How Much Does It Cost to Setup A Blog?

How much does it cost to setup a blog?

This is going to be quick.

Learning how to start a blog can be tricky when there’s no certainty as to the exact amount you’ll have to invest in the whole process.

Understanding key elements that make up a blog and keep it functioning is the most realistic way to curb such uncertainties.

So, How Much Does It Cost to Start a Blog?

What if I said you’re asking the wrong question?

How much a website should cost is a very generic question – it lacks specifics.

It’s the same as if I were to ask you how much should a car cost?

Uh… well, can you be more specific?

What type of car do you want? – Does it need to be gas efficient? – What do you use it for? – What is your budget?

You can quickly see “how much does a car cost?” is actually quite a pretty complex question after all.

Just like budgeting for a car, the cost of a website is different to different people because everyone values the concept of “cost” in different ways.

For example, if you are a stay-at-home mom with 4 kids under 10 years old. You might value time over money. You would rather pay a little more to get things done right and on time.

To others without kids, they may think you’re overpaying for certain services. But to you, it’s well worth the cost.

Simply put, the cost of building a website boils down to your core needs. Still, there are basics…

To answer the question – how much does it cost to setup a blog, let’s look at the basic costs needed with respect to your core needs.

What You Need and the Cost Involved

You need the following necessary elements:

• Domain Name
• Hosting Plan/Account
• Blogging Platform/Content Management Software
• Website Design/Theme
• Other Things

Now let’s talk about each, and the cost involved.

Domain Name Cost

What is a domain name?

It the simplest form, it is your website/blog address. For example, the domain name of our website is www.owogram.com.

When starting a blog, you need to choose a good domain name.

How much does registering a domain name cost? Purchasing a domain name from domain registrars vary in price.

For example;

• Namecheap.com, as the name, suggests charges around $8.88 to help you claim a domain name.
• Godaddy, another domain registrar charges $1.29 for the first year and around $15 in subsequent years,
• Siteground.com charges $15.95
• Bluehost.com bill your domain registration together with their hosting plan.

NOTE: Registered domain names are renewed yearly (i.e every 365 days), and the above are for “.com” domain name extensions.

Hosting Plan Cost

So, to make your website/blog accessible, you need to host your domain. So, you’ll have to pay web hosting platforms.

You can choose from any of the ones listed above, or from other website hosting companies.

Each company has a unique pricing plan for web hosting. You can pay as low as $1.99/month to as high as $10 per month.

Here’s just 10 below, but are subject to change at the sole description of each hosting platform.

It all depends on your budget and proposed blog/site traffic.

This means, a personal blog may go for a cheaper hosting plan, while a company website or eCommerce site will require going higher in the hosting plan spectrum.

Cost of Content Management Software

This is pretty straight forward.

CMS or blogging platform is a software that helps users create, manage, and modify content on a website without the need for specialized technical knowledge.

The most popular is WordPress and it is FREE.

All you need to do is install WordPress after purchasing a hosting plan. This can be done right from your hosting account.

Cost of Design or Website Theme

Another important cost that will come to mind is the cost to get your site designed.

Unless you’re a big business, you may not need to incur huge expenses to get your site designed. This is where website themes come into play.

Website themes is a pre-designed webpage that anyone can use to “plug-in” their own text content and images into to create a website.

The theme changes the design of your website, often including its layout.

Changing your theme changes how your site looks on the front-end, i.e. what a visitor sees when they browse to your site on the web.

WordPress comes with a bunch of free themes, and you can also spice up the look of your site by purchasing premium themes.

You don’t have to pay for free themes, but premium themes can range from as low as $45 to $67.

More so, the custom design option requires that you hire a professional web developer or agency and build your site from scratch.

With this, you can tell that the cost involved will be high.

Other Things/Plugins/Add-ons

This is optional. With the above, you can have a fully functioning website/blog.

Fortunately, WordPress has tons of free plugins.

Still, you may need to spend on some add-ons. It all depends on your site requirements and purpose it’s created to serve.

So, How much does it cost to setup a blog? This piece has given you an insider clue.

The bottom line is, asides the basic cost involved, you can’t judged the cost of a website based on how the website looks, but what elements (free or paid services), makes the site accessible and functional.

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