After you have created the mission statement for your blog you are ready to begin. You will need to decide what host you will use. There are a variety of FREE hosts available. I would personally suggest hosting through a free host when you start. One very common host is Blogger. We hosted through Blogger until February 2010 when we migrated to WordPress.org. Depending on the type of blog that you are going to create it will vary on what type of host you want to use.
If you are creating a frugal blog I personally suggest hosting through WordPress.org. If you want to monetize your blog (earn money from it) you will need to select a host that allows you to monetize. Both Blogger and WordPress.org allows you to monetize. The difference is you must be self hosted with WordPress.org which means you have to pay for your hosting service. This is an expense that you are going to have to pay out of pocket unless your blog immediately starts earning income. An alternative host is WordPress.com if you do not plan to monetize your blog.
The reason that I suggest WordPress.org for frugal bloggers is that right now many frugal bloggers are finding that google who owns Blogger is deleting blogs without any notice, rhyme or reason. Sometimes the blog gets re-instated and sometimes not. It was a risk that we were not willing to take so we made the decision to migrate sooner than we originally planned. We made the decision to move to WordPress.org/Self Host and we use GoDaddy.com as our host. There are a variety of hosts available I suggest you shop around and find one that is good for you and the size blog that you are. Also, keep in mind that you need to plan for for growth. As your blog grows you will use more bandwidth and you may grow out of the bandwidth that your server (host) provides. At that time you may need to look for a different server or at some point purchase your own.
I think that using a free host is a great way to start out and see if blogging is really your cup of tea. Blogging can be a great hobby and can turn into a business. As a frugal blogger I suggest starting out as inexpensively as you can and see if it something you truly enjoy before you invest into blogging.
In case you missed Part 1 you can catch up. There is more to come in this series, every Monday- Wednesday-Friday! Again please don’t hesitate to ask questions or leave a comment!
As stay-at-home moms for eight years, Melissa and Shelley know what it takes to live a savvy lifestyle within a budget. Their passion for helping people has expanded their reach from Stockpiling Moms.com to also including speaking engagements, book authors (Savvy Saving Couponing Secrets from the Stockpiling Moms) and conference co-hosts. Melissa and Shelley are best friends who met through 
Great tip, never thought of creating a mission statement. I will work on that! My blog is a frugal/saving money/freebie blog
Thanks for the tips!!
This is a great way to meet new bloggers and see their work! Thanks Melissa!
Thanks for the link-up.
I’m enjoying your series! I’m one of the (seemingly) few people who are very happy with Blogger; I have no plans to switch to WordPress at this point. My one complaint? Lack of threaded comments (I don’t like the other options out there).
Judy, I am still with blogger too. I love that it is so easy! WP intimidates me as I am always hearing people spending so much time on formatting. I don’t have time to mess with all of that every day!
Girls once you switch to WP you will NEVER look back! It is really not hard to learn…I used blogger from 2007 till we migrated and it took very little time to switch. Formatting is never easier…built in SEO, stats, the plug in’s are awesome.
Such great information and a great way to link to each other. I’m new at all this and I am having a great time learning! Thanks so much.
One question. I signed up with websitebusiness and have a .com blog. Do you suggest that I close that site and migrate to wordpress.org as well? I am trying to learn as fast as I can. Never liked to crawl! Thanks again!
Who are you using as your host?
My host is websitebusiness.com. They set up my site and helped me get started but I can’t change my template or do anything without their help. I am wondering about migrating to a blogspot instead and dropping todaysdiywoman.com. Any ideas? Thanks. Carol
I would for sure migrate. You need 100% control over your blog.