But let’s first talk about Platforms. Your platform is your House, this is where all of your hard work goes and where everyone can come visit you. Do you want to live free and build up later to a more expensive home or start with all the bells and whistles so you don’t have to move all of your stuff?

I have built many blogs in blogger and wordpress.com. They are easy to get started, easy and easy to understand. BUT, besides just posing everyday that is about all they offer. So eventually I start searching for a bigger and better place to live (house all of my content). Moving blogs is HUGE it is like moving across country by yourself with no movers. Usually for me when this happens I give up and quit because it is WAY too overwhelming. (another reason why I have many numerous blogs started and never followed through).

So for my Big Blog Experiment,I chose WordPress.org, by far the most popular platform for bloggers. I will show you step by step how to get your blog up using wordpress.org.

Step 1:

First Pick a Name/Domain. This is your street address for your house. We want it to be easy to remember and easy to find. When you get ready to purchase your host (we will talk about in step 2) you will be able to purchase your domain at that time.

• Make sure the name sounds good to your readers
• The name is not already taken
• There is not another brand/company with a similar name that has a bad reputation
• It’s easy to spell
• The name is also available on social media sites
• Quick search on www.godaddy.com will reveal if it is available or not

Step 2:

Pick your hosting company (this is the land that your house will sit on). You are looking for a good owner that is has low down time, good reviews, easy 1 click set up, secure and good customer service. Think of this as your landlord, when something goes wrong , are they easy to contact and resolved quickly? Here is a quick scan of some of to chose from, I am hosted at Bluehost.com. Here is a great step by step guide from The Blog Starter.

Step 3:

Setting up your Blog: There are two ways to do it, one do it yourself or two pay for it. I did it myself so I’ll step you through the basic steps to this. In your dashboard go to appearance, then themes and find one that you feel fits your personality for your blog.

Congratulations you have set up your BLOG! Next post I will go into greater details about the look and feel of your blog and how to customize it to fit your personality for your blog. I would love to see what you decided on!  In the comments section add your new URL link to your blog so far.