How to Start a Blog in 2024

Find the best domain name

After choosing the niche for your blog, it is important to have the best and supporting domain name that should be easy to remembe! For those who are new, a domain name is unique web address using which your blog or a website can be accessed through browser over the internet to view the content it holds.

A typical blog can look like https://topitguy.com. Where “topitguy” is the blog address, “.com” is the TLD extension. And, “https” signifies that the blog has SSL Certificate installed, which indicates that, the website is safe to browse. More of it covered in upcoming sections.

It is very important to have a domain name that corelates with content of your blog and blog name. 

The following needs to be considered before choosing a domain name:

1. Always try to pick a .com extension for your domain if possible
2. Don’t use a number or any other character in your domain name
3. Always pick a domain name which is easy to remember
4. You domain name should identify with the content you create
5. Don’t use a lengthy domain, if possible, try not to go beyond 3 words

Now, registering a domain name, most hosting companies these days offer free domain name for a year with their hosting plans. I personally like to go ahead with Hostinger as they offer a free domain name for a year with their hosting plans.

I highly recommend that you use it and save some money upfront. Follow my YouTube Channel to view the videos of me explaining how to register a domain name using these hosting companies.

How to Create a WordPress Blog Using Hostinger

After registering the domain name and buying the web hosting, now is the turn to install the content management system(CMS) WordPress for your blog. 

This can be done in two ways:

• Manual way (Lengthy Process)
• Using Auto Installer or 1 Click Installation services absolutely free

Both processes do the same job but the later saves you a lot of time. So, I highly recommend that you pick that option. The following is a step by step guide to:

Installing WordPress on Hostinger using Auto Installer

Step 1: Login into your Hostinger account and click on Hosting tab. This will take you to the following screen:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Step 3: Go to the Website section and click on Auto Installer as shown in the image above. On the next screen, you will find WordPress, just click on it.

 

 

 Step 5: After the successful installation of your blog, it will be available under List of Installed applications.

To access the WordPress Dashboard of your blog, simply type https://yourblogname.com/wp-admin. and enter your username and password and click on login.

Choosing the right theme for your blog

Now that your blog is up and running, it is time to make it look beautiful so that when visitors visit your blog they instantly fall in love with it. So, to make it look great, you need to change your WordPress Theme.

By default when you Install WordPress, a default free theme comes auto installed with it. It is very normal theme, nothing fancy in it. One can still use it for blogging but when it comes to customizations and designs, you can’t make it look the you always wanted. So, that is where a need of a paid theme comes along.

For this website, I am using AstraPro WordPress Theme, it is doing pretty well for me.

Other WordPress Theme that I recommend to everyone:

GenereatePress – A Lightweight Multipurpose Theme:

One of the lightest and the best wordPress themes! I am using this theme for my own wordpress websites and for client websites. It is the best out there for anyone who is looking for serious blogging. There are 100,000+ websites that are being run using GeneratePress theme.

It is one of the fastest growing lightweight and fast WordPress Theme. It is being used by 1 million+ users. I highly recommend that you consider using this theme for your blog, as the customizations through this theme are really easy to make.

After buying the wordpress theme, the next thing you need to do is to upload it on your blog. 

To do so, just follow these steps:

• Login to your WordPress dashboard
• Go to left side menu and click on Appearance
• Choose the first option Themes
• Now, find the option Add New
• On new Screen, you find the option Upload Theme, click on it
• Click on Choose File to select the theme from your local drive
• After selecting the theme, simply hit install
• After the Installation finishes, you will see the new theme appearing in your Themes section, just click on it and hit Apply Theme, that is it

Now, the good thing is, you can customize the premium themes with ease to get the optimum settings for your blog or website.

Use Drag and Drop Website Builder Elementor

If you are not interested in pre-built themes, you can always go ahead and create your blog or website the way you want by using drag and drop website builders like Elementor, it works with most of the FREE themes that WordPress Themes Library offers.

The basic version of Elementor is absolutely free and does the job well. However, if you are interested in creating a dynamic website with amazing looking features, I would recommend that you use Elementor PRO, it is the best drag and drop wordpress website builder.

The Elementor Pro plan starts from just $49/year for a single license. To learn more about the pricing, you may want to go to this page.

To install Elementor, just go to your WordPress dashboard and follow these steps:

• Go to plugins section
• Click on add new
• In search box type Elementor and hit enter
• Choose Elementor and click on Install
• After the installation finishes click on Activate

This way Elementor will be successfully installed!

In order to Make Elementor work, you need a base theme, as mentioned earlier, most WordPress themes are compatible in handling Elementor. However, I would recommend that you choose either of the the following themes for best working experience:

• Hello Theme (WordPress Theme by Elementor)
• GeneratePress
• OceanWP
• Astra

To view a video series about the same, subscribe to my YouTube channel.

Important WordPress Plugins for your blog

After setting up the before and before posting your first blog post, it important that you install a few plugins to make your blog robust and easily available for search engines when they crawl your content. So, do go ahead and install the following plugins:

Yoast SEO: This is the very first plugin that you need to install on your website/blog before start posting content. The basic version of this plugin is absolutely free and does serve the purpose of setting up SEO, building your blog sitemap.

You can install WordPress plugins by logging into your blog dashboard and following these steps:

1. Click on Plugins in left sidebar
2. Click on Add New
3. Type the plugin name in search box and hit enter
4. Choose the plugin from the list and click on Install
5. On new screen click on Activate, that’s it

reSmush.it: This plugin is very important, especially if you are going to use a lot images in your blog posts. As, the Images are usually heavy in size and make make your blogs load way slower. 

But, with reSmush.it plugin on board, your images will be automatically compressed to the optimum size without loosing much of quality, eventually making your blog load faster in the browser even with images. And, the best part is, this plugin is also free to use:)

WP Super Cache: Another plugin you should install before making your first post, again it is free to install and helps speed up your WordPress website.

GA Google Analytics: If you are interested in monitoring your website performance in Google search, right from your website’s bounce rate, traffic, Live audience, I highly recommend that you install this plugin. 

Down below, I explain the process of how to setup Google Analytics and Google Webmasters (Search Console) accounts for your WordPress Website.

Apart from the above there are so many plugins that you may need in future such as a contact form, displaying ads for monetizing your blog. Social sharing buttons etc, those can be installed later as your blog/website grows.

Watch this quick tutorial to learn how to install plugins:

 

How to publish a blog post on WordPress

Now that all the necessary steps completed, the next step is to publish a blog post. To publish your first blog post, here are the steps you need to follow:

1. In the left sidebar of your WordPress dashboard, click on Posts and choose, Add New
2. You will be given a little walkthrough on new WordPress editor, I highly suggest you to go through it
3. Give your post a Title, where it says “Add Title”
4. Below that, write the content and add images as needed.. To add the images and other important stuff, simply click on the + button and choose what you need for the blog and that section will automatically be added to your post
5. In the right sidebar or your editor, you can choose a category for the post, add relevant tags, permalinks as needed
6. After you are done, simply click on Publish button above and your post will go live for the world to see

Getting traffic to your blog

 

After setting up your blog and publishing content on it, the next challenge is to bring people to see your content. This can be achieved in several ways and they are:

1. Get Traffic From Social Media (Free)
2. Use SEO effectively and get traffic from search engines (Free)
3. Use advertisement methods such Google Ads and Facebook Ads

Getting traffic from social media is not all that tough but there is a thin line between posting genuine stuff and spamming. So, in order to get traffic from social media, I suggest you to share your blog posts with friends. 

If they like what they see, they will further share it with their friends and the chain reaction starts, eventually getting you tons of traffic for free. You can also add a social share button to your blog so that people can share your content with their favorite social network.

Using SEO best techniques, one can rank for the popular keywords that people search in Google and get heaps of traffic absolutely free. This is not an easy method though, you have to be at the top of your game to get there. In 2020, no SEO shortcuts can get you up the ranks.

Only genuine content and the perfect use of SEO settings can get you there. So, do learn about SEO to get traffic for free or simply hire some to do so for your website.

Using advertisements with Google and Facebook, you sure can get targeted traffic to your website fast, but for this to happen, you need to pay fee. I suggest you to only indulge in this if you have the budget and the required knowledge to do Google and Facebook ads.

I have been using both Google and Facebook ads for my clients and myself since a long time and have gotten great results.

Getting Your Blog Indexed in Google Search Engine

To get your blog posts indexed in Google, the major search engine, the first thing you need to ensure is that, your content is indexable. For the most blogs, it is always indexable by default but for some, search engines are discouraged to crawl the content on purpose.

Do check this setting inside the Settings>Reading Settings, your Search Engine Visibility box should be unchecked sat all times.

To get your blog posts indexed faster in Google Search, I highly suggest you to create a Google Webmasters/Search Console account and add your blog there.

After creating the account, simply follow this video to get your blog post indexed in Google each time you create a new account.

Also, to get your content indexed faster in Google search, you need to create content on regular intervals. Just keep your content fresh and your content will be picked up by Google search crawlers without fail.

Create pages for your new blog:

 

For any new blog to look professional, it is important to have the following pages:

1. About Us
2. Contact Us
3. Privacy Policy
4. Disclaimer

The about us page is very important for blog/website owners to give the readers a complete introduction about you. This will build a personal relationship of yours with the readers of your blog.

Contact us page is also equally important if want to get contacted by your website readers, you can choose to be contacted via email or though a contact form. The contact for can be created using free plugins, so don’t forget to have one.

Privacy Policy and Disclaimer page, both are also very important, and can be generated for free through popular websites. Just look them up in google or wait for my video in a day or two.

Summary

 

So, through this step by step guide on how to start a WordPress blog from scratch, I have explained every thing you needed to know. 

If you have any questions about any topic that I cleared or not cleared, just let me know in comments section or reach out to me at topitguys@gmail.com