Starting Your Own Blog as a Freelance Writer

Writing for other websites like Writing Shares is great. But you can also start your own website and blog and put as many articles as you want up there to make money as a freelance writer.

One of the biggest benefits of starting your own blog is that you have absolute freedom to write about anything you want. However, it is generally advisable to pick a somewhat broad niche and create a specialized blog just for that niche.

An example would be basketball. If you are a total basketball nut, you can easily write multiple daily articles on this sport. If you are a fan of a particular TV show, you could even start a blog on that. Whatever niche you choose, just make sure you actually have fun writing about that topic. That way, you will not get tired of writing new articles for your blog on a regular basis.

Getting Started

1. The first thing you are going to need is a Web host. What a host does is allow you to put all your articles on your own website. For example, the host of WritingShares.com is HostGator. That company hosts all of our website files on one of its many servers.

Disclaimer: Of course, this means we have a material connection to HostGator. We are affiliates and get paid a commission for referring other website owners. We have no problems telling you this because we do, in fact, use their services for this very website.

When you open a hosting account with HostGator (you can use the Hatchling Plan if you are just getting started in Web publishing), you pick a domain name during the registration process. Choose a name that is relevant to your niche. For example, if you are writing a blog on sewing, make sure "sewing" is in the domain name. A name like "DownHomeSewingTips" or something like that would be good for search engine traffic and to help your website visitors remember your name for visiting later.

2. After you have a Web host and domain name, then you need a blogging software. WordPress is by far the typical choice for starting a blog among all the options. Best of all, WordPress is free and easy to install when you get hosting through HostGator. You just simply use the one-click installation provided by HostGator to install WordPress.

To install WordPress in HostGator, click on the Fantastico DeLuxe icon in the control panel. You will then see "WordPress" listed in the blog section on the next page. Just click on that link and follow the simple instructions to create your blog. You will select an admin username and password, and the system will provide you with an admin login page, which is YourWebsiteName.com/wp-admin/ or something like that.

3. To start writing articles on your new blog, log in and go to either the Posts or Pages section. You will see a text editor. All you do is type your title and message into the text editor and publish it with the provided buttons. It is super easy. Generally speaking, you use posts to write new articles. The pages are for things like the traditional About Me or Contact Us pages.

These are the down-and-dirty fast steps to get started publishing a blog on your own website. Of course, there are millions of other things to learn, but getting started is actually quite easy, and many things overly complicate the process. I suggest you just follow the 3 steps above before doing anything else. You can then learn other blogging tips and tricks after getting familiar with the basic process of publishing your own website through WordPress blogging software.