Content
1.Preparation
2.Choose a Domain Name and Web Hosting Service
3.Install WordPress
4.Customize Your Theme
5.Write Pages and Posts
1.Preparation
You may have many questions before you build up a blog.
- Do I need to have enough technical knowledge?
- Can it be free?
- How to make money from my blog?
- How to drive traffic?
…
Why
Among these questions, you should figure out why you want to start a blog first.
You may want to record your experiences, share your story or knowledge or you just want to make some money.
After you understand why, it is time to prepare for it.
What
- Domain name
- Web Hosting
- Money (Credit Card)
- Content Ideas
A domain name is the website name like bigbobchang.com, It is used for finding and identifying computers on the Internet.
Web hosting is a service that allows your blog to be hosted and accessed through the internet.
The two are inseparable.
The most important is about your content. You are supposed to have some ideas of your blog. What is about? Food, Travel, Fashion, Finance or Coupons? What will your audience look like or will your blog be private? How do you describe yourself and impress your readers?
It seems complicated but once you know what you really desire for, the next steps are easy.
wordpress.org VS wordpress.com
WordPress.com: update plan (paid) to use plugins and themes
WordPress.org: self-hosted version with a lot of flexibility
Reading Materials
https://en.support.wordpress.com/com-vs-org/
https://www.wpbeginner.com/beginners-guide/self-hosted-wordpress-org-vs-free-wordpress-com-infograph/
2.Choose a Domain Name and Web Hosting Service
In term of the domain name, it should be easily recognizable and memorizable. It can be yourname.com or the topics you will talk about.
You can use a domain name generator to get some inspiration.
https://www.namemesh.com
https://www.shopify.com/tools/business-name-generator
For web hosting service, you can refer to WordPress Web Hosting.
or just Google “best web hosting service”. It is suggested to use the cheap one for beginners.
Price Comparison:
https://www.siteground.com/wordpress-hosting.htm
https://www.bluehost.com/web-hosting/signup
https://www.dreamhost.com/wordpress/
You can buy the domain through the hosting service provider or buy it from sellers like GoDaddy or Namecheap.
(Tips: search coupons on Google and use it at checkout.)
If you buy a domain without SSL certificate, it would be considered unsafe for Chrome. The differences are HTTPS and HTTP.
(I intended to use BlueHost but had a problem with the Payment and they asked me for English verification document so I switched to Siteground）
3.Install WordPress
All three web hosting service providers support automatic WordPress Installation, making the installation not difficult at all.
If you have any questions, just contact the support team and they will be quick to respond.
After that, you need to register an account on WordPress.
The login URL is: https://yourdomain.wordpress.com/wp-admin
4.Customize Your Theme
You can choose it from https://wordpress.org/themes/
If you are not satisfied, you can also buy themes: https://themeforest.net/
Get free plugins https://wordpress.org/plugins/
After you choose a theme, then you need to design it.
You may need to design a logo but that is not hard.
https://hatchful.shopify.com/
https://www.canva.com/
5.Write Pages and Posts
The key is the content you create.
The common pages include about, contact, privacy/cookie policy.
If you use your blog to earn some money, you need to have a disclaimer, reading you use affiliate links to get commissions.
Learning materials for you to get familiar with WordPress and blogging.
https://learn.wordpress.com/get-started/
https://dailypost.wordpress.com/blogging-university/
The guide is simple but helpful to walk you through how to start a WordPress blog. That you are eager to be a blogger is of great significance.
It is only the beginning when you finish the 5 steps. You need to be passionate and patient. Imagine you create useful content and attract the readers and the readers share your content and win you more reviews.
In the future, you may need to learn something about SEO, Google Analytics, content marketing, social marketing which are covered by BobzNotes.
Start your own blog now!
If you are still confused after reading the post, I would suggest that you read the long comprehensive guides below.
References:
https://www.wpbeginner.com/start-a-wordpress-blog/