Today, I want to walk you through the process of how to start a blog using worpress Content Management System. This content is step by step guide for everyone. I hope to explain every step in detail, such that without further consultation, you can do it on your own.
Blogging has become a fast growing business where several persons turn to in order to earn so much money. There are several bloggers that makes far more than $5,000 every month. For that reason, I prepared a post on why you should start a blog as soon as possible. There are amazing reasons for you to consider and start up your own blog.
If you have read that post, I guess the next thing is to start up your own blog immediately. This is why this post is coming at a time like this. I have also put together a post on how to monetize your blog and another post on how to get more traffic to your blog.
As such, I have provided almost everything you need to have a successful blogging career. To that end, I want to teach you how to start a blog of your own. After reading this content, you may likely get enough information that will help you, not just on how to start a blog for yourself, but also for clients. These are the steps I followed in order to set up the blog you are currently reading. Let’s set the sail
Understand your niche
The first thing to decide on while learning how to start a blog is the niche you want to blog about. This is the very first thing you must do. You don’t create a blog and then begin to research on the niche you pitch your tent.
Actually, there is a very high competition in almost every niche. But then, that does not stop you from throwing in your towel. To get a niche, find out what you are good in doing. Don’t venture into a niche where you will run out of contents within a short while. I created a content on the most profitable niches for bloggers. Hopefully, it will help you in your niche decision making.
Do not go ahead to get a domain name or even create any blog when you have not specified the niche you will operate in. The major reason why you need to first choose and understand you niche is because it determines a lot of things about your blog. It determines the kind of domain name to choose. It will also determine the strategy to adopt in your blogging career. As such, you must have a clear understanding about your niche first. Once this is done, then you can go ahead with other things.
Understand your blogging goal
After choosing your niche, you then set your blogging goal. Your goals will then determine what your blog will be like. It will determine the nature of contents you will publish. It will spell out the strategy you will adopt. For example, the major goal for infoducation is to help you blog better. I teach several things that pertain to blogging.
My focus covers Search Engine Optimization, Backlinks, Keyword Research, Marketing and Earning. In order to achieve this, the first goal is to always have 100% original contents. If you see my contents on another site, then be sure they copied from me or I share my post on Guest blogging site. We don’t do copy and paste for any purpose. But then, in few cases where we copy, we provide accurate link to the source of the information.
The second blogging goal I have is to publish 2 contents per week. The reason is because the niche I have chosen requires indepth research before any content can be made. As such, in order to enhance my consistency, I choose just 2 contents weekly. It will help me role out very original and quality contents. My competitors are much. As such, I can’t outrank them if I do not have quality contents on my blog.
The third goal I have is to write every content myself. The reason is because I want to be a problogger. I can only achieve this by writing contents myself. It will help me monitor every line in my blog. In like manner, you should set a goal for your blog. When your goal is clearly defined, you can then streamline the effort you put into it for maximum result.
Define your monetization strategy
In a bid to explain how to start a blog, I am carefully outlining these issues before we get into the technical aspect. If we define all these, then we have done a good work. It will make us reduce unnecessary activities. As such, the next thing is to define your monetization strategy.
We don’t blog for free. When your blog is not bringing in money, then shut it down. So you must understand how you want to make money through your blog. What monetization strategy do you want to adopt. I have a detailed content on how to monetize your blog. Read it and weigh the options so as to know which monetization strategy to adopt.
Get a domain name
Now let’s get to the technical aspect of the job. The first technical step to understand on how to start a blog is to choose a domain name for your blog. I will not also dwell much on it because I have a content that has done justice to that. In the content, I clearly explained everything you need to know about choosing a domain name for your website.
Get a hosting plan
If you are interested in how to start a blog, I want to assume that you want to start small. As such, in starting small, it is advised that you choose the lowest hosting plan. With time, you can upgrade it. There are several hosting plans available with quality services. But I recommend Namecheap for all my clients.
The nature and type of hosting plan you choose will affect a lot on your website. That is why as much as I recommend going for the least plan, I do that only for a start. As your website grows, you need to upgrade your plan. The more contents you have on your blog, the heavier and larger it will be.
If you have a website that is large in size and you opt for the smallest hosting plan, it will affect your blog negatively. You website will not be able to load fats. Just like when you have a 16gb memory card in your phone and then you have files of about 15gb, your phone performance will be slow. This will make your blog load very slowly. Slow blogs increase bounce rate.
Install WordPress
Having gotten your domain name and hosting plan, ensure they are linked together. The idea of linking your domain name and hosting plan arises for sites where the domain name and hosting plan are from different companies. But then, if they are from the same company, all you need to do is to add your domain to the host service.
Once this is done, the next thing to do is to install wordpress. Wordpress is a very user-friendly content management System that hosts millions of websites. Having worked on wordpress for several years, I have understood a lot about how it works.
Once you install wordpress, it takes a while to propagate. Sometimes, it may take upto 48 hours, but it will surely propagate in the end. You will be given a username and password with which you will access your admin page. At first, you must copy out the details because if you mistakenly close the page, you will not see the details again. It means you have to uninstall the wordpress and start again.
With the username and password, you can proceed to your admin dashboard and some customizations. Also once you get to the admin dashboard, ensure you change your details to something you can easily remember. Once this is done, be sure you are making progress.
Choose a theme
The next thing is to install a wordpress theme. You can go to themeforest and search for any theme you can use. You can also click on Appearance in your admin dashboard and then click on theme. You will see some free themes you can install.
Any of them will be good to go for a simple blog, just depending on your ability to customize it. If you are a newbie, try as many themes as you can until you get what you want. With time, you will begin to learn more. As such, you can continue to enhance your customizations for better experience.
But then, going for a paid theme will also be advisable depending on your financial strength. Premium themes has more customization options and they are more secured than the free once. Thus far, I have been using free themes and I have had no serious security challenges. As such, free themes can also make sense.
Customize your blog layout
Having installed your theme, the next thing is to customize your blog. The themes may look very simple while some may look very complex. But your customization is what makes the difference. In your customization, you choose your blog logo, description, favicon, color (text, link, background) etc.
Also, you can do a lot of things in this customization. Just make out time and get some settings in place. At the end of every setting, you preview to see if that is what you want. If it is, you proceed but if not, you choose another.
With this little steps, you are gradually advance in your website creation. I have spent thousands in setting up several websites until I decided I was going to do it myself henceforth. At intervals, I change lots of things on this blog to enhance its friendliness. Thus, you can follow suit and do same thing. You never can tell how amazing your blog will turn out to be.
Get relevant plugins
We have gotten to a point on how to start a blog where we discuss about installing plugins. Actually, there are no WordPress blogs without plugins. Plugins help enhance you blog to achieve more desired results. There are thousands of available plugins for WordPress bloggers, but ensure you do not install at random. As a newbie, check out the following plugins;
Akismet: It will help you check spam on you blog. There are lots of spammy comments that may be sent to your blog to cause some negative effects. Akismet serves as a watchdog against such plugins.
Jetpack: Jetpack helps in securing your website. It provides a caching memory for you and also helps you track your visitors. In tracking your visitors, it shows you the link they came from, the pages they visited and the external links they clicked. Over time, I have got to discover that jetpack is one of the most important plugin for your WordPress blog.
Yoast or Rankmath: You really have to do On-Page SEO for your blog if you want to rank well. Any of these two plugins will help you do that.
Blog2social: If you want to share your blog posts on social media, then this is an awesome plugin that helps you achieve that
As you proceed, you will find out more plugins to install. Remember, plugins are installed on-demand. You choose a plugin based on what you want it to achieve. There are other plugins that help you improve your site load speed, backup your contents, enhance your posts, track certain records about your blog etc. As such, you should be open for more knowledge so as to learn more as the need arises.
Create pages
Pages are very important and inevitable for every blog. By default, you should have the following pages; about us, contact us, privacy policy and disclaimer page. These pages are a must have for every blog. But then, you can also choose to arrange your blog posts into pages.
As such, you can add up more pages depending on the kind of contents you have. But if not, you can just maintain your default homepage and send every post to it. We move
Start creating content
Having done this, I believe you have now learnt how to start a blog. The next thing is to write your first blog post. By default, WordPress writes a default post for you. So it is necessary you delete it and start creating your own posts. I have a guideline on how to create quality content. Check it up
Understand Search Engine Optimization
You may not be an SEO guru to understand search engine optimization. But atleast, try and understand the basics. How to use the SEO plugins I mentioned above. So that to the best of your ability, you can do the On-Page seo for your contents. But then, I have a full and helpful guide on how to do SEO for a new blog.
Understand keyword research
In creating contents, you do not just create contents based on content ideas. Your contents are made for readers, such that without readers, there no need for your content. Keyword research helps you understand what keywords to develop contents for. Here is a guide on how to use Google for your keyword research.
You cannot do it all alone
If you have learnt how to start a blog to this point, let me state clearly that you cannot do it all alone. You will surely need the services of some professionals. As such, you must look at your blog as your business. No amount is too much to invest into your business.
The investment you make into your business will determine what you stand to reap from it. If you want to do it all alone, you may not achieve any meaningful thing in even within the first three years. Leverage the services of SEO professional to help you Optimize your blog.
If you want to do everything yourself, you will lose focus. Where you are not able to get contents, leverage the services of content writers. You also need the services of graphic designers to help you with some graphic work. There are lots of things others can help you do. As such, invest in your blog as every successful businessman will invest into his business.
Conclusion
I guess this content has explained how to start up a blog from scratch. If you are dedicated to your work, within three days you would have been able to set up a nice blog from scratch even as a newbie.
https://www.infoducation.com/how-to-start-a-blog-on-wordpress-a-step-by-step-guide-for-newbies/
Blogging has become a fast growing business where several persons turn to in order to earn so much money. There are several bloggers that makes far more than $5,000 every month. For that reason, I prepared a post on why you should start a blog as soon as possible. There are amazing reasons for you to consider and start up your own blog.
If you have read that post, I guess the next thing is to start up your own blog immediately. This is why this post is coming at a time like this. I have also put together a post on how to monetize your blog and another post on how to get more traffic to your blog.
As such, I have provided almost everything you need to have a successful blogging career. To that end, I want to teach you how to start a blog of your own. After reading this content, you may likely get enough information that will help you, not just on how to start a blog for yourself, but also for clients. These are the steps I followed in order to set up the blog you are currently reading. Let’s set the sail
Understand your niche
The first thing to decide on while learning how to start a blog is the niche you want to blog about. This is the very first thing you must do. You don’t create a blog and then begin to research on the niche you pitch your tent.
Actually, there is a very high competition in almost every niche. But then, that does not stop you from throwing in your towel. To get a niche, find out what you are good in doing. Don’t venture into a niche where you will run out of contents within a short while. I created a content on the most profitable niches for bloggers. Hopefully, it will help you in your niche decision making.
Do not go ahead to get a domain name or even create any blog when you have not specified the niche you will operate in. The major reason why you need to first choose and understand you niche is because it determines a lot of things about your blog. It determines the kind of domain name to choose. It will also determine the strategy to adopt in your blogging career. As such, you must have a clear understanding about your niche first. Once this is done, then you can go ahead with other things.
Understand your blogging goal
After choosing your niche, you then set your blogging goal. Your goals will then determine what your blog will be like. It will determine the nature of contents you will publish. It will spell out the strategy you will adopt. For example, the major goal for infoducation is to help you blog better. I teach several things that pertain to blogging.
My focus covers Search Engine Optimization, Backlinks, Keyword Research, Marketing and Earning. In order to achieve this, the first goal is to always have 100% original contents. If you see my contents on another site, then be sure they copied from me or I share my post on Guest blogging site. We don’t do copy and paste for any purpose. But then, in few cases where we copy, we provide accurate link to the source of the information.
The second blogging goal I have is to publish 2 contents per week. The reason is because the niche I have chosen requires indepth research before any content can be made. As such, in order to enhance my consistency, I choose just 2 contents weekly. It will help me role out very original and quality contents. My competitors are much. As such, I can’t outrank them if I do not have quality contents on my blog.
The third goal I have is to write every content myself. The reason is because I want to be a problogger. I can only achieve this by writing contents myself. It will help me monitor every line in my blog. In like manner, you should set a goal for your blog. When your goal is clearly defined, you can then streamline the effort you put into it for maximum result.
Define your monetization strategy
In a bid to explain how to start a blog, I am carefully outlining these issues before we get into the technical aspect. If we define all these, then we have done a good work. It will make us reduce unnecessary activities. As such, the next thing is to define your monetization strategy.
We don’t blog for free. When your blog is not bringing in money, then shut it down. So you must understand how you want to make money through your blog. What monetization strategy do you want to adopt. I have a detailed content on how to monetize your blog. Read it and weigh the options so as to know which monetization strategy to adopt.
Get a domain name
Now let’s get to the technical aspect of the job. The first technical step to understand on how to start a blog is to choose a domain name for your blog. I will not also dwell much on it because I have a content that has done justice to that. In the content, I clearly explained everything you need to know about choosing a domain name for your website.
Get a hosting plan
If you are interested in how to start a blog, I want to assume that you want to start small. As such, in starting small, it is advised that you choose the lowest hosting plan. With time, you can upgrade it. There are several hosting plans available with quality services. But I recommend Namecheap for all my clients.
The nature and type of hosting plan you choose will affect a lot on your website. That is why as much as I recommend going for the least plan, I do that only for a start. As your website grows, you need to upgrade your plan. The more contents you have on your blog, the heavier and larger it will be.
If you have a website that is large in size and you opt for the smallest hosting plan, it will affect your blog negatively. You website will not be able to load fats. Just like when you have a 16gb memory card in your phone and then you have files of about 15gb, your phone performance will be slow. This will make your blog load very slowly. Slow blogs increase bounce rate.
Install WordPress
Having gotten your domain name and hosting plan, ensure they are linked together. The idea of linking your domain name and hosting plan arises for sites where the domain name and hosting plan are from different companies. But then, if they are from the same company, all you need to do is to add your domain to the host service.
Once this is done, the next thing to do is to install wordpress. Wordpress is a very user-friendly content management System that hosts millions of websites. Having worked on wordpress for several years, I have understood a lot about how it works.
Once you install wordpress, it takes a while to propagate. Sometimes, it may take upto 48 hours, but it will surely propagate in the end. You will be given a username and password with which you will access your admin page. At first, you must copy out the details because if you mistakenly close the page, you will not see the details again. It means you have to uninstall the wordpress and start again.
With the username and password, you can proceed to your admin dashboard and some customizations. Also once you get to the admin dashboard, ensure you change your details to something you can easily remember. Once this is done, be sure you are making progress.
Choose a theme
The next thing is to install a wordpress theme. You can go to themeforest and search for any theme you can use. You can also click on Appearance in your admin dashboard and then click on theme. You will see some free themes you can install.
Any of them will be good to go for a simple blog, just depending on your ability to customize it. If you are a newbie, try as many themes as you can until you get what you want. With time, you will begin to learn more. As such, you can continue to enhance your customizations for better experience.
But then, going for a paid theme will also be advisable depending on your financial strength. Premium themes has more customization options and they are more secured than the free once. Thus far, I have been using free themes and I have had no serious security challenges. As such, free themes can also make sense.
Customize your blog layout
Having installed your theme, the next thing is to customize your blog. The themes may look very simple while some may look very complex. But your customization is what makes the difference. In your customization, you choose your blog logo, description, favicon, color (text, link, background) etc.
Also, you can do a lot of things in this customization. Just make out time and get some settings in place. At the end of every setting, you preview to see if that is what you want. If it is, you proceed but if not, you choose another.
With this little steps, you are gradually advance in your website creation. I have spent thousands in setting up several websites until I decided I was going to do it myself henceforth. At intervals, I change lots of things on this blog to enhance its friendliness. Thus, you can follow suit and do same thing. You never can tell how amazing your blog will turn out to be.
Get relevant plugins
We have gotten to a point on how to start a blog where we discuss about installing plugins. Actually, there are no WordPress blogs without plugins. Plugins help enhance you blog to achieve more desired results. There are thousands of available plugins for WordPress bloggers, but ensure you do not install at random. As a newbie, check out the following plugins;
Akismet: It will help you check spam on you blog. There are lots of spammy comments that may be sent to your blog to cause some negative effects. Akismet serves as a watchdog against such plugins.
Jetpack: Jetpack helps in securing your website. It provides a caching memory for you and also helps you track your visitors. In tracking your visitors, it shows you the link they came from, the pages they visited and the external links they clicked. Over time, I have got to discover that jetpack is one of the most important plugin for your WordPress blog.
Yoast or Rankmath: You really have to do On-Page SEO for your blog if you want to rank well. Any of these two plugins will help you do that.
Blog2social: If you want to share your blog posts on social media, then this is an awesome plugin that helps you achieve that
As you proceed, you will find out more plugins to install. Remember, plugins are installed on-demand. You choose a plugin based on what you want it to achieve. There are other plugins that help you improve your site load speed, backup your contents, enhance your posts, track certain records about your blog etc. As such, you should be open for more knowledge so as to learn more as the need arises.
Create pages
Pages are very important and inevitable for every blog. By default, you should have the following pages; about us, contact us, privacy policy and disclaimer page. These pages are a must have for every blog. But then, you can also choose to arrange your blog posts into pages.
As such, you can add up more pages depending on the kind of contents you have. But if not, you can just maintain your default homepage and send every post to it. We move
Start creating content
Having done this, I believe you have now learnt how to start a blog. The next thing is to write your first blog post. By default, WordPress writes a default post for you. So it is necessary you delete it and start creating your own posts. I have a guideline on how to create quality content. Check it up
Understand Search Engine Optimization
You may not be an SEO guru to understand search engine optimization. But atleast, try and understand the basics. How to use the SEO plugins I mentioned above. So that to the best of your ability, you can do the On-Page seo for your contents. But then, I have a full and helpful guide on how to do SEO for a new blog.
Understand keyword research
In creating contents, you do not just create contents based on content ideas. Your contents are made for readers, such that without readers, there no need for your content. Keyword research helps you understand what keywords to develop contents for. Here is a guide on how to use Google for your keyword research.
You cannot do it all alone
If you have learnt how to start a blog to this point, let me state clearly that you cannot do it all alone. You will surely need the services of some professionals. As such, you must look at your blog as your business. No amount is too much to invest into your business.
The investment you make into your business will determine what you stand to reap from it. If you want to do it all alone, you may not achieve any meaningful thing in even within the first three years. Leverage the services of SEO professional to help you Optimize your blog.
If you want to do everything yourself, you will lose focus. Where you are not able to get contents, leverage the services of content writers. You also need the services of graphic designers to help you with some graphic work. There are lots of things others can help you do. As such, invest in your blog as every successful businessman will invest into his business.
Conclusion
I guess this content has explained how to start up a blog from scratch. If you are dedicated to your work, within three days you would have been able to set up a nice blog from scratch even as a newbie.
https://www.infoducation.com/how-to-start-a-blog-on-wordpress-a-step-by-step-guide-for-newbies/
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