Starting a blog is a great way to document your experiences while at the same time earning some extra income. This article will go in depth and explain in detail step by step “how to start a blog WordPress?”.
Before we start, here are some excellent reasons why you should start a WordPress blog:
- It is a great way to document personal experiences related to life or business in a neat format for the world to read.
- It’s a great way to earn some extra income in addition to your full time job.
- You can help others by providing them with important information. People are looking for relevant information pertaining to certain topics.
- You can communicate and exchange ideas with other like minded individuals.
- It is a good way to get creative and learn new things.
Before we start, you will need to make some decisions regarding what type of blog you want to have.
Here are the steps you will need to start your own blog.
1. Start by Finding a good topic for your WordPress blog
This is the first step and one of the most important in order for your blog to be successful. The internet is flooded with other blogs so make sure that you stand out.
Here are the numbers:
- Currently the world wide web hosts over six hundred million blogs out of approximately 1.7 billion websites.
- Bloggers post in excess of two million blog posts daily. That is roughly twenty three new blog posts every second of the day.
- Tumblr is at the top of the list with the most blogs. WordPress is second in line.
- Only approximately ten percent of bloggers make any form of income from their blog. To make an income you will have to stick it out. It can take a year or two for your blog to gain enough traction to make decent money.
Pick a blog topic that you are passionate about
You are going to write a lot of articles so make sure you pick a not so boring topic. For example, my daughter loves dogs, so we decided to start a German Shepherd Blog called Shepherds’ Bone.
The passion you convey for a particular topic will resonate with your readers. Conversely they can tell if you are just writing articles to make a quick buck or if you actually love the topic you are blogging about. Therefore we highly recommend talking about you passion. It will pay dividends in the long run.
Now that you have chosen your blog topic, let’s move on to step number two of “How To Start A WordPress Blog.”
2. How To Purchase a Domain Name For Your WordPress Blog
The domain name you pick is important because it directly relates to your brand identity. You definitely want to keep it simple but you also want it to be intriguing. This part is fun because you get to be creative. You can make it easy and choose your full name which I have seen several people do. I chose not to do this, one because my name is already taken with the .com extension and two because I wanted something with more flare.
Here are some great tips to help you start picking a domain name for your WordPress blog:
- Keep it simple and sweet: I recommend that you keep your domain name under fifteen characters. Too long and it will be harder for people to remember.
- Use your keywords in the domain if possible: This isn’t requirement but it may give you a little boost when trying to rank in the search engines later on for your focus keyword phrase.
- Use your full real name: Using your name as the domain will give the appearance that your blog is personal and that people can trust you especially if they can see your face on the blog.
- Look up synonyms using a thesaurus for great ideas: You may find a word you weren’t thinking of that is perfect for your domain.
- Use a free name generator such as Name Mesh: I used this exact one to pick Redfoxblog.com. My real name was taken with the .com extension and I also wanted something with some flare. So many names are taken it can be hard to find any solid phrases. A name generator will only show available domains.
I recommend using GoDaddy for purchasing a domain.
I have been using them for over twenty years and they have never let me down when it comes to domains. You should be able to get a .com domain for as little as $11.99 for the first year
3. How To Purchase Hosting for your New WordPress Blog
Now that you have hopefully chosen your domain name, you will want to purchase hosting for your new blog.
Hosting is the virtual location run by servers that stores your files allowing your website to be visible on the world wide web. You will definitely want a reliable web hosting provider to go along with your domain name.
Free hosting is an option but it will be limited in it’s capabilities. Here is a quick breakdown of the two options to help you decide which one to choose.
Free Hosting:
This is a good option if you simply can’t afford to pay for hosting on a monthly basis. It is also a good choice if you aren’t too serious about blogging and maybe just want a personal blog for fun.
Free hosting is available at WordPress.com. You can start a free blog with free hosting but it will be restricted. It is great for beginners who are looking to get their feet wet but you will have to upgrade to a paid plan for things such as an ecommerce store.
Paid Hosting:
This is the best option if you are serious about blogging and want to earn a good income from your blog. With low priced monthly plans, you can’t go wrong and you won’t have to worry about upgrading later as well as transferring your site when the time comes to upgrade.
I recently switched to Cloudways from GoDaddy. Cloudways Managed Cloud Hosting is blazing fast and lets you have an unlimited number of applications under one server. On top of that, you get to choose the location of your server based on your location and the location of your visitors.
This means that you can have as many websites and WordPress installs as you like but keep in mind you will be paying for the amount of data that you use.
Cloudways is a pay as you go model which is good for beginner sites that aren’t getting a lot of traffic. You can scale up later on as your site continues to grow. Their cheapest plan is $10 a month but there is a free three day trial to get you started.
The $10.00 a month plan includes:
- Unlimited applications (websites, WordPress, etc.)
- 1gb of RAM
- 1 Core Processor
- 25 GB of Storage
- 1TB of Bandwidth
- FREE Migration of existing websites
- Team Management with 24 hour support 365 days of the year
- Backup protection so you don’t lose your files with easy restore
- Optimization with Advanced Caches
- Auto Healing
- Regular Security Patching
Once you feel like you are ready and have chosen a domain name, you can go ahead and sign up for hosting.
Click here to sign up now with Cloudways free three day trial!
If you need some more information on hosting before making a decision, keep reading. We have a lot more information on the topic.
Important Factors when picking a hosting provider for your blog:
Cost
The cost of hosting has become very reasonable over the years. It can range from a few dollars all the way up to several hundred dollars. On average hosting your first website will generally cost you around $10 a month. I pay varying amounts a month depending on the data used. My last invoice was $22.50 for my two WordPress Blogs which is very reasonable.
Customer Support
This is another very important thing to consider when choosing a new web host. At some point in your blogging career you are going to probably going to need some help setting up some aspect of your new blog. Especially when you start to expand and upgrade your existing hosting suite.
Reliability
This is a very important aspect of hosting and a good reason why I choose Cloudways. I haven’t had an issue since signing up with them. Their 5 Cloud Providers will help your blog load faster. They also have a reliable 99.9% uptime and loading speeds close to 400-600 milliseconds.
Speed
With an average load time of 2.5 seconds and the latest PHP, their hosting speed is plenty fast enough to keep your new blog running.
Now that you have learned about purchasing a domain name and hosting for your new blog let’s explore how to set everything up.
4. How To Start Setting Up Your New WordPress Blog
Assuming that you have purchased a domain name and hosting, we can now start setting up your new WordPress blog.
This part is fairly easy and shouldn’t take very long even if you are completely new to this. Most hosting providers will prompt you inside of your account and point you in the right direction. Installing WordPress should be a one click process.
Here is a basic guide although it may vary slightly with different hosting providers.
Login to your hosting panel:
Start by logging in to your hosting account. Look around and get to know the area. It should be pretty basic and simple to use. Once you have purchased a domain and hosting plan you will need to setup a few things to get your blog up and running.
Install WordPress
The first thing I would recommend is installing WordPress. There should be a prompt from your provider to click and install assuming you have chosen the WordPress hosting package as explained earlier. Once this is accomplished you can move on to step two.
Connect your domain name
Find you domain within the hosting panel and click to set it up. It should instruct you on how to connect your domain. You will need to point your domain to your WordPress blog. Once this is accomplished and your domain name propagates, you should be ready to go. Try visiting your domain to make sure it is up and running.
Set up your email
You are going to want to setup your email to connect with your new blog. You may have to purchase an email address for your domain unless it is bundled in with your package for free. I personally pay $5.99 for my email address and Microsoft 365 with GoDaddy. I usually pick [email protected] for my extension. You can added aliases later if you need multiple email addresses.
Consider an SSL Certificate
I recommend purchasing an SSL certificate for your new blog. It will provide you the necessary security and keep your blog safe. The most important reason for getting this is that it lets your visitors know your site is authentic and they can trust your new blog.
SSL certificate stands for Secure Sockets Layer. It is a digital certificate that authenticates your blog’s identity and encrypts (conceals) the data being sent to your hosts’ server to keep your information safe from any digital threats.
It may be included in your hosting package but if not, I would highly recommend this added feature to keep your new blog safe.
Now that you have hopefully setup your new blog, lets login to your WordPress and pick a theme. At this point your new blog is up and running but now it’s time to give it some personality.
Login to WordPress and pick a theme
You should now be able to login to your WordPress Blog from your hosting panel. You may have to create a WordPress username and password to login. It should direct you through all of the necessary steps. Once you are logged in, explore the dashboard and get to know the work area. At this point your blog is up and running with a basic preinstalled WordPress theme.
Find the themes area of WordPress. There should be some preinstalled themes for you to choose from. Pick one and click to activate it. You can search their database if you don’t see one that catches your eye.
I personally used the Neve theme for it’s simplicity on this blog and the Ashe theme for Shepherds’ Bone which is very modern and elegant.
Once you activate your theme, you can preview it to make sure that everything is working correctly. Once it is functioning correctly and everything looks good you are set. You can now start working on the content of the blog.
Congratulations! You Just Learned How To Start A WordPress Blog
You did it! Hopefully you have learned a lot and put that knowledge to use. Let me know about your new blog by leaving a comment below. I would love to check it out. I will gladly give you some feedback if you ask for it. Now that you have learned How To Start A Blog, it is time to begin writing your content and building your blog pages.
This will be a process and will require a lot of patience. The rewards will be worth it in the long run. Stick with it and you will succeed.
Click Here For Part Two “How To Write Your First Blog Post.”
My next in depth article will guide you step by step through the process of “How To Write Your First Blog Post.” You will learn tips and tricks to make each and every one of your new blog posts a success including how to optimize it for the search engines and how to rank high for your topic.
Thank you for visiting my “How To Start A WordPress Blog” step by step guide!