📝 How To Start A Blog Through WordPress
The simple steps to create your very own WordPress website and blog
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With over 60 million users, WordPress is easily the world’s most popular blogging platform. There are plenty of reasons for that.
It’s free and open source
There are numerous professional themes to choose for your blog
It requires zero technical skills
You can set up a blog literally in minutes
WordPress has a large support community
You have access to plenty of add-ons and plugins to customize your blog
In addition, setting up a blog on WordPress opens up the possibility of earning an income online. With so many benefits, starting a blog through WordPress is a no-brainer. But how do you get started? Keep reading for all the steps and important details on how to start a WordPress blog.
Related Article: Medium vs. WordPress
Before we begin, it is important to note that there are two flavors of WordPress: WordPress.com and WordPress.org. This article is about starting a blog via WordPress.org. This is the recommended option because it gives you maximum control over hosting, branding, and monetization capabilities of your blog. On the other hand, WordPress.com will limit your options significantly, and you will have little to no control over your blog’s capabilities.
Step 1: Pick a blogging topic
You can absolutely jump ahead and complete the next steps without having a blogging topic in mind. However, many people who do that end up paying for hosting and even domain names that they never use. Taking the time to decide on a blogging topic you are passionate about will likely push you to complete all the steps in setting up and actually launching your blog. However, it is not always easy to choose a suitable topic.
You can narrow it down by thinking about the things you are good at and skills you have. Surely someone else is already writing about these things, but what different perspective could you bring? Maybe you are good at saving money. What angle of this activity do you think is undeserved that you could further explore with your target audience? Maybe your blog could be about saving money on a minimum wage salary. Or it could be about how to find deals that save money. Both of these would be good blog topics because they appeal to problems faced by a wide cross-section of people. Whatever topic you are thinking of, ensure it is important to more than just a handful of people and that it is something you can keep writing about over a long period of time.
Step 2: Get a domain name and hosting
In setting up a blog, the first two things you need to take care of are getting a name for it and a place where it will be stored. Your domain name can serve two purposes:
a) what your blog/website will be called
b) the address people will type in when trying to find your blog on the internet
For example, you may decide to call your blog “My First Blog,” which means your domain would be “myfirstblog.com.” Before you can settle on a name, you will have to check if it is available and not already owned by someone else. One of the popular domain platforms that allows you to do this is Namecheap. And, as the name suggests, you can also register your domain name with Namecheap.
Hosting speaks to where your website’s files and pages will be stored. Hosting companies are home to servers and other equipment, which allow them to sell you storage space on these servers, as well as other services, to keep your blog up and running properly. There are tons of hosting companies around, but one of the most recommended options is Bluehost.
In fact, Bluehost is actually recommended by WordPress. You can sign up for hosting on Bluehost and get the option to install WordPress all at once, further simplifying the blog setup process. What’s more, Bluehost is among the most affordable and reliable hosting solutions around. If you are new to the blogging world, it is best if you start out with the Basic Plan.
To save as much money as possible, you want to purchase hosting for at least a year. Bluehost always has one promotion or another going on, and usually, the more years you sign up for, the bigger your savings. And if you have not yet purchased a domain name, your Bluehost plan will likely allow you to get one free for a year, which saves you even more money.
Step 3: WordPress installation
Once you have acquired a domain name and hosting, you are ready to get building your WordPress blog. It is helpful to understand that WordPress is a content management system (CMS) which helps you create, edit, and publish all the content on your blog. It is also free, so as long your hosting plan and domain name are active, you can start creating your blog right away. This requires installing the WordPress software.
As mentioned above, Bluehost is one of the hosting providers that assists with WordPress installation, so you don’t have to wonder how to go about doing this. All you need to do is log into your Bluehost account and go to the “My Sites” section in the hosting panel. You will see the option to “create site,” which will begin the installation process for you. Upon signing in to Bluehost, you may also see a WordPress installation wizard, which lets you do the same thing. Either way, when installing WordPress, you will be prompted to enter a name and tagline for your blog. These, of course, can be changed later on if you want to describe your blog differently.
After the installation is complete, you will be able to sign in and gain access to the dashboard of your blog, which contains all the different tools you will need to start designing your blog.
Step 4: Design and customize your blog
Think of your brand new WordPress blog as a blank slate. You can publish it right away but it will look pretty dull and unattractive because it will be created using a default theme, which is often quite basic. Thankfully, you can make it look more like what you want your brand to represent, by customizing how it looks and feel.
The first step in changing the look is to install a suitable theme. You can browse through the many WordPress themes available or find a site that offers themes you can download. There are themes to suit every blog category, from business and finance to sports and recreation. Some are free, while others have to be purchased.
I personally use Elegant Themes. Specifically, I use the Divi Theme for my own website (Blogging Guide).
In addition to the theme, you may want to add design changes that better represent your brand. You can change the background color, for instance, add your logo, header image, and even select preferred font styles. The theme you choose will have some influence on how much you can actually change, so be sure to pick one that is highly customizable. Note that you can always change the theme you are using in the future.
Step 5: Start blogging
Now that you have set up your blog, the final step is to start adding content. You can create your first article by selecting the “Add Post” option in the WordPress dashboard. You will be taken to a text editor that allows you to write a headline, the body of the post, and even upload a suitable image. You will also need to add pages to your blog such as “Home,” “About,” etc. which can be accomplished by selecting the “Add Page” option in the dashboard as well.
Conclusion
There are plenty of other things you will be able to do with your blog, but getting started is the most important thing. You will definitely learn the rest as you go along.
Until next time,
—Casey