How to Host a WordPress Site on Bluehost

WordPress is the most popular content management system, especially among bloggers – it powers over 40% of all websites.

At some point, you’ll want to explore hosting your own WordPress site so you can get all the benefits of a professionally built, content-rich website for yourself.

Whether you’re a blogger, content creator, or community manager looking for a hand-built site to represent your work, you can host your own WordPress site with Bluehost. 

Here’s how to host a WordPress site on Bluehost.

Choose A Hosting Plan

Even if you’re just testing the waters with a fresh blog post or project, it’s a good idea to pick an inexpensive hosting plan from Bluehost so you can try it out without risking too much financial information.

Take a look at the different hosting plans offered by Bluehost and decide which one is right for you.

The basic Bluehost plan allows you to register a free domain and installs a completely functioning WordPress site with the required features (including the ability to update content).

You’ll also get a free SSL certificate, free backups through their premium service, and the ability to use popular WordPress tools like WooCommerce, bbPress, and more.

The great thing about the basic plan is that it doesn’t require anything from you except for deciding whether or not you want to continue with the plan once you’re finished testing it. 

Install WordPress

To get started, simply visit the WordPress installer and follow the prompts to install the WordPress software. 

Once installed, you can access the WordPress dashboard where you’ll find the “Add New” button at the top left-hand corner. 

Click it to launch the WordPress front-end where you can begin creating your blog post or setting up your website.

If you need help or have questions, you can visit the WordPress support forums or call their support line at 1-888-280-8112.

Create Your Free Blog

To get started, simply visit the WordPress dashboard and click on the “Create New Post” button at the top left-hand corner. 

You’ll then be presented with a blank page where you can enter a title and content for your blog post. 

If you’ve never written a blog post before, this might feel a little bit daunting but don’t worry – with a little bit of prep work, writing a blog post is a lot less daunting.

As a general rule of thumb, write down the purpose or goal of your blog post before you get started. This will make it much easier to organize your thoughts and ensure that you write something useful.

For instance, let’s say that you’re setting up a fitness blog – you might want to write a blog post dedicated to explaining the basics of fitness blogging and how to become a successful blogger. 

Even if you’ve never written a single blog post before, it’s a good idea to write down a list of topics that you think might be interesting or helpful to other blog owners – this will help you come up with unique and valuable content for your blog. 

Customize Your Blog’s Design

If you’re happy with the basic look of your blog post, you can skip this step but it’s still a good idea to do it. 

Go to the Settings menu within WordPress and click on the “Design” tab. 

From here, you have the option of dragging and dropping widgets from the WordPress toolbelt onto your blog’s dashboard to quickly add some functionality to your site. 

You can also choose from a variety of free and premium-looking widgets that can do virtually anything from displaying a weather report to showing a video to creating a countdown for a event. 

If you want to take things a step further, you can use the Customizer to completely overhaul the look of your site. 

For instance, you might want to use the Customizer to replace the standard WordPress blue with a light gray background or perhaps add some color by using a different font color or picking a different wallpaper.

Set Up Your Site’s Email Address

If you’ve already started writing your blog post and want to get it out there to the world, you can use the Customizer to set up your email address – this way, when people email you asking for product reviews or wanting to connect with you on social media, you’ll have a ready-made email to respond to.

If you don’t want to use your Gmail account (or if you’re not sure you can use Gmail for business email), you can set up a Free email account with Mailin (formerly Sendlane).

You’ll still need to check your email regularly but at least you won’t have to worry about using a free email account for your business.

Publish Your Blog Post

When you’re ready to publish your blog post, simply visit the Dashboard again and click on the “Publish” button at the top left-hand corner. 

You’ll then be presented with a few options regarding the publication of your post. To publish your blog post as soon as you’re ready, simply select the “Immediately” option.

If you’d like to schedule it to publish at a later date and time, select the “Schedule” option.

Then, you can choose a time that’s convenient for you and click on the “Publish” button to launch your blog post in publication.

Optional Steps

If you’ve written a valuable post and want to make sure that your audience sees it, you can quickly and easily promote your blog post by doing a few simple things. 

To begin with, you can use the “Social Media” option within the Dashboard to connect your blog to the various social media platforms. 

For instance, if you’ve written an informative post about SEO and linkbuilding, you might want to connect your blog to Twitter, Facebook, and Google+. 

Then, you can use the “Readers” option to track the total number of people that are currently reading your blog post. 

You can also use the “Analytics” option to track the total number of times that your blog post has been read and the total number of clicks from people that have read it.

You should also consider picking a special theme for your blog – this will help make your site stand out and be easier to navigate for new visitors.