Starting a blog is a fantastic means of creating interest for your site, brand and products. In this guide We will explain how to create a blog using WordPress without spending hundreds of dollars.
Not only is your blog a chance to show your expertise and your brand values, it is also a place in which you can engage potential users in any number of different topics which can stimulate engagement, which is your primary focus.
Once you have made the sensible decision to commence a blog, the next step is how do you go about doing it.
The good news is that, even for those who find themselves struggling with modern tech, using a tool such as WordPress really couldn’t be easier, and is a great means by which to set up a visually stimulating and engaging blog.
How to Create a Blog using WordPress in Just 7 Simple Steps
However, before we commence with the 7 steps, let’s just consider what you need to have in place first. This can be listed as:
– A domain name
– A hosting site
– A little bit of time
The domain name is simply the address at which your blog will be found (it will probably be part of your website if you are an established business, but if you are solely looking at setting up a blog, then you can think of the domain name from scratch).
Please note that you sometimes need to purchase a domain name, although some providers offer them for free if you purchase one in conjunction with webhosting.
A domain name costs only $10-12/year. Namecheap a very popular domain name and webhosting company offers very affordable WordPress hosting starting from as low as $22.88/year (Renews for $29.88/year).
The hosting site is where your blog will live on the internet. For clarity, WordPress is simply the tool by which you build your blog, is does not perform the hosting job yourself, so conduct some simple research into finding the best hosting providers, We recommend Namecheap.
Please note that you will need to pay a monthly or annual subscription around $40-$50/year for this service. Finally, timewise, less than an hour should more than suffice to get your blog up and running.
Now let’s look at the 7 simple steps to follow:
1. Hosting and Domain Setup
Like any software, the first step is setup, which means the domain name and hosting service, as discussed previously. Just visit Namecheap.com to register domain name and web hosting. The basic plan will cost you only $22.88 for the hosting and $8.28/yr for th domain name.
It is very easy to setup a WordPress site with EasyWP, WordPress will be pre-installed, You just need to login and start publishing content using the WordPress Dashboard.
2. WordPress Installation
Installing WordPress.org is the right choice for the vast majority of users who want to set up a blog. It is very simple and easy to install WordPress on any hosting company. You can use CPanel, to install WordPress in fe steps without any technical knowledge.
If you will choose Namecheap’s EasyWP hosting service, WordPress will pre-installed.
After installing WordPress, Open any browser of your choice and just type yourdomain.com/wp-login.php to login to your WordPress Dashboard. From the WordPress Dashboard, You can manage all the content of your website.
3. Select a theme
A theme is basically the visual appearance that your blog will take on. WordPress offers a huge array of templates from which to select from so you can hunt around and really select the one that works best for you.
However you can then customize, which of course ca take time but is one of the most fun aspects of the whole process as this is where you can play around with the visuals of your blog and get it looking exactly the way you want.
You can use a very popular and best selling theme like XTheme to create any type of website very easily. This theme has more than 205,121+ sales at the time of writing this article.
After downloading theme, go to WordPress Dashboard – Appearance – Themes – Add New to upload and install your theme. After uploading your theme, hover your mouse over theme icon and click the Activate button.
4. Create a post
From here you are already all set to create your first post, believe it or not. You may have already written something in a different medium, so this can be as simple as copying and pasting the text over into WordPress’s Posts – Add New section.
To write a new article, Go to Posts – Add new page. Enter title of your article, some paragraphs and images and click the publish button.
Don’t forget to add some tags and a category to your post for better content management.
It really is as a simple as that, but if you need any help there are a number of videos available on the likes of YouTube to show you how this can be done.
5. Selecting plugins
WordPress utilizes what is known as plugins in order to help you further customize what it is exactly that you want to achieve.
So, there is the basic WordPress package and then plugins which help you perform additional tasks, which may be quizzes that you want to include on your blog, or a place to sign up in order to subscribe, for example.
There are many plugins to choose from, so just think carefully about what it is you want your blog to be able to do, and then select from there.
Jetpack is very popular and must have plugin for any WordPress website. With this plugin, You can backup your website, block spam comments, automatically publish posts on Facebook, and Twitter.
6. Promote
Now that your blog is up and running, you need to set about spreading the word. There are countless ways of doing this, but some of the most successful methods are sharing posts and links on social media channels such as Facebook and Twitter, or appearing on guest blogs where you then link back to your own blog.
It really is first and foremost about creating great content that people will be interested in seeing, and then looking to engage with as wide an audience as possible.
7. Monetize
It may not be your intention to monetize your blog, but if it is, then this is the final step. Once again there are many ways in which you can set about doing this, such as affiliate marketing or displaying adverts on your blog.
Once your blog start attracting traffic, You can even use Jetpack plugin to display ads on your website to earn some extra money.
Again, it is best to consider what you want to achieve before commencing with this step.
And that’s it! This is how you Create a Blog using WordPress, Setting up your blog with WordPress really couldn’t be any simpler, and it’s fun too. So get blogging!