#stepbysteptutorialtoblogging

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How to Start a Wordpress Blog in 2018 : Complete Guide (updated)

Starting a blog is the best way to build your online presence. If you want to know how to start a Wordpress blog from or if you looking to learn how to create a blog on WordPress in 2018 step-by-step, with images then you landed at the right post. In this post, I will guide you with the exact instructions on how to start a blog on Wordpress in 2018 with help of images. I know that starting a new blog could be scary for you if you are not a tech guy. That's why I have created this comprehensive guide on how a beginner can start a WordPress blog without any technical knowledge and can become a successful blogger. Starting a WordPress blog from scratch is not tough at all. I will show you that setting up a WordPress blog and becoming a blogger is not difficult than people think. Check This: How to Create a Free Blog on Blogger.com Blogging Platform By the end of this post, I will remove the fear from your mind that creating a blog with WordPress is really very complicated and expensive. This step by step guide will be the best WordPress blogging tutorial for you if you follow my instructions on how to set up a WordPress blog. Every person or business has a blog these days and lots of people/businesses are starting blogs every day. So why you should not? Just be ready to work a bit hard to learn the methods of your first blog’s beginning. This guide will help you understand the basics of blog and blogging.  It will also help you in choosing your niche and blogging topics. It will also help you in improving your blog performance as well.  Let's start with Beginner's step by step guide to blogging.

Why Do You Need Blog?

Do you need a blog? Well, it depends on person to person. But my answer to this question is “YES”. Everyone who wants one of the strongest tools to boost their online presence should do blogging and should have their own blog. It really helps you to build your online presence. Blogging is one of the most popular ways of communicating and spreading the news. Blogging makes you a better thinker, a better writer; it is a fantastic way to share information with others PLUS it also helps you in making money online.  Also Read: How to Get More Followers on Twitter - Top 23 Amazing Tips If you are a business owner then it also helps you in getting more clients and business. Blogging is one of the essential parts to boost online business in any industry. Blogs are really a great way to measure the success of your business whether it is online or offline. The blog also helps you to strengthen your relationships with your clients and audience. It helps you to present your thoughts in front of your audience and at the same time, you also know their reactions. Blogging is usually a public-facing event that we engage in with the sole purpose of gaining readership.

Can You Make Money Online From Wordpress Blog?

Yes, you can use your blog to make money online. Blogging helps you with online money making. There are a lot of bloggers who are insanely earning very well and are able to make their living on blogging. People are offering services, selling products from their blog and using Google Adsense programs to monetize your blog. If you are able to make your blog famous then can also monetize your blog with ads and earn money from blogging like other bloggers doing. Also read: 4 Best Link Building Techniques for 2018

Find your Niche & Identify your interest

To start a successful WordPress blog first you need to identify your interest so that you can write better content. Ask yourself that what are you passionate about? Try to find your knowledge, passion, interest or enthusiasm about any topic. It will help you in producing a good content that could help your audience. Your passion could be anything, it could be some technical language that you think people are looking for, any programming codes those can help out people. Any knowledge on any particular topic that can help people i.e. Marketing knowledge, Interview questions and answers, HR discussions and so on. You can write about some special skillsets and also on some motivational things & incidents those can inspire your audiences. Ask yourself these questions before finalizing the topic: Do you have interest in that topic? Do you have knowledge of that topic? Are you ready to explore that topic? Are you ready to learn more things on that topic? Is there any audience for that topic? Will that topic be useful for your audience? Will that topic generate user engagement? Once you can provide satisfactory answers to yourself on these questions then you are good to go and I am sure, you will generate a good user engagement. Few people know what they want to blog about but most of the people do not have the clear vision of what topic should they write. Just to help those people on how to set up a blog, I am sharing some broad blogging topics. These topics will/may help you choose your blogging niche. You can create blogs easily based on these niches but again you have to select something that you would not get bored and are ready to learn more about. Here is the small list of broad blogging topics and categories - Beginner’s Guide Blogs Recipes Blogs Travel Blog How To’s Blog Parenthood Blog Personal Stories Product Reviews Money Making Online Blogs Health and Fitness Blogs Beauty and Fashion Gaming Music Educational Sports Jokes and Humor Lifestyle Dating Blogs Blog for Learning Languages Spirituality Blogs Politics Blog Agriculture Blogs Events Blogs Do It Yourself (DIY) Blogs Entertainment Blogs Jobs or Vacancies Blogs News Blog Charity Celebrities Real Estate Car Bikes Technology Photography  

Image Credit - neilpatel.com Either you can choose any above-suggested category or niche for your blog or maybe anything else that you are interested in. Blogging topic or niche does not matter as long as you enjoy your blogging topic, so feel free to experiment with few and see what happens and matches best with your interest.

How to Create a Blog in WordPress Step by Step

Let’s have a look at the step by step guide to start your first WordPress blog. I am going to tell you the necessary steps to build a successful blog. I assure you that after reading this whole tutorial, you will be aware of How To Do Blogging. You will also be able to go ahead and build a blog for you as well. Things you need to start a WordPress blog Get a suitable domain name Get a suitable web hosting Choose a blogging platform Design your blog Write your first blog post Make your blog Search Engine friendly Grab Social Media identities with social media buttons Make money from your blog In this Comprehensive Tutorial, I will answer: How to register the domain name for free? How to choose a web hosting service? How to Install WordPress? How to design your blog? How to write your first blog post? How to make your WordPress blog search engine friendly? How to make money from your blog?

Get a Suitable Domain Name

The first thing that you need to do is to get a domain name for your Wordpress blog. Domain – This is the name of the website that you put in the web browser. Example –  Facebook.com,  Wikipedia,  Google.com and so on. http://www.linkerscreative.com/advantages-and-disadvantages-of-facebook/ By domain name, you will be known online. Select the domain that suits your topics, interests or your niche. Things to keep in mind before buying domain names: - Use short names and keep domain name simple. It helps readers to can easily remember them. Always find a domain name in your industry, niche or as per your brand. Prefer Dot Com (.com) domains but alternative domain extensions are also okay. There are more than 400 other domain extensions that you can check if you do not find your desired domain on DOT Com (.com) extension. Keep your domain easy to spell and descriptive for your users. Avoid using hyphens or numbers in domain unless it is necessary. Always make sure that your domain name is pronounceable. Do not confuse your audience. Make sure that your domain name makes sense. A senseless domain name will not attract the audience. How much will domain name Cost? A suitable DOT Com (.com) domain name may cost you around $10 - $15 per year depending on the name that you choose and this is a huge amount for beginners who are just starting out. I personally recommend Bluehost. It’s an official Wordpress recommended hosting provider offering free domains with over 60% discount on hosting as well. You can get the free domain and web hosting at the same place with 60% off. Claim This Exclusive Bluehost Offer

Get a Suitable Web Hosting

After getting the domain name, the next thing that you need to do is to get a hosting for your blog. Web Hosting – Web Host is basically the company that keeps your website up on the internet so everyone else can see it from anywhere. A hosting is an online server which helps you to store your data. Things to keep in mind before buying Web Hosting: - Always buy hosting from a reliable web hosting company. Go to the web host that provides you unlimited space. Always go for unlimited hosting and unlimited bandwidth. Before going with any web hosting company, check how is their technical support or customer support. Check if they provide Control Panel (Cpanel), WHM. Nowadays almost every company is providing Cpanel to manage your hostings. Do they provide easy site builder (WordPress)? I personally highly recommend BlueHost as it is one of the best and recommended web hosting provider in the world plus they provide you the free domain with over 60% discount on web hosting. Bluehost is oldest, biggest and most well-known web hosting company. They are working with WordPress since 2005. Claim This Exclusive Bluehost Offer

Choose Your Blogging Platform (CMS)

You cannot start a blog without a blogging platform or CMS. A blogging platform is a system that gives shape and looks to your blog. You need to choose a blogging platform that can help you to add content/posts on your blog. You can find several options for the blogging platform. There are several free, freemium and self-hosted platforms. You can find several options for the blogging platform. There are several free, freemium and self-hosted platforms. But I use and recommend WordPress. I run all my blogs on self-hosted Wordpress because it is super simple and highly customizable. It is quite easy to install and configure blog on WordPress without having much technical knowledge of codes. This is self-hosted platform and it allows you to run your blog on your domain. Wordpress is quite easy to install. You can configure blog on WordPress without much technical knowledge of codes. This is self-hosted platform and it allows you to run your blog on your domain.

WordPress is free to use and also super easy to set up. It is very secure and customizable. It is just like Microsoft Word and working on it is quite simple. They give you a great visual editor with options like bold, color, font, hyperlinking, adding the image, adding media, formats etc. to modify your content. They give you a great visual editor with options like bold, color, font, hyperlinking, adding the image, adding media, formats etc. to modify your content. Wordpress is the most popular blogging platform in the world. World’s top million sites are powered by WordPress. Despite having the much technical knowledge you can create a very good blog and can modify that anytime. Self-hosted Wordpress is suitable for the following types of bloggers- Bloggers who want to monetize their blog and earn money online from blogging Bloggers who want to write about hobbies, stories etc.. Organizations who want blogs for their products and services Wordpress software can be downloaded from wordpress.org. You can also do single click installation from BlueHost when you go with their hosting package.

How to Design your Blog

Once the installation is completed, all you have to do to start blogging is to log in to your blog. Go to WP-Admin page or www.yourblog.com/wp-admin. Congrats!! Now you know how to make your first blog. It’s time to design your new blog. Once you are logged in you will be in the Wordpress admin section area. You will see an admin panel or dashboard that looks like this.

This is the place where you can start designing your blog. Now, I will tell you how to design your WordPress blog. The appearance of your blog is controlled by themes. You have to install a theme for your blog on WordPress to represent your blog the way you want. Even if you are not a technical person then also theme makes your design work lot easier. How to find and install theme You will get several interesting free and paid themes in Wordpress. Choose something that looks professional and is customizable, so that you can also make changes in your designs later on if you want. To install a free theme, mouse-over the “Appearance” tab and click on “Themes”.

  You will see few already installed themes on the next screen tab. If you want to find or add a new theme then click on “Add New” button at the top. You can find and install any theme that you like from here.

Once you install any theme then activate it by clicking “Activate” button on next screen. Once a theme is installed, you can customize it according to your way. For more info on theme installation, check the detailed guide on how to install a WordPress theme  WPBeginner.com. Once you install your desired theme then go ahead add some required plugins as per your need. Learn more about WordPress plugins. Plugins are very helpful in improving your blog’s functionality.

How to Write Your First Blog Post

Now it's time to publish your first blog post and do some blogging. To write your first blog post, click on "Posts" >> "Add New" menu in the dashboard.

An editor area will appear where you can write your blog post. Enter the "Title" in the title's section and start writing your first blog post.You can also add images, links to your blog post. Once you are done with writing, adding images and links then click on “Publish” button to publish your blog post. Also, add categories and tags to your blog post.

Make Your Blog Search Engine friendly

Search Engines do not like ugly URLs. In order to change your links setting, you need to go to “Settings" >> “Permalinks” and select “Post Name”  

Grab Social Media Identities With Social Media Buttons

Once you set up your blog on WordPress, the next thing is to pick your brand name or blog name on social media before it’s too late or gone. Grab all the possible social media identities for your blog.

Once you are able to establish social media presence then you need to add social media buttons to your blog so that people can like your blog posts and can share them as well. You will get several plugins to incorporate social media icons and share buttons on your blog. You can find the list of social media plugins and other must-have  WordPress plugins. In case if you face any trouble in setting up or install WordPress, theme, plugins then you can check this ultimate guide to get your queries sorted out. This will help you a lot in setting up WordPress.

How to Make Money From Your Blog

There are many ways to earn money from your blog. But before monetizing your blog you need to bring traffic. Once your blog is famous then you can to money blogging. Following are few ways to make money from your blog - Display Google Adsense ads Make money from Affiliate marketing Write product reviews to get paid Sell online courses on your blog to make money fast Sell ebooks on your blog Start consulting business Become a coach Sell Wordpress themes, products, services & ad space There are many other ways you can earn money from blogging. You need to explore other ways as well and you can make a lot of money from blogging.

How To Grow Your Wordpress Blog

To grow your WordPress blog keep writing. Your blog will only grow once you write for your blog. You just have to write posts and publish it to WordPress. To get writing ideas you have to research on the new topics and need to read about your subject. You are just one step away to open the door of blogging for you. Keep your blog posts optimized so that they can rank in search engines as well. Check out my other guide to rank your blog posts in the search engine.  Also Read: Secrets of Creating Viral Blog Posts

Tips to Make Your Blog Successful

Now you have created your desired blog and also writing posts, it is time to make your blog successful. Below are few points you need to after creating the blog - Create an "About Me" Page Add a Contact Page or Form on your Blog List your Blog on Search Engines (Google, Yahoo, Bing) Set Up Google Webmasters and Google Analytics for your blog (You can use Yoast Analytics for Google) Share your blog posts on Social Media Make your blog search engine friendly Make your blog posts search engine friendly (You can use Yoast Seo plugin to write effective Title and meta descriptions) Share your blog posts on Social Media sites Write Guest blog posts for other blogs to get more traffic Comment on other blogs in your niche Submit your blog to your niche directories

Conclusion

Now, you know all steps of how to set up a WordPress blog. I hope that you found this step by step guide to blogging helpful. Blogging and learning are never-ending processes. Keep writing new content and keep blogging. Additionally, you can share this post on social media. Leave comments below if you have any questions. I will answer all your questions in comments sections soon. Read the full article