Starting a New (Self-Hosted)Blog: Tips and Trials
If you’re like me, and you’ve started or are going to start a new self-hosted blog, you are excited to get down to business and get your ideas/thoughts out there. You’re thinking it’ll be a piece of cake to get the blog set up and then it’s just post, post, post from then on. However, if you’re not tech-savvy (like me), you’re going to have some challenges right from the start. But don’t let that discourage you: there is plenty of help available to get you on your way, and I feel grateful to have found people to get me over my hurdles. I’m just another one of those people: I want to help you through the challenges, too, as we get blogs done together. Here are some things you need to do/think about as you get your new blog going:
1) Choosing a domain name: When you are ready to name your blog (what your web address will be), you do need to spend a little quality time with that. This is because when people click on the search bar to find things, they typically type in exactly (or close to exactly) the terms they are looking for–not something cutesy or not really related to your main topic/product. So, spend some time brainstorming good, preferable short (one or two word, sometimes 3 word) titles for your web address. One good way to test out your title ideas is to type them into Google yourself to see what arises in the results. Google has other tools you can use to help with search terms called “Trends” as well–it’s cool, check it out! Many people also advise that you go with a dot com name because it is the most remembered extension on the address over others like dot net, dot biz, etc. I agree with that. When you’ve got a good list of titles on your brainstorm list, go to Whois.com to check the availability of those titles and choose the one you like best and purchase it. They cost around $10/year, but you can find cheaper deals if you look around at the various hosting companies out there.
2) Choosing a hosting company: This is the company which will be in charge of actually putting your site on the web and keeping it live and backed up (although you also are highly recommended to back up your own files, something we will address sometime in the future). There is an enormous amount of hosting companies out there, and you could pull your hair out trying to choose one to go with, but you really don’t need to spend too much time on this. Just talk to your other blogging friends or read who other bloggers are using, look at top-ten lists, compare prices and features of, say, your top 5 picks. For me, it is VERY important that they have good and timely customer service/tech support because I am not very tech savvy and have had technical problems almost every step of the way because of this. At any rate, don’t fret too much over your hosting company because you can always change to another one if you aren’t happy. Here’s a good list of top ten hosting companies to get you started in your search.
3) Choosing a self-hosted blog platform. A blog platform is a tool to help bloggers get the visual parts of their blog set up. It involves downloading the main tool, which allows you to post articles and images to your blog, plus other tools, such as themes (design) and plugins (other functions, such as contact forms, special buttons to click as for social media sharing, stats analysis charts, spam protection, etc.). There are several self-hosted blogging platforms available, but I have chosen the Wordpress.org platform due to recommendations, popularity and ease of use. You can find a good comparison of popular self-hosted blog platforms here.
4) Getting your self-hosted blog set up. Now it’s time to get your blogging platform of choice downloaded to your computer. The next steps get really tricky if you are very new to this. After downloading the platform, themes, and plugins you want, you then have to upload them to your host so they can get your blog up and running on the web. In order to do that, you need a “go-between” service called a File Transfer Protocol (FTP). Personally, I use Filezilla. You have to create an FTP account at your host’s site. You then transfer your blog files from your computer to the FTP, then you drag those files over to the area of the FTP window that has your host server’s files. You have to make sure you put your files in the correct file folders of your host server’s FTP area, and you can get help from the host on what goes where. (Some hosts are now uploading Wordpress for you, so there is less to do on your part.) If all goes well, you should have your blog looking and running well. Oh, if only life were like that! Here are some challenges I ran into at this stage and what solutions were available to me…and now you:
- Theme (design) didn’t appear, hence no blog appeared online. Solution: I emailed the host company and was told I had put some of the transferred files into the wrong folders at the FTP stage. I was doing faulty dragging and dropping, apparently.
- Theme (design) still didn’t appear after fixing above. I got a “permissions error” message on my blog’s page. Solution: I again emailed the host company and told them about the error. They found a typo in the “permissions password” they had given me for a php file. They fixed the error on their end. Blog suddenly appeared!
- A Google stats plugin would not work. Solution: I read the installation instructions again and found a second Google stats plugin was needed to get the other one working. What a pain, but it worked.
- Other plugins were not appearing even after activation. Solution: I researched these plugins in the Wordpress forums area and found that these types of plugins had to be configured on a settings page by dragging, dropping and checking off desired appearance.
- A couple contact form plugins were tried, but I found that to get them to work, I had to do some cutting and pasting of code. I wanted the form on my contact page, but got confused about which code to use. There was a “one line” code, and a box with a lot more code in it. I found that the “one line” code was all it took to get it working. Just cut and paste this into your post box on your Contact page window in your Wordpress dashboard. Thanks to Fiona of Baby Steps to Fluency for this helpful tip!
General advice: Don’t give up or tear your hair out. When there is a snag, contact someone who knows what to do–your host company, your blog platform community, FAQ sections, or you can even just let someone else set up your blog, say, a friend or even Rent-a-Coder. The main thing is: Keep kickin’ butt! (from a private email from Chad Michael Lawson of ChadConnects.com) and get your blog done!
Now, over to you: What problems/challenges are YOU facing in your new blog? Leave a comment by clicking on “comments” next to title/sidebar, and let’s help each other out!
