How to Create a Blog on WordPress in 5 Minutes Written by AMAN SINGH Are you want to create a blog, but don’t know exactly how? So you have come to the right place. This guide will help in starting a WordPress blog step by step. Creating a blog can be a challenging task, especially when you don’t know anything about it and you are completely new. But there is nothing to fear, in this article I will tell you how to create a WordPress blog. How much does it cost to build a blog and what should be set up after creating a blog?
What Is The Best Platform to Create a Blog A lot of blogging platforms available to create a blog but here I will use WordPress.org. WordPress.org is a World Popular CMS (Content Management System) and over 32% of websites are created by WordPress. You can use it to create any kind of website, from blogs to e-commerce (online store) sites. It is open-source software and is completely free. But to start a blog on this platform, you will need a domain name and web hosting. Here are the Pros and Cons of using WordPress.org: Pros ●
● ● ● ●
You do not need coding knowledge while creating a blog. Just click on the WordPress software, then enter information about your blog and click on the install button. Your blog is ready. You have full control over your blog. When your blog grows, you can add more features later. Thousands of free and premium themes are available that make your blog beautiful and professional. WordPress.org has over 45,000 free plugins available that help you add extra features to your blog.
●
If there is an error in your blog, you can easily fix it with the help of the plugin. In addition, there are many tutorials available on the Internet.
Cons ●
Due to it being more popular, hackers target it more. So you have to focus on security.
There are many users who get confused between WordPress.org and WordPress.com and choose the wrong platform which is both different platforms. Here is a guide on the difference between WordPress.org and WordPress.com.
What is Needed to Create a WordPress Blog To build a blog using WordPress you will need the following two things. 1. Domain name – This is the name of your blog, users will write the name of your domain in their browsers (like justbrightme.com) to come to your blog. 2. Web Hosting – All websites on the Internet need to be hosted for which hosting is required. Here all your files are stored.
I recommend you Bluehost for hosting. It is one of the largest hosting companies in the world and is also recommended by official WordPress.
How Much Does It Cost to Create a Blog on WordPress As I already said, WordPress is an Open source software and is completely free. But you will need a domain name ($ 7.99 / month) and hosting (usually starting at $ 2.75 per month). And you will have to spend money on this and it completely depends on you what kind of blog you are trying to create.
I advise you to start with a small amount. When your blog starts becoming popular, you can add more features to it later. However, in this article, I will tell you how you can create a blog within 100 $ (4000-5000 rs). This guide is useful for all users (Beginners and Advanced Users). If you have any problem while creating a blog, then you can feel free to contact me. So let’s get started‌
How to buy Domain Name and Hosting First, go to the Bluehost website and click on Hosting >> Linux Hosting.
This will take you to the pricing page. Scroll the page slightly down. Here you have to choose the pricing plan for your bog. Its business plan is very popular among the users and allows to create 3 websites. Whereas the standard plan allows only one website.
After selecting your plan, click on the buy now button. Now it will ask you “Do you already have a domain for your hosting plan? That is, do you already have a domain. Just click “no” and enter a domain name for your blog. If you want to use another extension instead of .com extension, then you can click on .com extension and select another extension.
In this page, you have to click on the Select >> Checkout option.
This will redirect you to the order summary page. Here remove unwanted order, pay only for hosting and domain. Also, you can choose the time duration for your hosting and domain name, for how many years do you want to register them. After checking everything properly, click on the proceed to payment button.
In the next step, you have to sign up for a Bluehost account. Click create an account in 10 seconds.
And fill up your account information like name, address, email etc.
Enter all the information and click on create an account. This will redirect you to the Payment option page.
After your purchase is complete, you will receive an email containing details related to cPanel. Otherwise, you can sign to your Bluehost account and go to cPanel.
How to Create a WordPress Blog You will find many options in your hosting dashboard (cPanel). 90% of them are useless. So ignore them. First, log in to your Bluehost account, then click on the “Manage Orders >> List / Search Orders” button at the top.
Then click on the domain name.
In the next page, you have to click on the “Manage Web Hosting” button.
Now your hosting cPanel will open, scroll down to the Software section and click on “Softaculous Apps Installer”.
In the next page, select WordPress and then click on the Install Now button. Below you can see in the screenshot,
Now a new page will open in front of you, here you will have to enter your blog name, admin username, and password for your blog. Don’t worry, you can also change them later. Here is the guide below: ● ●
How to Change WordPress Username (2 Method Explained) How to Change Password in WordPress
Here you will see some templates that you can install on your blog. But you don’t have to do this right now, I’ll tell you later how to install the theme on a WordPress. After entering your blog information, click on the Install button. The WordPress installation process will start. It will take you about 1 minute. After the process is complete, the login and password information will be sent to the registered email address. After the installation is complete, you will see a successful message at the top. Congratulation! You have created your first WordPress blog.
How to Update Domain Nameserver Again, login to your hosting’s cPanel and click on the “Manage Orders >> List / Search Orders” button. Then click on the domain name.
And click on Name Server details inside your hosting section,
It will show you two nameserver, just copy and save them in notepad.
Now go to the Domain Registration section and click on Name Servers. A popup box will open, copy and paste the Name Server into this box and click on the Update name server button.
Name Servers take 72 hours to propagate. Once your blog starts to open, you can login using the username and password. Your login page will look like this,
How to Install Theme in WordPress Theme is the design of your WordPress blog. When you build a WordPress blog, it comes with a default WordPress theme that is not attractive and professional looking. But don’t worry, there are thousands of free and premium WordPress themes available in the market that you can install. Go to Appearance >> Themes page and then click on Add New button. You will see a gallery of WordPress themes. You can filter them by popular, latest, featured etc. If you know the name of a free WordPress theme that you want to install on your blog, enter the name in the search field and click on the install button. Apart from this, if you have a theme file, you can also upload and install it on your blog.
Once you install and activate the theme on your site, you can customize it by clicking Appearance >> Customize. When there is some content on your blog, then you will be able to customize it better. If you want to install a free theme on your blog, then I would recommend you to use GeneratePress or Hueman theme. But if you want to use a premium theme, then I recommend the Genesis Framework.
Essential Setup After Starting a WordPress blog 1. Delete Default Post, Page, and Comment – Login to your WordPress dashboard and go to Posts >> All Posts and delete the default “Hello world” post. Just like the post, go to Pages >> All Pages and delete the default “Sample Page”. Finally, click on “Comments” and delete the comment as well. 2. Set the timezone of the blog– Click on Settings >> General. Set the time zone of the blog according to your local time so that when you schedule a post, they are live according to your time zone. 3. Set WordPress Permalinks structure – WordPress comes with 5 types of Permalink structure but Default Permalinks structure is not SEO friendly. So click on Settings >> Permalinks and select Post Name and then click on the Save Changes button. Here’s a guide – Best Permalink Structure for SEO 4. Update ping list – This helps in fast indexing if your site is brand new. 5. Change Site Title and Tagline – You can set up it during WordPress installation, or change it through the WordPress dashboard. Just click on Settings >> General option and add your site title and tagline. 6. Install SSL Certificate – This is the most important setting after creating a blog. Because it is a very important Google ranking factor. And HTTPS websites get higher rank in Google Search.
7. Delete Inactive WordPress Themes/Plugin – Inactive plugins and themes create security vulnerabilities for your blog. Click Appearance >> Themes to see all your installed themes. If there is an Inactive WordPress Themes, then delete it. Similarly, you can delete the Inactive or unused Plugin by going to the plugin page. Here is an ultimate guide what to do after installing WordPress. 8. Submit Your blog to Google Search Console – Connect your blog to Google Search Console. It gives valuable insights of your blog such as Crawl errors, Ranking Keyword, impressions and much more. Here’s an ultimate guide on Google Search Console – Complete Beginner’s Guide 9. Submit Sitemap – First, create a sitemap for your blog. After creating, click on the ‘Sitemaps’ option in Google Search Console dashboard and paste the last part of the URL (sitemap_index.xml) then click on the Submit button.
10. Set Favicon – It is a small icon, appears in the address bar of the visitor’s browser. It makes your brand professional and credible. Here’s a list – 13 Best Free Favicon Generator Online 11. Enable Spam Protection for Comment – You can deal with spam comment using Antispam WordPress Plugins. These plugins automatically block spam comments on your blog. And keeps you away from spam comment headaches.
How to Add Content to WordPress
WordPress comes with two content types – Post and Page Post – Add a timestamp and is used by the blog. When you publish a post on your blog, it appears on the home page. Also, you can choose Categories and Tags for your post. Page – It is static and does not show timestamp. For the page, you cannot add Categories and Tags. It is mostly used for contact page, about page, privacy policy page etc. Let’s publish the first blog post on the blog. First, click on Posts >> Add New. It will take you to the Post Editor panel. Write your post title and content and then click on the Publish button.
How to Create a Page on WordPress Like the post, click on Pages >> Add New. Write your page title and add the content in the text editor then click on the Publish button.
How to Create Menu to WordPress
WordPress comes with a powerful navigation menu system. First of all, you need to go to Appearance >> Customize >> Menus. Enter a name for your navigation menu and click on the Create menu button. Then add Category or Page as per your requirement.
Now you have to choose a location for Navigation menus. These places are based on your WordPress theme. Typically, most WordPress themes have a primary menu that appears at the top. Click on the save menu button to save your navigation menu.
How to Install Plugin in WordPress Plugins work like apps for your blog. These help to add extra features to your WordPress blog such as contact forms, photo galleries, etc. Click on Plugins >> Add New and enter the plugin name in the search field then click on the Install button. After installing the plugin, activate it.
Here are some plugins which are essential for any blog: ● ●
● ●
Yoast SEO – Improves your WordPress SEO. WP Super Cache – This is a caching plugin. It generates a static HTML file of your blog and when a visitor visits your blog, it serves the static HTML files to visitors instead of heavier WordPress PHP scripts. And your blog load super fast. UpdraftPlus – Take a full backup of your blog. Here is a complete guide – How to Backup WordPress site using UpdraftPlus plugin Wordfence Security – This is a security plugin and secures your blog with hackers or bad guys.
Hope you found the post useful and comprehensive!! Don’t forget to share!