We know that starting a blog can be a frightening thought, particularly if you’re not a geek. Guess what, you’re not alone. Having helped over 40,000+ users create a blog, we’ve decided to create the most detailed guide on how to start a WordPress blog without any technical knowledge.
The method is easy to obey, whether you are 20 or 60 years old.
What do you need to start your blog?
There are 3 things that you need to build a WordPress blog:
- A concept for a domain name (this will be the name of your blog i.e yourblogmaster.com)
- A repository for web hosting (this is where your website live on the internet)
- Your focus has been undivided for 30 minutes.
Yeah, you’ve read it correctly. You can start a blog from scratch in less than 30 minutes, and we’re going to walk you through the whole process, step by step.
In this guide, we’ll cover:
- How to register a free domain name
- How to Select The Preferred Web Hosting
- How to Install and Set WordPress Blog
- How to change the interface template of your blog
- How to Write Your First Post Blog
- How to customize your WordPress Blog with Plugins
- How to add a contact form/s
- How to Set Google Analytics Monitoring
- How to optimize your website for good SEO
- How to make your blog money
- WordPress Learn and Master Tools
Set, huh? Let’s get started now.
Step 1. Setup
The biggest mistake that beginners make while creating a blog is choosing the wrong blogging site. Luckily you’re here, so you’re not going to make that mistake.
For ninety-five percent of users, it makes more sense to use WordPress.org, also known as the self-hosted WordPress. Why?
Because it’s free to use, you can install plugins, customize your blog design, and, most importantly, make money from your blog without any restrictions (see the difference between WordPress.com vs WordPress.org).
WordPress is still the number one web platform used by all popular blogs. To put it in perspective, 34 percent of all websites on the Internet use WordPress!
Now another thing is that you may be wondering why WordPress is free? What’s the catch here?
There’s no catch here. It’s free, but you’ve got to do the setup and host it yourself.
In other words, you need a domain name and a web hosting service.
The domain name is what people typed to get to your website. Basically, the dot com is the url of your website on the Internet. Think about google.com or yourblogmaster.com
Online hosting is where the web files reside. It’s the house of your website on the Internet. Every website needs to host the internet.
A domain name usually costs about $14.99 per year, and web hosting usually costs $7.99 a month.
That’s a lot of money for the beginners who’re just starting out.
Fortunately, Bluehost, the official WordPress hosting company recommended, has agreed to give our users a free domain name and over 60 percent off on web hosting.
Bluehost is one of if not the oldest web hosting companies in the world. They are also the biggest brand name when it comes to WordPress hosting since they host millions of websites, including many of our own.
To top it all, Bluehost has been collaborating with WordPress since 2005 and is committed to giving back. Which is why they promised us that if you can’t get your blog online within 30 minutes by following this guide, our expert team will complete the process for you at no cost. They’re going to pay us, so you don’t have to. Contact us to help set up a free blog.
NOTE: We believe in accountability at Your Blog Master. If you sign up with Bluehost using our referral connection, we’ll receive a small commission at no extra cost to you (in fact, you will save money and get a free domain). We will get this commission to recommend just about every WordPress hosting company, but we only recommend items that we personally use and feel would bring value to our readers.
Let’s go ahead and buy your domain + hosting.
Open Bluehost in a new window and follow it.
The first thing you need to do is press the Green Get Started Now button to get started.
Choose the strategy you need on the next screen (basic and plus are the most popular).
After that, you will be prompted to enter the domain name of your website.
Finally, you will need to add your account details and finalize the package data to complete the process. We suggest a 36-month plan because that’s the best deal.
You’ll see optional extras that you can buy on this computer. It’s completely up to you whether or not you buy them, but we don’t necessarily suggest buying them right away. You can always add it later, if you feel you need it.
When done, you will receive an email providing information about how to log in to your web hosting control panel (cPanel). This is where you handle everything from help to emails, among other things. But most importantly, this is where you’re downloading WordPress.
Step 2. Install WordPress
When you sign up for a new version of Bluehost using our connection, they will automatically instal WordPress for you. This new version has recently been introduced to make it easier for non-technical users to build their blogs.
What this means is that you simply need to log in to your Bluehost account, and then click the WordPress Login button to get started.
You can also log in to WordPress by simply accessing your site.com/wp-admin/directly from your browser.
If you’re using a different WordPress blog hosting service like SiteGround, HostGator, WP Engine, etc, then you can see our detailed guide on how to instal WordPress step-by-step instructions for these providers.
When WordPress is set up, you’re ready to customize the look of your blog to make it your own and start blogging.
Step 3. Selecting Your WordPress Theme
The visual (front end) appearance of your WordPress blog is controlled by themes. When you visit your blog for the first time, it will look something like this:
This is not really desirable to most people.
Customizing the look and feel of your blog is by far one of the most exciting and satisfying aspects of your WordPress blog journey.
There are thousands of pre-made WordPress themes that can be built on your web. Some of them are free themes, while others are paying for.
You can change your theme by going to your WordPress dashboard and pressing Appearance » Themes.
Go ahead and press the Add New button.
On the next screen, you will be able to browse for 7,400+ free WordPress themes available in the official WordPress.org theme directory. You can sort by common, new, featured, and other function filters (i.e industry, layout, etc).
You can take your mouse over to a theme, and you’ll see the Preview button. Clicking on this will open the theme preview where you can see how the template will look on your website.
The preview of your theme does not look exactly as seen in the screenshot, which is common as you will be able to customize it and set it up later. What you need to look for is style, colours, typography, and other features.
Once you have enabled your theme, you can customize it by clicking the Customize connection in the Appearance menu.
If you need help choosing a theme, please refer to our guide on 9 items that you should consider when selecting the ideal WordPress theme.
Once you’ve chosen your WordPress theme, you’re ready to make your first blog post.
Step 4. Creating Your First Blog Post
To write a blog post, select Posts » Add a new menu to your WordPress dashboard.
You’ll see the editor area where you can write your first blog post.
WordPress uses a block-based editor where every element is a block. This lets you create beautiful content templates for your blog posts.
To get acquainted with the editor, see our WordPress block editor tutorial.
When you’re done writing, go ahead and press the Publish button on the top-right corner of the screen to make your blog post publicly accessible.
You may note some other sections on the post screen, such as Categories and Tags. You can use them to organize your blog posts into sections. We’ve got a fantastic writeup about the difference between categories and tags, which we highly recommend you read.
To use all the features on the post screen, you can read our article on how to add a new post to WordPress (video included).
Many beginners are confused between posts and pages in the WordPress dashboard. That’s why we’ve also written a full guide to the difference between posts and pages in WordPress.
Step 5. Plugins & Customization
Once you have written your first sample blog post, you may want to start adding other popular features to your website, such as contact forms, galleries, sliders, newsletter subscription form, etc.
You need to use plugins to incorporate all these extra features.
WordPress plugins are apps that let you add new features to your website (without writing any code).
Over 58,000 WordPress plugins are available in the free WordPress plugin directory on their own. This means no matter what you want to do, there’s a plugin for it.
We have a step-by-step guide on how to build a WordPress plugin.
That being said, let’s take a look at how you can use plugins to add some important functionality to your WordPress site.
How to Create a Contact Form in WordPress
A contact form is required for each website. It helps your users to give you an email directly. Since WordPress does not have an integrated contact form, you will need a WordPress form builder plugin to add a contact form to your web.
We recommend that you use the WPForms Lite plugin. It’s a free version of the popular WPForms plugin, which is #1 in our best WordPress contact form plugins list.
More than 4 million websites use WPForms!
You can install and activate this plugin by going to Plugins » Add a new tab and type WPForms in the search box. Next, click “Install” and then click “Activate.” Once it is activated, you need to go to WPForms » Add a new page to build your first type.
This will open the gui of the WPForms function Object() { [native code] }.
First, you need to enter a name for your contact form and then press the ‘Easy Contact Form’ template.
WPForms can now generate a simple contact form for you with all the fields needed. You can click on any field you want to alter, or add a new field from the left column.
When you’ve finished editing the form, press the Save button at the top right corner, and then exit the form creator.
You can now create a new WordPress page by going to Pages » Add New and call it ‘Touch.’ You need to enter the WPForms block in the editor on the edit screen.
When you’ve finished editing the form, press the Save button at the top right corner, and then exit the form creator.
You can now create a new WordPress page by going to Pages » Add New and call it ‘Touch.’ You need to enter the WPForms block in the editor on the edit screen.
You can now save and publish your page and visit it in your browser to see your contact form in motion.
If you need more specific guidance, see our step-by-step guide on how to construct a WordPress contact form.
How to Setup Google Analytics Tracking
Google Analytics lets you see how many people are visiting your blog, where they’re coming from, and what are they doing on your website?
It’s best to instal Google Analytics before you start your blog, so you can see how much your blog has evolved over time.
First of all, you need to visit the Google Analytics website and sign in using your Gmail address.
When logged in, you can go ahead and sign up for a free Google Analytics account.
You will be asked to include the URL of your details and website. You will be provided with your Google Analytics tracking code after that.
You can stop here because we’re using a plugin to automatically pick up and add this code to your blog.
To install and trigger the MonsterInsights plugin, switch to your WordPress admin area. This is the free edition of the best Google Analytics plugin for WordPress, and it’s the easiest way to integrate Google Analytics to your blog (trusted by over 2 million websites).
Upon activation, you need to visit the Insights » Settings page to customize your plugin settings.
See our article on how to install Google Analytics in WordPress for specific instructions.
How to Optimize Your WordPress Blog for SEO
Most beginners are not optimised for SEO when making a blog. SEO or search engine optimization allows users locate their blog in search engines. If you want more traffic, it’s important that you optimise your SEO blog right from the start.
To get started, you need to instal and trigger the All in One SEO plugin first. This is the full WordPress SEO plugin that will help you optimise your blog.
The plugin comes with a simple setup wizard to help you get through the setup. It will help you set up a WordPress sitemap, write proper keywords and meta description, add schema markup, and a lot more.
We also suggest that you follow our full step-by-step WordPress SEO guide to set up your SEO blog.
More WordPress Plugins and Customizations
There are a number of other WordPress plugins that you can instal. It’s always a little frustrating for beginners to look for the plugins they need.
At Your Blog Master, we also have the best WordPress plugins to help you add the features you need.
Here’s our expert choice of the best WordPress plugins you need to try out.
- Backup – UpdraftPlus is the perfect backup plugin for WordPress. You need to make daily backups of your website in case anything goes wrong.
- Safe – Sucuri Security is a free WordPress security scanner. We have a full step-by-step WordPress safety guide for beginners that will help you protect your blog.
- Performance – We suggest using either WP Rocket (premium) or WP Super Cache (free) to make WordPress faster. See our article on WordPress Speed and Performance with step-by-step instructions for more on this subject.
- Design & Customization – We suggest using either SeedProd or Divi page builder to customize your homepage design, create custom landing pages, or even create custom themes (without writing any code). See our article on best WordPress page builders for more on this subject (compared).
- Traffic & Subscribers – We highly encourage the use of PushEngage Push notifications. This will allow you to link to visitors after they leave your website. It’s our top five YBM traffic source. See how to add push notifications in WordPress for more info.
Step 6. Making Money From Your Blog
Now that you’ve built your blog and tailored it to your taste, you’re probably thinking how can I make money from my blog?
There are a lot of ways to successfully monetize your blog. However, there is no such thing as a fast get rich scheme.
Don’t be fooled by images of luxury cars and mansions, because they’re all fake.
Unlike other “make money online” posts, we’ve built the most detailed guide on how to make money from your WordPress blog.
This is a 4000+ word guide that anyone who wants to make money for their blog needs to learn. In this ultimate guide, we shared our 15+ years of online wisdom.
As long as you’re able to do hard work and commitment, you’re going to reap the reward. Know, there are no shortcuts here.
Here are some of the easiest ways to make money out of your blog.
1. Google AdSense
Many bloggers are making money by posting advertisements on their site. If you’re thinking of a monetization blog, then Google AdSense is the perfect way to do this.
It’s the biggest advertisement site for bloggers and publishers. Working as a middleman between you and the advertiser, Google enables advertisers to bid for keywords that fit your material. This helps you to get the highest possible prices for your ads.
See our article on how to properly add Google AdSense to your WordPress blog for more information.
2. Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing is the second most frequently used monetization technique by bloggers. Basically, you’re recommending your favourite products/services to your readers, and you get a referral commission when they make a purchase.
The trick to affiliate marketing is to recommend high-quality goods and services that you already use and trust. There are a range of affiliate marketing plugins and WordPress software that can help you make more money by advertising affiliate products.
We also have a full step-by-step affiliate marketing guide for beginners that will help you get started.
3. Online Store
Many bloggers are making money by selling items directly from their blog. There may be physical items, digital downloads like ebooks, artwork, music, and more. Some bloggers are also providing consultancy services.
We suggest using WooCommerce because it is the best WordPress eCommerce plugin. It is also the most widely used eCommerce site in the world.
See our guide on how to quickly build an online store using WordPress for comprehensive instructions.
On top of the 3 approaches above, you can do a lot more for your WordPress blog. You can create WordPress blogs specifically for reviews, fashion blogging, recipe blogging, and more. Of of these blog styles gives you more unique opportunities to make money.
You can also convert your blog into a membership platform offering premium content and courses.
Step 7. Mastering WordPress
Your Blog Master is the largest free blogging and WordPress resource for beginners.
At Your Blog Master, our main aim is to provide state-of-the-art, easy-to-understand blogging and WordPress tutorials for small businesses, writers, and non-tech WordPress website owners (see more about us).
To extend your WordPress knowledge, check out the following:
You may want to join our free Facebook group Your Blog Master for more discussions. With more than 7,000 members, the community focuses on helping beginners and non-technical users do more with WordPress.
You can also subscribe to the Your Blog Master’s YouTube Channel, where we regularly post video tutorials to help you learn WordPress.
We hope you’ve found our tutorial on how to start a WordPress blog to be helpful. You may also want to check out our article on actionable tips for driving traffic to your new WordPress blog.
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