Want to create a WordPress blog? Don’t know where to start?
A wise man once said, “The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing”.
We all want to do something in our life that we like a lot but is different from the background we belong to. But we often end up doing nothing due to lack of resources, lack of knowledge and lack of will power to go against the wind. But what if you get a source of motivation to pursue your dream. What if you start to earn by pursuing your field of interest.
So if you are good at writing and have an artist deep inside you waiting to unleash, WordPress is best for you to learn and earn.
It’s said “Never ever give up on things you really want to do. The person with bigger dreams is more powerful than one with numerous facts.”
So if you want to turn your passion into profession here we are to help you pursue your dreams and assist you to get one step closer to your dream with.
A complete guide for creating a WordPress blog in 2020
WHAT WORDPRESS IS…?
WordPress is an open-source website creation tool. Speaking in layman’s language, it’s probably the easiest and most powerful blogging and website content management system (or CMS) in existence today.
WordPress is able to create innumerable styles of websites, from a simple blog to a full-featured business website. Even if you don’t have built a website before. That’s not a problem! With WordPress, one does not need any coding or design skills to create a professional-looking site.
WHY ONLY WORDPRESS…?
There are numerous reasons to use WordPress but the one that will attract you the most is its completely FREE,
Yes, you heard it right it’s completely FREE……..
So when you want to chase your dream but you are not so financially strong WORDPRESS becomes the best option for you. Besides WordPress has a unique user interface to make it easy for a beginner to get on with. WordPress does not lock you into some hectic services like Wix, Weebly, or Square space. You can host your website anywhere and anytime. So now you have come to know the benefits of using WordPress, but a question would arise on HOW to do this. This is why here we are always happy to help.
Steps to create a blog with WordPress
Here is a quick list of steps that we are going to follow in this article.
- Purchase a hosting and domain for your blog
- Install WordPress on your domain
- Understand WordPress interface
- Write your first blog post
- Add a beautiful theme to your blog
- Install some useful plugins to enhance the functionality of your site
- Monetization of your blog
Step 1 – Purchase a Hosting & domain
What is the domain..?
As we humans have different cool names and so the computers do. But they have names as numbers and we call them IP addresses.
Everyone who wants their data to be displayed or get known to the world on the internet should have some specific or a particular name to have an identity for their website. Every domain is unique like it’s IP address.
WordPress is free software but to reach out to crores of people in the world you need to get a domain name and host it over the internet.
There is a lot of WordPress hosts in the market. We have personally tested many hosts and after that, we recommend Bluehost to our users.
Bluehost offers from basic to the pro level plans.
Now you have to choose one plan from available plans but chose carefully because each plan offers a great deal on storage, bandwidth and websites, so you can choose the plan which is best fit for you and then click on that plan.
In the next step, Bluehost asks you to choose a domain name for your website. Bluehost provides free domain names but my suggestion is to use .com which performs better than others.
Now you have a domain name and in the next step you have to pay the total amount of plan and domain, but on that page, you can see some extra packages like domain privacy protection, code guard basics, etc, in my opinion, don’t waste money on those packages.
Now you completed your purchase then Bluehost sends you an email in that email you can find login on your Web hosting control panels on which you can manage everything.
Step 2 – Installation of WordPress
If you have bought hosting and domain from Bluehost then you need to install WordPress and for that, you have to go on the BLUEHOST dashboard.
On the dashboard, there are so many icons for a different purpose CLICK ON icon say “Install WordPress”. You will now see Bluehost Marketplace and Quick Install screen for WordPress. Tap on the “Get Started” button to continue.
On the successive screen, it will ask you to select a domain name where you want to install WordPress then choose your domain from the dropdown field and then click the “Next” button.
Now you have to enter your website name, admin username and password for the next step and also remember you can change them anytime you wanted from setting.
The most important is to press the “Install” button and when WordPress getting installed on your website at that time you can check some template for your website.
After installation is done success message will pop up on the window with the link, clicking on that link you will be directed to the WordPress login page. By login on to that page, you can create your website successfully. Your login URL be like http://www.yourdomain.com/wp-admin
Step 3 – Understanding the WordPress user interface.
Using a login page you can log in successfully on your WordPress dashboard and now it’s the time to explore the functions that WordPress offers you.
- Posts – reach out here to create blog posts.
- Media – Upload/manage and edit images, you can upload any kind of media here.
- Pages – here you can create pages of your website.
- Comments – This is where you can see who comments on your posts and get feedback for everything.
- Appearance – You can change your website’s design here and customize how everything is displayed.
- Plugins – You can Install new plugins here.
Step 4 – Writing your first blog post
Now comes the most interesting and happening part writing your first article or blog. You can start writing your blogs by adding Posts → Add New. Here you can write blogs, add images, tables, and many more. Always remember whenever you change in your site or blog press “Publish” button to get live results.
Step 5 – Create Pages of the website
Pages are simply different types of screens or faces of your website for example about us, contact us, help, FAQ, etc. So for creating pages go to Pages → Add New; remember to add the only page which is going to be used in the website because low pages are better for loading time your website.
Step 6 – Theme selection
A theme is the most important part of any website or blog. It can change the look and feel of your website. What a visitor will see when they browse to your site on the internet is depends on the layout of your theme.
As soon as you install a WordPress, you already have a default WordPress theme active. But there are numerous free and premium WordPress themes available on the web, so you have a lot of options to choose your theme.
WordPress.org theme repository is the best place to get free themes for your website. We recommend ThemeForest marketplace if you want to purchase a premium theme.
Once you’ve found a theme of your choice, now install it in your WordPress dashboard. Follow the below steps:
1.First of all, navigate to Appearance -> Themes within your WordPress dashboard.
2. Here, you can see a list of all your currently-installed themes.
3. You can choose from the thousands of free themes available, simply search for the one you want from menus on the Add Themes.
4. In case you have bought a premium theme, you’ll be provided with a ZIP file. You can install it by using the Upload Theme button on the same page, and then you need to Choose File dialog to locate the file.
5. Once you’ve found or uploaded your desired theme, you’ll just need to click on the relevant Install button. WordPress will work automatically, and you’re almost done.
6. The final step is to activate your theme.
Things you should take care of before changing the theme
- Create a backup. – Before changing a theme this should be the very first thing you do.
- Do not forget to record any custom changes you’ve made.
By this, we mean to any Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) code, or additional PHP within the within functions.
Step 7- Inserting plugins
Plugins mean they extend the standard functionality of your website by adding some much-needed features. Essentially plugins are how you can get some great features without zero knowledge any coding.
Installing plugins is easy and most of them are free to use for that go to Plugins → Add New. From there, input the name of the plugin that you want into the search field, and then click on “Install” and “Activate.”
Following are some plugins you should consider getting used of, they are all free and beneficial to your site.
Contact Form 7 – It’s a popular contact form plugin which helps you to create a powerful contact form for your website. You can easily get in touch with your visitors by adding a contact form on your blog.
Yoast SEO – This is the best plugin for search engine optimization. It helps you to improve your visibility on search engines.
UpdraftPlus WordPress Backup Plugin – This is the best solution for creating and restoring the backup of your WordPress site.
Google Analytics Dashboard Plugin for WordPress by MonsterInsights – This plugin links your website with Google Analytics so you can see your website performance in the dashboard.
Wordfence Security – Firewall & Malware Scan – You can use this plugin to protect your site from malware.
STEP 8 -Monetization
Website monetization is a process of conversion of existing traffic on a particular website into revenue. The most popular way of monetizing a website is by implementing pay per click (PPC) and cost per impression (CPI/CPM) advertising.
Many ad agencies in the market provide ads but for that, your site or blog must need good traffic with stability then you can add ads on your site and start earning money from your work.
Conclusion
So this is brief information about what is WordPress and how it can be used for earning income. It is very simple to use and can be used by anyone.
WordPress is stated to be the most popular publishing site in the past few years. Today you can find more than 100 cms on the internet but only WordPress cms is used more than 32% websites. So get started and let your creativity flow.
Good luck!