How To Start a Self-Hosted WordPress Blog For Cheap.........

Author: Nishant

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This blog which you are reading now is a self-hosted wordpress blog and was started in only $2

Don’t believe me?

You will once you read this post

Read it till the last word without skimming, otherwise it might be dangerous to health

Naah! Just kidding, you’ll be fine

Well, if you ask any professional blogger “which is the best blogging platform” you will get this answer in reply “WORDPRESS”. With no doubt I agree with them that wordpress is the best and starting a blog on wordpress is as simple as starting it on any other blogging platform

WordPress blogs are of two types, the “.com” ones and the “.org” ones

I don’t mean their domains are .com or .org, but the com ones I mean those which were built using the free version of wordpress i.e. wordpress.com and by the org ones I mean those in which

We buy a domain name

We buy webhosting

We install wordpress

And our blogging starts

in this post, as you have read in the title I am going to help you in starting your own wordpress blog for cheap

But first let us see why you should go for a self-hosted wordpress blog instead of a free one

(If you want to start a free blog I recommend go with blogger because it is a better than wordpress.com)

You can install plugins; wordpress.com doesn’t allow you to install any plugins

You have full control over your blog (here you are the king, you own the palace)

It makes you look professional (which you can also look by wearing a tie and a suit but wordpress does a better job  )

Okkkk…That’s all with the benefits

Now if you want to save money on starting your wordpress blog then here are a few tips which will help you out in getting your wordpress blog live without burning a huge hole in your pocket

It is not like I have spent some hundred dollars and started up this blog and now I am teaching you how to save money

You believe it or not, the total expense in starting Inside Tech Tricks on self-hosted wordpress was $2

Wanna know how I did it, go on read this post

See there are two steps of setting up wordpress where you can save money

• Getting domain and hosting
• Optimizing and designing

These are the two things in which you can save the maximum amount, because these things are only the expensive ones

Search for Giveaways

The first thing you should try out is search for a giveaway and find a person who is giving away domains, themes, plugins or webhosting packages for free

The best way to search for such giveaways is a giveaway blog, like this one which belongs to one of my friends or try searching social media sites because in a giveaway people are asked to share the giveaway link on various social networking sites

So go to twitter, search for tweets with the hashtag giveaway (#giveaway) or follow giveaway platforms like Punchtab and Rafflecopter on twitter

They often tweet about some really trending and popular giveaways

Try out this same thing on Google plus, search for all posts with a hashtag #giveaway

From my experience, I was just looking at my Facebook news feed and I just saw that one of my friends has started a webhosting giveaway on his blog

I needed hosting to migrate my blog to wordpress so without wasting a second I participated in the giveaway and did what he asked me to do, I tried to earn the maximum points I could and you call it luck or something else I was the third winner in that giveaway

Inside Tech Tricks is now hosted on Smackhunt webhosting India, and I have not spent even a single penny on hosting

Well those $2 which you read in the title are for the domain, I registered my domain name from godaddy in the Christmas time and luckily I found a coupon code which made the domain so cheap

I only played 65 Rupees (INR) for the domain name, though it is $1 and a few cents but I made it $2

Well if giveaways didn’t work out for you then you have to spend some money and I can help you out in saving that money

Search For Coupon Codes

Godaddy always has some coupon codes working, search for them and if you find a working coupon code you can save a hell lot of money

In webhosting also try to go out for discounts using coupons codes

I recommend to go with Hostagator webhosting who are one of the top web hosts in the world and are affordable, to make this webhosting more affordable for you I have got a special discount

Just use the coupon code INSIDETECHTRICKS25 to get 25% off your entire order

Or INSIDETECHTRICKS10 to get $9.94 off your order

Purchase in Bulk

If you have a working coupon code and some extra money in your pocket then you can save a few bucks while purchasing webhosting or domain

In this subhead I wouldn’t say much, I will do it and explain you

Like you can see in the image if I buy a one year package from hostgator and apply the coupons code INSIDETECHTRICKS25 then my total comes out to be

$89.55

And if I buy the 2 years package and apply the coupon code INSIDETECHTRICKS25 the total comes out to be

$161.10

If we apply some simple mathematics, if you purchase a one year package this year and renew it the next year the total money you will spend in these two years will be

$179.10

While if you purchase the two years package at first only your total will come out to be

$161.10

means if you purchase in bulk you will save $18

Not a big amount is saved but I guess you have heard the saying

A Penny Saved is a Penny earned

Use the affiliate program, get it for free

Whether it is domains, hosting, plugins, themes or anything else most companies have their own affiliate program

What is it?

An Affiliate program is a program in which a person signups as an affiliate, promotes the company’s product and if any other guy buys something from the company using his referral link, the company makes a sale and the affiliate is paid his commission

You can use it cleverly if you want

You can first buy a product from the company let us say a plugin which costs $100 after the purchase or before the purchase just signup as an affiliate of that company

Now head to your favorite social networking site

Ask you friends if they want that plugin, tell the you will give them a special discount from your own pocket if they buy using your affiliate link

And let us say the company is paying you 50% commissions then for every sale of a $100 product you will get $50 and you are paying $25 to your friend from your commission

Now if one friend buys using your link, you will get $50 from the company and you will pay $25 to your friend from your commission so you earned $25 in this whole deal

Now repeat it more and more times, in four sales you will be able to cover your plugin expense and if you get more customers you earn a lot more

And if you don’t want to spend that money, try using free plugins and themes. They are not bad! Its just they are free

My blog currently runs penniless and will keep on running like this until I have to renew my hosting package

Hope you liked my post on saving money in starting a self-hosted wordpress blog

If you did, I have all the social sharing buttons fixed for you, just click on your favorite one and share this post with your friends