7 Steps to Starting Your Blog

Introduction

In September of 2015, I decided to start a blog called Designing and Making that would focus on architecture and product design for projects that I wanted to develop. After a few months, the name of the blog changed once, then a month later, it changed again to Journey of an Architect. For the years that I’ve been blogging, I’m grateful to have developed an audience who appreciates the work that I’m developing and the blog posts that I share related to professional development.

Needless to say, I want to dedicate a page to how I started my blog; from hosting the domains and setting up emails to building the website. I hope you find this page useful in your journey to starting your own website for your architecture firm, personal blog, and more!

Select your plan

When you get to the plan page, you’ll see 3 different options that you can choose from. For many people, the basic plan is the most popular option for beginners and people who will only have 1 website. If you plan to have more than 5 people contributing to your website and know that you’ll have lots of content to share, the plus or prime option is the way to go. With Bluehost plus, you’ll get unlimited space for your website and could host multiple websites within 1 account. You can also create an unlimited amount of email accounts, which is useful for websites and blogs that will have more than 5 contributors.

Decide on your domain name

After selecting your plan option, you’ll be brought to Bluehost’s domain page where you’ll find the right name for your website. Type in the name that you want for your website, click next, and Bluehost will check if the domain name is available. If the name is unavailable, they will recommend several options that are available and you could choose from their list or come up with additional names until one of them works!

This is honestly the part where most people get stuck because they haven’t come up with a name that they think is good enough or the one they had in mind is already taken. As I said in the introduction of this page, I’ve changed the name of my blog three times within 6 months. The last name for my blog is this one, Journey of an Architect, and the only reason why it works so well is because I had a lot of content on my blog that started to inform its direction. Why am I starting this blog? What is its focus? These are questions that I found helpful in determining the vision for my blog, which helped me narrow down a handful of names. In retrospect, the first name of my blog, Designing and Making, would’ve worked for what my blog eventually became - architecture and leatherworking - where I was sharing lots of posts about my process of creating projects.

Don’t let this step get in the way of starting your website. You can always change the name later. You have to start in order to figure out the actual path that your blog or website will take.

Create your account

Once you’ve found an available domain name for your website, you’ll be brought to the account creation page where you’ll fill out your personal information and select a package from Bluehost. Their plans are charged on an annual basis, but if you choose to pay for 3 years (36 months), you’ll get a better price from Bluehost. I chose to pay upfront for the 3 year option. I recommend reading about the additional add-ons like the Site Backup Pro, which will keep a copy of your website’s content in their database in case your website is corrupt or lost, and the SiteLock Security – Find, which regularly scans your website for any malware and shows your website or blog as a trusted site in search engine results.

When you’re done creating your account and selecting the plan and add-ons for your account, you’ll be brought to the payment information page. Type in your information, read Bluehost’s terms and policies and submit your payment.

Now, you’ll have to create a password for your account. Keep in mind that your account login name will be your domain name and your password will be whatever you decide in this step.

Select a theme for your Website

After logging into your account, you’ll be brought to the website themes page where you’ll be able to browse hundreds of thousands of layouts for your website. These themes are all for WordPress, which is one of the most used website and blog building platforms online. It’s a very simple and intuitive platform to use, so don’t worry if you’ve never built a website before. During this step, take your time to find the right theme to showcase your content. Will you have more images and photographs? Or will you have lots of text? Is it a combination of the two? If you’re looking for something specific or different from this selection, you can purchase from hundreds of thousands of themes online or even hire someone to build your website on WordPress to look exactly how you want it to look.

Start building your website

Now, you’re ready to start building your website.

You’ll be brought to your WordPress dashboard, which is the where you’ll add all of your content for your website. What’s fantastic about the Bluehost to WordPress transition is that they will walk you through every part of building your website. Best of all, there are lots of tutorials and huge WordPress communities that can help answer any questions you have along the way! On this initial page, select the kind of website you’ll be building – either business or personal. Then, follow the steps to launch your website and you’ll be online in no time!

Log into your Bluehost Dashboard to manage your account

Now that your website is online and ready for the world to see, you’ll want to setup email accounts and potentially purchase more domains for other websites in the future. To do this, you’ll log into your Bluehost account and be brought to the Bluerock Cpanel, which is where you’ll manage all of your websites. On this page, you can access your WordPress interface, purchase additional tools for your account in the Marketplace, setup emails by following the Email tab, search and purchase additional website domains by clicking Domains, access any additional options in the Advanced tab, or chat with a Bluehost representative by clicking Live Chat. Don't hesitate to chat with a representative with any questions. They’ll walk you through everything you need step-by-step!

Conclusion

With your website underway, I’m sure you’re excited to share your business, content, and life with the world! You’ll definitely have lots of fun and moments of distress as you continue learning to build your website, but once you’ve done it for a few months, the process will be second nature to you.

If you start to find yourself struggling with using Wordpress to build your website, you can use Bluehost as your website host and email provider (comes with your account and domains), and a combine it with a more intuitive website builder like Squarespace or Wix. Personally, I’ve transitioned Journey of an Architect away from Wordpress and into Squarespace because I love the preloaded templates and the ease of use of the platform. I look at Squarespace like the Apple of website builders and Wordpress like Androids/windows. The first takes away all other specific functions that you may not need while the latter gives you total control of everything.

Having Bluehost as my website host has been a great decision and I’m sure you’ll enjoy their services as well. Have a fantastic time creating your website and feel free to contact me and let me know what your website is so that I can check it out!