How to Start Blogging in the UK on a Shoestring – Part 1
These are the exact steps I took to set up this blog (created July 2024, and then I imported all my old WordPress content from previous blogs I had deleted – don’t ever delete your blog!). I’ve also included the free courses that I followed to ensure I didn’t miss any steps.
I do not go into nitty-gritty line-by-line set-up details here. Google is your friend for technical questions. Take each step as a guide and work your way through them one at a time.
Tip: there are loads of courses out there on blogging. Many of them costing a LOT of money. If you are just starting out, I would recommend NOT investing in an expensive course at the beginning. Use a free intro course by someone reliable – I’ve provided links for exactly this below.
Free ‘start blogging’ resources
For reference here are two free courses created by women who REALLY understand blogging. They are not UK-based, so product recommendations for things like hosting etc. might not be ideal for a UK blogger. I share the companies I use for domains/hosting below.
Carly from Mommy On Purpose
How to start a blog and make money from home
Chelsea from Her Paper Route
https://herpaperroute.com/how-to-start-a-blog
Step 0: Decide what you’re going to blog about
I’ve started at zero because you will want to have an idea of this before you do anything else.
What you blog about is usually referred to as your niche. Pick something you are interested in, that isn’t too narrow. Bear in mind that the three key drivers for human behaviour are health, wealth and love/sex. If what you’re doing falls under one of these, great. That doesn’t mean you can’t have a knitting blog – you can – but your target audience will be smaller than for something like losing weight.
Don’t overthink this in the beginning. As you start to get traffic to your site you will learn what topics generate interest and what don’t. Some people get hung up on researching trends, keywords and niche demand at this point. I would steer clear of this as it will paralyse you into being afraid of choosing anything for fear of getting it wrong. And also being driven by trends means you’ll end up having to generate a ton of content for a subject you might not have any enthusiasm for.
Blogging is a massive learning curve. It’s not unusual to begin a new or second blog further down the line when you have more experience. Right now, you simply need to start learning.
Cost: free
Step 1: Get a domain
This is where it all starts and it’s exciting! Enjoy this process – it is a fantastic journey.
I wanted a .co.uk domain as I’m in the UK, and they are far cheaper than .com’s. I just used my name. Simple. Don’t overthink it, but do search your name idea before committing to buy. It can be harder to get ranked in Google if you choose a name that someone else has already commandeered across the web or social media.
At the end of the day, which domain name you choose doesn’t matter as much as people think. Don’t use any weird spellings and go for something easy to remember.
I have used Unlimited Webhosting for over a decade to register domains for myself and web customers (back in the days when I did freelance web design). They have no affiliate program, and their customer service is unbeatably fast, even in the middle of the night. I’d never use anyone else.
Bear in mind that many hosting companies where you register a domain will throw the domain in for free if you take their hosting plan (step 2), so this is worth checking first!
Cost: £6.47
Step 2: Set up hosting
If you’re just starting, go for cheap hosting. Your hosting will not limit you in the early days because there will be far too many other things that you need to overcome first (the main one being whether you have the resilience to keep blogging).
For hosting have used Krytal for many years. They are a UK company, their servers are super reliable and their customer service is great. Also, they plant actual trees to offset their cost to the environment.
Alternatively, Unlimited Webhosting offers slightly cheaper monthly hosting and is another company I would use without hesitation.
If you’re a newbie and not sure if blogging is for you, then you can set up a monthly payment – after three or six months if you aren’t bothering any more you can cancel your hosting and you haven’t lost very much.
If you pay annually it’s a bigger upfront cost, but you usually get a month or two free. It’s also a commitment: “I will try this for one year before I give up!” Make the most sensible decision for you.
Initial cost at Krystal for one year upfront: £70
Step 3: Point your domain to your hosting
If you have your domain and hosting in separate places (like me), then you’ll need to update your nameservers so that your domain points to your host. Get the nameservers from your hosting company and then update your domain to point to them. Once you’ve done that, if you visit your domain in a browser you’ll see either a generic landing page or a 404 “not found” page hosted by the hosting company you are with.
Cost: free
Step 4: Issue an SSL certificate
Note: always do this before installing WordPress (Step 5)
Many host providers use Let’s Encrypt SSL, which is free. If you have cPanel, find the Let’s Encrypt SSL icon and issue this for your domain so that visitors to your site get the padlock in their browser and your site is secure. Krystal explains how to do this here:
https://help.krystal.uk/web-hosting/how-do-i-get-a-free-lets-encrypt-ssl-certificate-for-my-website
Cost: free
Step 5: Install WordPress
This is where you create your website! Most hosting companies now have a one-click install of WordPress available in cPanel. Use it – don’t bother doing it manually. It takes less than a minute.
Make sure you set a STRONG password. It’s the best protection against hackers for your site and don’t ever think you are too small for them to target. They scan for and gain access to small and neglected WordPress sites every single day. Don’t let your site fall prey to them.
Cost: free
Step 6: Force https redirects
If you visit your domain now, you should see a fresh WordPress site – hurrah! One more thing to do. In cPanel navigate to domains and turn on force https redirect. This will ensure visitors always get the secure version of your website. Krystal explains how to do this here:
https://help.krystal.uk/web-hosting/how-to-force-a-site-to-use-ssl-https
Cost: free
Step 7: Set your permalinks in WordPress
In the WordPress dashboard go to Settings > Permalinks and select the option “Post Name”. This gives you nice clean URLs for all your posts and is better for link sharing and search engine optimisation (SEO).
Cost: free
Conclusion
You’ve bought your domain, set up hosting, installed WordPress and are almost ready to blog. There are a few more things we need to do, which I’ll cover in Part 2. After that, we can get on to creating content, sharing your knowledge and bringing readers to your site.
Tip: there is SO MUCH INFORMATION online about how to blog. It’s really easy to get bogged down with tasks, todos and endless things that don’t really further your cause.
Always ask yourself – what is the return on my investment in doing this? This is known as the ROI in business and is a measure of the return that you get from the investment you make.
For example:
Spending three weeks trying to find the perfect WordPress theme and then spending a further six weeks perfectly customising the colours, fonts and paragraph spacing.
OR, spending six weeks creating great content and then a further three weeks promoting that content.
Which nine week period do you think is going to give you the greatest ROI?
Focus on activities that will grow your blog. The judgement to know when you’re spinning your wheels rather than moving forward comes with time and experience.
