Are you looking for a free, easy, step-by-step guide on how to start a blog without any technical knowledge?. WordPress is an excellent solution for that.
My free guide on this page will show you how to create a blog that is beautiful and functional, all in an easy step-by-step tutorial…! So take a glass of chilled water and relax!… You are at the right place and at the right time!
The first question one will ask is;
What is a blog anyway?
In short; I would say, A blog is a type of website that focuses mainly on written content, also known as blog posts. In popular culture we most often hear about news blogs or celebrity blog sites, but as you’ll see in this guide, you can start a successful blog on just about any topic imaginable.
Before I continue let me say this; To be successful as a blogger there is really just one requirement: a passion for your topic.
You don’t need to be a programmer, tech person or computer guru to start a WordPress blog.
I recommend blogging to even student. Also, you can start blogging with your phone until you are able to afford a Laptop.
What If I Don’t Want To Do It Myself ?
The process is easy to follow whether you are 18 years old or 50 years old. However, if you need help, I will help you set up your blog for free. Chat me Up On WhatsApp @ 08107984530, (Remember chat only) or Click Here to Get Your Free WordPress Blog Setup!
What guide do you need to start a WordPress blog?
There are three things you need to create a WordPress blog:
•A domain name idea (this will be the name of your blog i.e
Speedyminds.com )
•A web hosting account (this is where your website live on the internet)
•Your attention for 45 minutes.
Yes, you read it right. You can start a blog from scratch in less than 45 minutes, and I, Law P will walk you through the whole process, step by step.
In this tutorial, I will cover:
- How to Register a Domain Name
- How to Choose the Best Web Hosting
- How to Install WordPress
- How to select Your Theme
- How to Write Your First Blog Post
- How to Customize WordPress
- How to backup Data using plugin
- How to setup Google analytics Tracking
- How to optimise your blog for SEO
Ready?…sit back and relax; lets us begin the journey
Step 1: the setup
The biggest mistake beginners make when building a blog is choosing the wrong blogging platform. Thankfully you’re here, so you won’t be making that mistake.
For 95% of users, it makes more sense to use wordpress.org also known as self-hosted WordPress. Why? Because it is free to use, you can install plugins, customize your site design, and most importantly make money from your site without any restrictions.
Now you have probably heard that WordPress is free.
You might be wondering why is it free? What’s the catch?
There’s no catch. It’s free because you have to do the setup and host it yourself.
In other words, you need a domain name and web hosting.
A domain name is what people type to get to your website. It’s your website’s address on the internet. Think google.com or speedyminds.com
Web hosting is where your website live. It’s your website’s house on the internet. Every website needs web hosting.
Now, there are a few rules which will help you to pick the best name for your new blog. Here are some of the tips from my experience:
•Prefer .com domain name above everything else.
•Your domain name should be easy to pronounce and easy to type.
•Make sure your domain name should not be confusing to the listener.
A domain name typically costs 3800naira / year, and web hosting normally costs 3200 / year. That’s a lot for beginners who are just starting out.
There are plenty of hosting service providers but for your blog:
Domainking ↱ is the idlest choice as it offers everything you need to create a blog and most importantly a Nigeria domain registerar; Features like:
Free SSL
Unlimited bandwidth
Unlimited storage
Free domain name
Easy to use cPanel.
Live chat support
30 days money back guarantee
NOTE: I believe in transparency. If you sign up with Domainking ↱ using my referral link, I will earn a small commission at no extra cost to you (in fact, you will save money). However, I only recommend products that I personally use and believe will add value to my readers.
Now; let’s go ahead and purchase your domain name and hosting
Go to the DOMAINKING HOME PAGE ↱
Select any Web hosting plan as per your requirement from the link in Step above. After selecting your Web hosting plan click on “Order Now” button.
Note: I recommend you to start with our smallest plans (soldier plan or minister Plan) and in future you can easily upgrade your hosting plan to higher plan that comes with more disk space and bandwidth according to your requirement.
You will now be redirected to the page on which you need to enter your domain name for which you want to order your hosting plan.
Select your preferred option from the 3 listed below:
a) I want DomainKing to register a new domain for my Hosting Package: Select this option if you don’t have a domain name already and want to register a new domain with your hosting plan.
b) I want to transfer my domain to DomainKing: Select this option if you already have your domain name with some other provider and want to transfer your domain to us with your hosting.
c) I already have a domain and i will update its nameservers Or I will register a new domain from an another provider: Choose this option if you only want to buy hosting from us but want to keep or register your domain from some other provider.
After selecting your preferred option as explained in Step above, enter the domain name for which you are ordering the hosting plan and then click “Click to Continue”.
If your domain is available then select the term (number of years) for which you want to buy your domain and click “Click to Continue”.
Note: Option (C) is only for users who are ordering a new domain name with hosting account.
Review your order and select “Billing Cycle”( number of years for which you want to order your hosting plan) and click “Add to Cart”.
Select the addon services that you want with your domain and click “Add to Cart”.
Now review your order & bill. After that scroll down and fill in all your details asked on the page to register with us & create a new account at DomainKing.NG ↱.
Or if you are already a registered user with us, then you can select the option “Existing Customer” and sign-in to your account to complete the order.
In about a minute you will receive an email from Domainking confirming your order, and within an hour you will be receiving a call with your new hosting account details.
STEP 2. GUIDE To INSTALL WORDPRESS
One of the fastest and easiest ways to Install WordPress on your hosting account is using Quick Installation powered by Mojo marketplace. It will make the installation process easy, and within minutes you will have your WordPress blog installed, up and running
Domainking offers various ways by which you can install WordPress on their server.
1) Install WordPress in cPanel using Solftaculous
2) How to Install WordPress manually
3) How to Install WordPress on Localhost/PC
4) How to Install & Setup WordPress Multisite Network
In this WordPress installation guide, i will be using the first method, This is one of the easiest ways to get started with WordPress & within 5 minutes your WordPress site will be up. Follow this guide and feel free to ask questions if you have any:
Login to your cPanel, scroll down to “Softaculous App Installer” section and click on “Softaculous App Installer” icon.
You will now see all the apps that you can install in 1 Click using Softaculous. Click on “WordPress” icon in the Softaculous apps.
Click on “Install” button in the navigation bar.
Enter the following details under “Software Setup”:
Choose Protocol: Select “https://www.” from the drop down. This will install WordPress on “www.yourdomain.com”. In case you have not installed SSL on your domain then select “http://www.” option.
In Directory: Delete by default written “wp” directory to install wordpress on your root directory. Not deleting it will install WordPress on “www.yourdomain.com/wp”. So you must leave this field blank.
Note: If you are installing WordPress in your hosting account with Domainking, you can select https protocol as Free SSL is already installed on your hosting account.
Choose Domain: Select your domain on which you want to install WordPress. In case you have multiple domains on the same hosting account.
- Enter the details under “Site Settings” section:
Site Name: Enter the name of your blog/website. For example “Speedyminds”
Site Description: Enter basic description of your Website. Example: “Education Resource Center”.
Enable Multisite (WPMU): Don’t check the checkbox. Leave this field as it is. Checking this option will enable WordPress Multi on your domain (Not Recommended).
• Enter the details under “Admin Account” section:
Admin Username: Set your user name for wordpress login. This will be your username for your wordpress admin panel.
Admin Password: Set your desired password for wordpress admin.
Note: I recommend you to use password generator to set password. Because it generate safe passwords which cannot be guessed by anyone.
Admin Email: Enter your email that you want to use with your admin.
- Review the Following options above;
Select Language: By default English is selected. So you don’t need to change the language.
Limit Login Attempts (Loginizer): Please don’t check this. It is not recommended, so leave this as it is.
Advanced Options: Please do not make any changes in this section.
Select Theme: You can leave it for now. It is optional if not selected the default theme will be installed and you can make changes later on from your wordpress library.
Email Installation details: Enter your Email in this box at which you want to receive your WordPress details after installation.
Please don’t make a mistake because rolling back won’t be easy!
It will take few minutes, and your WordPress blog will be installed & you will get an email with your dashboard link, user name & password.
Step 3. Selecting your WordPress Theme
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 part in the journey of creating your WordPress site.
There are thousands of pre-made WordPress themes that you can install on your site. Choosing the best wordpress theme for your site or blog be hard call especially to beginners, some are paid why others are Free
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 5600+ 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 will open the theme preview where you can see how it 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, colors, 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.
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 installed your theme, you can customize it by clicking on the Customize link under the Appearance menu.
Once you have selected your WordPress theme, you are now ready to create your first blog post.
Step 4. Creating Your First Blog Post in wordpress
To write your first 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.
Once you’re done writing, go ahead and click on the Publish button on the right to publish your first blog post to the world.
On the posts screen, you will notice several other sections such as Categories and Tags. You can use these to organize your blog posts.
Step 5. Plugins & Customizations
Once you have written your first blog post, you probably want to get started with adding other usual elements on your website such as a back up plugin, galleries, sliders, etc.
To add all these additional features, you need to use plugins. WordPress plugins are apps that allow you to add new features to your website.
There are over 55,000 WordPress plugins available in the free WordPress plugin directory alone. This means no matter what you want to accomplish, there is a plugin for it, if you can think it, you can make. That is the power of WordPress
Recommended: HOT WordPress Plugins ” must have for a wordpress Site”!
That being said, let’s take a look at how to use plugins to add some essential features to your WordPress blog.
Step 6. How to install a back-up plugin
Every website needs back-up, UpdraftPlus is one of the best WordPress backup plugins. It allows you to setup automatic backup schedules. It will also help you restore your WordPress site in case something bad happens. You don’t want all your efforts to be in vain, Do you?
First you need to visit Settings » UpdraftPlus Backups and click on ‘Backup Now’ button.
This will bring up a pop-up with options to select files/database backup and whether you want to send the backup to remote storage.
Click on the ‘Backup Now’ button to continue.
UpdraftPlus will now start creating backup of your files and database. You will be able to see the progress on the settings page.
Step 7.How to Setup Google Analytics Tracking
Google Analytics helps you see how many people are visiting your blog, where they are coming from, and what are they doing on your website?
It is best to install Google Analytics when starting your blog, so you can see how much your blog has grown over time.
First, you need to visit Google Analytics ↱ website and sign in using your Gmail account.
Once you are logged in, you can go ahead and sign up for a free Google Analytics account.
You will be asked to provide your information and website URL. After that, you will be presented with your Google Analytics tracking code.
You can stop here because we will be using a plugin to automatically fetch and add this code to your blog.
Switch to your WordPress admin area to install and activate the MonsterInsights plugin. It is the free version of the best Google Analytics plugin for WordPress, and it is the easiest way to add Google Analytics on your site.
Upon activation, you need to visit Insights » Settings page to configure the plugin settings.
On the settings page, click on the ‘Authenticate with your Google account’ button to connect Google Analytics to your WordPress site.
Follow the onscreen instructions to complete the setup. Once done, you will be able to see your website analytics report straight from your WordPress dashboard under the MonsterInsights tab.
Step 8. How to Optimize Your WordPress Blog for SEO
Most beginners don’t optimize for SEO when creating a blog. SEO or search engine optimization helps users find your blog in search engines. If you want more traffic, then it’s crucial that you optimize your blog for SEO from the beginning.
To get started, first you need to install and activate the Yoast SEO ↱ plugin. It is the complete WordPress SEO plugin that will help you optimize your blog.
Upon activation, you will see a new menu item labeled ‘SEO’. Clicking on it will take you to the plugins settings page.
The plugin comes with a quick configuration wizard to help you walk through the set up .
If the article is a bit complex, You can join my blogging class to get a walk through in details Click here
I hope the article will give you a hint on how to start a wordpress blog, If you found this guide helpful? Feel free to share with others and don’t fail to let me know how you feel via the comment box.
References: Domainking.ng WPBeginner.com Shoutmeloud.com Google.com Search Speedyminds.com Flashlearners.com
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Law P
I am Law P(Lawrence Patrick), Pro-Blogger✍️ Web/Software Developer👨💻
Spot on with this write-up, I honestly believe this website needs a lot more attention. I’ll
probably be back again to read more, thanks for the information!
Thank you.
I love your blog.. very nice colors & theme.
Did you design this website yourself or did you hire someone to do it for you?
Plz reply as I’m looking to construct my own blog and would like to find
out where u got this from. cheers
I designed the website.
Wonderful site. Plenty of useful info here. I am sending it to a few pals ans additionally sharing in delicious.
And obviously, thanks in your effort!
Thank you for your support.