Do you wanna know how to start a blog? My free manual on this page will show you how to build a beautiful and usable blog, all in a simple step-by-step tutorial.
We know it can be a frightening thought to start a blog particularly when you are not geeky. Think what-you’re not alone.
We decided to create the most detailed guide to starting a WordPress blog with no technical expertise at all.
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How to Start a Blog – Free Guide
Starting a blog is now much simpler than ever in 2020-even if you’re a complete novice who doesn’t understand anything about coding or web design.
You can get your very own personal or technical blog up and running in under 30 minutes with a little guidance and the right resources.
It can take a lot longer to write blog posts and articles though.
We’ll walk you through every part of the process in this step-by-step guide while helping you avoid the common mistakes new bloggers tend to make.
I promise it’s going to be simple, fairly simple, and certainly easy to understand (no stupid jargon). Sound sweet, right?
Sounds fine, right? Then let’s go jump in and continue.
STEP 1 – Choose a Topic or Niche for Your Blog
The very first thing to do is select a topic for your blog.
You don’t need a creative concept if you want to create a blog. Nevertheless, you should focus your blog on something different.
Know no concept is completely special, no matter how good it may be.
Yet, you are having special experiences. You have a distinct voice. And, you’ve definitely got a vivid personality that’ll attract people like your family and friends.
There’s one thing that most successful blogs focus on. May it be about your company, food, travel, health, fashion, or just.
We suggest that you pick a subject you feel passionate about or are interested in. Even better when you’re an expert at something, this helps you grow your blog by writing healthy, high-quality content to support others.
Some common mistakes people make to write a blog about when choosing a topic:
- Don’t pick a topic just because you see others writing about it making money
- Do not write about something that you’re passionate about, but very few others are
- Do not base your blog on a subject you know little or have minimal practical experience in
- Be careful not to write about a range of topics too diverse, your blog has to be focused
Tips to select a subject for your blog:
- Are you an expert at anything?
- Are you keen on something?
- Would you like to learn something new, and write about your process?
Keep away from generic terms like “travel” if you want to start a travel blog. Choose a more unique subject, like “backpacking.” The selected topic is one of the most to start a blog.
Nobody can tell you what to blog about, the decision is up to you. Only don’t live in limbo because of decision-paralysis. Nothing would sound right 100% before you actually begin to do it.
Step 2 – Choose The Right Blogging Platform
You’ll need to look at the best blogging platforms out there at this point, and decide what kind of blog management tools you’re going to use.
I suggest you use the self-hosted setup that I’ll demonstrate in this guide to start a blog.
Anyone may sign up for a free blogging website or platform like Blogger.com, WordPress.com, and Tumblr.com.
If you’re serious about blogging, however, the online blogging platform isn’t a way to go.
Without blogging tools, you can not launch a blog. I run all my WordPress blogs because this is user-friendly, free, and strong.
When you want to create a blog that isn’t on WordPress you’ll find it much more costly because WordPress provides thousands of free plugins that allow you to change your blog in any way, shape, or form.
So if you want to upgrade, you would have to pay more than you will expect to.
The alternative to this is to run the blog yourself (having a blog hosted by yourself).
In that way, you won’t have any restrictions on your blog content (such as photos and videos). Your blog should look more professional, look better, and can be later improved. Plus, you own your blog, personally.
Of course, if you don’t intend on blogging for more than a few weeks, it would make sense to have a free blog. We will suggest the self-hosted route in any other event.
Which Blogging Platform do I have to choose?
There are a lot of different blogging platforms that you can choose from for start a blog. Others are more versatile and user-friendly whereas others are more constrained and have a higher learning curve.
You have the following options when it comes to popular blogging sites:
- Hosted blog solutions (free or Paid plans).
- Self-hosted blog ideas (free open source software).
The Solution is Self Hosted WordPress.org blog
Even though WordPress is bigger (and potentially better) than those two, here are my reasons why you should go with WordPress anyway:
- Use is free (open source).
- With hundreds of free (and premium) blog themes, it is very versatile.
- It has a wide Group of developers.
- Really easy to install and is safe to use.
- Tons of free themes and models (I’m not joking, gazillions are in there).
- In case you get stuck (you won’t, but it is good to have it there if you need it) there is a big support site.
- Your blog is going to be crazy fast and it’s going to look like functionality and shape too-great!
- People are simple to communicate with. They can share your content, comment on it, and so on.
It will cost only a few dollars a month for the web space (hosting account), and a custom domain name would cost about ten dollars a year. The actual Software for blogging is free.
Current WordPress figures (Editors’ Choice) for 2020:
- WordPress accounted for 35% of the Internet in 2020, a 2% increase compared to early 2019, and a 4% increase compared to the previous year.
- If you just count the sites generated by CMS, then about 60% of them are WordPress.
- Every month more than 400 million people visit WordPress pages.
- A quick 118 billion words have been published on WordPress in 2016.
- Yet WordPress is not all blogging-almost 28% of all e-commerce goes via WooCommerce.
- Averaging 281 new WooCommerce shops every day.
- 61 WordPress pages pop up every day, too.
- WordPress.org has more than 50,000 plugins and more than 3,500 GPL-licensed themes.
- The non-English WordPress downloads have been higher than the English ones in 2018.
If you’re planning to run advertisements, or offer goods or services through your blog, then this is the best way forward. A lot of hosting companies will help you keep an e-commerce blog.
Step 3 – Choose a Great Domain and Reliable Web Hosting Plan for your Website
Depending on the premise you have selected WordPress, I’m going to press ahead, and if you haven’t, you ought. Really, this is the strongest one.
If you’re still a little confused about what a self-hosted blog is, let me explain, and how you can set up one for yourself.
You’ll need to get a domain name you need and select a hosting company that can host your blog as well.
- Domain: Essentially, the domain is the website’s URL. Examples: google.com (the Domain is Google.com), Facebook.com (the Domain is Facebook.com). Look? Simple, just that!
- Hosting: Essentially hosting is the service that puts the website up on the internet so that everyone else can access it. Anything on there will be saved. Think of it on the internet as a computer hard drive where your blog is safe.
Pick a Great Domain Name
First things: Choosing a blog domain to start a blog. Where can people find you online? You are your brand as a writer so we suggest that you use some variation of your name.
No matter what niche you pick, your domain name will be the name by which you will be known online. This is the exclusive Internet address for your blog. Your domain will be yours as long as you continue to pay the annual charge for a.com domain ($7 to $15 per annum).
Personally, I use Hostinger (for my hosting and blog domain), and I have nothing but positive things to say about it. if you are going with Hostinger hosting you can get a Domain name for free.
The widely famous “dot com” could be your domain name, or it may be country or niche-specific. The general rule is to go for a domain with a “dot com,” but some of the other extensions can work. For example, “dot net” or “dot blog”
Chose your Domain name here: Hostinger Domain
Choose a Reliable Hosting Provider
Hostinger has been suggested for years as a site/web hosting and the domain registrar.
You’ll get (account gets enabled instantly) from Hostinger:
- The custom domain name (free for 1st year), with SSL (security) certificate.
- Hosting the Website ($2.75 / mo+)
- Quick, one-click WordPress install
- Free email addresses, such as your.name@yourdomain.com
- Free SSL for your security
You should only be a few minutes away from beginning your blogging journey by simply following these few steps.
- Go to Hostinger.com and click on the button “Sign up now.” When you sign up today, you will get an exclusive discount of 60%. The deal goes for all visitors to Nob6.com.
- Use the site Domain name. For my example, I used the domain name www. YourNewAwesomeWebsite.com. You can choose from a wide range of choices and types of domain names (such as:.net,.org,.com, or.co.uk).
- Enter your personal information to complete the enrolment process. Name, address, email address, and payment form are added – Hostinger accepts credit cards or PayPal
- Select an appropriate package for the hosting. You can subscribe for 1 year, 2 years, or even 3 years. If you’re just starting out and learning the ropes, then choosing 1 or 2 years could make more sense.
Privacy at the domain is optional. Tick the option if you wish to keep your website fully anonymous. If you don’t want to stay anonymous, untick the tool and you’ll be saving another $9.99 a year.
< Go To HostInger Offer Page >
If you wish to go with another hosting site it is up to you. Here we are suggesting some more hosting sites to start a blog.
Step 4 – Install WordPress and Configure Your WordPress Blog
Install WordPress
Please use these simple one-click guides for install WordPress in Hostgator.
1. Sign in to Hostgator and guide yourself to the control panel.
2. Click on the QuickInstall icon in the Application section.
3. You can then click on the one-click Install option on this page.
4. Click on the WordPress button next.
5. and use the drop-down menu, you selected the domain on which WordPress should be installed, as well as any subdirectories from which you would like the site to be loaded if you so wish.
Example: If you wish the WordPress URL to be example.com/site rather than example.com.
6. Fill in the form that appears with the following information:
- Write the Website name for the Blog Name. This is what will appear as the site’s name in the header.
- Please enter your desired username for Admin Username.
- Your first and last name
- For Admin Email, enter an email address to which you want to send the admin password. Make sure this is an email address that works.
- Search the Service Agreement Terms box next to them.
- When you are ready to proceed press the orange Update button.
7. A progress bar will let you know how your installation is going. When full, click Your Admin URL, Username, and Password Details:
Once you have your credentials, and the installation is complete, you can start working on your WordPress site! Review the WordPress username and password for your account, as well as a link to your WordPress login page.
And, Congratulations, you have done it!
Configure Your WordPress Blog
When you have all set up your WordPress admin account (the previous step), you can start to access your new dashboard:
Go to yourdomain.com/wp-admin, and enter your admin account’s access information. When you have signed in you can see this:
Remember, the back end of your WordPress dashboard is where you’ll be running your new blog. It gives you easy access to all of the tools you need to add content and fine-tune your blog features for the ultimate user experience. Your first step towards WordPress mastering is understanding the Dashboard.
General Settings of WordPress Blog
- Site Title: Start by going to the left sidebar on your WordPress Dashboard and clicking on Settings → General. Here you can set your blog title. Put Your Business name here.
- Tagline: With one short paragraph, think of it as a rundown of what your blog is about. For example: “Find the best hotel in the USA”
- Permalink: Just go to the Permalinks section of Settings. Set your permalinks to the variant “Post name” while there, like this:
Step 5 – Design Your Blog
In this general blog customizations section, we are including such things as Logo uploading, editing blog title and tagline, uploading the background image, changing blog colors, and making changes to homepage settings.
Install A WordPress Theme
The best part about WordPress is that you can always get a top-shelf look for your blog even though you might not be a professional designer yourself.
How? Thanks to thousands of WordPress themes out there on the site. Best of all, many of them are free, and you can easily customize them (without any information about coding).
Go to your dashboard and navigate to Appearance and click on Themes
Here you can use the default theme or choose a theme from a large WordPress Theme panel.
What you’ll see is the most popular Free WordPress theme on the platform. And the best part is that with only one click you can install all of those.
Go ahead and search this page for a while to find something that really suits your business and the key reason behind your new blog.
Also, when you start to design your blog you can always choose a new theme later. Each of the web pages and original content you create will automatically be moved to a new theme interface.
Customize settings like Logo, Change Colors and Structure
Because the WordPress theme you have chosen to use already comes with its pre-configured basic design, you can still change parts of it to suit you.
Go to the WordPress dashboard to launch the customization of your blog. Locate the on the left side of the Appearance tab and select the Customize option.
Every WordPress theme will configure somewhat differently. In my case, I’ll show you the Twenty Twenty theme customization choices.
You can see the following Configure menu options on the left-hand side:
- Site Identity: Download the username, change the title and tagline of the web, and download the icon.
- Colors: Switch the background color, header, and footer colors of your blog and customize the primary color.
- Menus: Customize the menu of your blog, links to the social media page, and alter the places in which they appear.
- Widgets: Customize the content of your footer, add an overview of the site, and how to find yourself if you have a physical location.
- Homepage settings: Pick what’s seen on your blog homepage. It could be your most recent posts (classic blog), or a static link.
- Additional CSS: Use your own CSS code to customize your blog’s appearance and layout (advanced option).
- Theme options: Many themes have options for themes if customize panel. Choose whether you want to show a search icon in your blog header and show an author profile for articles.
Add plugins to your blog
Plugins are packaged block of software which affect how your blog looks and works. You can add new functionality to your blog, expand the capabilities of your theme, and customize your blog as a whole or in part.
Simple Steps to Install WordPress Plugin:
- Go to your Admin tab on WordPress.
- Go to the > Add New Plugins.
- In the Search option, type the search form WordPress plugin name or descriptive keyword, tag, or author, or select a link under the search form below.
- Find the plugin you want to install on WordPress.
- Click Specifics to learn more about the plugin, and instructions that you might want to print or save to help set up the plugin.
- Press Download Now for plug-in installation. A popup window will ask you to confirm that you want the plugin enabled.
- If this is the first time you have installed a WordPress plugin, you may need to enter the password details for the FTP login. If you have To do so, go to your dashboard for WordPress and then go to Add New Pages. What you’ll see is WordPress’s main page edit screen: To do so, go to your dashboard for WordPress and then go to Add New Pages. What you’ll see is WordPress’s main page edit screen: before, you can already store the login information.
- Select Go to installation to proceed. The subsequent installation screen lists the installation as complete or notes any problems during installation.
- Click Activate Plugin to disable it if successful; or Return to Plugin Installer for additional action.
Step 6 – Create pages and Post your first Post
You may want to make sure your static pages (such as About Us, Contact, etc.) and other sections of your blog (Sidebar, Footer, etc.) are filled with correct details before you start writing your day-to-day blog posts. it was a main part of start a blog.
Let’s discuss each of those areas of content:
Create New Pages for your blog
Now, having an idea of what kind of pages you would like, let’s talk about how to actually build them.
Surprisingly, the method of making a new WordPress website is the same no matter what kind of website it is.
To do so, go to your dashboard for WordPress and then go to Add New Pages.
On the create page section you can create pages for your blog. You must be added three pages for starting your blog as mention below:
- Homepage: The type of blog layout you select depends on that. As I’ve mentioned above, you can choose to view your blog homepage as a static page when you customize your site. You’ll need to plan material for this in that situation.
- About us: This page is the most conventional page on any site. This page tells new blog visitors what it’s all about, who you are, and why you’re running a blog about your niche subject.
- Contact Us: This page helps you to connect with visitors to your blog. With your email address plus your social network links, it can be a clear website, or you can use a quick contact form that visitors can use to connect with you.
Add your first Blog Post
The accessibility of the blog is really one of the key elements of the WordPress CMS. That’s why WordPress has a whole separate section devoted to blog posts being created and written.
You can find it from the main WordPress dashboard sidebar if you go to Posts:
Follow these simple steps to write a post:
- Sign in to your WordPress Administration (Dashboard) page.
- Tap on the “Post” tab.
- Tap Sub-Tab ‘Add New.’
- Start filling in the blanks: enter your post title in the top field and insert your post body content in the edit box underneath.
- Select a category as appropriate, add tags, and make more selections from the sections below the article. (Each segment is explained below.)
- Click Publish when you’re Finished.
Start your blog and enhance it
Congratulations, Mr. Leader. You can get your new blog started now!
Wasn’t that hard, was it?
If you have any questions about this “start a blog” guide, leave a comment below and we’re going to help you out.