Build Your Own Blog
I hope you make your own blog!
The more independent visions and voices out here in digital land the better. Below are the basic tools you need for your independent enterprise:
- Website Host
This is a service that gives your blog its home. There are tons of hosts to choose from. Over the years I’ve been researched and tried quite a few. For my blog I am using Hostinger as my website host.
Specifically, I choose Hostinger’s WordPress Cloud StartUp option. This gives me lots of features, speed and plenty of space for building my blog. Use this link to see your options and get a discount on their services. I signed up for four years of hosting as that fit perfectly with my four year commitment here, and gave me a big discount!
So far I appreciate their price and support.
At first I was wary of the AI support chat, but in reality I get fast and mostly accurate answers from AI. When I need to talk with a real person I just enter “human” or “real person” into the chat box a few times and I get human support. - Website/Wordpress Builder
There are many website/wordpress design builders that make designing your site easier than relying on what wordpress gives you. I say “easier” in quotes because of course there is a learning curve with any designer you choose to use – no matter how good their marketing is. No matter how easy and fast they say it will be to quickly and painlessly create your site, it will take time, persistence, curiosity and a soft wall to bang your head against…
I use Beaver Builder to design my site. - Keep Your Website Fast
You will want to make sure that your posts and pages show up quickly when a person clicks on your links. In order to that you will need a special booster running in the background. I use WP Rocket for that magic. Use my special WP Rocket link and you’ll get a discount and a month free (yay). - Email Provider
If you want to email people you will need an email provider. The email provider is the where things go after a person enters their information into the “subscribe” box. You build a list of subscribers over time and email them your newsletters, big ideas, blog posts etc. I am using EmailOctopus. They are easy, responsive and less expensive than any other provider I have found.
That’s my list of tools and services for everything I have created here. You can do this!