So, you’ve chosen your low competition niche, you have done a bunch of keyword research, and have some juicy KGR keywords ready and waiting to be turned into some money-earning blog posts, awesome! So far so good!
In this post, I am going to run you through getting set up. This includes:
- Buying a domain name.
- Buying hosting and connecting your domain name to your host.
- Setting up your WordPress account.
- Recommended themes and plugins.
Let’s get straight to it!
Buying A Domain Name
A domain name is a personalized web address to your blog. For example, Amazon’s domain name is Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk, eBay’s domain name is eBay.co.uk, and so on.
Your domain name typically includes the keyword or something related to what you want to rank for along with .com, .net, .org, etc., depending on what country your blog is targeting.
It is not recommended that you choose an exact-match-domain, however. Something like www.besthairdryers.com is an exact-match-domain. I just seems spammy and cheap, to me. Apparently, Google doesn’t like those either. And, in any case, it limits you to whatever that keyword is.
It would make more sense that if you want to do a niche around hair dryers, you would choose a slightly broader topic that allows you to cover hair dryers and more, once your site grows.
For example, a more suitable name would be www.heatforhair.com, as this would allow you to cover hairdryers as well as every appliance and product related to hairstyling with heat.
Search, Choose, Buy
You can use any site you like, 123Reg, GoDaddy, etc. and if you have already purchased your domain name, the procedure of linking it to your hosting account is pretty much the same across the board.
I like to use NameCheap, it does what it says on the tin; register your domain name, cheaply. I have used 1&1 and GoDaddy in the past but I now use NameCheap to buy all of my domains now and haven’t had any issues yet.
Search your desired site name – and be prepared to think of a bunch more on the spot, as your desired name is more than likely taken.
There is no need to pay for any of those over-priced domains that somebody has picked up just to sell. Just choose another name and try to avoid using hyphens or anything like that just to keep the original name you wanted…let that go.
Buying Hosting And Connecting Your Domain To Your Host
Everyone will have their preference of hosting provider. If you want a host that already has tools like Cpanel (a popular file manager) or something like Softaculous (A web tool to install WordPress), then stick to the more popular hosts like:
Bluehost, Hostgator, Inmotion etc.
I have experience with all of the above hosts and more… this site is run on Cloudways, however. And I can say, it is very fast and was very straightforward to get set up.
Many people will recommend Blue Host as it pays the most affiliate fees. They aren’t bad, they are quite cheap and I guess they make a decent starter host but there is definitely better in my honest opinion.
In any case, here is my Blue Host link, you can sign up below:
If you have clicked through this site and thought “hmm, this site is pretty fast…” then instead, sign up to Cloudways for your hosting.
They also give you 3 days free (not that 3 days is anything to write home about, though *rolls eyes*…):
- Buy your hosting package, start with the cheapest one, you can always upgrade later.
- Install WordPress.
- Point your nameservers (from NameCheap) over to your host.
- Install your free SSL (security certificate)
- Make a note of your database credentials and log in info.
If the above just looks like jargon, don’t worry. The hosting provider will have a walkthrough. Cloudways has video tutorials and it was all very straightforward. I was up and running within 15 minutes.
Setting Up WordPress
Now, I am going to tell you something I wish I knew when I got started in WordPress.
- Choose a basic, light theme like Astra (free).
- Keep the plugins to a minimum.
I love Astra, it is simple, clean, and you can do with it as you like. (Just try not to go overboard if you want to be Google-friendly, ok?) It is a very professional and easy-to-use theme and will have your site ready to go in no time.
I have the Astra theme on 6 out of 7 of my niche sites. I have come a long way from Moonfruit websites, trust me, I know what I am talking about… If you haven’t read my Introduction Story, read it here!
I actually keep all the demo content and set up my new sites exactly as they are, swapping out images and deleting blocks as I go…it makes it easier for me to see how I may want to move things around later without having to start from scratch.
You can waste a lot of time doing unnecessary customizing in the beginning when in actual fact, all you should be doing is getting straight to writing content.
So again, install Astra and keep it moving.
If you want to throw together a quick logo or placeholder logo, you can do this in Canva or you can pay somebody $5 to do it in Fiverr. Take your pick.
I am a Canva fan and I don’t like to wait around, so you already know what my recommendation is. However, if you do not have a design-eye, comission the job on Fiverr and move on – add it to your site later.
Let’s Talk About Plugins…
As I have already said, keep your plugins to a minimum and start by installing the recommended ones for your theme.
I am going to tell you something else I wish I knew when I started… are you listening?
DO NOT INSTALL ELEMENTOR!
No offense, Elementor, you are great…you are just highly unnecessary for what we are trying to do here. We are trying to quickly put together a clean, fast, practical, and unbulky site that Google loves and that future visitors can navigate with ease.
The best way to do that is to keep the clutter to a minimum and keep focused on the content.
I cannot tell you how many hours of my life I have wasted on page-builders when I could have been keyword harvesting or writing content.
So yes, skip the page-builders altogether. Use one of your theme’s templates and then install a sweet little FREE plugin called Ultimate GutenBerg Addon.
Done.
Now it is time to get writing….go do that or read this post for some awesome blog writing tips, how I start writing, how I structure my posts etc.
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