{"id":1917,"date":"2017-04-01T09:14:25","date_gmt":"2017-04-01T09:14:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/foxymonkey.com\/?p=1917"},"modified":"2020-01-11T13:18:29","modified_gmt":"2020-01-11T13:18:29","slug":"start-a-blog-beginner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.foxymonkey.com\/start-a-blog-beginner\/","title":{"rendered":"How To Start a Blog in 5 Steps &#8211; A beginner&#8217;s guide"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_1918\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1918\" style=\"width: 630px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/foxymonkey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/blogging-laptop.jpg\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1918 size-large lazyload\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP\/\/\/yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7\" data-src=\"https:\/\/foxymonkey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/blogging-laptop-1024x868.jpg\" alt=\"me-blogging\" width=\"640\" height=\"543\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.foxymonkey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/blogging-laptop-1024x868.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.foxymonkey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/blogging-laptop-300x254.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.foxymonkey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/blogging-laptop-768x651.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.foxymonkey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/blogging-laptop-640x542.jpg 640w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><noscript><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1918 size-large lazyload\" src=\"https:\/\/foxymonkey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/blogging-laptop-1024x868.jpg\" alt=\"me-blogging\" width=\"640\" height=\"543\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.foxymonkey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/blogging-laptop-1024x868.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.foxymonkey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/blogging-laptop-300x254.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.foxymonkey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/blogging-laptop-768x651.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.foxymonkey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/blogging-laptop-640x542.jpg 640w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/noscript><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-1918\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Blogging on a lazy Sunday afternoon<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h2>Why blog?<\/h2>\n<p class=\"p1\">Blogging had a huge benefit on my personal and professional life. I thought of sharing with you the mechanics of blogging, since starting a blog is easy, straightforward and a lot of fun.<\/p>\n<p>Why blog? One of the benefits blogging gave to me was when I started writing about my <a href=\"https:\/\/micvog.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">work<\/a> as a software engineer. I wrote a few technical and non-technical articles on specific technologies, how-to guides and lessons learned from different workplaces (startups vs big companies etc). This led to people reaching out to me with useful feedback, door openings without much effort, 2 conferences speeches, a proposal for starting a new business and many friendships along the way.<\/p>\n<p>Had it not been for blogging, I&#8217;m not sure I&#8217;d now enjoy\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/foxymonkey.com\/from-zero-to-100k-in-3-years-as-a-software-engineer\/\">such a high salary<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>It also made me a better writer, which led me to create this new personal finance blog with much more confidence this time!<\/p>\n<p>I know other people use blogging as a way to document their life journeys and hold themselves publicly accountable. They set goals like benching 200 lbs or saving X number of money this year. It&#8217;s much easier to lie to yourself, but not to hundreds of readers in your next article. Other people make a full-time income by showing advertisements or promoting products. You can even create and sell your own products!<\/p>\n<p>Anyway, enough about the benefits of blogging. That could (and probably will) be an article on its own. Many people think blogging is hard work, or that they don&#8217;t have the necessary technical skills to start with. Let me tell you this.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Starting a blog is a piece of cake for non-technical people and requires only one thing to get you started: A Personal Computer.<\/strong><\/p>\n<h2>Step 1: Choose a\u00a0name!<\/h2>\n<p>If you&#8217;re a person with fantasy, congratulations, you&#8217;re much more privileged than I am!<\/p>\n<p>It took me almost 5 days to come up with the &#8220;inevitablyrich.com&#8221; idea, only to decide FoxyMonkey is better in the end. So yeah, this was not an easy task for me!<\/p>\n<p>Try to choose a name that is quirky and short so that people can remember it. If you want to build a blog about biscuits, avoid using something like &#8220;deliciousbiscuitsinallflavours.com&#8221;. Find something uncommon, something that people cannot easily forget, maybe a bit funny. &#8220;cookieparadise.com&#8221; is taken, but &#8220;savedbycookie.com&#8221; is not&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>The technical term for the name is the\u00a0<em>domain name<\/em>. Choose your domain name carefully, as this cannot easily change. Especially if you&#8217;ve built a brand around it. If possible, try to make it represent your blog&#8217;s topic. That&#8217;s not very important but it certainly helps.<\/p>\n<p>Got a name? Great, this was the hardest step! Hold this name for\u00a0a moment.<\/p>\n<h3>Why WordPress?<\/h3>\n<p>The first thing that comes to mind once you&#8217;ve decided about your name is probably &#8220;where do I start?&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>You start by choosing a blogging platform. In other words, a tool that will provide you with an online editor to write and publish your articles, manage comments, add themes to your website to make it fancy etc. It turns out there is already a tool for this job, and almost every blogger on the planet uses the same. It&#8217;s called WordPress.<\/p>\n<p>WordPress helps you do all the above, completely for free. It has an outstanding community that adds features to it\u00a0every month and it&#8217;s the tool I&#8217;m using right now for this blog you&#8217;re reading. You can highly customise it, add advertisements, pictures of your cat and what not. Did I mention it&#8217;s free?<\/p>\n<p>It comes with a ton of features such as easy menu building, ready-made contact forms, sidebar author widgets, strong security and spam prevention to name a few. You don&#8217;t need any of that right now, but assume you&#8217;re in good hands :)<\/p>\n<p>Usually, every popular <em>hosting platform<\/em> you&#8217;ll end up using will offer WordPress. Oh yes, hosting platforms.<\/p>\n<h2>Step 2:\u00a0Sign up to a hosting platform<\/h2>\n<p>All the websites on\u00a0the internet exist on one or more computers.<\/p>\n<p>When hitting\u00a0a URL (say google.com) from your mobile phone or laptop, your browser asks for the website information from the hosting computer and then displays it on your screen. That&#8217;s all.<\/p>\n<p>Now your blog needs to be hosted somewhere in order to be available to all the internet users.<\/p>\n<p>A great hosting company that makes blogging very straightforward is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxymonkey.com\/recommends\/siteground\/\" data-eafl-id=\"1486\" data-eafl-parsed=\"1\" class=\"eafl-link eafl-link-text eafl-link-cloaked\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Siteground<\/a>. I chose this platform after a lot of research because it&#8217;s easy to setup, it&#8217;s fast, it comes with great customer support and it&#8217;s quite affordable (\u00a33.50 per month plus a one-off \u00a39.95 to register your blog&#8217;s domain name). They also specialise in WordPress, which we already agreed is awesome for blogging.<\/p>\n<p>Clicking on WordPress from the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxymonkey.com\/recommends\/siteground-wordpress\/\" data-eafl-id=\"1936\" data-eafl-parsed=\"1\" class=\"eafl-link eafl-link-text eafl-link-cloaked\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Siteground WordPress menu<\/a> we&#8217;re presented with these 3 plans:<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_1928\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1928\" style=\"width: 630px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/foxymonkey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/Siteground-wordpress-plans.png\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1928 size-large lazyload\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP\/\/\/yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7\" data-src=\"https:\/\/foxymonkey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/Siteground-wordpress-plans-1024x572.png\" alt=\"Siteground WordPress plans to start a blog\" width=\"640\" height=\"358\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.foxymonkey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/Siteground-wordpress-plans-1024x572.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.foxymonkey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/Siteground-wordpress-plans-300x168.png 300w, https:\/\/www.foxymonkey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/Siteground-wordpress-plans-768x429.png 768w, https:\/\/www.foxymonkey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/Siteground-wordpress-plans-640x358.png 640w, https:\/\/www.foxymonkey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/Siteground-wordpress-plans.png 1985w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1928 size-large lazyload\" src=\"https:\/\/foxymonkey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/Siteground-wordpress-plans-1024x572.png\" alt=\"Siteground WordPress plans to start a blog\" width=\"640\" height=\"358\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.foxymonkey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/Siteground-wordpress-plans-1024x572.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.foxymonkey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/Siteground-wordpress-plans-300x168.png 300w, https:\/\/www.foxymonkey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/Siteground-wordpress-plans-768x429.png 768w, https:\/\/www.foxymonkey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/Siteground-wordpress-plans-640x358.png 640w, https:\/\/www.foxymonkey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/Siteground-wordpress-plans.png 1985w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/noscript><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-1928\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Siteground WordPress plans<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>I went for the StartUp package because I was just starting. I currently have about 2k monthly readers and the startup package is more than enough\u00a0to cover my needs.<\/p>\n<p>The startup package includes free e-mail accounts (think sarah@savedbycookie.com), a WordPress 1-click install, daily backups, automatic WordPress updates and in short, it&#8217;s just perfect if you&#8217;re starting out.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxymonkey.com\/recommends\/siteground\/\" data-eafl-id=\"1486\" data-eafl-parsed=\"1\" class=\"eafl-link eafl-link-text eafl-link-cloaked\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Siteground<\/a> also comes with a free SSL support. Ever wondered what this little green lock next to this website top bar is? This shows that all the information sent to this website is private and encrypted, It generally shows a higher level of trust and Google loves that.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_1943\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1943\" style=\"width: 630px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/foxymonkey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/Siteground-register-domain.png\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-1943 lazyload\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP\/\/\/yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7\" data-src=\"https:\/\/foxymonkey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/Siteground-register-domain-1024x555.png\" alt=\"Siteground-register-domain\" width=\"640\" height=\"347\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.foxymonkey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/Siteground-register-domain-1024x555.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.foxymonkey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/Siteground-register-domain-300x162.png 300w, https:\/\/www.foxymonkey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/Siteground-register-domain-768x416.png 768w, https:\/\/www.foxymonkey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/Siteground-register-domain-640x347.png 640w, https:\/\/www.foxymonkey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/Siteground-register-domain.png 1492w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-1943 lazyload\" src=\"https:\/\/foxymonkey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/Siteground-register-domain-1024x555.png\" alt=\"Siteground-register-domain\" width=\"640\" height=\"347\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.foxymonkey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/Siteground-register-domain-1024x555.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.foxymonkey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/Siteground-register-domain-300x162.png 300w, https:\/\/www.foxymonkey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/Siteground-register-domain-768x416.png 768w, https:\/\/www.foxymonkey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/Siteground-register-domain-640x347.png 640w, https:\/\/www.foxymonkey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/Siteground-register-domain.png 1492w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/noscript><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-1943\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Enter your blog&#8217;s domain name and choose .com or some other extension if you want to make your blog more region-specific.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>After clicking on the Proceed button, step 3 will ask for your personal information. To get the full discount, I paid \u00a333 for the 12-month plan, plus \u00a39.95 for the domain name. That&#8217;s \u00a34.29 per month, including VAT. Compared to other hosting websites, this is a very good deal.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_1945\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1945\" style=\"width: 290px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/foxymonkey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/Siteground-step-3-purchase-info.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1945 lazyload\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP\/\/\/yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7\" data-src=\"https:\/\/foxymonkey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/Siteground-step-3-purchase-info-192x300.png\" alt=\"Siteground-step-3-purchase-info\" width=\"300\" height=\"469\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.foxymonkey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/Siteground-step-3-purchase-info-192x300.png 192w, https:\/\/www.foxymonkey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/Siteground-step-3-purchase-info-768x1200.png 768w, https:\/\/www.foxymonkey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/Siteground-step-3-purchase-info-655x1024.png 655w, https:\/\/www.foxymonkey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/Siteground-step-3-purchase-info-640x1000.png 640w, https:\/\/www.foxymonkey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/Siteground-step-3-purchase-info.png 1506w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1945 lazyload\" src=\"https:\/\/foxymonkey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/Siteground-step-3-purchase-info-192x300.png\" alt=\"Siteground-step-3-purchase-info\" width=\"300\" height=\"469\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.foxymonkey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/Siteground-step-3-purchase-info-192x300.png 192w, https:\/\/www.foxymonkey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/Siteground-step-3-purchase-info-768x1200.png 768w, https:\/\/www.foxymonkey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/Siteground-step-3-purchase-info-655x1024.png 655w, https:\/\/www.foxymonkey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/Siteground-step-3-purchase-info-640x1000.png 640w, https:\/\/www.foxymonkey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/Siteground-step-3-purchase-info.png 1506w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/noscript><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-1945\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Purchase info &#8211; Click to enlarge<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>You\u00a0may choose to pay an extra \u00a39.00 per year for domain name privacy if you don&#8217;t want\u00a0people to know the name and address of the person\u00a0behind your blog. Otherwise, this is publicly listed.\u00a0I didn&#8217;t bother adding\u00a0a SG site scanner as I only use trusted and popular tools on my blog.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_1949\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1949\" style=\"width: 630px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/foxymonkey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/Siteground-account-success.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-1949 lazyload\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP\/\/\/yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7\" data-src=\"https:\/\/foxymonkey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/Siteground-account-success-1024x266.png\" alt=\"Siteground-account-success\" width=\"640\" height=\"166\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.foxymonkey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/Siteground-account-success-1024x266.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.foxymonkey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/Siteground-account-success-300x78.png 300w, https:\/\/www.foxymonkey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/Siteground-account-success-768x199.png 768w, https:\/\/www.foxymonkey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/Siteground-account-success-640x166.png 640w, https:\/\/www.foxymonkey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/Siteground-account-success.png 1937w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-1949 lazyload\" src=\"https:\/\/foxymonkey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/Siteground-account-success-1024x266.png\" alt=\"Siteground-account-success\" width=\"640\" height=\"166\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.foxymonkey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/Siteground-account-success-1024x266.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.foxymonkey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/Siteground-account-success-300x78.png 300w, https:\/\/www.foxymonkey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/Siteground-account-success-768x199.png 768w, https:\/\/www.foxymonkey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/Siteground-account-success-640x166.png 640w, https:\/\/www.foxymonkey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/Siteground-account-success.png 1937w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/noscript><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-1949\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Account successfully created!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h2>Step 3: Install WordPress<\/h2>\n<p>Setting up WordPress is a matter of a few clicks. After logging in to the customer area, click on the right-hand side to install WordPress.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/foxymonkey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/Siteground-Wordpress-auto-installer.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-1951 lazyload\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP\/\/\/yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7\" data-src=\"https:\/\/foxymonkey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/Siteground-Wordpress-auto-installer-300x217.png\" alt=\"Siteground-Wordpress-auto-installer\" width=\"300\" height=\"217\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.foxymonkey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/Siteground-Wordpress-auto-installer-300x217.png 300w, https:\/\/www.foxymonkey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/Siteground-Wordpress-auto-installer-768x557.png 768w, https:\/\/www.foxymonkey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/Siteground-Wordpress-auto-installer-1024x742.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.foxymonkey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/Siteground-Wordpress-auto-installer-640x464.png 640w, https:\/\/www.foxymonkey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/Siteground-Wordpress-auto-installer.png 1723w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-1951 lazyload\" src=\"https:\/\/foxymonkey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/Siteground-Wordpress-auto-installer-300x217.png\" alt=\"Siteground-Wordpress-auto-installer\" width=\"300\" height=\"217\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.foxymonkey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/Siteground-Wordpress-auto-installer-300x217.png 300w, https:\/\/www.foxymonkey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/Siteground-Wordpress-auto-installer-768x557.png 768w, https:\/\/www.foxymonkey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/Siteground-Wordpress-auto-installer-1024x742.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.foxymonkey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/Siteground-Wordpress-auto-installer-640x464.png 640w, https:\/\/www.foxymonkey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/Siteground-Wordpress-auto-installer.png 1723w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/noscript><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The first step is to select WordPress as shown below.\u00a0This is a huge win because it saves us a lot of time and hassle.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_1953\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1953\" style=\"width: 254px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/foxymonkey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/siteground-website-type-wordpress.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1953 lazyload\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP\/\/\/yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7\" data-src=\"https:\/\/foxymonkey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/siteground-website-type-wordpress-264x300.png\" alt=\"siteground-website-type-wordpress\" width=\"264\" height=\"300\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.foxymonkey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/siteground-website-type-wordpress-264x300.png 264w, https:\/\/www.foxymonkey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/siteground-website-type-wordpress-768x872.png 768w, https:\/\/www.foxymonkey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/siteground-website-type-wordpress-902x1024.png 902w, https:\/\/www.foxymonkey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/siteground-website-type-wordpress-640x727.png 640w, https:\/\/www.foxymonkey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/siteground-website-type-wordpress.png 1426w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 264px) 100vw, 264px\" \/><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1953 lazyload\" src=\"https:\/\/foxymonkey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/siteground-website-type-wordpress-264x300.png\" alt=\"siteground-website-type-wordpress\" width=\"264\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.foxymonkey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/siteground-website-type-wordpress-264x300.png 264w, https:\/\/www.foxymonkey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/siteground-website-type-wordpress-768x872.png 768w, https:\/\/www.foxymonkey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/siteground-website-type-wordpress-902x1024.png 902w, https:\/\/www.foxymonkey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/siteground-website-type-wordpress-640x727.png 640w, https:\/\/www.foxymonkey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/siteground-website-type-wordpress.png 1426w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 264px) 100vw, 264px\" \/><\/noscript><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-1953\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Select Personal \/ blog and WordPress for the blogging software<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Second step: WordPress login username and password. CHOOSE SOMETHING STRONG! I cannot stress enough the importance of a strong WordPress password. Seriously. You don&#8217;t want to get hacked.\u00a0This is more important than getting an SG site scan every day. CHOOSE A VERY STRONG PASSWORD FOR YOUR WORDPRESS.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_1955\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1955\" style=\"width: 233px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/foxymonkey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/login-details-wordpress.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1955 lazyload\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP\/\/\/yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7\" data-src=\"https:\/\/foxymonkey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/login-details-wordpress-243x300.png\" alt=\"Login-details-wordpress-setup\" width=\"243\" height=\"300\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.foxymonkey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/login-details-wordpress-243x300.png 243w, https:\/\/www.foxymonkey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/login-details-wordpress-768x947.png 768w, https:\/\/www.foxymonkey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/login-details-wordpress-830x1024.png 830w, https:\/\/www.foxymonkey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/login-details-wordpress-640x789.png 640w, https:\/\/www.foxymonkey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/login-details-wordpress.png 1399w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 243px) 100vw, 243px\" \/><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1955 lazyload\" src=\"https:\/\/foxymonkey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/login-details-wordpress-243x300.png\" alt=\"Login-details-wordpress-setup\" width=\"243\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.foxymonkey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/login-details-wordpress-243x300.png 243w, https:\/\/www.foxymonkey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/login-details-wordpress-768x947.png 768w, https:\/\/www.foxymonkey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/login-details-wordpress-830x1024.png 830w, https:\/\/www.foxymonkey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/login-details-wordpress-640x789.png 640w, https:\/\/www.foxymonkey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/login-details-wordpress.png 1399w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 243px) 100vw, 243px\" \/><\/noscript><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-1955\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">WordPress Login details setup &#8211; Choose a strong password<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>You don&#8217;t have to select a theme right now, we will cover themes in detail at Step 4. Even if you do, you can easily change it later. Congratulations! You&#8217;re all set. You\u00a0are now the owner of an internet blog!<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_1959\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1959\" style=\"width: 290px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/foxymonkey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/Wordpress-all-set-successfully.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1959 lazyload\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP\/\/\/yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7\" data-src=\"https:\/\/foxymonkey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/Wordpress-all-set-successfully-300x196.png\" alt=\"Wordpress-all-set-successfully\" width=\"300\" height=\"196\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.foxymonkey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/Wordpress-all-set-successfully-300x196.png 300w, https:\/\/www.foxymonkey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/Wordpress-all-set-successfully-768x502.png 768w, https:\/\/www.foxymonkey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/Wordpress-all-set-successfully-1024x669.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.foxymonkey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/Wordpress-all-set-successfully-640x418.png 640w, https:\/\/www.foxymonkey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/Wordpress-all-set-successfully.png 1369w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1959 lazyload\" src=\"https:\/\/foxymonkey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/Wordpress-all-set-successfully-300x196.png\" alt=\"Wordpress-all-set-successfully\" width=\"300\" height=\"196\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.foxymonkey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/Wordpress-all-set-successfully-300x196.png 300w, https:\/\/www.foxymonkey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/Wordpress-all-set-successfully-768x502.png 768w, https:\/\/www.foxymonkey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/Wordpress-all-set-successfully-1024x669.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.foxymonkey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/Wordpress-all-set-successfully-640x418.png 640w, https:\/\/www.foxymonkey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/Wordpress-all-set-successfully.png 1369w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/noscript><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-1959\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Congratulations, you now have a blog!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h2>Step 4: Make your blog fancy with a Theme<\/h2>\n<p>Now that you have WordPress set up you can start expressing your thoughts on the internet. But\u00a0before you do that, you may want to make your blog look beautiful.<\/p>\n<p>You can change the appearance of your blog by applying a Theme! A theme is what a\u00a0cover and a background image are to your phone. The content stays exactly the same, but the look &amp; feel is totally different.<\/p>\n<p>After logging in to WordPress, we see this somewhat chaotic screen:<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_1967\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1967\" style=\"width: 630px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/foxymonkey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/Wordpress-starting-screen.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1967 size-large lazyload\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP\/\/\/yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7\" data-src=\"https:\/\/foxymonkey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/Wordpress-starting-screen-1024x574.png\" alt=\"Wordpress Starting Screen\" width=\"640\" height=\"359\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.foxymonkey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/Wordpress-starting-screen-1024x574.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.foxymonkey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/Wordpress-starting-screen-300x168.png 300w, https:\/\/www.foxymonkey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/Wordpress-starting-screen-768x431.png 768w, https:\/\/www.foxymonkey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/Wordpress-starting-screen-640x359.png 640w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1967 size-large lazyload\" src=\"https:\/\/foxymonkey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/Wordpress-starting-screen-1024x574.png\" alt=\"Wordpress Starting Screen\" width=\"640\" height=\"359\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.foxymonkey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/Wordpress-starting-screen-1024x574.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.foxymonkey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/Wordpress-starting-screen-300x168.png 300w, https:\/\/www.foxymonkey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/Wordpress-starting-screen-768x431.png 768w, https:\/\/www.foxymonkey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/Wordpress-starting-screen-640x359.png 640w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/noscript><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-1967\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">WordPress starting screen &#8211; you can find it on www.&lt;your_domain&gt;.com\/wp-admin<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>This place is where you will do almost everything that has to do with your blog, like writing posts, building menus, installing plugins and changing themes.<\/p>\n<p>Click on Appearance -&gt; Themes and you have my favourite playground. This is where you select how you want your blog to look like. You can &#8220;Add New&#8221; themes and select from the thousands of available themes. You can preview themes to see if they match your preference or just browse popular ones on the WordPress.org <a href=\"https:\/\/en-gb.wordpress.org\/themes\/browse\/popular\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">theme page<\/a>.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_2005\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2005\" style=\"width: 630px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/foxymonkey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/twenty-twelve-wordpress-theme.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-2005 size-large lazyload\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP\/\/\/yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7\" data-src=\"https:\/\/foxymonkey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/twenty-twelve-wordpress-theme-1024x714.png\" alt=\"Twenty twelve wordpress theme\" width=\"640\" height=\"446\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.foxymonkey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/twenty-twelve-wordpress-theme-1024x714.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.foxymonkey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/twenty-twelve-wordpress-theme-300x209.png 300w, https:\/\/www.foxymonkey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/twenty-twelve-wordpress-theme-768x536.png 768w, https:\/\/www.foxymonkey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/twenty-twelve-wordpress-theme-100x70.png 100w, https:\/\/www.foxymonkey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/twenty-twelve-wordpress-theme-640x446.png 640w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-2005 size-large lazyload\" src=\"https:\/\/foxymonkey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/twenty-twelve-wordpress-theme-1024x714.png\" alt=\"Twenty twelve wordpress theme\" width=\"640\" height=\"446\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.foxymonkey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/twenty-twelve-wordpress-theme-1024x714.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.foxymonkey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/twenty-twelve-wordpress-theme-300x209.png 300w, https:\/\/www.foxymonkey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/twenty-twelve-wordpress-theme-768x536.png 768w, https:\/\/www.foxymonkey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/twenty-twelve-wordpress-theme-100x70.png 100w, https:\/\/www.foxymonkey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/twenty-twelve-wordpress-theme-640x446.png 640w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/noscript><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-2005\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Just activated the Twenty Twelve theme (under the Popular category) and wrote a simple Post. What a modest blog name Michael&#8230;<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>You can also upload your own themes found on the internet like I did, but be careful. You should absolutely trust the source, otherwise, you risk getting affected by malicious software.<\/p>\n<p>Some reliable sources (that have premium themes for sale) are the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxymonkey.com\/recommends\/elegantthemes\/\" data-eafl-id=\"1995\" data-eafl-parsed=\"1\" class=\"eafl-link eafl-link-text eafl-link-cloaked\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Elegant Themes<\/a> and the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxymonkey.com\/recommends\/themeforest\/\" data-eafl-id=\"2003\" data-eafl-parsed=\"1\" class=\"eafl-link eafl-link-text eafl-link-cloaked\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Theme Forest<\/a>. For $89 per year, Elegant Themes gives you have access to thousands of themes. They also provide a\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxymonkey.com\/recommends\/divi\/\" data-eafl-id=\"1992\" data-eafl-parsed=\"1\" class=\"eafl-link eafl-link-text eafl-link-cloaked\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Divi<\/a> customizable theme where &#8220;what you see is what you get&#8221; where you can make changes visually. Divi looks promising but I haven&#8217;t used it yet.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/foxymonkey.com\/recommends\/elegantthemes\/\" rel=\"nofollow\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-1996 size-full lazyload\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP\/\/\/yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7\" data-src=\"https:\/\/foxymonkey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/elegant_themes.jpg\" alt=\"Elegant Themes\" width=\"570\" height=\"100\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.foxymonkey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/elegant_themes.jpg 570w, https:\/\/www.foxymonkey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/elegant_themes-300x53.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 570px) 100vw, 570px\" \/><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-1996 size-full lazyload\" src=\"https:\/\/foxymonkey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/elegant_themes.jpg\" alt=\"Elegant Themes\" width=\"570\" height=\"100\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.foxymonkey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/elegant_themes.jpg 570w, https:\/\/www.foxymonkey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/elegant_themes-300x53.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 570px) 100vw, 570px\" \/><\/noscript><\/a><\/p>\n<p>I can spend thousands of hours looking at different choices and never deciding on one. I know myself. Don&#8217;t be like me!<\/p>\n<p>This blog is using a theme called ionMag which is a little bit more complex for a beginner. It&#8217;s a new theme which is actively developed by an independent company. It comes for free unless you want additional features so you can buy the Premium.<\/p>\n<p>If you want my advice, focus on a theme that can express your blog core topics better. For example, if you&#8217;re creating a photography blog, you may want a theme that focuses on highlighting images, not text, such as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxymonkey.com\/recommends\/nicole-theme\/\" data-eafl-id=\"2002\" data-eafl-parsed=\"1\" class=\"eafl-link eafl-link-text eafl-link-cloaked\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">this one<\/a>. If you&#8217;re building a business website or featuring one product then\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/en-gb.wordpress.org\/themes\/onepress\/\">OnePress<\/a>\u00a0(free) may be better for you.<\/p>\n<p>On the other hand, my blog focuses more on writing, therefore I chose a theme that is clean, crisp and optimised for text.\u00a0OnePress is flexible, it can be perfect for a writing-focused blog too.<\/p>\n<p>Once you&#8217;re happy with your theme, activate it and visit your website! I was quite excited when I did that for the first time! But every blogger knows the theme is just a fancy cover. <strong>Content is what matters\u00a0the most.<\/strong><\/p>\n<h2>Step 5: Start blogging<\/h2>\n<p>The world is your oyster! You can start writing posts right away. Just go to Posts -&gt; Add New.<\/p>\n<p>Sure, in the beginning, you will not have that many readers but day-by-day the numbers will get better. In March 2017, Foxy Monkey got around 3,500 pageviews from 1646 different users! Not bad, given this is the 3rd month and I have not been actively promoting it. No ads, no promoted facebook posts or anything. You can do it too!<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_2000\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2000\" style=\"width: 981px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/foxymonkey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/google-analytics-foxymonkey.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-2000 size-full lazyload\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP\/\/\/yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7\" data-src=\"https:\/\/foxymonkey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/google-analytics-foxymonkey.png\" alt=\"Google Analytics Foxymonkey\" width=\"991\" height=\"527\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.foxymonkey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/google-analytics-foxymonkey.png 991w, https:\/\/www.foxymonkey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/google-analytics-foxymonkey-300x160.png 300w, https:\/\/www.foxymonkey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/google-analytics-foxymonkey-768x408.png 768w, https:\/\/www.foxymonkey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/google-analytics-foxymonkey-640x340.png 640w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 991px) 100vw, 991px\" \/><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-2000 size-full lazyload\" src=\"https:\/\/foxymonkey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/google-analytics-foxymonkey.png\" alt=\"Google Analytics Foxymonkey\" width=\"991\" height=\"527\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.foxymonkey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/google-analytics-foxymonkey.png 991w, https:\/\/www.foxymonkey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/google-analytics-foxymonkey-300x160.png 300w, https:\/\/www.foxymonkey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/google-analytics-foxymonkey-768x408.png 768w, https:\/\/www.foxymonkey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/google-analytics-foxymonkey-640x340.png 640w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 991px) 100vw, 991px\" \/><\/noscript><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-2000\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Google Analytics blog stats Jan &#8211; Mar 17. You can probably tell that spikes are when I publish a post, the biggest one being about financial independence!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>I find that great content is key to a blog&#8217;s growth. I&#8217;d rather spend more time creating quality posts than churn small posts out without doing much research. Quora and Reddit are the only ways I&#8217;ve promoted the blog by providing useful answers. Sometimes, when the question permits, I link back to my blog for more details. This has worked very well so far since my traffic comes mostly from these channels.<\/p>\n<p>Try to connect all your social networks to your blog and reach out to people once you have some content.<\/p>\n<p>Other people will promote your blog for you once you have some good posts. This is ultimately the goal and there&#8217;s nothing better than <em>organic growth<\/em>. As your blog matures, Google will also show some love to your posts and send readers your way.<\/p>\n<p>You may want to check out some helpful plugins. I deactivated Jetpack because it&#8217;s too big and added the following: Akismet Anti-spam, SG Optimizer, WP Super cache, Yoast SEO, and Comment Reply Email Notification. I will write in more detail about all the tools I use on this blog soon. For now, your priority should be to publish some content.<\/p>\n<h4>&#8220;But I have nothing to write about&#8221;<\/h4>\n<p>Try to\u00a0build a blog on something you&#8217;re passionate about. It can be anything, from a climbing to the benefits of yoghurt! If your goal is <strong>only<\/strong> to make money then don&#8217;t bother. It requires passion to keep a blog alive and eventually make a lot of money. But if you find yourself loving something, then you&#8217;ll have plenty of stuff to write about AND make a good income out of it. Make it personal. Think about the problems people have and how you can help them solve them!<\/p>\n<p>For example, I realised I&#8217;m passionate about personal finance, side income jobs and little life hacks that can increase my income, save more money and achieve <a href=\"https:\/\/foxymonkey.com\/financial-independence\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">financial independence<\/a>. Although some friends have criticised me for <strong>always<\/strong> optimising\u00a0for efficient spending\/earning, I love it! I can&#8217;t help it! I also like helping people do the same. So\u00a0who knows, maybe one day this blog will become a must-read on the topic! I can even launch a podcast, free online videos,\u00a0or compile it into a book.<\/p>\n<p>So\u00a0who knows, maybe one day this blog will become a must-read on the topic! I can even launch a podcast, free online videos,\u00a0or compile it into a book.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"td_quote_box td_box_center\"><p>Note that you can always get a free blog on WordPress.com or Blogger and not pay a penny. However, the options are quite limited. If you ever want to install plugins like Google Analytics, make it a business or look fancy with thousands of themes then you have to go &#8220;self-hosted&#8221;. The cost is simply too low compared to the benefits of owning your space and this is what I&#8217;ve chosen for my blog too.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Here\u2019s the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxymonkey.com\/recommends\/siteground-wordpress\/\" data-eafl-id=\"1936\" data-eafl-parsed=\"1\" class=\"eafl-link eafl-link-text eafl-link-cloaked\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Siteground<\/a> link, in case you choose to support this blog while creating your own.<br \/>\n(It doesn\u2019t affect your price, and many thanks if you do!):<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/foxymonkey.com\/recommends\/siteground-wordpress\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-1942 lazyload\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP\/\/\/yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7\" data-src=\"https:\/\/foxymonkey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/siteground_web_hosting.jpg\" alt=\"Siteground web hosting\" width=\"125\" height=\"125\" \/><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-1942 lazyload\" src=\"https:\/\/foxymonkey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/siteground_web_hosting.jpg\" alt=\"Siteground web hosting\" width=\"125\" height=\"125\" \/><\/noscript><\/a><\/p>\n<p>I hope I motivated you enough to start a blog! Let me know your blog&#8217;s name in the comments. I&#8217;ll be more than happy to take a look and offer suggestions.<\/p>\n<p>Happy blogging!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Why blog? Blogging had a huge benefit on my personal and professional life. I thought of sharing with you the mechanics of blogging, since starting &#8230; <a title=\"How To Start a Blog in 5 Steps &#8211; A beginner&#8217;s guide\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.foxymonkey.com\/start-a-blog-beginner\/\" aria-label=\"More on How To Start a Blog in 5 Steps &#8211; A beginner&#8217;s guide\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2009,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[144,109],"class_list":["post-1917","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-life-hacks","tag-blogging","tag-side-income"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>How To Start a Blog in 5 Steps - A beginner&#039;s guide - Foxy Monkey<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Want to start your own blog? 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All you need is a computer, no need to be technical.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.foxymonkey.com\/start-a-blog-beginner\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Foxy Monkey\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/FoxyMonkeyClub\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/FoxyMonkeyClub\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-04-01T09:14:25+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-01-11T13:18:29+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.foxymonkey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/start-a-blog-thames.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1017\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Michael\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@https:\/\/twitter.com\/FoxyMonkey\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@FoxyMonkey\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Michael\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"12 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.foxymonkey.com\/start-a-blog-beginner\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.foxymonkey.com\/start-a-blog-beginner\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Michael\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.foxymonkey.com\/#\/schema\/person\/6ca5e1293925d70f573a54a0de216dd3\"},\"headline\":\"How To Start a Blog in 5 Steps &#8211; A beginner&#8217;s guide\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-04-01T09:14:25+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-01-11T13:18:29+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.foxymonkey.com\/start-a-blog-beginner\/\"},\"wordCount\":2550,\"commentCount\":3,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.foxymonkey.com\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.foxymonkey.com\/start-a-blog-beginner\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.foxymonkey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/start-a-blog-thames.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"blogging\",\"side income\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Life Hacks\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.foxymonkey.com\/start-a-blog-beginner\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.foxymonkey.com\/start-a-blog-beginner\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.foxymonkey.com\/start-a-blog-beginner\/\",\"name\":\"How To Start a Blog in 5 Steps - A beginner's guide - Foxy Monkey\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.foxymonkey.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.foxymonkey.com\/start-a-blog-beginner\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.foxymonkey.com\/start-a-blog-beginner\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.foxymonkey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/start-a-blog-thames.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-04-01T09:14:25+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-01-11T13:18:29+00:00\",\"description\":\"Want to start your own blog? 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