[Step – By – Step] Guide To Start A WordPress Blog
Want to start a WordPress blog? This article is your ultimate guide to start a successful blog.
Right from selecting your web host to tips and tricks to grow as a blogger, will be covered under this in-depth article.
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Table Of Content
How To Select A Domain & Web Host
In this chapter we will learn how to select our domain and buy the perfect hosting for our needs.
Both these steps are crucial technical steps, hence I have added a lot of screenshots to aid you.
Lets get started with starting a successful WordPress Blog. It has several steps and a few can get a bit technical.
But worry not I will go through the article step by step to install your WordPress blog.
The reason we need a domain and a web host is because we will be installing WordPress.
WordPress is a CMS (Content Management Platform) that will help us build a blog that is highly customizable and easy to rank in search pages.
Quick Navigation:
Why We Need WordPress
WordPress is the world most used CMS platform.
Approximately 35% of the websites are powered by WordPress.
There are many other CMS platform like Blogspot, Wix, Tumblr etc, but no platform gives you as many customization and full control of your blog like WordPress does.
And the biggest advantage that WordPress has is its ability to rank high on Google even for new blogs.
Hence ensuring a lot of organic traffic which results in more conversions.
Benefits Of WordPress
Lets discuss how WordPress will be beneficial to you as a blogger.
- WordPress sites are proven to rank higher on Google
- You can customize the look of your site without any coding language
- Access to millions of plugins and themes to add various functionality
- Huge WordPress community to help you with various WordPress related doubts
If you really want to be a successful blogger and get rewarded for the time and efforts you will be putting in, it is highly recommended you start blogging on WordPress.
WordPress gives you a huge boost compared to other CMS platforms.
If you have an advantage why not use it and become a world class blogger.
How To Select & Register A Domain
A domain name is the readable IP address of your blog.
For example bloggingwand.com is a domain.
A domain name is divided into two parts – the blog name and the blog extension.
To select a blog name you can brainstorm ideas and come up with a creative and an unique name.
You can use leandomainsearch.com to generate unique blog names in a few seconds.
The next step is to finalize a domain extension. It is recommended to use a .com extension or if you are targeting a specific country, you can use country specific extensions like .in
Tips To Select A Domain Name
- Always try to register a .com domain
- Select a brandable name
- Don’t let the name be too long
- Avoid use of hyphens and numbers
- Try to include your seed keyword in the domain name, for example blogging is the seed keyword in my niche and hence my blog name is bloggingwand
Register Domain With NameCheap
Now let’s register our domain with an reputed domain seller.
Namecheap is one of the oldest domain name providers who offers domains at a very reasonable price.
Also Namecheap offers a FREE Whois Privacy which will protect your details on the internet forever.
So let’s begin with the process of registering our domain with Namecheap.
STEP 1:
Go to namecheap.com and click on Domains in the top navigation bar
STEP 2:
Type the domain name you have selected and click on the search button.
STEP 3:
If .com is available you can continue to register by clicking on “Add To Cart”.
If your domain is not available, you can either select a different domain extension or choose a different blog name.
STEP 4:
Continue towards the checkout page and don’t add any addons to your cart. From Namecheap we only need a domain.
Namecheap offers a FREE LIFETIME "WHOIS Protection" which means your personal details are protected and hidden for life.
Register your unique domain today - Click Here
STEP 5:
Namecheap will ask you to register a new account and then you will proceed towards payment.
Complete the payment and you shall get a Welcome Email from Namecheap.
Congratulations, you have successfully registered your own domain.
To find your domain, login in the Namecheap dashboard and you can either find in the “Domains List” or in your dashboard under “Recently Active in Your Account”
Now that we have successfully registered a domain, lets move to purchasing a web host and then installing WordPress on it.
How To Choose A Web Host
Think of web host as a hard disk for your website where all the data is stored.
Now the speed of your laptop or pc depends on the quality of hard disk you are using.
Similarly a web host decides the loading speed and hence the SERP ranking of your page since web loading speed is a major ranking factor for search engines.
We need a web host i.e affordable, has fast servers, minimal downtime and has great customer support service.
The best web host I can recommend to beginners is A2Hosting
Here are a few features that would hopefully help you in making a decision:
1) A2hosting uses SSD for faster loading times
2) A FREE SSL certificate for google trust factor
3) Your money is safe with 30 days money back guarantee.
4) Be assured of 24/7 customer care service
5) Get an expert migration team to migrate your blog from other hosts for FREE
6) 99.9% uptime guarantee
7) Get Cpanel access for free
8) Free HackScan Protection to secure your WordPress Blog
You can read the complete review on A2hosting here:
A2Hosting Review: Fast And Affordable Hosting For Beginners
How To Buy And Get 66% Discount
A2Hosting offers four plans:
1. Start Up – Hosts 1 website with unlimited storage
2. Drive – Hosts unlimited website without Turbo Speed
3. Turbo Boost – Hosts unlimited website with 20x Speed
4. Turbo Max – Hosts unlimited website with 20X speed and 5x resources.
It is recommended to go for the Drive Plan as it will help you host unlimited blogs, making it easier for you start multiple blogs at once.
STEP 1:
Go to A2hosting.com and under Shared Hosting select the Drive plan or any other plan that suits your requirement.
STEP 2:
In the next step you have to enter the domain you have registered with Namecheap under “I will use my existing domain and update my nameservers”
STEP 3:
You will be shown a summary of your items. Also given below will be a few options. Please tick according to your needs. But if you ask my opinion do not select any extra add-ons. Keep it simple.
STEP 4:
Finally you will be shown an order checkout page with your order summary on the right. The most important thing to do here is to check if the coupon code is applied and you are getting a 66% discount.
Similar to Namecheap, A2Hosting will send you a welcome email, with your account details.
The important thing to note in this is the nameservers. We will have to copy and paste these nameservers to our domain, so that our domain will point to the files hosted on A2Hosting.
Connect A2Hosting & Domain
Its necessary we connect our domain to our web host. This is done via nameservers.
Nameserver is the address of web host. So we need to point our domain to our we host.
Once we connect our domain to the nameservers via “A record”, our domain will show the files hosted on our web host.
STEP 1:
Keep the nameservers ready. You can get the nameservers from your A2Hosting via welcome email or you can view the name server information for your account at https://my.a2hosting.com.
Nameservers and their IP addresses are listed in the Product Details of each product.
STEP 2:
Go to Namecheap dashboard > Domain Listing (left sidebar) and click on the “Manage button”.
STEP 3:
Once on the Domain Management tab, under “Nameservers”, select “Custom DNS” from the dropdown.
Once on the Domain Management tab, under “Nameservers”, select “Custom DNS” from the dropdown.
Copy and paste the nameservers provided to you by A2Hosting. Once you have pasted all the nameservers, click the save icon on the right hand side.
That’s it!
You have successfully configured your nameservers to point to your web host.
DNS change doesn’t happen instantly. It takes between 24 hours to 48 hours to propagate to the entire world.
You can use https://dnschecker.org/ to check your propagation status.
Chapter 2
Install WordPress and Select A Theme
Now that we have our domain and hosting set up, it is time to install WordPress and select the best theme for your blog.
Quick Navigation:
- How To Install WordPress On A2Hosting
- How To Select A WordPress Theme
- How To Install Astra Theme
How To Install WordPress On A2Hosting
STEP 1:
Go to https://my.a2hosting.com/ and login with your details.
On your dashboard under Products & Services click on “Manage”
STEP 2 :
Click on the “Login To Cpanel” on the left sidebar.
STEP 3:
Look for Softaculous Tab and click on the WordPress – A2Hosting Optimized option.
STEP 4 :
Scroll down until you see the Install Now button
STEP 5 :
Please look at the image below and the details associated to the fields is given below.
- Make sure the correct root domain is selected with https://
- Under site settings, enter your site name and description
- VERY IMPORTANT: Choose a username,password and email for you to login to your WordPress dashboard.
- Keep the language English or if you want to change it, you surely can.
- Click on the install button. As a precaution you can send the installation details to your other email which will contain your WordPress site login details.
You can now see your site live on your domain.
To login to the WordPress dashboard, yourdomain.com/wp-admin
Once on the page, login with the username and password you used via installing WordPress.
How To Select A WordPress Theme
The next step after installing WordPress is finding a suitable WordPress theme for you.
The perfect WordPress theme for bloggers is Astra Pro – its both lightweight and SEO optimized plus it comes with 100+ pre designed themes to get you started.
Astra Pro theme is both fast loading and SEO optimized. It is one of the fastest growing theme in the market.
Astra Pro comes bundled with starter templates which will help you install unique look to your blog in just a matter of few clicks.
How To Install Astra Pro
Installing Astra is straight forward.
Go to their official website and grab the pro version. (You can obviously go for the free version, but upgrading to the pro version is highly recommended)
STEP 1:
Get special 20% off using this link – Click Here and get the Astra Pro plan.
STEP 2:
Next you will be redirected to the cart page where you will asked to make an account and complete the payment.
STEP 3:
Congratulations on your new Astra Pro purchase, you shall have received an email from the Brainstorm team.
It will also include the instructions to install Astra & activate the pro license.
STEP 4 :
Go to your Brainstorm downloads page and download Astra Theme & Astra Pro Addon
STEP 5 :
Let’s install Astra Pro now in your WordPress blog. Go to WordPress Dashboard > Appearance > Themes and click on Upload theme.
Browse for the Astra Theme file you downloaded and click on the upload button.
STEP 6 :
Next step is to go to themes and activate the Astra theme
STEP 7:
Now let’s activate the Astra Pro plugin. Hover over Plugins > Add New Plugins > Choose new file and select astra-addon-plugin that you downloaded earlier.
Click on the install button and the Astra Pro Addon should be installed on your WordPress blog.
STEP 8:
Now to activate the Astra Pro license, go to https://store.brainstormforce.com/licenses/ and copy the license key for Astra Pro.
STEP 9:
Go to WordPress dashboard > Appearance > Astra Options
Once the page loads, on top right sidebar you will see an activation window. Paste your license key and activate it.
If you have copy pasted your license correctly, you shall see the following message,
Our blog is live !!!
Congratulations, you have successfully completed the technical part of blogging. Now have learn to register a domain, buy a hosting and point it towards your domain using A records.
Then we installed WordPress and a premium theme – Astra Pro.
To customize the look of your blog and to learn about all the features of Astra Pro you can refer to their theme documents.
Install Essential WordPress Plugins
Once your WordPress blog is up and running, it is very important to set up your WordPress blog with the right set of Plugins.
In this section, I have mentioned the entire list of plugins which is a must have for any WordPress site.
Let’s start with the list of plugins your WordPress blog must have.
1.) Elementor – An all in one plugin for bloggers to custom design their blog without having any coding knowledge. Make your blog look the way you want to.
The form feature which makes collecting leads is my favorite.
I have designed BloggingWand entirely from scratch using Elementor.
To know more about Elementor read my in depth guide – Elementor Review: A Page Builder That Every Blogger Needs
(Make sure you sign up for Google Analytics and Google Search Console and install their respective scripts using the Header and Footer Script.)
3.) RankMath SEO – Plugins are what makes WordPress so functional. You can easily make your blog optimized for search engines by using a plugin called RankMath SEO. It is a free plugin which helps you configure your website high on search engine pages like Google.
It is a must have plugin for any WordPress blog!
4.) Updraft Plus – WordPress sites are vulnerable to attacks and also database errors. To prevent losing your site data, use a FREE plugin called as UpdraftPlus.
To understand how it works, refer to my article – UpdraftPlus Review: Most Trusted WordPress Backup Plugin
I recommend you to get the one time deal so as to save money.
Use this special link to get 100 credits free – https://bwand.in/shortpixel
6.) W3 Total Cache – To speed up your website, it is essential to have a caching plugin. W3 Total Cache is the best free plugin in the WordPress plugins directory. Install it to enable caching for your blog.
The plugins I have mentioned above are a must have for any new blog that I start.
You can choose the WordPress plugins according to your need.
But keep in mind, if you install a lot of plugins, your blog’s loading speed would be impacted.
Chapter 4
Writing Your Blog Pages
Whenever you start a new blog, there are a couple of pages that a blog must have.
These blog pages help establish your blog as a brand and also help in getting approved for Adsense and other affiliate programs.
It is essential to publish certain blog pages for your blog to look professional and to provide complete information about your blog.
About Page
The About Page should include information about you as a author and the purpose for which the blog was started.
And remember this is not an interview introduction, its your own blog, be free to write it in your own style. Share your stories and connect with the readers.
Few pointers to help you write an epic About Me Page:
- Share your story ,example , where you belong from and how you came up with an idea to start your blog.
- What is the purpose of your blog
- Mistakes you made and how to avoid them.
- Place social media buttons and an email newsletter signup box to increase leads.
Contact Page
A contact page is very important. If your reader or an advertiser wants to contact you, they can quickly do so from your contact page.
On your contact page other than writing your email id or your postal address, the more modern way is to place a contact form.
Placing a contact form on your page is an ease if your already using Elementor PRO
With Elementor you can style your blogs contact page with ease. It also comes with pre-made contact templates.
The alternative is to use a plugin called – Contact Form 7.
Privacy Policy And Disclaimer
After the GDPR law that was passed in May 2018, it is complusory to show your blogs privacy policy and make readers accept it.
Both privacy policy and disclaimer pages needs legal advice buy you can use the following websites to get both Privacy Policy and Disclaimer.
Other Pages
Now the other pages that you could have on your blog, depends on the niche of your blog.
For example, I tend to have the following pages on my blog,
1. ) Tools – A page dedicated to showcase all the tools that I use to generate income from my blog (my tools page).
2.) Resources – A page that shows all the resources that could be helpful in your blogging niche for your readers.
3.) Start Here – You can guide the readers to start reading your blog from a particular page. This gives you a chance to direct the readers into potential clients. You can guide them to success in your blogging niche and in return can make money through commissions.
These are the list of pages, that I suggest you should have on your blog. It helps in making the readers acquainted with your blog also when you apply for Adsense or any other affiliate programs, the respective companies feel comfortable in accepting your blog as their partner.
Chapter 5
Make Money Blogging
Whatever your reason might be for starting a blog, making a decent earning from your blog will always be your goal.
In this chapter we will discuss the various aspects of making money from your blog.
Although making money from your blog shouldn’t be your first aim, you should have a clear plan about monetizing your blog.
The first step to monetizing your blog is getting consistent traffic to your blog and then building an active community around your blog.
Once you have built an active community around your blog, you can start monetizing your blog.
In this chapter we will be discussing how to make money from your blog.
REMEMBER, your income from blogging should be passive, i.e your bank balance should keep on increasing even in your sleep.
Let’s discuss in brief the different ways of monetizing your blog.
Quick Navigation
- Affiliate Marketing
- CPC Ads
- Selling Adspace
Affiliate Marketing
The best way for a newbie to make money from blogging is Affiliate Marketing. Affiliate marketing has helped me reach six figure earnings from my blog.
How affiliate marketing works is pretty simple,
You get paid every time you refer a customer to a company using special links.
For example,
https://www.a2hosting.com/web-hosting?aid=5c915ff04fb1c
If anybody buys a hosting through this link, I will get paid a commission for the sale.
The last part (aid=5c915ff04fb1c) is what is the identifier for the company that a sale has been completed because it went through me.
To make money from affiliate marketing, I can recommend you to find a product that suits your niche and it solves a mass problem in your niche.
This way a need is created for the product and you get paid via commissions for it.
CPC Ads
CPC ads stands for “Cost Per Click” i.e everytime an user clicks on a particular banner, you get paid.
The best CPC Ads program is Adsense.
Adsense is developed and managed by Google themselves.
The price of per click varies from blog to blog.
You can start earning form Google Adsense if you have been approved via Google.
Download FREE Adsense Checklist - Click Here
Selling Adspace
Once you have decent traffic coming to your blog, you can start to think of selling your sidebar / post area for ads.
This is a solid way of earning cash, as advertisers are looking for dominant blogs in their product niche.
Once you have established yourself in your niche as an expert, you can apply for various programs or approach brands directly.
One website that I have used in the past and has got me decent money is – Adclerks.com
Similarly, you can also opt for paid promotions for products and write their reviews.
But make sure to maintain the integrity of your blog and think about your readers first. Building trust with them is an very important aspect of blogging.
To know more about how to make money blogging, read my in depth guide on ultimate guide on how to make money blogging
Chapter 6
How To Become A Successful Blogger
Simply starting a blog is not enough to become a successful blogger.
You have to adopt the RIGHT blogging style to succeed in this very competitive space.
Lets me guide you in this chapter.
Once you have started blogging, you cannot expect get thousands of visitors per day or generate six figures from the first day itself.
You have to be patient and take one day at a time.
At the same time you have to keep learning as there are a lot of moving pieces here.
You single handedly are going to manage content writing, blog design, images, SEO etc and are going to compete with the big guns in the search engine pages.
So yes its going to be difficult, but your main moto should be learning and evolving with the technology.
So in this particular chapter I am going to tell you what skills you have to develop and master so as to become a winning blogger.
Let’s get started,
Quick Navigation:
- Content Writing
- Building An Email List
- Mastering SEO
Content Writing
As a blogger, the most important skill that you need to develop is content writing.
What is content writing?
The art of presenting information is a presentable manner which entices the reader and keeps them on your blog.
For you to be a good content writer and in turn a good blogger, you need to learn the art of story telling.
Remember how as children we were so excited to hear stories from our teachers and parents.
Similary, stories in your blog will make readers glued to your blog posts.
You can also make use of proven content writing templates such as the A.I.D.A tempalte.
I have mentioned more about it on my Instagram page – @bloggingwand
Building An Email List
A blogger is a one man army. Getting traffic to your blog is difficult and takes a lot of effort.
So it is vital to retain that traffic and build a community around it.
The best way to do that is via email marketing.
Get started with email marketing for FREE with Get Response
Email marketing is not tough. You have to focus on growing your email list continuously.
Here are the best proven steps to grow your email list:
- Offer freebies to attract more subscribers to your email list
- Place signup forms on your homepage, sidebar and below posts.
- Use popups with a eye-catching headline to get visitors to sign up.
- Use paid ads to promote your freebie and get subscribers in your funnel.
- Follow 80/20 rule while sending emails to increase word of mouth referrals.
Mastering SEO
As a blogger, you need to learn the art of getting more organic traffic.
Initially when your blog is brand new, give it at least three months before you start expecting any results.
Meanwhile, make sure you are signed up and using the following services:
- Google Analytics
- Search Console
- Facebook Pixel
- RankMath Plugin
With these plugins you can track your visitors and analyze your blogs growth.
Next to get better at SEO, you need to learn about Long Tail Keywords.
Why are they important?
– Less competition
– Easier to rank
– Highly targeted traffic
Finding long tail keywords is a lengthy process and you really have to go deep into the entire process.
But a tool called SemRush can really simply this for you. You can watch this quick video to understand how easy it is to find long tail money making keywords.
Get started with a 7 days FREE trial worth 99$
Next is writing epic content that readers will love to read.
Because ultimately content is king!
Once you have done so, make sure you have optimized your blog for search engines.
I have covered everything about SEO in this detailed guide.
The Complete SEO Guide For Blogger
Hopefully I was able to able to cover all the topics you need to know when you want to start a blog.
So the next step instead of going through more articles and videos is to take action.
Its time to believe in yourself and start a blog from scratch.
Dream BIG, Start SMALL. But most importantly START.
You will never start, if you leave reading this blog post and keep searching for more information.
What you have learnt in this lengthy blog post is exactly what you need to start your own blog.
Blogging can help you earn tons of passive income and finally you can get out of the boring 9 – 5 JOB.
For students, take help from the elderly in your house, make them understand your vision, and I am sure they will be happy to support you.
This is it from my side, Tanmay Kapse signing OFF.
See you on the other side ❤️
Get personal 1 on 1 training to start your own profitable blog
Tanmay Kapse
Don’t make the same mistakes as other beginners.
Start your perfect blog step by step with the right guidance. I am a commercial pilot and an experienced blogger with tons of hands on experience.
