Last Updated on September 7, 2024 by Kundan Sharma
Are you want to start a wordpress self-hosted blog with Hostgator hosting?
Starting a wordpress blog is not so difficult you can start a blog in less than 20 minutes.
In this article, I am going to share with step by step guide on how you can set up a wordpress blog and make from it. If you are a beginner don’t know about wordpress, even you can set up your blog following below-given instructions.
How to Start a Blog on HostGator and Make Money in 2024 (Complete Guide)
Choose A Niche/Topic
Before starting a blog. First, you need to decide. What will be the blog topic.
For example: Maybe if you are a business owner want to scallops your business over online through blogging or maybe you want to write about a certain topic in which you passionate about to make money online.
There are thousands of blogging niches on which you can start a blog.
Any kind of knowledge you have can be turned into a blog and monetize through various options like Ads, Affiliate Marketing, Sponsorship, Selling Courses, and many more.
Once you have chosen a blog niche, next you have to come up with a business name or domain name.
Choose a Domain Name
A domain name should be related to the blog or business.
For example: If you are starting a yoga blog then a good domain name can be like this, yogatips.com. This is related to yoga and keyword-rich. People easily catch it’s a yoga blog.
But, It’s not necessary to take a targeted keyword domain. You can use anything you want.
I recommend you take the .com or .net domain extension. These are the most popular extensions.
You can register a domain from GoDaddy and NameCheap but we are going to take hosting from Hostgator which offers a free domain with all plans. That saves your extra $12 – $14 dollar.
Choose a Blogging Platform
A blogging platform is a tool where you will manage and create your blog content like articles, images, videos, and many other things so it will be available for the audience.
There are so many blogging platforms on the internet but WordPress is one of the best and free among them.
It’s the most popular blogging platform all over the world and most of the blogs on the internet powered by WordPress.
Here are some reasons why it’s the best blogging platform.
★ WordPress is the best open-source application available to everyone for free.
★ You can use this platform easily by following thousands of instructions and tutorials available on the internet.
★ WordPress is so flexible, you can build almost any kind of site on it.
★ There are lots of free and paid plugins available that add more extra features to the WordPress site.
★ It’s a popular blogging platform, most of the big and small blogs on the internet have powered by WordPress.
I think now you know why you should use WordPress blogging platform.
Choose A Hosting Company
Once you have decided on the blogging platform, Now you need to get the best hosting service for your blog.
If you don’t know what is hosting. It’s online storage where all of the site content s stored and accessible to everyone via URL.
There are too many hosting providers that allow you to host your site.
Before taking a host you must consider things like host speed, uptime, price, flexibility and etc.
I highly recommend you take hosting from Hostgator, Bluehost, A2 Hosting, and Siteground. There are the best and popular hosting companies that provide reliable hosting.
In this guide, I’m going to share with you step by step process on how to get hosting from Hostgator for your blog.
Hostgator is one of the best and most popular hosting companies in world. They also offer a free domain as well with their all plans.
Here are some top reasons why You should start a blog with hostgator hosting.
★ Uptime: Hostgator guarantee over 99% uptime that means your website will be not get offline. Don’t face issues like site breakdown and server error.
★ 1 Click WordPress Installation: Hostgator gives a one-click WordPress Installation. It means you can easily install the WordPress site in HostGator.
★ Price: If you have a low budget or viva try to blogging then definitely choose HostGator. They also have a monthly subscription plan. So you don’t have to pay annual hosting free at once.
★ Control Panel: Hostgator also provide a Cpanel which you can use to manage database, emails, domains and install WordPress.
Now I think, you understand why HostGator is one of the best hosting companies, so let me move on how to start a blog with HostGator.
Note: If you already have registered a domain name then ok. Otherwise, you can take a free domain on HostGator along with a hosting plan.
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How to Sign-up with Hostgator Hosting
Step 1: Go to Hostgator using this link then click on ” Get Started Now ” BloggingSpark readers will get a 60% discount when they go through my link.
Step 2: Now, you will see 3 different plans Hatchling, Baby, and Business.
I recommend you to go with the Baby plan will cost you $3.95/mo. In this plan, you can host unlimited websites, in case you need to host another site. you will don’t need to take another hosting. In hatchling plan, users can only start one site.
Step 3: If you already have a domain name then click on “I Already Own The Domain” Option then add your domain name.
If you haven’t registered a domain yet. Don’t worry you can get a free domain at HostGator by clicking on ” Register a New Domain“
Then type a name that you think suitable for your blog and which you want to use as a domain.
You will also have an option to choose domain privacy that adds a little cost. If you don’t want to take, you can easily uncheck the add domain privacy.
Don’t worry it’s doesn’t affect anything.
Once you have entered the domain name. Next, you need to choose your plan. So select the baby plan.
After choosing a plan. Next, you need to enter Billing info.
In the next section, ” Add Additional Services ” Here you will see various services that you take or uncheck all additional services.
Step 4: Now review the order details, Read the terms and conditions and uncheck out.
Once the account is ready. You will get a confirmation email from Hostgator in your email box.
Next, you have to log in to your control panel by the login details that you get in email. next, you have to install WordPress.
Step 6: Now Login to your HostGator control panel then clicks on build a new WordPress site.
You will be redirected to a new wordpress installation page there you have to select your domain.
Now on the next page you will need to enter wordpress admin user and password.
Then click on “Install “.
Once you have completed the WordPress installation. You will receive an email where you will get the WordPress login details.
Congrats, you have successfully started a blog with HostGator hosting.
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Choose a Theme for Your Blog
Once you have completed the above steps. Now you need to decide which one theme you would like to use in your blog.
A Theme is basically the design of a site that contains site Colors, images, text and etc.
There are so many good free themes are available on WordPress. Which you can use for your site but a premium theme always better than free one.
If you want to better SEO ranking. You should have to invest money in a paid theme.
You can get paid themes from a shop like StudioPress, Elegant Themes, and MyThemeShop.
If you are interested in using a free wordpress theme. Here the guide on how you can find and use it for free on your blog.
To change your WordPress site theme. Go to the ” Appearance ” from the menu area then hover to ” Themes ” then click on it.
Now click on the top ” Add New ” button on the top left side to find a new theme for your blog.
Now, you will see hundreds of free themes scroll down to find a theme that you like to use.
Next, take the mouse on the theme that you want to use and click on the install button. It will take a few seconds to get installed.
Once the theme is installed, click on the active button on the theme you installed.
Now you can go to the homepage to see the how site looks.
Get Traffic to Your Blog
Blog traffic is the most important thing to keep running a blog. There are some strategies you need to apply to get traffic to your new blog.
But first, you need quality content on your blog. So at the very first forget about the traffic focus only on creating high-quality content.
Once you have 5 to 10 articles on your blog, you can drive traffic to posts through various sources like Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Reddit and etc.
You have to set up blog pages to various social media platforms then share your content. I highly recommend you share your blog posts on Pinterest to get quality traffic.
Don’t forget to optimize your blog posts for SEO to dominate search ranking in Google.
Monetize Your Blog
After doing all of these things, now you can move ahead towards making from a blog.
There are so many ways to make money from a blog.
Display Ads: It’s one of the easiest ways to earn money from a blog by displaying ads. When a user engages and clicks on the ad you will earn.
You can join Google Adsense and Media net both are the best advertising networks to monetize a blog using ads.
Sometimes getting an Adsense approval on a new blog is a little difficult. You can read my Adsense approval tips post, which helps you to get an Adsense approval quickly.
Affiliate Marketing: This is one of the best and my favorite way to make money online.
If you don’t know what is affiliate marketing? It’s a way to promote other products and earn commission on sales make through your referral link.
If you don’t have your own products to monetize a blog you can sell other products as an affiliate on your blog.
The commission rate depends on the product, it can be between $10 to $1000. There are lots of bloggers making over $50,000 every month from affiliate marketing. I get a minimum $85 on each referral that means if I will able to make 6 sales in a month. I will earn $85×6= $510 dollars.
This is just an income of one product that I promote on my blog there are more than 31 products I promote as an affiliate marketer.
Affiliate marketing has the potential to make at least $1000 dollars in a month. I personally know some of the bloggers who are earning a minimum of $3000 to $5000 dollars from affiliate marketing.
Selling Products: There are so many bloggers making thousands of dollars every month through selling digital products. you can sell ebooks and courses on your blog. if you are good at something you can create a course in the form of text and video.
Michelle from makingsenseofcents.com earns every month over $50,000 dollars. They have launched their own affiliate marketing course under their blog. in that course, they share all their affiliate marketing experience, tips and also guide how you can do the same.
You can also create a course like this and sell it to your blog readers. the best thing I like about selling courses is you don’t have to wait to get paid like in the affiliate marketing, some affiliates approve sales after 30 to 45 days which is a really long time. when you sell your own courses all the earnings transfer to your bank immediately.
Sponsorship Post: It’s a quick way to make handsome money out of a blog. You only have to write an article and published it on your blog.
When your blog gets famous and considered as an authority niche site. Companies paid you to write about their product reviews on your blog.
I collaborate with companies and write sponsored post charges between $50 to $300 per post. As an intermediate blogger, it’s a good amount.
There are most of the top industry blogs that charge up to $2000 for a single so post.
I hope this post helped you to start a blog with Hostgator hosting. If you have any questions, suggestions, and need help. let me know in the comments.
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I hope this article helped you to start a blog with HostGator hosting If you have any questions and suggestions. Let me know in the comments.
