How to Start a WordPress Blog (Step by Step)-Create a Blog in 2022

Do you want to learn how to start a WordPress blog properly? We understand that creating a blog might be stressful, especially if you are not a techie. But you're not the only one, believe it or not. We decided to develop the most complete guide on how to start a WordPress blog without any professional knowledge!  Whether you are 20 or 60 years old, the process is very simple to follow.

What are the requirements to start a WordPress blog?

To start a WordPress blog, you'll need 2 things:

1. An idea for a domain name (like: noproblembd.com) will be the name of your blog website.
2. A web hosting account (Where your website will live through the internet)

After that, you'll need only 30 minutes to complete your blog website.
Yes, you read that correctly. In less than 30 minutes, you can create a wordpress blog from scratch, and we'll guide you through the entire process step by step.

So why are you waiting? Let's get started.

Step 1. Setup

Setup is the first step.  When beginners want to start a blog, the most common mistake by them is choosing the wrong blogging platform. Fortunately, you're here, so you won't make that mistake!

For 90% of users, using WordPress.org, often known as self-hosted WordPress, makes more sense. Why?

Because it is totally free. You may install plugins, personalize your blog design, and most significantly, make money from your blog because it is open source, which means it is completely free to use. We have a detailed comparison on WordPress.com vs WordPress.org. It may help you a lot.

WordPress is also the most popular website platform, with all successful blogs using it. To put things in context, WordPress is used by 42% of all websites on the internet!

You may now be wondering why WordPress is free. What's the catch, exactly?
There are no conditions attached. It is free because you must build it up and host it yourself.  In other words, you'll need a domain name as well as web hosting.

People type your domain name into their browser to access to your website. It's the internet address for your website. Consider the websites google.com and noproblembd.com.

Your website files are stored on web hosting servers. It's the online house of your website. Every website needs a web hosting to run.
A new domain name is usually $11.99 per year, and web hosting services are usually $4.99 per month.

That's a lot of money for someone who is just getting started.

Fortunately, Bluehost, an official WordPress recommended web hosting provider, has committed to provide our users with a free domain name as well as a 60% discount on web hosting.

Click here to take full advantage of this limited-time Bluehost offer.

Bluehost is one of the internet's oldest web hosting providers. They're also the most well-known name in WordPress hosting, having hosted millions of websites, including many of ours.

On top of that, Bluehost has been a WordPress partner since 2005 and is dedicated to giving back that's why they've assured us that you can get your blog online in 30 minutes by following this instruction.

Open Bluehost in a new tab and follow the instructions.

The first step is to click the green “Get Started Now” button to get started.

Now select the plan you require on the following screen (basic and plus plans are the most popular).

Afterward, you'll be prompted to input your website's domain name.

To finish the procedure, you must input your account information and finalize the package information. We recommend the 36-month plan because it is the most cost-effective. It allows you to extend your first-year savings period to three years.

Optional items are available for purchase on this screen. It's absolutely up to you whether you buy things or not, although we normally don't advise doing so immediately soon. If you decide you need them later, you can always add them anytime.

After you've completed the form, you'll receive an email with instructions on how to access your web hosting control panel (cPanel). This is where you manage everything, including support and emails. But most importantly, this is where your WordPress is installed.

Step 2: Install WordPress

When you use our link to sign up for the new version of Bluehost, they will immediately install WordPress for you. This updated version was released lately to make it easier for non-technical people to start their WordPress blogs.

To get started, simply enter your Bluehost account and click the Login to WordPress option.

You may also log in to WordPress straight from your browser by going to yoursite.com/wp-admin/

If you're using a different hosting service, such as SiteGround, HostGator, or WP Engine, you can find step-by-step instructions for those providers in our full guide on how to install WordPress.

Once WordPress is installed and setup, you can now change the look of your site to make it your own and start your blogging experience.

Step 3: Selecting a Theme for Your WordPress Site

Blog themes are in charge of your WordPress blog's visual appearance. When you first visit your blog, it will appear as follows:

Most people will find this unattractive. That's why they always try to change the design of their WordPress website.

Customizing the feel and look of your WordPress blog is by far one of the most interesting and rewarding parts of the process of starting a WordPress blog site.

You can choose and install from thousands of pre-made WordPress themes to use on your own website. Some of them are free, while others are premium themes that cost money.

You can change your theme by going to Appearance » Themes from your WordPress dashboard.

Then click on the Add New button.

On the next screen, you'll be able to browse through the official WordPress.org theme directory's 9,100+ free WordPress themes. You can sort by most popular, most recent, most featured, and other categories (i.e industry, layout, etc).

When you hover your mouse over a new theme, you'll notice a Preview button. When you click on it, a theme preview will appear, allowing you to see how the design will appear on your website.

It's common for the preview of your theme to differ slightly from the screenshot because you'll be able to adjust and set it up later. Design, colors, typography, and other components are what you should be looking for.

The finest advice for choosing the ideal WordPress theme is to go for simplicity in design. It assists you in maintaining a clean and clear environment while providing a positive user experience.

When you've selected a theme you like, simply hover your mouse over it to see the Install button. Wait for the theme to be installed after clicking on it. The install button will be replaced with an Activate button after that. To activate the theme, you must click on the Activate button.

After you've installed your theme, go to the Appearance menu and select Customize from the Appearance menu.

There will be built-in widgets and customization options depending on the theme you choose, allowing you to adjust your blog's style.

A WordPress page builder, such as SeedProd or Divi, gives you, even more, design flexibility by allowing you to create a custom header, footer, sidebar, and more without having to write any HTML code.

These plugins provide you greater creative customization than Wix or Squarespace while allowing you to use the sophisticated WordPress content management system to its full potential.

You're ready to write your first blog post once you've picked your WordPress theme.

Step 4. Creating First Blog Post

Click the Posts » Add New option in your WordPress dashboard to start writing a blog post.

You'll see a text editor where you can start writing your first blog post.

WordPress offers a block-based editor in which each element is represented by a block. This helps you to build stunning blog post content layouts.

[See our WordPress block editor tutorial to get a better understanding of the editor.]

Once you've finished writing, click the Publish button in the top-right corner of the screen to publish your blog post to the internet.

There are various other sections on the posts screen, such as Categories and Tags. These can be used to divide up your blog content into sections. We have a wonderful article about the differences between categories and tags that you should read.

Read our article on how to create a new post in WordPress to learn how to use all of the tools on the posts screen (full tutorial included).

It explains how to embed videos, add blog images, headings, table of contents, sub-headers, bullet lists, call-to-action buttons, social media posts, and other useful shortcuts.

Beginners sometimes misunderstand the WordPress dashboard's posts and pages menus. That is why we've written a comprehensive overview of the differences between posts and pages in WordPress.

If you're having trouble coming up with new blog post ideas, here's a great resource:  73 proven-to-work blog topic ideas you can start writing about right now.

Step 5: Customizations and Plugins

After you've created your first sample blog post, you'll probably want to start adding additional common website features like contact forms, galleries, sliders, email lists, forums, and so on.

Plugins are required to implement all of these extra features.

WordPress plugins are programs that allow you to extend the functionality of your website without writing any piece code!

In the free WordPress plugin directory only, there are approximately 60,000+ plugins available. That means whatever you want to do, you can find a plugin for it.

A step-by-step tutorial on how to install a WordPress plugin can be found here.

That being said, let's look at how to use plugins to enhance your WordPress blog's functionality.

Read More: 7 Best WordPress themes for affiliate marketing

How to make a contact form in WordPress Blog Site

A contact form is required on any website. It enables your users to send you direct emails. You'll need a WordPress form builder plugin to add a contact form to your site because WordPress doesn't come with any built-in contact form.

The WPForms Lite plugin is recommended. It's a free version of the popular WPForms plugin, which is ranked #1 on our list of the best WordPress contact form plugins.  WPForms is used on over 4 million websites!

By heading to Plugins » Add New and typing WPForms in the search box, you may install the plugin. After that, select “Install” and then “Activate.” To create your first form, go to WPForms > Add New

This will bring up the WPForms builder.

To begin, give your contact form a name and then select the ‘Simple Contact Form' template.

WPForms will now generate a simple contact form with all of the needed fields for you. You can change any field by clicking on it, or you can add a new one from the left column.

After you've finished editing the form, save it by clicking the save button in the top right corner, and then exit the form builder.

By navigating to Pages » Add New and naming it ‘Contact Us or Contact‘ you can now build a new page in WordPress. The WPForms block must be entered into the editor on the edit screen.

Then, from the drop-down option, choose the form you made previously, and WPForms will load a live preview of the form in the editor.

To see your contact form in action, save and publish the page and visit it in your browser.

It's a good idea to test your form to ensure that you're getting notifications. If you don't receive the email, check to see our tutorial on how to fix WordPress not sending emails.

See our step-by-step guide on how to create a contact form in WordPress if you need additional information.

The best aspect of WPForms for a blogger is that it evolves with you. You may use it to create reader surveys, polls, guest post submission forms, and more, in addition to simple contact forms.

How to Setup Google Analytics for Tracking Visitors

Google Analytics allows you to track how many people visit your blog, where they come from, and what they do during their visits on your website.

Install Google Analytics when you first start your blog so you can track how much it has grown over time.

To get started, go to Google Analytics and sign in with your Gmail account.

You can then able to create a free Google Analytics account once you've logged in.

You will be prompted to submit your contact information as well as the URL of your website. Following that, you'll be given your Google Analytics tracking code.

You can stop right now since we'll utilize a plugin to fetch and apply this code to your blog for you (along with setting up proper WordPress tracking).

Install and activate the MonsterInsights plugin in your WordPress admin area. It's the free version of the best Google Analytics plugin for WordPress, and it's the simplest way to integrate Google Analytics into your website (MonsterInsights plugin is trusted by over 3 million websites).

To configure the plugin settings, go to Insights » Settings after it's been activated.

To connect Google Analytics to your WordPress site, go to the settings page and click the ‘Connect MonsterInsights' button.

To finish the setup, follow the on-screen instructions. Once you've finished, go to the MonsterInsights tab in your WordPress admin to check your website analytics report.

See our post on how to install Google Analytics in WordPress for more information.

How to Optimize Your WordPress Website SEO-Friendly

When starting a blog, most people don't think about SEO. Search engine optimization, or SEO, helps users in finding your blog through search engines.

If you want your blog to get more traffic, you need to start optimizing it for SEO immediately.

Installing and activating the All in One SEO plugin is the first step. It's a full-featured WordPress SEO plugin that will assist you in optimizing your blog.

The plugin includes a quick configuration wizard to guide you through the process. It will assist you through creating a WordPress sitemap, writing suitable keywords and meta descriptions, implementing schema markup, and much more.

To set up your blog's SEO, we also recommend that you follow our entire step-by-step WordPress SEO guide.

Other SEO plugins, such as Yoast SEO, RankMath, and others, are now available, but we recommend AIOSEO since it has the most user-friendly interface for new bloggers.

Aside from using a WordPress SEO plugin, you may use a keyword research tool to further improve your blog content. These SEO tools assist you in developing new content ideas based on what people are searching for in your niche or topic.

You can also see which keywords your competitors are ranking for so you can improve your content and outrank them.

This will help you get the most visitors to your new blog site right away. See our beginner's guide to keyword research for your own blog for more information.

More Plugins and Customizations for WordPress

You may install plenty of other WordPress plugins as well. Searching for the plugins that are required can be difficult for beginners.

We typically present the top WordPress plugins on WPBeginner to help you add the functionality you need.

Here is a list of the best WordPress plugins that you should check out, as per our experts.

Backup – The best WordPress backup plugin is UpdraftPlus. You must back up your website on a regular basis in case something goes wrong.

Security – Sucuri Security is a free WordPress security scanner. We offer a comprehensive beginner's WordPress security guide that will assist you in securing your blog.

Performance — To speed up WordPress, we recommend utilizing either WP Rocket (paid) or WP Super Cache (free). For additional information, visit our WordPress speed and performance article, which includes step-by-step instructions.

Design & Customization — For customizing your homepage look, creating customized landing pages, or even creating custom themes (without writing any code), we recommend SeedProd or Divi page builders. See our article on the best WordPress page builders for more information.

Subscribers and traffic – PushEngage's push notifications are highly recommended. This allows you to stay in touch with visitors after they've left your site. WPBeginner ranks it as one of the top five traffic sources. See How to Add Push Notifications in WordPress for more information.

Email Marketing — As an email marketing service, we recommend Constant Contact or HubSpot. We suggest using the OptinMonster free plugin to build high-converting popups, scroll boxes, and call to action to increase your email subscriber count.

Step 6: Make Money from Your Blog

Now that you've made your own personal blog and customized it to your preference. But you may be wondering, how can I make money blogging?

There are lots of options for successfully monetizing your site. But there really is no such thing as a get-rich-quick method.

We've prepared the most detailed guide on how to make money from your blog using WordPress, unlike other “make money online” guides.

That's a 4000+ word guide that everyone interested in making money from their blog should read. In that ultimate guide, we've contributed our 5+ years of web knowledge.

You will be rewarded if you are willing to put in the effort and hard work. Keep in mind that there are no alternatives or shortcuts.

Here are some of the most effective strategies to monetize your blog.

1.Google AdSense

Many bloggers monetize their sites by displaying advertisements. Google AdSense is the greatest solution to monetize a blog if you want to generate money from it.

It is the most popular blogging and publishing advertising platform. Google acts as a mediator between you and the advertiser, allowing them to bid on keywords that match your content. This allows you to get the greatest possible pricing for your advertisements.

See our post on how to correctly integrate Google AdSense to your WordPress blog.

2.Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is the second most popular way for bloggers to make money. Basically, you recommend your favorite items/services to your followers, and you get paid a referral commission if they buy those products or services.

Affiliate marketing is all about recommending high-quality items and services that you already use and believe in. There are many affiliate marketing plugins and solutions available for WordPress that can assist you in making more money by promoting affiliate products. As a must-have, we suggest PrettyLinks or ThirstyAffiliates.

We also have a detailed beginner's affiliate marketing guide that will help you through selecting the correct affiliate network and ways to monetize your blog right now.

3. Online Store

Many bloggers generate money by selling products directly on their websites. Physical products, digital downloads such as ebooks, artwork, music, and other items may be included. Some bloggers go so far as to provide advisory services.

We recommend WooCommerce since it is the greatest WordPress eCommerce plugin. It's also the most popular eCommerce platform in the world.

Some bloggers don't want to deal with the effort of setting up their own store, so they set up an Amazon affiliate store, which allows them to sell other people's things on Amazon and earn commissions.

You can do so much more with your WordPress site besides the three options listed above. WordPress blogs can be created for a variety of purposes, including reviews, fashion blogging, food blogging with recipes, and more. Each of these blog types offers you a different way to earn money.

You may also use your blog to create a membership site where you can sell premium content and courses. We offer a comprehensive guide on how to use WordPress to build and sell online courses.

Frequently Asked Questions by Users (FAQs)

We've answered a lot of questions while assisting thousands of people in creating a blog. The answers to the most frequently asked questions about starting a blog can be found here.

Is it possible to create a blog without using WordPress?

Yes, there are a variety of other blogging platforms to choose. We compared them all and found that WordPress is by far the best website builder solution for creating a blog with total control and independence on the market.

Is it possible to create a blog without using a hosting service?

No, that's not going to work. Your website files are kept on web hosting. Web hosting is required for all websites. You'll need your own domain and web hosting to start a blog.

What is the best way for me to come up with a good blog name for my website?

The majority of personal blog names are taken from the creator's name. Other blogs are named for the particular topic or industry in which they are published. You can use any AI-powered business name generator to come up with blog name suggestions. Some are: Namemesh, Nameboy, Business Name Generator, etc.

What is the most profitable blogging niche?

It's easier to write engaging content and earn more money online if you choose the correct niche for your blog. Our specialists have researched the top seven blogging niches to consider when beginning your own blog.

To help you get started, we've created a list of the 18 most common types of blogs.

What is the cost of starting a blog?

The cost is determined by the add-ons you purchase. We offer a piece of comprehensive information on how much a WordPress website costs, as well as money-saving ideas.

The majority of blogging tools are either free or come with a 30-day money-back guarantee, providing you to test them out without risk.

Is it possible for me to start a blog without my parents knowing?

Yes. You may hide your WordPress blog from the internet by making it private. Here's how to start your WordPress blog entirely private, step by step.

Is it possible to start a WordPress site and earn money using Google Adsense?

Yes, you may use Google AdSense to monetize your WordPress blog. We've put up a step-by-step tutorial on how to integrate Google AdSense with WordPress. We have also used Adsense for many years.

Is there a way for me to create a wordpress blog while remaining anonymous?

If you wish to create a public-facing blog while remaining anonymous, make sure that WHOIS privacy is enabled on your domain. People frequently write under a pseudonym or nickname. You should also create a separate email for your blog. It should go without saying that you should not upload your images or anything else on the blog. See our post on how to blog anonymously with WordPress for more information.

What is the best way to add a podcast to my WordPress blog?

Starting a blog and adding a podcast to it is quite simple with WordPress. We have a dedicated blog on  How to Start a Podcast with WordPress with step-by-step instructions.

Is it possible for me to start a wordpress blog in my native language?

Yes, WordPress can be used in various languages. You can choose your language during installation or via the WordPress admin area's Settings page. WordPress has been entirely translated into 56 languages and is partially translated into dozens more. Many of the most popular WordPress themes and plugins are also multilingual. You can also use Google Translate to translate a theme or a plugin for your website.

How can I create a blog that is multilingual?

Would you like to establish a blog in Hindi, Spanish, or a combination of languages? Here's a step-by-step tutorial on how to make a bilingual WordPress website.

Is it possible to create a blog without any coding skills?

Absolutely. To make a professional-looking WordPress blog, you don't need any programming, coding, or design expertise.

WordPress themes are simple to customize, and you can set up your theme with only a few clicks. There are WordPress themes, such as Astra, that provide pre-built starter websites that you can import with a single click.

Other strong themes, such as Divi, provide extensive drag-and-drop design possibilities for designing your blog.

Then there are strong drag-and-drop page builders that work with any WordPress theme, such as SeedProd and Divi builder. You may simply drag and drop elements to create your own pages.

Without writing any code, you may even develop your own custom theme.

Is it possible to include a photography gallery on my blog?

Yes, WordPress includes a gallery feature that allows you to easily include photo galleries in your blog entries.

Professional photographers can also make money from their photography business by using premium WordPress gallery plugins to better promote their work and even sell photographs.

What is the best way to make a professional email address for my blog?

We strongly advise you to create a professional business email address if you're serious about your blog.(It's completely free)

To stand out and negotiate stronger partnerships and collaborations, all successful bloggers use a professional email address.

Is it possible for me to transfer blogging platforms later? When creating a website for the first time, many people make the error of using the wrong platform, such as Medium, Tumblr, Blogger, or another.

The good news is that switching to WordPress is simple. We provide step-by-step instructions on how to switch from:

Medium to WordPress
Blogger to WordPress
WordPress.com to WordPress.org
Where do I find photos for my blog?

All great bloggers use high-quality images in their blog posts and social media. A beginner's guide to finding royalty-free stock pictures for your blog, videos, and social media has been published here.

We hope you found our article on starting a WordPress blog to be helpful. You might also be interested in our post on 27 recommendations for driving visitors to your new WordPress site, as well as our checklist on 18 important things to perform after WordPress installation.