Stepwise Guide On How To Start A Wordpress Blog
Step 1: Setup- WordPress is free to use. You get to install plugins, customize your site design, and even make money from your site without any hassle.
But why is WordPress free?
The answer to that would be you have to do the setup and get the hosting by yourself.
Hence, you will be needing a domain name and also a web-hosting.
A domain name is what web-navigators type to reach your website. It is the address of your website on the internet.
Web Hosting is the house of your website on the internet. Every site demands and requires web hosting.
Generally, a domain name costs $14.99 yearly, and web hosting usually costs around $7.99 monthly.
Step 2: Installing WordPress-
You will get to see several small icons for different services and features in the cPanel. You will not require to use 95% of these icons. Now, you will have to scroll down to the website section. Go to the WordPress icon and click on it.
Click on the “Get Started” button. On the next screen, you a dropbox will be asking you to select your domain name. Choose from among the domain names that the drop-down gives you. Click on the Next button.
Enter your Site Name, username, and password, and you must check all the checkboxes and click on Install.
Your WordPress will start installing, and the marketplace will display a popup asking you to browse WordPress themes, while WordPress is being installed.
Once the installing process is finished, you will see the success notification in the top header bar.
Click on the “Complete Installation” link. It will direct you to the screen, along with your WordPress login URL and password. Finally, you have successfully created your WordPress site.
Your WordPress login URL will be looking like:
You will now have to click on the WordPress login link for logging in to your dashboard. Now, you are all set to customize the appearance of your site and begin with your blogging journey.
Step 3: Choose your WordPress Theme-
Themes control the visual appearance of your WordPress blog. Customizing the look, layout, feel, and vibe of your blog is one of the most active parts in the process of creating your WordPress blogging site.
You will get multiple pre-made WordPress themes that you can install on your site. Some are available for free; the rest are paid.
You can alter your site’s theme by clicking on appearance, followed by Themes on your WordPress dashboard. Now, click on the “Add New” button.
On the next screen, you get to see and choose from over 5600 free WordPress themes in the official WordPress.org themes collection. You can sort the ideas by popular, featured, latest, and other filters.
You can preview each theme by taking your mouse over to a “theme” and clicking on the “Preview” button. After clicking on the “Preview” button, you will get to see the theme preview and check how your website looks after applying that particular theme.
Look closely into the design, typography, colors, layout, and other components. The best tip for you while selecting the perfect WordPress theme is to look for simplicity in the designs. It helps you keep things clean and vivid while offering an excellent experience to your navigators/visitors/users.
When you successfully locate the theme that suits your needs, bring your cursor on it, and you will see the Install button. Click on the Install button. Wait for the subject installation. Then, an Activation button will replace the install button. Click on the button Activate that theme.
After you have installed the theme of your choice, you can customize it by going and clicking on the Customize link you will find under the Appearance menu.
After having selected your WordPress theme, you are all set to get on with your first blog post on your WordPress site.
Step 4: Create Your First Blog Post-
To create your first blog/article post, go to the Posts option and click on the “Add New” menu from your dashboard.
There is an editor area in which you can compose your first post. After you have completed writing, select and click on the “Publish” button to the right of your screen, for publishing your first blog.
There are several other sections on the posts screen like Categories, Tags, etc. You may use these tags and categories for organizing your blog posts.
Step 5: Plugins & Customisations-
After writing your first blog post, you can actively get started with adding other general elements and components to your website, e.g., galleries, sliders, contact forms, and a lot more. For adding all these additional features, you will need to take the help of plugins. WordPress plugins are apps allowing you to add new features to your website.
WordPress has over 55,000 plugins available for free in just the free WordPress plugin directory alone. Hence, whatever you want to achieve or the features you want to add, you will always find a plugin that will help you do it.
If after going through the steps listed here, you face any difficulty or any technical issue with WordPress installation, than hire a WordPress developer to help you out with all the technicalities.
