How to Start Blog in 2023?
If you are wondering how to start blogging with WordPress then you are in the right place. Starting a blog can be an intimidating experience—especially if you’ve never built a website before.
Fortunately, starting a blog can be simpler than you think. In a couple of hours, you can go from having never built a website before to having a fully functional blog.
We have decided to create the most comprehensive guide on how to start a WordPress blog without any technical knowledge.
What is a blog?
A blog is a type of website with posts (articles). The newest ones are usually displayed first.
Why are you starting a blog?
- Make money online: The top bloggers in the world earn quite a bit, but even a part-time blogger can expect to make a nice profit if things are done correctly. The best part about it is that blogging is a form of passive income since you can spend just a few hours a week writing a blog post and then continue to make money from it long after the blog post is written.
- Share your story: A blog allows you to have a voice and be heard. You can share your story with the entire world if you so choose. One of the most common ways blogs are used are as a diary where the blogger writes about their daily experiences so that friends, family, and others can all be a part of their lives.
- Help your business or organization: A blog helps businesses and organizations reach a lot of people at little cost.
- Find a community. Blogging at its heart is interactive. You write a blog post and people comment on it. This is a great way to connect with people who are interested in the same things as you are. blogging allows you to teach these people based on your experience, and it allows you to learn from your readers as well.
What do you need to start a blog?
- Decide your blog topic/niche (Choose something that you are interested in)
- Choose a domain name (Domain should be related to your blog topic)
- Choose right blogging platform (WordPress, Blogspot, Wix, Drupal, etc.)
- Choose a host (Hosting provider eg: Bluehost, HostGator, Godaddy etc.)
- Choose a plan (You can select minimum web hosting plan)
- WordPress Setup (Installing WordPress )
- Customize your blog (Right themes for right blog)
Step 1. Decide your Blog Topic/Niche:
The biggest mistake beginners make when building a blog is choosing the wrong niche. Thankfully you’re here so you won’t be making that mistake.
How to choose a niche for your blog
Your niche will give your blog a focus, help guide the design of your site, and illuminate the unique value you’re giving to your visitors.
If you don’t have any idea of what you’re going to blog about, then spend some time with the following questions:
- What do you deeply care about?
- When you go to a bookstore, which sections do you spend time in?
- What kinds of blogs do you currently enjoy reading?
- What are your hobbies? How do you spend your time?
- What topics can you talk about late into the night?
- What areas have you had success in your life?
- What challenges have you overcome?
- What do people commonly come to you for advice on?
To become a successful blogger, you will have to choose the right niche and work on attaining the highest form of knowledge within that topic. So pick the one that appeals to you—the one you are passionate about and most interested in.
Step 2: Choose a domain name
Your domain name will be the name by which you will be known online, no matter what niche you choose. Your domain name may be the highly popular “dot com(.com),” or it may be country or niche-specific. The general rule is to go for a “dot com(.com)” domain, but some of the other extensions can work. For example, “dot net(.net)” or “dot me(.me).”
Eg:- If your niche is related to travel then your domain should have travel(makemytravel.com) word for better SEO.
Step 3: Choose right blogging platform
First, decide -free blog or self-hosting blog?
Free blog:
Anyone can sign up with a free blogging site or platform such as Blogger.com, WordPress.com and Tumblr.com
However, if you are serious about blogging, the free blogging platform is not a way to go.
There are many cons and downsides of a free blogging service (limited monetization, customization and traffic), but most importantly – you’ll have no control over your blog. And if you want to upgrade, you’ll need to pay more than you should.
Self-hosting blog:
There are many blogging platforms to choose from—like Blogger, Squarespace, Wix and Weebly—but WordPress is by far the most popular and widely recognized as the best. For good reason. It’s flexible, functional and has a large community of users who share tools and ideas.
Here’s why self-hosted WordPress is likely your best option:
- It’s free to use (open-source)
- It’s very flexible with hundreds of free (and premium) blog themes
- It has a large developer community
- WordPress is being updated and improved regularly
- You will have full control over your blog
Step 4: Choose a host
Selecting reliable hosting services will be one of the most important decisions you make. To a great extent, the functionality and performance of your site will depend on your blog hosting. The host makes sure your site is available 24/7 to potential readers and it’s where your files are stored online.
I recommend keeping it all under your hosting account for hassle-free management and maintenance.
Based on a survey, a reliable provider is Bluehost. 99% of blogging experts suggest using it with WordPress.org.
Step 5: Choose a Plan
You should start by selecting any plan you want. Of course, you don’t need to use Bluehost, especially when you already have a web host.
Whichever hosting company you choose, make sure it has “one-click installs” for blogging platforms such as WordPress. This will make your set up process much easier.
How to setup account
- Select your Blog’s hosting plan: You should start by selecting your plan. If this is your very first one, you should go with the basic one.
- Use your domain name: If you already own a domain name and want to use it for your blog, type your existing domain in the right box and then click “next”. Only use the right box if you have previously paid to register a domain.
- Fill out your billing details on the registration page: First, you’ll enter your contact info and choose an account plan based on how far in advance you want to pay.
- You will also need to choose your hosting package and options: All packages have everything you need to get your blog up and running, including a free domain name, easy WordPress blog installation, web hosting, and branded email accounts (e.g. [email protected]).The 36-month package gets you the lowest monthly rate, while the 12-month package has a lower up-front cost.
- I uncheck the boxes next to the other products when I sign-up. You can always get these products later if you decide you need them.
Step 6: WordPress Setup:
Once you have your domain name and web hosting connected, it’s time to set up WordPress.
Go to your Bluehost cPanel account, find the ‘My Sites’ section, and click Install WordPress. That’s the famous one-click set-up offered by Bluehost that makes blog creation a breeze.
Now, if you go to your site’s URL, you will only see a ‘Coming Soon’ page because the site hasn’t gone live yet. For this, you’ll need to set up and design a WordPress site before launching it, but I’ll get to that later. Once this is done, go back to the cPanel and hit ‘Launch.’
Step 7: Customize your blog:
The visual appearance of your WordPress blog is controlled by themes. When you first visit your blog, it will look something like this:
This is not very appealing to most people.
Customizing the look and feel of your blog is by far one of the most exciting and rewarding parts in the journey of creating your WordPress blog.
There are thousands of pre-made WordPress themes that you can install on your site. Some of them are free themes, while others are paid.
Select Your WP Theme
You can change your theme by going to your WordPress dashboard and clicking on Appearance » Themes.
Go ahead and click on the Add New button.
On the next screen, you will able to search from 8,000+ free WordPress themes that are available in the official WordPress.org themes directory. You can sort by popular, latest, featured, as well as other feature filters (i.e industry, layout, etc).
You can take your mouse over to a theme, and you will see a Preview button. Clicking on it will open the theme preview where you can see how the design would look on your website
The preview of your theme may not look exactly as shown in the screenshot, which is normal as you will get to customize and set it up later. What you need to look for is design, colours, typography, and other elements.
The best tip to select the perfect WordPress theme is to strive for simplicity in design. It helps you keep things clean and clear while offering a good experience to your users.
To read about best available Themes and Plugins for blog
When you have found the theme that you like, simply bring your mouse on it, and it will show the Install button. Click on it and wait for the theme to be installed. After that, the install button will be replaced with an Activate button. You need to click on it to Activate the theme.
Once you have selected your WordPress theme, you are now ready to create your first blog post.
Create your first blog post:
To write a blog post, click on the Posts » Add New menu in your WordPress dashboard.
You will see an editor area where you can write your first blog post.
WordPress uses a block-based editor where each element is a block. This allows you to create beautiful content layouts for your blog posts.
To familiarize yourself with the editor, see our WordPress block editor tutorial.
Once you’re done writing, go ahead and click on the Publish button on the top-right corner of the screen to make your blog post publicly available.
On the posts screen, you will notice several other sections such as Categories and Tags. You can use these to organize your blog posts into sections. We have a great writeup on the difference between categories vs tags, which we highly recommend that you read.
To utilize all the features on the posts screen,
Often beginners are confused between posts and pages menu in the WordPress dashboard.
