Introduction
We are aware that beginning a blog might be terrifying, particularly if you are not a geek. You’re not alone, that’s for sure.
After assisting more than 400,000 users in starting a blog, we made the decision to write an instruction manual on how to build a WordPress blog for informal novices.
What are the requirements to launch a WordPress blog?
To establish a WordPress blog, you require three things:
- The idea for a domain name.
- A hosting account for a website.
- 30 minutes of your full attention.
You read that correctly. In less than 30 minutes, anyone can create a blog from scratch. We’ll walk anyone through every step of the process.
Steps to Create a blog
1. Choose a Platform and a Blog Name
The most common mistake made by new bloggers when creating blogs is selecting the incorrect WordPress Blogging platform. Fortunately, we’re here, so you won’t commit that error.
Utilising WordPress.org, often known as privately hosted WordPress, made more sense for 95% of users.
The most popular website platform, WordPress, is used by all successful blogs, like our own. WordPress is used by 43% of all sites on the internet, for context.
Now that WordPress is free, users may be wondering why. Why is there a catch?
Nothing is a catch. Because you have to build it up and host it yourself, it is free.
Therefore, you will require web hosting as well as a domain name.
Your website’s files are stored on a web server. It serves as the online home for your website. All blogs require web hosting.
Internet hosting options typically cost $7.99 per month, while a freshly registered domain name usually runs roughly $14.99 per year.
2. WordPress blogging software installation
Bluehost will install WordPress automatically and instantly when you sign up via our link, allowing you to start creating your blog immediately.
To begin, just log in to your Bluehost account and select the Login to WordPress option.
Anyone can access WordPress by navigating directly to yoursite.com/wp-admin in their browser.
If you use another WordPress site hosting service, such as SiteGround, Hostinger, WP Engine, etc.,
Although most of the above blog hosting firms now also do automatic WordPress installations to help less technologically savvy individuals begin their WordPress Blogging journeys,
After setting up WordPress, you’re prepared to start WordPress Blogging, create blog pages, and modify the appearance of your site.
3. How to Choose a WordPress Theme
WordPress Blogging themes are what determine how the WordPress blog looks visually. Your blog will initially appear as follows when you visit it:
The majority of individuals find this unattractive.
Among the most fun and satisfying aspects of setting up a WordPress blog is, by far, customizing the way it looks and feels.
You can install one of the countless already-prepared WordPress themes on your website. While a few of them are premium-free themes, many are premium-priced themes.
By navigating to the dashboard for WordPress and clicking on Design » Themes, users can modify their theme.
Select the Add New icon when you’re ready.
You can browse through the verified WordPress.org themes directory’s 10,000+ free themes for WordPress on the following screen: Users can use various feature filters, such as industry, layout, etc., in addition to popular, recent, and featured sorting.
A Preview option will appear when you move your mouse over a new design. When you click on it, the design’s preview will open, allowing you to see how the layout might appear on your website.
It’s typical for the theme preview to differ significantly from the screenshot since you will have the opportunity to customise it while setting it up afterwards. The design, colours, font, and other features are what you should be on the lookout for.
To choose the ideal WordPress theme, the best advice is to look for minimalism in design. It enables you to maintain order and clarity while providing your users with a positive experience.
Simply move your mouse over the subject matter once you’ve selected one you like, and the Install button will appear. Wait for the design to be installed after clicking it. After that, an Activate button will take the place of the install button. It must be clicked for the theme to be activated.
After installing their chosen theme, users can edit it by selecting Customise from the Appearance menu.
You can customise your blog’s style using built-in widgets and customization tools, depending on the theme you select.
A WordPress page builder, such as SeedProd or Divi, will provide you even more design flexibility by enabling you to create a unique header, footer, sidebar, and other elements without using HTML code.
These plugins allow anyone complete access to the robust WordPress system for managing content while giving you greater design flexibility than you would get with Wix or Squarespace.
You are now ready to write the initial blog post after choosing your WordPress theme.
4. Developing Your First Blog Post
Select Posts » Add a new button in your WordPress dashboard to start writing your first blog article.
You can compose your initial blog post in the editor section that everyone will see.
With WordPress’s block-based editor, users can design stunning content layouts for their blog entries.
After finishing your article, select the Publish button in the upper-right portion of the screen to make it visible to everyone.
After finishing your article, click the publish icon in the top-right corner of the display to make it visible to everyone.
Other categories, like Categories and tags, can be found on the posts screen. These can be used to partition off your blog entries. We have a fantastic article about the distinction between classes and tags that we heartily suggest you read.
It explains how to include blog photos, buttons for action, headings, tables of contents, bullet lists, embedded videos, and all the other required shortcuts.
Beginners frequently mistake the WordPress dashboard’s pages and posts menus.
Many experienced bloggers intentionally select specific themes by performing keyword research. This raises the level of exposure of their material and increases traffic.
5. Plugins and customizations
After posting your first blog entry, you’ll undoubtedly want to begin adding other common website components like a contact page, galleries, sliders, an email list, forums, etc.
You must use plugins to add all of these extra functions.
WordPress plugins are programs that let you expand the functionality of your website without having to write any code.
Only the free plugin for the WordPress directory has more than 60,000 plugins available. This implies that there are plugins for anything you want to do.
So, let’s look at how to use plugins to add certain essential characteristics to your WordPress blog:
- WordPress Contact Us page Creation Directions
A contact form is necessary for every website. Your customers can email you directly thanks to it. You must install a WordPress form builder plugin to add a contact form to your website because WordPress does not come with one pre-installed.
The WPForms Lite plugin is something we recommend utilising. It is a free variation of the well-known WPForms plugin, which ranks first on our list of the top WordPress contact form plugins.
WPForms is used by over 6 million websites.
By heading to Plugins » Add New and typing WPForms into the search box, you may install the plugin. Click “Install” and then “Activate” to continue. You must visit the WPForms > Add New page after registration in order to construct your first form.
The WPForms building interface will then be displayed.
You must first give the contact page a name before selecting the “Simple Contact Form” design.
Now, WPForms will build a straightforward contact form for you that has all the necessary fields. Any field can be modified by clicking on it, and you can even add new fields from the column on the left.
After finishing editing the application, click the save button in the upper right corner to save your changes before leaving the form builder.
By selecting Pages » Add New and giving it the name “Contact,” you can now build a new page in WordPress. You must input the WPForms element into the editor on the Modify screen.
In the editor, WPForms will then load a real-time display of the form you selected earlier from the drop-down menu.
Now that the page has been published and saved, you can access it in your browser to use your contact form.
Testing your form in order to ensure you’re getting notifications is best practice.
The best feature of WPForms for bloggers is that it develops with them. You may use it to construct reader polls, interviews, blog post submission forms, and many more, in addition to simple contact forms.
- Installing Google Analytics:
You can see how many people have visited your blog, where their visits are coming from, and what they accomplish on your website by monitoring Google Analytics.
It is ideal to set up Google Analytics when you first launch a website in order to track its development.
Visit the Google Analytics website first, then sign in with your Gmail account.
You will be able to sign up for an absolutely free Google Analytics account after you are logged in.
Your contact data as well as your website URL will be required. After that, your Google Analytics monitoring code will be displayed to you.
You are able to cease right now since we’ll use a plugin that will automatically fetch and upload this code to your website (along with properly setting up WordPress tracking) in the future.
For the MonsterInsights plugin to be installed and activated, navigate to your WordPress admin area. The quickest method to add Google Analytics to a website (trusted by more than three million websites) is to use the trial version of the very best Google Analytics plugin for WordPress.
After activation, users must go to the Insights » Settings site to set the plugin’s preferences.
To link Google Analytics to your site on WordPress, click the ‘Connect MonsterInsights’ option on the settings page.
To finish the setup, adhere to the directions displayed on the screen. Once finished, click the MonsterInsights tab in the WordPress admin area to view your website’s analytics data.
- How to Make Your WordPress Blog SEO-Friendly:
When starting a blog, the majority of novices don’t optimize it for SEO. Visitors may find your blog through search engines with the support of SEO, or search engine optimization.
It’s essential to start off your blog with SEO optimization when you would like to increase visitors.
You must first set up and activate the All-in-One SEO plugin before you can proceed. You may optimize the website using this full-featured WordPress SEO plugin.
A simple setup wizard is included with the plugin to guide you through the installation process. It will assist you when setting up a WordPress sitemap, creating appropriate description tags and keywords, adding schema markup, and much more.
Although there are additional SEO plugins available, including Yoast SEO and RankMath, we advise using AIOSEO since it has the most user-friendly interface for beginning bloggers.
A tool for researching keywords can help you further optimize your blog content in addition to a WordPress SEO plugin. These tools for SEO assist users in developing fresh content concepts related to their subject.
You can also view the specific phrases that your rivals are ranked for, allowing you to potentially outrank them by producing better content.
6. Earn Money for Your Blog
After setting up your own blog and personalizing it to your tastes, people may be wondering, “How can I truly earn money WordPress Blogging?”
There are many effective strategies to market your blog. But a get rich quick technique does not exist.
The images of expensive automobiles and mansions are all phoney, so avoid being duped by them.
You will be rewarded if you are willing to work hard and put forth the effort. Keep in mind that there are no quick fixes.
Here are a few of the most successful ways to monetize your blog
1. Google AdSense
Ads on blogs are a common way for bloggers to monetize their sites. The most effective way to monetize a WordPress blog is through Google AdSense if that is your goal.
It is the biggest platform for writers and publishers to advertise. By serving as a go-between for both you and the company that advertises, Google lets them compete for keywords that match your content. This enables users to obtain the best pricing for the advertisements.
2. Affiliate Marketing
The second-most popular method of generating revenue for bloggers is affiliate marketing. In essence, you pass along suggestions for your favorite goods and services to those who read your blog in exchange for a referral fee.
To be successful at affiliate marketing, people must promote reputable goods and services that they currently use and respect. You can promote affiliate items and earn extra money by doing so by using one of the many affiliate advertising plugins and solutions available for WordPress. Use of PrettyLinks or ThirstyAffiliates is advised as a need.
3. Online Store
Many bloggers generate income by conducting direct sales through their blogs. This could include tangible goods, electronic files like ebooks, visual or performing arts, music, and more. Even now, certain writers provide consulting services.
We advise utilising Easy Digital Downloads because it is the component we personally use when we want to sell digital goods like eBooks. It has every function required to market digital downloads.
We advise utilising WooCommerce, as it is the finest eCommerce plugin for WordPress when you’re trying to sell physical goods. It also happens to be the eCommerce platform that can be used the most globally.
Instead of going through the bother of setting up a store for selling their own goods, some bloggers set up an Amazon affiliate store that allows them to sell other people’s goods on Amazon and profit from the sale.
You can do a lot more on your WordPress blog in addition to the three options mentioned here. WordPress blogs can be created especially for reviews, fashion writing blogs, recipe blogging, and more. You have more distinct earning potential for every one of these blog types.
In order to provide paid material and courses, anyone can also convert your website’s blog into a membership-based website.
FAQs
We have addressed a good number of questions after assisting thousands of people with starting blogs. The most common questions about starting a blog are addressed below.
- Is it possible to begin a blog without WordPress?
Yes, there are a number of more blogging platforms available. People compared them all, and so far, WordPress is the greatest builder of websites available to create a blog with total control and independence.
- Is it possible to create a blog without hosting?
That is not possible. Your website’s files are kept on a web host. Each internet page requires hosting. You will need your own domain and website hosting in order to launch a blog.
- How do I come up with a catchy blog name for my website?
The majority of names used on private blogs are those of the author. Other blogs are titled for the subject matter or sector they belong to.
- How can we start a blog while retaining my anonymity?
Verify that WHOIS privacy is enabled for your domain when you wish to maintain your anonymity while maintaining a public-facing blog. People frequently write under a different name or nickname. You should designate a special email address only for your blog. It should go without saying that you shouldn’t post any of your own content to the blog.
- Can We create a blog in my native language?
Yes, WordPress is available in other languages. During installation or through the Settings tab in the WordPress admin area, users may select their language. More than 56 countries have been partially converted to WordPress, and several more have been entirely translated. There are numerous great WordPress plugins and themes that are multilingual. A theme and plugin you might wish to employ on your website may additionally be translated.
- Can we create a blog without knowing how to code?
Absolutely. To develop a WordPress blog that looks professional, users don’t need to know any computer science, coding, or design abilities.
WordPress themes are simple to edit, and setting up a new one only requires a few clicks. WordPress themes such as Astra include pre-built starting websites that users are able to import with a single click.
Other strong themes, such as Divi, offer full drag-and-drop design capabilities for customizing your blog.
Then there are potent drag-and-drop builders for pages that work with any WordPress theme, such as SeedProd and Divi Builder. Anyone may use it to create their own pages by simply dragging and dropping elements.
- Can we include a photo gallery on my blog?
You can certainly add a photo gallery in WordPress to your blog articles using WordPress’ built-in gallery feature.
Photographers with experience are able to employ expensive WordPress gallery plugins to display their images and even generate revenue from their photo business by selling images.
- How can we set up an established email address for my blog?
Making a professional company email address is strongly advised when you’re serious about your blog (and it’s free).
All reputable bloggers use company email addresses to stand out and secure better agreements that will help them develop their blogs.
The WP Theme Bundle is a game-changer for aspiring bloggers, featured prominently in “The Ultimate Guide To WordPress Blogging.” This bundle offers a curated selection of premium WordPress themes, designed to elevate your blog’s visual appeal and functionality. Whether you’re aiming for a sleek and professional look or a creative and personalized design, this bundle has you covered. With a variety of themes to choose from, you can effortlessly find the perfect style to match your content and brand. It’s an essential tool for any blogger looking to enhance their WordPress site and create a memorable online presence.
