Jobs for fibromyalgia sufferers can seem impossible to find. And living with fibromyalgia can often mean limited work opportunities.
Life can get really challenging trying to keep afloat financially without traditional work. Lack of funds can make it hard to cope with and afford treatment for fibromyalgia symptoms. And life without a purpose, meaningful work, or something to keep our minds occupied can even make fibromyalgia symptoms and our emotional health worse.
One way that I have found to help with all of these issues is to work from home by starting a website or blog. Having a website or blog is an excellent way to bring in some extra cash needed to help with household and medical bills, pay down debt, and even do some fun, normal and good for our soul things like have a weekend getaway with the spouse or take a family vacation.
With an online site or blog, you don’t have to dedicate 8 hours a day, 5 days a week like most jobs. You can work when you are feeling up to it for a few hours at a time. How would having a renewed purpose and meaningful work help change your life? What could you do with an extra $1,000 a month?
Not sure what you’d start a website or blog about? It can seriously be anything that you are passionate about. You might be an expert in something like graphic design or photography, passionate about something like painting or crafting, going through something like weight loss or fibromyalgia, or just really interested in something like gardening or travel. The sky is honestly the limit. All of your site and/or blog will then be geared toward that subject including what you write about, what resources would be beneficial for your readers, what products you might link to or sell that would be good for your audience, and what ads you might have on your site. Products, ads and affiliate programs are the parts that help provide you an income. The most important thing is to be real, honest and passionate. The rest will follow.
You may be wondering if you have the money or time to start a website or blog now. To be honest, the cost of starting one is so minimal, like one cup of coffee per month minimal. Plus, if you sign up for Bluehost web hosting through my exclusive link (click here) today, you’ll get a domain name and email address for free. For a cost of less than $50 per year, you can have an easy and meaningful income earning tool. As for the time, it’s pretty minimal as well. Once your site is set up, dedicating a couple of hours per week to write content or update your site is pretty easy to do. My best advice is to start now; start today. If you area serious about working from home to improve your emotional health and financial situation, don’t wait.
Now, the technical side of starting a website or blog may seem scary, but with awesome tools and platforms, it’s actually really simple. The best news – just read this post – and you’ll learn step-by-step exactly how to do it! My goal is to help others suffering from fibromyalgia live a better life, and there’s no better time than now.
- Determine your domain name – the web address or URL for your website and/or blog
- Choose a website host – this is the company that will host your site and run it from their servers
- Choose a website platform – this is the content management system that powers your website
Let’s break each of these three down just a little bit more.
- Domain = seefibro.com
Keep it short, simple, easy to spell, and reflective of what your site will be about. I wanted to help other fibromyalgia sufferers know that they are not alone, that they are seen, that they can talk to others about it, and that together, we can bring awareness to the world! So I chose SeeFibro.com. Make sure it’s available, and don’t be tempted to buy one on a different site as you’ll be tossing your money away. You can get a free domain name and email on Bluehost when you choose your hosting package using my exclusive link (click here).
I made that mistake and learned the hard way, so I had to transfer it over to BlueHost. Live and learn.
- Host = Bluehost
I have done lots of research on hosting companies and have built and managed several websites for various companies using many host companies. Bluehost is by far one of the easiest and best to support and host a WordPress website or blog. The admin panel is way more user friendly than others. Live chat is amazing and has saved me a couple of times from what could have been lot of frustration.
- Platform = WordPress
The large majority of blogs and websites in the world are powered by WordPress. It is hands down the best platform to build and grow your site on. WordPress makes it simple to build and post and comes free with Bluehost. Even better, you can download and install WordPress directly through Bluehost. WordPress allows you to make money on and grow your site through ads, plugins, and payment.
Step-By-Step Guide: Start A Website or Blog With WordPress And Bluehost
1. Select Your Hosting Plan
Get a free domain and email through BlueHost with my exclusive link (click here). Sign up for 12 months of service or more. You’ll get the best value if you sign up for 36 months. Basic is the cheapest, and should be perfectly fine to start with. As your site or blog grows, you can switch to the Plus or Prime as you need.
2. Register Your Domain
- Enter your domain name in the left box. No need to enter “www” before the name. Click next.
- Enter your account information and select the length of service.
- There will be a bunch of optional add-on services. You can choose domain privacy protection, but it’s not necessary. It does protect your email that you use to register the domain from getting spammed.
- Enter in payment information (entire hosting amount is charged up-front). Agree to terms. Click submit.
- Create your site’s password – the weirder the better – use numbers, letters, and special characters for your own protection. Plan on writing this one down and keeping it in a safe place instead of trying to remember it! Especially if you have fibro fog like me!
3. Install WordPress
Congrats, you’re almost done!
- Click the login button that you saw after creating your site password.
- Bluehost will ask you to pick a theme for your site. Find the one you like best knowing that you can always change it later.
- Click the “Start Building” button and it will take you to your WordPress dashboard.
- You will be given the option to choose a business or personal site. Choose the one that applies to you or choose “I don’t need help”.
- To bring your site online, you’ll need to click the “Launch” button on your WordPress dashboard when you’re ready.
That’s it for now! Nice work!
If you want to change your theme or purchase one so that your blog is more customized, once on your WordPress Dashboard, select Appearance, and you can choose Themes (free) or Premium Themes ($$). Either is perfectly fine.
One of the best services I’ve learned to “love” paying for is the option to have Mojo marketplace, which is available through Bluehost, to “Make my WordPress Site Look Like the Theme Demo”. It costs about $150 for this service, but gets your site up and going so much faster. Otherwise once you choose a theme, you are starting from scratch and the learning curve can be a bit tricky. I have found that it’s much easier to start with the theme demo that you liked, and customize the pages and content from there.
4. Keep The Momentum Going!
Now that you have the initial technical setup mastered, keep the momentum going. Stay excited, brainstorm topics, and get creative. This blog could very well be the next biggest opportunity to improve your life.
I’m a mom, wife, fibromyalgia sufferer, and blogger who wants to help others along their own journey. Stick with it, give it a go and learn a lot along the way.