WPEditor-Admin October 20, 2020How to create a WordPress Blog Website?
So how to create a WordPress blog in 2020? WP Editor knows that starting a blog can be a scary thought especially when you are not the best with computers.
However everyone has to start somewhere, and if you take your time and follow the right steps WP Editor is here to guide you through how to start a WordPress Blog without any technical knowledge.
So what do you need to start a WordPress Blog?
There are two things you need to create a WordPress Blog:
- A domain name idea (this will be the name of your blog i.e. wpeditor.co.uk)
- A web hosting account (this is where your website live on the internet)
Don’t worry below WP Editor will guide you through these easy steps too.
Step 1: Choosing a Domain and Hosting provider
The first thing is choosing the right (blogging) platform. It makes more sense to use WordPress.org also known as self-hosted WordPress rather than WordPress.com.
This is because WordPress.org is free to use, With WordPress.org you host your own site (WP Editor recommends this) and you can install plugins, tailor your blog design, and most importantly make money from your blog without any restrictions.
So why is WordPress.org free? Its free because you have to do the setup and host it yourself. Meaning you need a domain name and web hosting.
If you didn’t already know a domain name is your websites address. Its what people type to get to your website. Just like wpeditor.co.uk. A domain normally goes for about £10 per year, however there are deals where you can pick them up for next to nothing if you subscribe to the same hosting.
Every website needs web hosting to live on the internet. Web hosting is where your website files live and your control panel that houses your WordPress site.
A product that WP provider would suggest is 1&1 IONOS. They are a web hosting and cloud services provider that specialises in providing flexible and affordable web hosting and domain solutions for small and medium-sized businesses. Globally 1&1 IONOS host more than 8 million people within 15 facilities in 9 countries around the globe.
With 30 years of experience since 1&1 IONOS’s foundation, they have grown to become the largest hosting company in Europe. With reliability and security engineered into the core of their products.
If you’re looking for affordable feature-rich web hosting, 1&1 offer a wide range of services. Ranging from shared web hosting to VPS and dedicated servers. Something that you would expect to see from one of the world’s oldest web-hosting providers.
Note:
At WP Editor, we believe in transparency. So If you purchase hosting using our referral link, then we will get a small commission at no additional cost to you. We would get this commission for recommending any WordPress hosting company, but we only recommend products that we believe will add value to our readers. For more information on Hosting providers please read Choosing WordPress Hosting in 2020 and 9 Amazing Providers.
Once you have found a suitable domain and a web host, you will be able to log into your hosting control panel. This is where you manage everything from support, emails, among other things. But most importantly, this is where you install WordPress.
Step 2: Reaching your WordPress site
Once WordPress is installed you can reach it through the hosting control panel or
you can also login by simply by going to yoursite.com/wp-admin/ directly from your internet browser.
Once WordPress is setup, you’re ready to tailor your blog’s appearance to make it your own and start blogging.
Step 3: Choosing a Blog Website Theme
When you first visit your site (blog), it will look something like the image below. However, the visual appearance of your WordPress blog is controlled by themes. There are thousands of pre-made WordPress themes that you can install on your site. Whilst there is a good range of free themes you can find more specialist themes that can be purchased. In the official WordPress.org themes directory there are over several thousand themes to choose from so for starters, its probably worth at looking to see what you can use for free.
You can change your theme by going to your WordPress dashboard and clicking on Appearance » Themes.
So to get started click on the Add New button to browse the Free WordPress themes.
You can sort by the themes by popularity, the latest ones, featured, as well as filters such as industry and layouts.
You can preview the themes via the Preview button. Clicking on it will open the theme preview where you can see how the design would look on your website. WP Editor recommends this before installing any new theme.
The preview of your theme may not look exactly as shown in the screenshot, which is normal as you will get to tailor and set it up later. You should focus on the design, colours, typography, and other elements to ensure it fits your vision.
When you have found the theme that fits your vision, simply click the Install button and wait for the theme to be installed. After that, the install button will be replaced with an Activate button. You need to click on it to Activate the theme.
Once you have installed your new theme, you can modify it by clicking on the Customise link under the Appearance menu. You will be then ready to create your first Blog post.
Step 4: Creating the First Blog Post
To write your first blog post, you will need to click on the Posts » Add New in your WordPress dashboard. You will see an editor area where you can write your first blog post.
WordPress uses a block-based editor where each element is a block. This allows you to create attractive content layouts for your blog posts.
Once you’re completed writing, go ahead and click on the preview button on the top-right corner of the screen to view what the post will look like. If you are happy with the post then you can click on publish to make the blog post publicly available. If you are not completely happy you can always save it to draft for later.
Also on the posts screen, you will notice several sections such as Categories and Tags. You can use these to organize your blog posts into sections to help people find them easier.
Step 5: Customising for Blog site and adding Plugins
Once you have written your first blog post, you perhaps want to get started with adding other essentials to your website such as contact forms, galleries, newsletter subscription form, and so on.
So, to add all these additional features, you need to use plugins. If you don’t know what a plugin is, there like apps that allow you to add new features to your website (without writing any code).
There are over thousands of WordPress plugins available in the free WordPress plugin directory alone. This means whatever you want to accomplish, there is most probably a plugin for it.
To add a plugin go to Plugins » Add New in the menu and search for what you want to add.
With thousands of plugins to choose from, it can be overwhelming to search and find the plugins you need.
WP editor pick of the best WordPress plugins that you should be essentials to your Blog site.
Backup – UpdraftPlus is the best WordPress backup plugin. You need to create regular backups of your website in case something ever goes wrong.
Security – Wordfence is a free security scanner for WordPress.
Performance – We recommend using either WP – Optimize (free) to speed up WordPress.
Design & Customization – We recommend using either Divi page builder for customizing your homepage design, creating custom landing pages, or even creating custom themes (without writing any code).
Contact forms – Every website needs a contact form. It allows your users to email you directly. WPForms Lite plugin is a free version of the popular WPForms plugin.
Google Analytics – helps you see how many people are visiting your blog, where they are coming from, and what are they doing on your website? Google recommends G Site Kit that will also link in Search Console and Adsense.
SEO – Most beginners don’t optimize for SEO when creating a Blog. SEO or search engine optimization helps users find your blog in search engines. If you want more traffic, then it’s crucial that you optimize your blog for SEO from the beginning. Two of the best are Rank Math or Yeost.
Step 6: Making money from your Blog.
Now you are probably wondering how can I actually make money from my Blog? There are a lot of different ways to successfully monetize your blog. However there is no such thing as a get rich quick scheme.
Here are some of the best ways to make money from your blog.
- Google AdSense
- Affiliate Marketing
- Online Store
Many bloggers make money by selling things directly from their Blog. This could be physical products, digital downloads like ebooks, artwork, music, and more.
On top of the 3 methods above, you can do so much more with your WordPress Blog. You can make WordPress Blogs specifically for reviews, sports blogging, food blogging with recipes, and more. Each of these blog types brings you more unique opportunities to make money. You can also turn your blog into a membership site to offer premium content and courses.
Remember to remain professional. All successful bloggers use professional email address to stand out and make better partnership deals to grow their Blog.
We hope that you found our tutorial on how to start a WordPress Blog to be helpful. If you liked this article, then please subscribe to WP Editor for more of the latest WordPress information. You may also like to read How to Start an Online Store in 2020.
Also remember to like us on Facebook.
