• Hosting service provider
• Domain name
• Hosting package
• Addons like SSL, etc

All these can be purchased as a single package from a hosting service provider. These components are well integrated. Here is what you will generally go through.

• Selection of domain name with the suitable package.
• Creation of account with hosting provider and payment process.
• Installation of WordPress though a single install software.
• Housekeeping.

Hosting service provider

Service providers give you a combination of tools so that you can start with a website. There are various types of hosting. Primary are Linux hosting, Windows hosting, cloud hosting and dedicated WordPress hosting. WordPress hosting is a bit expensive but worth the extra bucks. Hosting account provides with Cpanel access with total and easy access to hosting account. You can create subdomain, SSL certificates, Mail addresses, File manager, edit php files and so on. Sometimes you get a choice of location of servers. US servers are the least expensive. Most important we get a single click WordPress install like Softaculous. Popular hosting providers are Siteground, Bluehost, Hostgator, Godaddy, Hostinger and a few hundred more. Once you have shortlisted you service provider, you move on to the next step.

Domain Name

This is the most trickiest part of the whole thing. A .com domain name is the ultimate prize. But all the common name and combos are gone. A .in name may or may not be desirable as you might find, traffic going to your .com counterpart. Select and shortlist number of options before finalizing getting the one of your choice. As part of the freebie, try to get the hosting package which gives a free domain name, even if it is for a year.

Domain name should be catchy, simple to pronounce and remember, should reflect the nature of your blog and preferably should not have a spelling mistake. There are a ton of extensions available now, but remember, .com is a top level domain name.

Hosting package

All vendors give a 50% discount over the entire package when buying for the first time. Check the freebies carefully. GoDaddy still does not give a free SSL certificate. Check for the best deal with freebies like SSL, Business mail and domain name. Also go for the maximum duration say three or five years. You get the 50% discount either way. So go for the best package. Take help of a technical expert if required because this is going to be the deal of a lifetime. Package integration is a breeze with most of the top hosting providers. But the very reason why I always recommend top hosting providers is that their technology integration and programming is top notch. The tier two hosting providers have integration issues which leads to headache for all th ethree years you take the package. Once the domain and rest all are set, you can go to install the website.

Single click WordPress website install

Automatic installers usually take care of the technical aspects of WordPress installation. You should keep details like email address, blog name and description handy. A few clicks and your WordPress website is ready. It might take anything between a few minutes to an hour for your newly created website address to propagate through the DNS servers. After that you can login to the admin account.

Post WordPress install

• Secure your account with a strong password.
• Anything can go wrong, so choose the best option for a backup and take regular backups of your blog.
• To not overdo with plugins because they are a security risk and also slow down the website.
• Choose a theme which meets your requirement.
• Get the basic pages ready and apply for adsense as soon as possible.

The post What is a self hosted WordPress website – a simple guide appeared first on Start Blog Writing.

Getting Started with Blogger

If you already have an account with Google, either by Gmail or YouTube or Google Plus, you are good to begin. If not you need to open an account with any of the Google Services. You can also straightway begin with Blogger and open a Google account from there.

Look for the yellow colored Blogger icon after expanding the nine small boxes on the top right of your screen.

Once you click on Blogger, the linking process of your Blog with Google account and creation of a new blog begins.

At this time please note that it is highly recommended that you already have a Google Plus profile in place. Google Plus is the social networking arm of Google. It has not taken on the social networking scene as Google would have hoped it to, but still it is a formidable platform and an integration with your blog always helps.

Once your profile is confirmed, you can continue to Blogger.

Starting a New Blog in Blogger

Look for the New Blog button on the left side of the screen.

Click on the button to open the New Blog interface.

There are three things to be chosen here

• Your Blog title
• The address of your blog
• Template of your blog

The blog title will appear in the Title Bar of your web browser and on the top portion of your blog. The address of your blog is what will appear in the address bar. It is a sub domain of blogger, and it is always in the form of

something.blogspot.com

where ‘something’ is what you get to choose.

Be very careful of what you choose for the Blog Address. Once chosen it cannot be changed or transferred. There are some work around and some tricks but they are basic at best.  You can of course use a TLD as your blog address too. This part will be covered later in a separate article.

A template is what defines your blog design. Google has been very slow on providing options for users. Third party templates are available which help bloggers a lot. But at this time, design options are far far limited for Blogger.

Once you have finalized all three options, click on the Create Blog! button.

Writing your first post

Blogger works out of the box. So after your blog is ready, instead of navigating the options it is best to write a new post for your blog and then check how it looks.

For that locate the New Post button on the top left and click it.

Once you click on the new post button, it opens up the writing interface.

Like the Blog interface, even the new post interface has got lots of options, but those can be explore later. Right now it would be suffice to say that all the essential tools to blog are packed in here by Google.

Start typing the text of your post in the post area, and once you are satisfied with the post, press the publish button.

How a post is published

If you have a Google Plus profile, the post will prompt you to publish it on your google plus profile so that your friends and followers can view your blog post. Beyond that nothing else is asked from you and your post is published. You can view your post in your blog by clicking on the view blog button.

The scope of the article is to cover the basics of Blogger. Eventually we will see all the options in detail in future articles.

You can also have a look at similar articles from another website dealing with How to start a blog on Blogger by Google.

For a tutorial on how to setup a free blog on WordPress.com check out this article

The post How to start a blog on Blogger by Google appeared first on Start Blog Writing.