New to WordPress? Read this Simple Guide on How to Create a WordPress Blog

So you want to set up a WordPress blog—that’s a wise decision! WordPress is an ideal solution for learning the ropes of launching a blog, and boy, do we love blogs! Even better, setting up a WordPress blog is incredibly easy. It won’t take 15 minutes to get a primary blog site up and running. However, as easy as it is to get started with a free WordPress account, learning what to do and how to do it is essential to avoid wasting time. That is why we created this guide.

Is WordPress for You?

WordPress is terrific, and it adapts to your needs. It can be as plain and straightforward as you want it to be or as complicated as your imagination requires. Since you have total autonomy and ownership of your website, you can keep it simple and cost-effective.

Here’s a quick checklist to see if WordPress is a good fit for you:

• You want to build a reliable business website without breaking the bank.
• You want ultimate customization with unlimited plugins available on the platform.
• You want complete control over your online business development.

WordPress is the ideal medium for creating a website if you agree with all the points above.

How to Create a WordPress Blog

Starting your very first WordPress blog shouldn’t take more than a few minutes! We’ve listed the entire process in this list so you’ll never have to worry about missing anything:

Choose Your Niche

The first thing on the agenda should be choosing your niche. This will be the topic you’ll be writing about most in your blog. Many blogs achieve success because they focus on a narrow topic. Thus they establish a greater authority and a more loyal audience. It could be anywhere from travel, fashion, food, fitness, etc.—any topic under the sun will interest somebody on this planet! We strongly suggest that you play to your strengths by selecting something you are knowledgeable, passionate, or interested in. This guides you in creating high-quality content that will shine in the search results. 

Here are a few guide questions to get your noggin thinking:

• Are you knowledgeable about it?
• Are you intensely passionate about it?
• Are you learning something exciting and want to share the process with your readers?

If your responses to the questions above are strongly positive, then you might just have found your niche. Successfully choosing your niche from the onset minimizes any headaches or significant changes down the road and helps you organize the content you put out.

Select a Domain Name and Get Web Hosting

One of the main reasons WordPress is free is that users have to set up and host their blog sites themselves. Before you start writing your blog, you’ll need a way to find your address on the web.

People use your domain name on their search engines to find your site. Consider it as the address of your website on the internet. Take, for example, the domains google.com and facebook.com. Web hosting is a prerequisite for all websites. A domain name costs about $14.99 per year, and web hosting costs about $7.99 per month. That’s a lot of money for someone who is just getting started, but it’s a must for a professional web presence.

Bluehost is arguably the oldest and most prominent web hosting on the internet. They are also the most well-known name in WordPress hosting, hosting millions of websites.

Install WordPress

Option 1: Installing from the dashboard of your hosting service

If you’ve selected Bluehost as your hosting provider, what you’ll have to do is log in to your Bluehost account, log in via the WordPress button, and follow their quick guide to download and set up WordPress.

Alternatively, you will usually find dedicated WordPress hosting as an option on their homepages if you use another hosting service. Pick the option to install WordPress and follow the on-screen instructions.

Option 2: Installing WordPress from the ground up

• Go to wordpress.org and select the most recent edition of WordPress. When the update is over, unzip the package. 
• Create a WordPress database on your server and a MySQL administrator with full editing rights.
• Put the WordPress files on your computer.
• Choose Install Now and proceed.

Whatever method you use to install WordPress, you can reach the dashboard by entering your domain name followed by “/wp-admin” once it’s up and running.

Blog Away!

The steps before this are all you need to do to get that raw, primary blog up and running. There are three main things to remember before publishing your first WordPress article:

• Write A Post Title

This should be entered in the area immediately under “Add New Post.” Make it simple, concise, and memorable. It is also advisable to use your researched keywords.

• Write the Main Content

This is placed in the main text editor box, which occupies most of the panel. This is a what-you-see-is-what-you-get (WYSIWYG) editor, which means that you can see the adjustments you make in the editor by using the provided choices (bold, italics, font sizes, links, and so on) or adding files (images, video links, etc.).

•  Featured Picture, Type, and Tags 

This is the time to add a featured image if you’ve meant to. We highly suggest using tags (specific, niche descriptors) and categories (broad groupings of content) to help readers navigate your website quickly, especially if you’ve posted a considerable number of articles on your blog. After you’ve covered all three points, press the Publish button.

That’s it—it’s that easy to create content in WordPress! The main priority is to get your excellent blog content out there as fast as possible, but spend more time editing your website to make it beautiful too.

How To Improve Your WordPress Blog

Use WordPress Themes

Many new bloggers get tripped up here—they waste hours and hours looking for the right style. So, take a deep breath and relax: customizing your WordPress blog isn’t that important when you’re just getting started. Your attention should be on producing material and distributing it to the public: don’t get overly concerned with the site’s architecture until you’ve reached a considerable amount of people, after which you can gauge what theme would work best for you.

The yearly WordPress theme will be active by default on your website. Every year, Automattic (the people behind WordPress) releases a new one targeted toward bloggers. Automattic’s array of themes are perfect starters or novices who want to get to writing.

Use Recommended Plugins

Aside from templates, which improve the aesthetic features of your blog, you can install WordPress plugins, which add a plethora of other functional benefits. We recommend including plugins for user registration to help you set up your website and the three important plugins below.

Yoast SEO

SEO, or search engine optimization, is critical to getting your website on the search results. However, it takes years to become an SEO expert, and even then, you must continue to practice. Downloading a plugin like Yoast SEO is popular because it includes simple SEO choices such as breadcrumbs, names, extracts, and keyword optimizations, to name a few. Check out some of our nifty Amazon suspension tips to learn more.

Google Analytics 

Google Analytics is an excellent platform for monitoring the success of your blog in terms of the number of users, the amount of time they spend on your website, and much more information. You can quickly transfer all of the details into the WordPress dashboard with this plugin.

Contact Form

This isn’t technically a plugin; rather, many plugins like WPForms offer a contact form feature. Having a proper contact form will support you in the early stages of your blogging career—it will encourage users to contact you, sign up for updates, and leave comments.

Conclusion

It is effortless to set up a blog on WordPress. To get started, all you need to do is get a hosting contract, register a domain name, and update WordPress. What’s important to remember is not to get too entangled in all the small details like your blog’s design or other trivial things. Instead, learn as you go and let inspiration lead the way!

Author’s Bio: Jayce is the managing director of Seller Interactive, an Amazon advertising agency committed to building brands on Amazon. His content marketing expertise has led him to work with brands such as Toyota and GoDaddy, producing content that has reached over 20M views in a month. He is ready to assist D2C brands by offering services in Amazon suspension to PPC management.