Create a WordPress blog from scratch

WordPress is the most popular blogging platform on the internet, and with good reason - it’s easy to use, intuitive, powerful, and free! With the following tutorial, you’ll be creating your own WordPress blog in no time. Even if you have never created a website before, this guide will teach you everything you need to know about setting up your own website using WordPress so you can publish your thoughts online with ease! 

Let’s get started...

Choose your niche

Not all bloggers start out in the same place, but if you're looking for tips to create a WordPress blog from scratch then we've got you covered. Some niches that are often overlooked by beginners include health and fitness, personal finance, social justice, and current affairs. Here's some useful information on how to make it as an up-and-coming blogger in those areas:

Health and Fitness - 

If you're starting out with fitness content as your main focus then you'll need to do research into products like yoga mats and running shoes as well as workout equipment. You'll also need to find people who can write about different types of workouts for readers so that they can get personalized results. Make sure to reach out to models or people who look good when working out so that you can showcase them in photo posts. 

Personal Finance - 

When blogging about money it's important to remember that many consumers don't have a lot of money left over after paying their monthly bills. It's not easy trying to balance household expenses and saving for retirement at the same time. The best way is to break down larger financial goals into manageable steps so that readers will feel less overwhelmed when reading about them. 

Social Justice - 

Social justice blogs often revolve around underrepresented groups such as women, LGBTQ individuals, racial minorities, and religious minorities in society.

Choose your hosting provider

Choosing your hosting provider is the first step in starting a new website. If you want to be able to access your site on the internet, you need web hosting. There are many types of hosting providers and it's important to find one that will meet your needs and budget. Hosting can range from $5/month all the way up to $50/month, so it's important to know what kind of features you need before choosing. The most popular type of hosting provider is shared hosting which provides a small amount of storage and bandwidth for each user at an affordable price. 

This type of service usually costs between $5-$15 per month depending on the company providing it. It also has limits on how much space you have available and how many visitors your site can handle before it crashes. A lot of people use this option because they don't need much space or visitors to their site but if you are looking to create a larger more complex website then this might not be the best option for you. Another option is VPS (virtual private server) hosting which provides more power and control than shared hosting but isn't as expensive as dedicated servers. 

For those with larger websites or businesses who want complete control over their server and aren't worried about cost, dedicated servers might be worth considering. Dedicated servers provide full ownership of your own physical machine where your data is stored. With no other users sharing the same machine as you, you get increased speed and reliability when accessing your data. Dedicated servers are less common than other forms of hosting due to the large investment required by them. They generally start around $100-200 per month but can go up into the thousands for high-end options.

When deciding what type of hosting you would like to invest in, make sure to look into how much bandwidth and storage space you'll need as well as how often traffic will be coming through. Each host has different limitations on these things so make sure that whichever option you choose will work with both your budget and requirements before signing up!


Install WordPress

1. Upload the folder on your desktop to the root of your domain. 

2. Login to your cPanel account and scroll down to File Manager 

3. Click on Add New File Manager Directory, and name it public_html. 

4. Click Upload and browse for the folder you just uploaded, click open and select all files inside the folder, then click upload. 

5. After uploading is complete, go back to your cPanel file manager in the public_html directory and right-click on index.php. Select Edit Permissions and make sure that Allow Execute permission is enabled for all three types of users (owner, group, world). The file will turn blue when this permission is enabled successfully.

Choose a theme

I recommend using the Hemingway theme, which is clean and minimalistic. 

Install the theme by going to Appearance > Themes > Add New > Upload Theme. 

Then, click on Install now. 

Next, go to Appearance > Customize for the next step of customizing your new theme. 

This is where you will set up your sidebar widgets. 

You can also customize your header here. 

To find out more about other themes and customization options, click on Demo Themes in the left-hand menu bar. There are many different templates available with different colors, styles, and layouts.

The next thing you need to do is create an account with WordPress so that you can create a new post. Click on Create Site, which will take you through the steps of creating an account. Fill in all fields (name, email address, and password) with information that’s easy for you to remember. Check to Remember me if you want your login credentials saved so that they don’t need to be re-entered each time. Make sure that Administrator privileges are checked too!

If it's all done correctly, then congratulations! You have just created your first website blog!

Do some keyword research

To find keywords for your blog, use Google Keyword Tool. The results will include a list of related keywords that you can use to help focus on what your site should be about. For example, if you type in how to tie shoes, the tool will spit out a list of related words like tying shoes, tying shoelaces, and laces. You can see how this would be helpful when trying to figure out what content to include on your site. 

The next step is to pick one or two keywords for your site that are closely related to the topic you're talking about. In my case, I picked How to tie shoes and How to lace shoes. These are going to be the titles of my pages. Next, I'm going to enter them into Google Webmaster Tools so they show up in search results with those keywords highlighted. Now I need a theme!

In the WordPress admin panel, I click on Appearance then go down to Themes. Here there are dozens of free themes that have been designed by other users just like me! Each theme has its own style and design so it's important that you select one that matches what you want your blog design look like. Once I've picked a theme, all I need to do is hit the button at the top labeled Install Theme and it installs automatically!

Write original content

In this tutorial, I will show you how to create a blog using WordPress. This guide can be used by anyone who is interested in blogging but doesn't know where to start. There are many different ways to go about doing this, and it may seem overwhelming at first. However, you don't have to do everything on your own! 

Once you learn the basics of setting up your site, there are tons of resources for bloggers out there that can help you with anything else that comes up. And even if all else fails, just ask someone for help! I'm here for ya! We'll cover some basic information before getting started. For example, what are the key things to know before creating your WordPress account? Where should you set up shop online? What's one important lesson we've learned so far? Your URL is one of the most important decisions when building a website or blog- make sure it's easy for people to find you!

Add tags and categories

When you create a new WordPress website, you'll be prompted to add tags and categories for your site. A good rule of thumb is to start out with 10-12 tags and 5-7 categories. You can always go back and edit them later if you decide that you want more or fewer categories. The next step is to fill in the title and content for your site's home page. 

The title should be something catchy that will make people want to click on it, while the content should be written in an engaging way that makes people want to read it. Once you've written this content, scroll down to the Publish button at the bottom right corner of your screen and click it. You'll then see that your new post has been published! Congrats! That's all there is to setting up a WordPress site from scratch. Now it's time to work on optimizing your posts so they're SEO-friendly, as well as attract readers. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask one of our experts by submitting a question through our form below.

Add social media buttons

When you create your account, you will be asked to choose a username. This is the name that will show up on your site and be tied to your email address. - Once you have created an account, it's time to log in. Click login at the top right of the screen and enter your username and password. Some sites have a default homepage set for new users. You'll want to remove this by clicking Settings and unchecking your latest posts. 

If you're going to use your blog for business or other professional purposes, make sure to add some links or images about yourself or your company by clicking Edit Profile. You can also add social media buttons here so people can find you on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, etc. One last thing: make sure not to check the box next to Get rid of author attribution, because if someone shares one of your posts with their friends and they click back through Google Analytics (which most bloggers use), they'll see who wrote it!

Choose the right plugins to grow your website

To start out, we recommend you install Yoast SEO and Jetpack. Both of these plugins will automatically optimize your site for search engines, but for different reasons. Yoast SEO is primarily about optimizing your content for maximum searchability (e.g., keyword usage), while Jetpack is more about keeping track of other factors that affect how your site performs in the SERPs (e.g., Page speed, and social media integration).

Other plugins worth considering are Google XML Sitemaps to create sitemaps and submit them to Google Webmaster Tools; All In One WP Security & Firewall to protect your website against hackers; Contact Form 7 to add a contact form; Social Media Widget Pro to display social feeds on your sidebar or header; MailChimp for mailing lists, MailPoet Newsletters for newsletters, Simple Social Icons to help people find you on various networks easily. The list goes on! With so many plugins available, it's hard not to get overwhelmed with choices - use our guide as a starting point!

Conclusion

Now that you have your website, make sure to promote it. You can do this in many ways. You can use social media, such as Facebook and Twitter, to share with friends and family. You can also send an email by using your mailing list. If you are not great at promoting yourself or don't have one, try to reach out to people who share the same interests as you do or even those who want to start their own blog for advice on how they should go about doing it. Make sure to bookmark the page of bloggers who were most helpful so that you can come back to them when you need help. In addition, keep in mind that blogging is work. It takes time and patience to create good content every day. Once you post content to your blog, be patient while waiting for readership to grow; however, if there are no new posts after three months then it might be time to consider finding another project.