Starting a blog with no experience

Hey everyone,

Long time lurker here and want to start finally blogging to mainly enjoy the things I post and obviously make a 2nd source of income.

It took me awhile but I really want to give this a shot because now I feel comfortable with a niche and I thought it could potentially be a powerful tool to my life but my main problem is getting started.

My biggest concern and the one I've spent the most time is DESIGN!

I've searched and searched and couldn't find anything I liked, even the ones you could buy. I'm a huge window shopper and if I there is one site I could copy it would be like ssense (Just so you guys can have an idea). This page displays exactly how I would like to have my blog. Categories on the left descending vertically and a top row with links going horizontally.
-- Click on Men or Women at the top

So my question is where would I be able to find something like this or even a web designer to create one?

This leads to managing the site...

As far as ADS, I have an AdSense account since the mid 2000s but would this be the only source of ads I would put on my blog? Any suggestions of others? like Amazon?

I'm pretty sure as far as DOMAIN and HOSTING it would be straight forward like BlueHost and GoDaddy (Suggestions for alternative to suit my needs would be appreciated).

I know at BHW no is here to spoon feed but the stuff I stated above is what I know to a minimum, I'm probably also missing a few things. If there are any recommendations or tips on what I can do to have better knowledge, it will definitely help me begin my venture. I'll do my research and just want BHW to be another source of knowledge to help myself get prepared.

Well the good news it that BHW has all the answers to ALL of your questions and more. Start with all of the stickies in the top sections, you will find a lot of great info.

If someone wouldn't mind answering this also thatd be great; if someone is claiming to do arbitrage from a "private traffic source" annd using content.ads on their site, what is an example of a private traffic source? facebook ads?
thanks

Don't complicate things mate. You could even start with the default WP theme.. What you need right now is to get first hand experience.. So do not expect to do everything perfectly on the first try. You will make mistakes but that's part of the learning curve.

use wordpress as a platform.
For domains: Use namesilo.
for Hosting: serverhosh, hostwinds, namecheap Hosting (select annual plan - you can get year hosting for $15)

Ads: Do not worry about that at this stage. Once you start getting some traffic, only then it matters.

Also install some tracking on your site so you know how much traffic you get. Google Analytics and Statcounter.

i'm thinking of the same. all the best

umerjutt00 said:

Don't complicate things mate. You could even start with the default WP theme.. What you need right now is to get first hand experience.. So do not expect to do everything perfectly on the first try. You will make mistakes but that's part of the learning curve.

use wordpress as a platform.
For domains: Use namesilo.
for Hosting: serverhosh, hostwinds, namecheap Hosting (select annual plan - you can get year hosting for $15)

Ads: Do not worry about that at this stage. Once you start getting some traffic, only then it matters.

Also install some tracking on your site so you know how much traffic you get. Google Analytics and Statcounter.

Click to expand...

100% Agree with umerjutt00

Great something of value and the audience will come, once you have an audience the money will come.

Just start with a simple theme. You can use a better theme once you have plenty of content and some visitors.

If you keep overthinking, you won't get started.

You can start with a simple standard design and edit it in the process. Just know that everything comes with experience as well as the ability to create your own design.

Generatepress has a free version. It's amazing.

Namecheap for domain, and Siteground for hosting.