Hi all. I have a friend (hi Dezarre) who always mentions my blog to her friends and for some reason, her friends think they can’t create a blog like mine. Uh hello! Yes you can. There’s so many tools, videos, walk-through’s online to help you create one and I will do my best to write a quick overview on what you can do to create a blog like mine 🙂

But before I start this, I think the most frequently asked question is: does it cost money to create a blog? The answer is yes and no.

Yes because like most things in the world, it costs money to have. So I pay annually for my blog. I pay for my site to be hosted on iPage and I pay annually for my domain, sheresenicole.com. I essentially rent space on the internet to have my blog on a yearly basis.

No because you can create blogs on some websites like WordPress for free and you can also use free trials on sites like Squarespace.

Now that that’s settled, I’ll try and explain the basic steps it takes to create a website.

Step 1: What do you want to blog about?

Ok so you’ve decided you want a blog but do you have a theme in mind? Or do you know what you want to talk about? Having a rough idea about what you’d like to share might help you frame how you’d like your website to look or what content you want to share etc etc. I’m not saying that this is a deal breaker, but it helps develop your page easily. If you don’t know try asking yourself: what are your favourite hobbies? What are you passionate about? What do you want to share?? It doesn’t have to be something deep. You can even make a blog about nothing. Just your thoughts of the day. For me personally, I knew my content was going to include recipes and clothing so I made sure I chose a layout that was very visual.

Step 2: What’s your domain/blog name?

Do you have a name in mind that can represent the vision for your blog? Sometimes people have this idea before they even discover what their content will be. This part is important for your domain (because in some cases you pay for it) but try to figure out a name for your domain and if you want to use that same name for your website.

Now if you have a domain in mind, go to https://ca.godaddy.com/ and search to see if it’s taken. If it’s not you may want to buy it before someone else does! (I bought my domain two months before making my website.)

Buying a domain

Do you want to own a custom domain? A domain is the name of your web address. Mine is sheresenicole.com. I knew I wanted my own domain name so I went to GoDaddy.com and searched the web to see if sheresenicole.com was taken. It wasn’t and GoDaddy was having a promotion so I went ahead and bought it for $8 at the time. I paid for the year, so I do have to pay annually but I believe there is an option to choose a longer plan – of course you have to pay more.

It was only later that I learned I didn’t have to buy my domain exclusively from GoDaddy. There are other options out there such as Blue Host. You can even buy your domain from a web host for an additional fee. More on that in the next part.

Using the web host domain (free option)

If all you care about is sharing your content online and you aren’t caught up with the specifics, then WordPress, Wix and Squarespace all include a domain once you build a website with them. Keep in mind that domains created with these sites typically add their name to the URL link. For example if you choose Squarespace your domain may read,”www.yourwebsite.squarespace.com” If you want to drop the website name at the end of your domain, you have two options: either pay extra for yours to end in “.com” OR redirect your DNS server to appear as “www.websitename.com” in the URL. Refer to Google to help make that switch but know that it’s possible to do so.

Step 3: Website or Web Server?

Every website you go to has a web host/server. When I mentioned I pay for my blog, I’m paying my web host to keep my site online every year. According to Wikepedia, “A web hosting service is a type of Internet hosting service that allows individuals and organizations to make their website accessible via the World Wide Web.” Or a better definition from Hover explains, “A web host will, as its name suggests, host all of your website’s content for people to access over the Internet. Your website may be digital, but its files still need to be stored on a physical hard drive and accessible on the Internet using a server.”

Web hosts you pay for. For example I use iPage (web host) to run my WordPress (website) blog from. So I pay iPage a yearly fee to keep my site online. You don’t always have to pay separately for a web host, there are website builders that are also web hosts. What that means is if you create your blog on one of these fully loaded websites, you won’t have to pay extra for a web host because it’s all included.

Some of those sites are:

WordPress (free)
Squarespace (free trial)
Wix (free)
Blogger (free)
Shopify (free trial and typically used for e-commerce)

FYI: The websites marked as free offer premium features that come with a fee.

So to make it clear, a website is the medium used to display your content to an audience (like this page you see with all photos and text). A web host is where your website files are stored in order for your website to be accessible on the internet. The sites I mentioned above are website builders that include web servers. That means you can create your website, store files, and choose a domain all from the one place.

To learn more about web servers and websites, refer to Hover’s article here.

I hope that makes more sense to you lol.

Step 4: Designing your page

Using pre-made templates

At first I thought I was going to learn HTML and CSS coding really easily and design my blog from scratch until I found out just how challenging and time-consuming it is. Also I’m not a coder :/ I knew then that I wanted to purchase a completed template so that all I’d have to do is add in my content. I remember looking at a fashion blog and saw at the bottom footer a heading that said, “WordPress theme by Pipdig” I clicked on that link and it took me to Pipdig’s website – they specialize in creating layouts for WordPress and Blogger pages.

There are pre-made templates online everywhere. All it takes is a Google search to land you on websites that sell templates. You can find templates for free but they can also costs hundreds of dollars.

I haven’t done much customization on my blog besides the general font and link colour changes because this template is perfect there’s not much to be done with it.

Customizing a template

All of the website builders I mentioned above come with templates for you to choose from and customize. They’re categorized according to the type of website you’re building which make it extremely easy to pick and choose which one suits your blog’s theme the most. If you choose to customize it, I suggest taking the time watch Youtube tutorials or the tutorials provided on the website to help you out.

Step 5: Plug in your content

Last step is to of course start adding in your content such as writing blog posts, taking photos, and all of that fun stuff. Ultimately the best piece of advice I can give you is to become familiar with Youtube and Google searches for more in-depth knowledge.

I hopeee I spoke in layman’s terms here. It’s not as hard as it seems to create a blog or a website. Don’t get stuck on the theme/niche, SEO, professional photos, and branding because that can hold you back and all of that comes with time.

Now get started (:

Is there anything I didn’t get to cover that you want me to discuss? Comment below with any questions or suggestions!