will need to register your new domain.
Enter the domain name that you would like to register or use an existing domain you already own – meaning you bought it from Namecheap or another domain registration site.
If your domain name is available, you will go to the next page. If it isn’t, there will be a list of options to help you choose something else.
B. Choose the length of your hosting plan
Now you will see the package information for the hosting plan you chose earlier. Bluehost pricing plans default to a 36-month signup period. You can save more money by signing up for 3 years, but you can change it to a month to month term if you want too.
At this stage, you will also have the option to add extra services to your hosting package. Uncheck the boxes for SiteLock Security and Codeguard Basic. These services are optional.
The Domain Privacy Protection is the only service that I encourage you to purchase. It protects your personal information from unwanted solicitors and hackers.
C. Enter your payment information
You need to complete your purchase to get your site. You will enter your payment information in this section. After you click submit and your payment goes through, you’re ready to install WordPress and your theme.
4. Choose Your Blog Theme
You’re going to want to think about how you want your blog to look. Blogs run on themes which makes it so easy to change their look and feel.
Hosted blogs, like the one we’re setting up in this tutorial, come with a wide choice of standard themes, but they’re limited in customization.
Before you’re tempted to go all out to make your blog the most visually impressive site in the world, focus on your content. Your design is irrelevant if people have no interest in your blog posts.
The best tip that I have for designing your blog is to pick a theme that represents YOU. Visit other websites and look at the layout, fonts, and color combinations used.
To give you some inspiration and get your creative juices flowing, here are a few popular places to get WordPress Themes.
Bluchic
Victoria designed for all of the girl bosses, lady entrepreneurs, and bloggers who want to showcase their business online.
Isabelle the go-to theme for style bloggers and lifestyle ladies.
Samantha built for the creative boss with a focus on eCommerce for retail and digital products.
Studiopress
Genesis-powered WordPress Themes
Authority Pro highlights your knowledge, years of experience, and acquired wisdom.
Niche pro created for bloggers that wanna go pro.
Foodie pro sleek and svelte with her minimalist approach and clean design
Pretty Darn Cute
Genesis-powered WordPress Themes
Pretty Happy WooCommerce ready, giving you the option to sell products, digital or tangible.
Pretty travel built for sharing your adventures with the world in style.
Astra
It’s the perfect theme for any website. It’s the lightest and has the most ways to customize your site. I chose this theme to start my WordPress blog tammieallen.com.
If you want free choose Astra.
If you want premium choose Astra Pro.
If you want to customize your design without limits get Elementor.
5. Install WordPress and Your Theme
After logging into your Bluehost account, you will click on “Website” under the “Hosting” tab.
Click the “Install Now” link. On the next page, you will select your domain for installation from the dropdown then click the “Next” button.
Fill out the admin form to create your WordPress account – blog title, admin username, email address, and password.
Check the Terms of Service box then click the “Next” button.
Feel stuck?
This video on How to Install WordPress on Bluehost from Gillian Sarah will help you out.
Once your installation is complete, you will see the page which provides you with your Admin area URL, username, and password. This same information except the password will be emailed to you also for safekeeping.
Please note
If you are or plan on using your website to accept credit card payments or collect sensitive information, I strongly suggest that you activate your FREE SSL certificate that Bluehost provides to increase your site’s security.
If you don’t know how to activate free SSL certificate, then this article will explain it all.
How to Change Your DNS from NameCheap to Bluehost
If you bought your new domain name from Bluehost to start your WordPress blog, skip this section. But if you purchased your new domain from Namecheap, keep reading!
- Login to Namecheap
- You will see your dashboard
- Go to “Domain List”
- A bunch of domains will appear
- Choose the one that you want to change
- Click on “Manage“
- Locate the “Nameservers” section
- A dropdown menu will appear with “NameCheap Basic DNS” and “Custom DNS.” Choose “Custom DNS“
- Bluehost name servers are:
- ns1.bluehost.com
- ns2.bluehost.com
- Copy and paste Bluehost name servers in the Custom DNS section just as they are. Don’t change anything.
- When you finish, click the checkmark to save changes. Sometimes the changes can take up to 24 hours to update. And voila! Your nameservers are now pointing to Bluehost.
Namecheap has a very detailed post on how to change DNS for a domain.
Congratulation, you’ve just installed your new Wordpress website. You just have to get to work on your design, change your theme, and install essential plugins.
Login your blog
You will use the username and password sent to you via email from Bluehost to login your blog.
To login your blog, go to https://ift.tt/2QHRuVM to bring up your login page (insert your blog name in place of “yourblogname.com” example domain.)
Now that you’re all logged in take a little time to understand your WordPress dashboard. The admin area of your blog is where all the changes are made.
After you’ve had a chance to look around your dashboard, the next step is to install the theme you purchased.
If you haven’t purchased a theme, no worries, Bluehost installs the default one that you can start customizing to create your business pages. Or you can pick one from the thousands of other free theme options.
To start installing your WordPress theme, first, go to Appearance then Themes page.
From the Themes page, click on the Upload button.
Click the Choose File button and browse for the zip file on your computer. Once you have selected the theme file for upload, click the Install Now button.
Once the theme has been installed, click Activate to activate the theme.
Please note
Before you can install any of the Genesis themes, you will first need to install the Genesis Framework.
- Go to the left menu. Click on “Appearance” then choose “Themes.”
- Click “Add New,” then upload the Genesis Framework file that you saved to your computer.
- Click “Install,” but don’t click on “Activate.”
Now repeat the steps. Go back to “Appearance” >>”Themes” click upload to install your theme .zip folder, but this time you do click on “Active.”
6. Customize Your Blog Theme
One exciting feature of WordPress is the flexibility to tweak and customize your blog theme. And most adjustments are quite simple.
But first, you will need a color scheme, your own content, and images.
Click “Appearance,” then “Customize.” Depending on the theme you chose, your customization options and screen may be a little different than the example used for this tutorial.
To differentiate your site from competitors, start by customizing these sections:
Colors– You can change the colors of the fonts, hyperlinks, and buttons on the pages so they can stand out from the rest of your text.
Header Image– To make this change, upload an image from your computer that you want in your header or make yourself a custom header using an image tool like PicMonkey
Site Identity– Here is where you can add your favicon and logo.
Don’t have a logo? Here’s a list of my favorite logo design tools:
Main Navigation– In this section, create custom menus to make your site easier to navigate. After the logo, the navigation menu is the first thing visitors read when they land on your blog. Make sure you at least have these pages:
- About page –say something about yourself and mention your services on this page too.
- Services – layout exactly what you will do with clients. Is it only writing, coaching, speaking, or do you sell a digital product or a product that has to be shipped?
- Portfolio – Have a page on your site dedicated to your latest projects if you’re a website designer or writer.
- Contact page – make it easy for someone to contact you. Provide social media links, email, phone number, Skype ID, and have a contact form on this page.
Background Color– This is where you change the main background image or color. You can apply color gradients, gradient overlays, and reduce the intensity of the background.
Otherwise, enter the hexadecimal code, or hex code of the new color that you would like to change your background too.
If you’re not feeling confident, don’t feel like you have to make changes to everything. Thankfully, your theme was professionally created so you can use it as is.
Plugins- Plugins provide all sorts of functions for your blog besides those that are built-in. But more often than not, plugins are at work behind the scenes, doing tasks that make your blogging life a lot easier.
You can access plugins by clicking on “Plugins” from the left side of your dashboard then “Add New.”
Here are some of the plugins that I’m currently using:
Yoast SEO – this WordPress SEO plugin helps you with your search engine optimization.
Google Analytics – you can see all the useful information about your website visitors right inside your WordPress dashboard.
Antispam Bee – blocks spam comments effectively, without sending personal information to third party services. And it’s free of charge.
Stripe Payment –this plugin allows you to accept credit card payments via Stripe payment gateway on your WordPress site easily.
Smush – helps your site load faster by reducing the size of your images without affecting the image appearance.
Redirection– manages and redirect all your old links to help reduce errors and improve SEO.
Duplicate Page– lets you duplicate a blog post or page without having to re-enter the information and formatting.
Naked Social Share– use this plugin to add unstyled social share icons for Twitter, Facebook, and Pinterest at the end of posts and pages or customize the buttons to match your theme.
Mailerlite– similar to Convertkit, Mailerlite lets you add an email subscriber form from your Mailerlite account to blog posts and pages. When you sign up for an account, it’s easy to create landing pages too. Another alternative for your landing pages is Bluchic. You get beautiful landing page templates without paying the recurring subscription.
7. Set Your Blog Up For Seo
How will people find your blog? No one wants to rely on luck, so what can you do to get eyeballs onto your blog?
The key to driving traffic can be stated in just three words: search engine optimization. Search engine optimization or SEO means taking steps to help search engines do just that.
To make sure your site is optimized to its fullest, here are a few of the easy things you can do.
Create a sitemap
It’s easy to create a sitemap if you installed and activated the Yoast SEO plugin that I recommended earlier.
- Click “SEO” from the left side menu of the dashboard. Then click the “Features” tab under “General.“
- Scroll to “XML Sitemaps” make sure the switch is toggled to “On.”
- Click the “?” icon located next to “XML Sitemap.”
- Click the “See the XML sitemap” link.
- Copy the URL of your sitemap and submit it to search engines.
Update your settings
Along the left side of the dashboard, go to “Settings.” From “Settings” click:
- Reading >>double-check that “Discourage search engines from indexing this site” is unchecked. And since you’re there, if you’d like to use a static page as your home page instead of your blog posts, you can change that here.
- General >> by default, WordPress sets the tagline to your blog as “just another WordPress site.” Why do they do this? No one knows for sure. But regardless of the reason, update the tagline before your site goes live.
- Writing >> you have the option to switch from classic to block editor.
- Permalink >>Under “Common Setting,” change your permalink structure from plain “yourdomain.com/?p=123” to post name “yourdomain.com/sample-post/” before you publish any content.
8. Create A Gravatar and Post Graphics Template
In blogging, the age-old adage that “a picture is worth a thousand words” is certainly true. To develop your blog into an identifiable brand, you need attractive and smart content.
We usually think of content as just an article, but it is more than just the written word. Images are as much a part of our language as words.
Think about your visitors.
They only have 15 seconds to decide if they will stay or click away. That’s how long you have to catch their attention.
- If you want visitors to stay longer and interact with your site
- if you want people to believe what you write
- if you want to be easily recognized across multiple websites
- If you want to establish a reputation as being knowledgeable
- If you want uniform branding
Then a gravatar and post graphics are not nice to have; they’re a need to have.
Not sure what a Gravatar is?
Gravatars are like personal logos associated with comments or posts on a blog.
A great thing about blogs is the interaction with readers. The comment section below the post allows readers and you to respond directly to other comments. And the image for the person commenting is their Gravatar.
You can check mine out here. For help creating your own Gravatar, keep reading.:)
WordPress lets you choose to allow comments and decide whether or not you want to show Avatars.
Here’s how you do it.
1. Along the left side of the dashboard, click “Settings.”
2. Click “Discussion.“
3. Check whether or not you want to “Show Avatars.“
4. Pick a default image for commenters who do not have an avatar.
5. Save changes.
How do you get your own Gravatar?
WordPress has made this very easy and simple.
- Go to Gravatar website.
- Click “Sign In.”
- Sign in to your WordPress account or sign up for a new WordPress.com account. It’s free.
- Click the “Approve” button for Gravatar to use your WordPress account.
- Click the link “Add one by clicking here!” to upload your Gravatar image.
- Choose where you want to upload the image from.
- Click the”Choose File” button to locate the image on your computer.
- Click the “Next” button.
- Crop your image and set the appropriate rating.
That’s it.
Post Graphics Template
Using post graphics templates not only makes it easier to create blog posts title images, but they also keep your images consistent with each other and with your branding. A consistent pattern improves your blog’s visual identity.
Picmonkey is my go-to tool for creating my templates. It’s the best suitable alternative to Photoshop. If you don’t have it, you might want to consider getting a subscription to it for only $12.99 a month. But, if you can’t fit that into your budget or you just don’t like Picmonkey, try these other alternatives:
If you don’t have an eye for design and or strapped for time, these Canva Social Media Templates from Bluchic are a great option.
Stock Photography
When it comes to background images for your templates, nothing is more convenient than using stock photography.
There is a whole range of photographic background subjects to use, including people, styled photography, objects that relate to your post, abstract objects, and landscape scenery.
Remember these things when it comes to photography for your background:
- Look for images that match your branding.
- Make sure that they are not busy as they will distract from the text overlaid on top of it.
- Look for something that differentiates your images from others.
Here are a few places you can find stock photography:
Ivory Mix -has a huge library of free styled stock photos for your blog, social media, and niche.
Pixistock -stylish stock photos and graphics for your Pinterest pins, blog posts, Instagram feeds, social media graphics, digital ads, lead magnets, ebooks, and more.
Unsplash – images, wallpaper, patterns, and photos that you can use for any project. I’ve contributed a few pictures of my own. Click here to check them out.
Good news: You can mix and match your photos and be as creative as you like depending on the topic of your post.
9. Brainstorm Compelling Content Ideas
Now let’s look at ways to come up with compelling content ideas. Think about your customer (and customer experience first).
Use a notebook to write down the questions that your prospective buyers ask you all the time. After you’ve made your list, answer the questions through your content.
Take me, for example, if you look at some of the blog posts I linked to, you’ll notice that I’ve created content that answers questions for my prospective readers. I’ve written blog posts like:
However, if you’re just starting your side hustle and aren’t sure about what questions your audience might have, use the Google search suggestions. Have you ever noticed when you begin typing in Google, it then guesses what you’re probably looking for?
Or you can use other free online resources to find popular content. A great tool that I always recommend is Buzzsummo. You enter your chosen keywords and see what topics are trending.
My top tip here is to create content that attracts visitors and converts them into customers. Things like:
- Be conversational
- Make it easy to read
- Use simple phrases
- Keep readers engaged
- Make your text visually appealing
- Keep it fresh
Because the way you reach your reader’s heart is to write like you speak, fill your content with emotion. Let your personality shine through.
10. Write, Edit, and Publish Your First Blog Post
When you think you have the post idea that you want, your next steps are to draft, edit, and publish it.
Start by creating a solid outline of your blog post in Microsoft Word or a Google doc with the subheadings that you are going to talk about. Give enough room for each subtopic to write about that topic.
When you write your post, your first draft isn’t supposed to be good. The first draft is whatever you write to get started after you have done your keyword research and gathered your sources.
Make it awful, incomplete, and out of order—whatever you want. Then go back over it several times, filling in the pieces, shaping, and polishing your post.
Good writing doesn’t flow out in a single piece, fully formed. It needs revision.
I run my writing through Grammarly for the final proofread. And it never hurts to have someone else read your writing to look for errors.
How to structure your blog post
Once you’ve determined your content, learn how to structure your blog post. Bloggers use a system to keep people reading.
Readers decide at every step of the way whether to keep going. Like you, they’re busy and want to know if their investment of time is worth it.
- Start with a good title or headline — This is your first point of entry for readers, so work hard on a good one. Study titles and headlines to see what captures your attention, and before you publish yours, put it into Coschedule Headline Analyzer.
- Follow with a lead paragraph — A compelling introduction reels people in with just enough detail to keep them interested and willing to continue.
- Set up your story — Learn to repeat. Tell people what you’re going to tell them (headline and lead paragraph), then tell them (body), and then at the end, tell them what you just told them (conclusion).
- Make one key point per blog post — Use the body of the post to expand on your title and lead paragraph. Engage the reader’s emotions and connect with them.
- Know your audience –Decide on whom you’re talking to and what they want to know, and then give it to them.
- Own your topic –Write your own opinion but offer value. Try not to assume everyone knows what you know.
- Add links–Connect to other blogs and websites. Part of adding value is doing the research, so your readers don’t have to. You’ll also want to link back to earlier posts to keep readers on your site.
- Write a close or conclusion — Tell them what you just told them, or circle back to the theme of the lead and restate it.
- Review your text for density — Before you post, make sure you’ve created a variety of short sentences and short paragraphs.
- Review your text for errors — Before you click that “publish” button, check for typos, spelling mistakes, and grammatical errors that make your blog look unprofessional.
Struggling to find those pesky typos? Use Grammarly. I HIGHLY recommend that you pay annually to get the best value for your money.
Once you are happy with your post, add it to your WordPress site. Find the “Add New Post” page by clicking “Add New” under “Posts” in the left side menu.
You will enter your blog post title where you see “Add Title” then copy your content from your Microsoft Word or your Google doc and paste it into the space below the title.
Click the “+” icon to add images, to change the text formats, i.e., bold or italic, and to change the paragraph formats, i.e., bulleted list and quotes.
After you have inserted your photos and formatted your post, add tags, and assign it to one or more categories, then click “Publish.”
To Sum Up How To Start A WordPress Blog For Your Side Hustle Business
I hope you enjoyed learning how to start a WordPress blog. Do you remember where we started? And look at where you are now.
We began by choosing a niche and brainstorming about what to name your blog. Next, we discussed how to register your domain and hosting.
Then you picked a theme, installed WordPress, and installed your theme. We experimented with customizing your blog, adding a header image, logo, favicon, changing colors, and installing plugins.
We then discussed SEO and how to create a sitemap and update your settings. We worked with images, learned how to create a Gravatar, how to come up with content ideas, and how to write, structure, edit, and publish your blog post.
Phew!
That’s a lot. But I hope this was informative.
What else are you wondering about how to start a WordPress blog?
Share your questions or comments below! And, don’t forget to join the Hustle Life community, you’ll get secret tips and resources I never share anywhere else.
The post HOW TO START A WORDPRESS BLOG FOR YOUR SIDE HUSTLE BUSINESS appeared first on Tammie Allen.
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