How to Start a Blog Ultimate Guide for New Bloggers

Last updated on June 6th, 2020 at 05:59 am

So you have a new business or just have something you want to say. Well isn’t it time that you learn how to start a blog. So grab a cup of coffee or your favorite beverage and set aside some time. When you get done with my over the shoulder tutorial, you will have learned how to start a blog.

Sure you could hire someone to do it for you, but why would you do that? You can learn everything you need to know about creating a blog online.

Have you ever wondered “I want to start a blog, but how do I begin?”

If so then you’ve come to the right place.

I’m going to walk you through the entire process… follow along and get your first blog up and running today. I am just going to assume that you area complete newbie and you don’t know anything at all about setting up a WordPress site.

Feel free to skip ahead to the part that you need on setting up your first blog.

Below you will find jump tags, feel free to jump to the section of the page that you need help with…

Regardless of whether you start at the beginning or in the middle. If you follow along, by the time you get done reading, you will have your first WordPress blog up and running!

Here’s what you’ll learn.

Should I start a blog

What Is A Blog

Registering your blog domain for your blog

Why Start a Blog with SiteGround

Pointing Your Domain Nameservers to SiteGround

Start A Blog

Creating a Secure Database for a WordPress Site

Setting up a Blog Siteground

Configuring the WordPress Config File

Installing a WordPress Site on SiteGround

WordPress Blog Dashboard Changes

Getting Your Blog Ready for Your First Post

WordPress Drag and Drop Builders

Congratulations….you’ve setup Your First WordPress Blog

Making the Most of Your WordPress .htaccess File

Things to Do Before Going Live

Tweak Your Blog Design

Managing Your Blog

Growing Your Blog

How Do You Blog Roadmap

Thinking About Security

Should I Start A Blog?

I know what you’re thinking, why would I want a blog? Will it really benefit me?

If you are anything like me, you’ve tried the regular 9-5 job route, and haven’t had much luck.

Jobs don’t come very easy where I live.

Yes I know what you’re saying Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton say that they are going to make the job market better.

But the truth is that….you’re the only one who can actually take the necessary steps to ensure your future.

You can’t rely on anyone to help you save for retirement.

No I am not saying that you should quit your job to learn how to start a blog.

The great thing is that you can keep your 40 hours a week job and work on your blog on the weekends, evenings or any free time that you get.

Sure you may have to give up Netflix, but it will be worth it if you learn how to set up a blog and drive traffic to it that ends up making you money.

Think of a blog as your online real estate, that you can use any way you want.

It’s so easy to start a blog and many people have done it and continue to make a living online.

Heck it’s a lot easier than starting a brick and mortar business. If you do decide to start a blog, you need to realize that you’re going to be doing a lot of blog writing.

Social media and YouTube make it easy to get your name out there. So join me in starting a blog.
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What Is A Blog?

If you are brand new to blogging then you may not even know what a blog is. A blog is nothing more than an informational site or online journal that displays your content in reverse chronological order.

Starting a Blog Tips

The most difficult thing that people face when they are considering creating a blog is what should my blog be about?

I struggled with this. In fact, this isn’t my first blog that I’ve started. I have a few of them. Many of them have failed…so be sure you take the time to find out what you want your blog to be about.

I know most people say that you should blog about your hobbies and fashion.

But if you love crotchet…to you think you will make any money at it? You have to do some due diligence before blindly starting a blog.

I rand a quick Long Tail Keyword search on crotchet. If you want to read a more in-depth article on how I use this keyword tool, make sure that you read my Long Tail Pro Review.

Okay great, but what do those numbers mean?

Keyword: Crochet

Volume: means the keyword gets around 2400 searches per month.

Competition: low

Avg KC: You want to try to find a keyword that has less than 38.

Don’t worry if you don’t understand what they mean yet. I will go into this later on down the road.

I don’t really know anything about crotchet, but I don’t think that it could be that profitable of a niche…correct if I’m wrong 🙂

Maybe you love cooking?

If so then you could learn how to start a food blog. You could add recipes cooking videos of you preparing your family meals after a hard days work.

Maybe you into fashion?

Then you would be starting a fashion blog that helps people learn about the top fashions. You could start a blog about the latest fashions that celebrities are wearing.

Or

Maybe you already have a small mom and pop business but need to build your brand. Then you could use your blog to sell your merchandise online.

No matter what type of business you have or if you just want a personal blog, the truth is that anyone can start one.

So once you know what your will be blogging about, it’s time to get started.

Let’s go….

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Registering Your Blog Domain

This is the very first process before you can start a website. Unless of course, you are choosing to set up your website on a free platform.

But if you’re on this website, I am assuming that you are going to be serious about your online business.

So head on over to Namecheap and register your domain.

I highly recommend using Namecheap to register your domain names. Not only that, but when it comes time to renew your domain, you won’t be expected to fork out a lot of money.

They may have some coupons to get a discount, but what I have found is that the more years you add onto your domain, the bigger discount you get.

So if you know that you are going to work hard on your blog…and won’t quit no matter what. The best advice I can provide is to purchase it for more than one year in advance.

Why You Shouldn’t Register Your Domain With Your Hosting Account

People’s opinions vary on this so, in the end you will do what you feel is right for your website.

The main reason you would want to get your domain name separate from your hosting is in case anything ever happens to your hosting account.

You won’t lose your domain with your hosting account.

I don’t really know what the chances are of that happening..

But if you’re like me, you don’t want to take the chance of losing your domain if something goes wrong with your hosting account.

So as I mentioned, I use a reliable domain registrar for all my domains.

Choosing A Reliable Hosting Account for Your Blog

This can be one of the most difficult decisions online for anyone starting a blog.

Sure there are some cheap hosting accounts and maybe even some free ones.

But the old saying “You get what you pay for” is so true when it comes to hosting. In case you missed it, find out why I left why I left Hostgator after 8 years.

I’m using and recommending SiteGround.

How to Start A Blog On SiteGround

Using the free hosting platforms such as Blogger and WordPress.com for your daily online journal blogs is okay.

But if you’re a serious blogger, you need a self-hosted blog.

This means that you will pay someone to host your website so it will show up whenever someone types in your domain.

Don’t worry, it’s NOT that expensive and you can get your site up and running today!

Why Start a Blog with SiteGround?

Awesome Customer Support

You will love the fact that they answer their live chat’s quickly. No more waiting for hours to get a quick response for something. Not only are they fast, but they are extremely helpful and from the short time that I’ve had my hosting account…they’ve been very helpful.

If you are just moving to them don’t forget…they offer a free courtesy website transfer from your old hosting account.

They Have Fantastic Uptime

I haven’t been with them long enough. But if you do your due diligence you will learn that a lot of other bloggers recommend them because of their uptime stats. So far…I’m happy with the speed and uptime of my sites.

SiteGround SuperCache

Increase your speed loading site without having to do a lot of the leg work. Quick and easy and best of all it’s free. All you do is enable it in your cPanel dashboard and you will notice your site increase in speed load time.

Pointing Your Blog Domain Nameservers to SiteGround

Most people who have set up a WordPress blog or website before know how to do this. But remember at the beginning I said I was going to assume that you are brand new to learning how to start a blog.

In fact, I am assuming that you don’t even know what a domain nameserver is….If you do, then move on to the next section that will help you get your site online.

What is a Domain Nameserver

Every host has a different domain server…when I was with Hostgator they gave me my own domain server that I had to setup on Namecheap in order for my domain to point to their servers.

When you sign up with SiteGround they will give you a domain server that you will need to use to point your domains to their servers.

it will be something like:

ns1.siteground.us
ns2.siteground.us

If you want a more technical definition of what a name server is, then read this.

Now if you happen to pick up the free domain for life with SiteGround, you won’t have to worry about pointing your nameservers.

They will point them for you.

This part of the tutorial is just for people who use other domain registrars for their domain names.

For this demonstration, I will be logging into my Namecheap and GoDaddy account since these are both very popular domain registrars with online marketers and entrepreneurs.

If you use someone totally different…the concept will be the same.

Changing Nameservers at GoDaddy

Okay if you have a GoDaddy account, log in. Click on my products and you will be taken to a screen like this.

 

Click on the green manage button.

Next click on the domain that you want to change the nameservers for.

You will see this..

 

Now you click on manage and enter the domain servers that were provided by your hosting account.

Don’t forget to hit save after you update the nameservers.

It will probably tell you that it can take up to 24 hours to take effect. I’ve never had to wait that long…so it should take effect pretty quickly.

That was easy wasn’t it…that’s how you change your GoDaddy nameservers.

Change NameServers at NameCheap

Okay now if you’re like me, you register all your domains at Namecheap and host your WordPress sites at SiteGround.

If so then now is the time to log into your Namecheap account so we can point our Nameservers to SiteGround.

 

Now click on manage right by the domain that you want to point to SiteGround.

You will be taken the next screen.

Scroll down till you see NameServers.

 

Put in your SiteGround Nameservers right in the two lines below custom DNS.

Once you have added them, look to the right, you will see a little green checkmark. (It’s easy to miss, that’s why I circled it)

Click on it, this saves the information you put in. Now everything should be good…give your site some time to propogate and then it will point to SiteGround’s servers.

That’s all you have to do, now you can log out of your Namecheap account and focus on installing your WordPress site then customizing it to your liking.

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How to Start A Blog

Step by Step Guide for Beginners

Click and Get Started

Let’s get started, you can do this. If you need any help along the way, don’t hesitate to reach out and ask questions. I’m here for you. When you click through my link to start your blog.

Choose the right plan for your blog. I went ahead and signed up with the GrowBig plan because I have more than one blog.

If you’re just starting out then I highly recommend that you choose the Start Up Plan.

Input all your personal information and you can decide if you want to get the $60 per year Hacking Alert. (you get to choose) The best part is that you get your blog started for less than $100 and you won’t have to worry about upgrading anytime soon.

How to Start A Blog On WordPress

This is the quickest and easiest way to setup a blog. All you have to do is log into your cPanel dashboard. Then click a button.

 

Your hosting account may look different, if you can’t find the one click installer, then contact their support.

Click on the WordPress installer.

You will be taken to this.

All you have to do is follow the prompts and it will make a blog for you. All you have to do is log in with the credentials once it’s done.

The login url will be : http://yourdomain.com/wp-admin

Now if you’re feeling froggy and want to learn how to set up a blog without using the one-click installer, then follow the step by step directions below.

Why install your blog manually?

It will help you take some safety measures for your blog…which will help protect it from people who may want to hack your WordPress blog.

Creating A Secure Database for WordPress Blog

Installing Your WordPress Blog Manually

I know that SiteGround offers free WordPress installation services.

But I love doing it myself. When you do it manually, it gives you the opportunity to add some security to your blog.

So don’t worry, I’m going to show you exactly how to do it step by step.

Let’s go

head on over to WordPress.org and download the latest version of WordPress.

Extract the files and place them on your desktop or somewhere you can find them later.

Once you signed up for your SiteGround account and your plan is ready to use, you will need to access your FTP client.

FTP Client for Mac and PC

What Is an FTP Client?

This software allows you to upload files easily and quickly to your server. FTP stands for file transfer protocol. You really don’t need to have a full understanding of what it does.

All you need to know is that it’s quick and easy to upload your files. But if your a technical person and want to know exactly what it is, you can read this.

Okay great now what you will want to do is log onto your FTP or SFTP server to upload your WordPress files into your account.

Don’t know how to log onto the server using FTP or SFTP, read this.

Creating the Blog Database

You need to create the database so we can connect WordPress with your hosting account.

For this demonstration, I setup a subdomain on my website SusanVelez.com

I will be deleting it after I walk you through on how to setup your own WordPress site.

Head on over to your CPanel.

Scroll down till you see your Databases.

 

Click on MySQL databases.

I love using Roboform to create my database names. I allows me to not only create my databases, but save my passwords.

This will allow you to create a secure password and not have to worry about whether someone can guess your database.

So once you generate your password click on Create Database

Open up Notepad on your computer and copy and paste your database name into your notepad.

Mine looks like this

Next scroll down and we want to create our Database user. You want to ensure that you get green checkmarks.

This means that you have created a strong password.

Be sure and copy your password into the same notepad as you used for your database name as well as your database username.

Okay now that you have your database user created, you should have a notepad with this information.

DB Name: usanv94_XdY9pj78WykZeHBIVg7LDEMOWalkthrough

Database User: susanv94_WALKTHR

Database Password: $&l9N0TVC7v!kdsUKdm!U$kL

I won’t be using this site as I mentioned I just set it up for demonstration purposes.

You never want to share your database information with anyone. I am just sharing them for this demonstration walk through.

Setting up the Database Privileges

In order for the Database to connect and work properly, we have to give the user privileges. Scroll down till you see the “add a user to a database”

Make sure you choose the database and user you just created.

If you only have one site, then you will only have one database and one user.

Click add once you choose the user and database.

Most people will choose all privileges.

But in order to secure your database, you want to uncheck the following:

• Create temporary tables
• Lock tables
• References
• Index

Once you do that, check make changes.

If everything went well you will see.

You just finished setting up your secure blog database.

I know what you’re thinking. I could just use softaculous or other WordPress auto-installers to install your blog with one click.

Yes you can, but this way we are doing everything we can to ensure our WordPress site is locked down and it makes it more difficult for hackers to hack.

Don’t worry, we’re almost done.

You’re doing great!

Setting Up a Blog on SiteGround

Open up your FTP client and access your public_html folder. Here’s a step-by-step guide to start a blog on SiteGround.

if you only have one domain, then it won’t be hard. If you have multiple domains are setting up your blog in a subdirectory such as

Make sure that you are in the right folder to upload your WordPress folders.

Open up the folder by double clicking.

Once inside you will notice that there is a folder called cgi-bin.

Next step is to drag and drop all your WordPress files into that folder.

Find the WordPress folder that you extracted…remember, I asked you to save it to your desktop.

Now you want to open up the folder and click the first file.

Hold shift and scroll down to the last file in the folder. They should all be highlighed now.

Now just double right click or drag and drop your files from your server to your SiteGround server.

Once you do that the hard part is done. Your files should be uploading to your server.

Once the files are done uploading Transmit shows me this. If you’re using a different FTP client then yours will be different.

The main thing is that you want to ensure that all your files are uploaded. It could take up to 5 minutes to upload them.

It all just depends on your Internet speed.

Now it’s time to log back into your SiteGround account so we can setup and install WordPress.

Configuring The WordPress Config File

What is the WordPress config file? It is a very important file that you need to be able to connect the database to it.

I guess you could say that without it, the database wouldn’t be able to talk to WordPress.

So whatever you do, protect this file at all costs.

Now I could make these changes right inside of Transmit, but I don’t know what FTP client you are using.

So I think that it will be easier to show you from inside of SiteGround.

So once you are inside of your cPanel…go to file manager.

When you double click on the file manager. You will be redirected to the public_html folder of your server.

So once again make sure that you are in the right folder if you did happen to install WordPress inside of a subdirectory.

Scroll down or look for a file that is called wp-config-sample.php

We are going to be renaming this file to wp-config.php

So once you locate the wp-config-sample.php file right click on it

just remove the sample from the file name and you will end up with this.

Click on rename file and then you can delete the wp-config-sample.php file if you choose to.

Now you need to right click again on the newly renamed wp-config.php file and choose code edit.

Don’t freak out when you open up this file.

This is exactly what you’re going to see.

Don’t worry we are going to be discussing all these changes step by step…follow along and before you know your blog will be up and running.

Okay lets tackle the wp-config file step by step.

First things first, remember that notepad that you created when you set up your MYSQL file?

Well it’s time to pull it out. Put your info in the appropriate places.

For instance where it says DB_NAME…enter the database name you created for your WordPress site. Next you will enter your Database user and password.

Adding the Salt Keys to your blog

Okay now you will see some keys that look like this:

You will want to add some salt keys that are used to increase the security of your WordPress powered blogs or websites.

Click here to get your salt keys.

Whenever I add new security keys to my site, I always refresh the site a couple times before I add the keys to my site.

So once you refresh the page a couple times. Copy all the keys on the site and paste them in the spot where the keys should be.

Changing Your WP Prefix Table

The last thing that we want to do is change your WP Prefix table.

Hackers who target WordPress blogs tend to look for the wp_prefix table. This makes it easier for them to know what platform your website is built on.

Once again I use Roboform to create my new wp_prefix table.

So I change the current prefix table.

The most important thing you want to remember is that no matter what you change your prefix table to it has to end with a _

So whatever you do don’t forget the trailing _ at the end.

Now that you’ve made all the changes, don’t forget to save your changes.

Otherwise your changes won’t be saved.

There you have it, you made your wp-config file changes. Now wasn’t that easy…you should feel great about what you just accomplished.

Now it’s time to install the actual WordPress software on our SiteGround server.

Installing WordPress Blog on SiteGround

It really doesn’t take that long to learn how to start a blog and install WordPress manually.

When you are first learning how to start a blog, it will take a while.

Once you do it once, you will get faster and faster.

We’re on the last step of installing wordpress.

So let’s get started.

You will want to type in http://yourdomain.com/wp-admin/install.php

If everything worked great and you entered all your database information correctly, you should see this.

If you made a mistake on your wp-config file then your database will not be able to connect and you will see this.

So if you see the database errors, you just need to go through the steps and ensure you did everything correctly.

Most likely the errors are coming up because you did not put in the database information correctly.

So once you get the WordPress setup page, just follow through all the prompts.

Choose the language that your blog will be setup in…most likely it will be English 🙂

Click Continue

Follow these steps to finalize the installation of your WordPress site.

Site Title: enter an SEO friendly title (You can change this later on)

Username: once again use Roboform to create a secure username. Whatever you do, don’t use admin. (You can’t change this once it’s chosen)

Well you can but you would have to do it via PHP MyAdmin.

Password: Create a strong password that hackers will not be able to guess.

Email: use a legitimate email that you will be using for your website.

Search Engine Visibility: I like to check the discourage search engines from indexing the site, until I have set it up all the way.

Once you have done that you will click on install WordPress.

And joila

Now you can’t say that you don’t know how to setup WordPress.

You’ve just learned how to start a blog.

How to Start A Blog YouTube Video

Maybe you are the type of person who does better when you are able to see someone else do it. I’ve created a YouTube video that will walk you through step by step and by the time you are done, you’re blog will be set up.

 

 

But before we are done, I want to go through some important changes that you will want to make.

First of them is to log back into your SiteGround account if you logged out. Go back to the public_html folder of the blog you just setup.

Now look for your wp-admin folder it will look like this.

 

double click on that folder and scroll down till you see these two files.

 

In case you can’t see it the two files are the install-helper.php and the install.php

Now that we setup our WordPress blog, we don’t need these files anymore. So right click on them and delete them.

Now….

So let’s log in to our brand new blog and make these changes quickly.

WordPress Blog Site Dashboard Changes

Okay so hopefully you’re logged into your new WordPress blog installation. If not then log in and follow along so you can ensure that you learn how to start a bog correctly.

If you followed along with me, then changes are you created an extremely secure admin name for your site.

Mine looks something like this:

P9Y.PIufFZxb@pW4CV-q3gGADxOmbQRp4Vn_Hh9kqF

This isn’t my exact username, because I don’t want to share it. But you get the idea of what my username is.

So on top it says Howdy: P9YPIufFZxbpW4CVq3gGADxOmbQRp4VnHh9kqF

Well we don’t want to publish posts that show people our secure username.

Otherwise what good does it do that we took the time to secure our WordPress installation?

So go to users on the left hand side of the dashboard and  click on it.

Now choose edit.

We are going to add a new name that will be shown whenever we publish content on our sites.

As you can see I added Demo Site as my public display username.

So now whenever I post fresh content on my blog, it will show up as being posted by “Demo Site” not my secure admin name that I created.

Don’t forget to scroll to the bottom and click on update changes.

Now look back up at the top of your site and it now says Howdy Demo Site or whatever you created as your alias username.

Getting Your Blog Ready for Your First Blog Post

I’m so proud of you! You’ve accomplished a lot. Not only have you learned how to start a blog.

But you’ve setup a very secure blog. I’m NOT saying that you won’t ever have to worry about malicious code on your site.

You still need to take precautionary actions to stop people from hacking your site. The best thing I can recommend for that are plugins like Bullet Proof Security or Updraft Plus.

Updraft has become more popular than BackupBuddy.

Don’t forget a backup plan. Yes I know that SiteGround offers site backups. But I don’t know about you, but I work hard on my blog posts and the last thing I want to do is lose all my hard work.

I personally use this to backup my websites.

Okay enough of that, I seem to get all excited when talking about WordPress plugins, kind of like a kid at a candy store.

Let’s get back to getting your blog ready for so you can write your first post. Grab a cup of coffee or whatever….just don’t close this page yet.

Deleting Unnecessary Plugins

When you first create a blog you will notice that it comes pre-installed with two plugins.

Delete the Hello Dolly plugin…I really don’t know what that plugin is, but you don’t need it.

As for the Akismet plugin, you can use it if you choose. (however, it is a very popular plugin and will help you manage the amount of spam comments your website receives.)

Now let’s delete the “Sample Page” and the “Hello World” post.

So now your blog should is ready for you to dress it up anyway you want.

That’s the best part about using a self-hosted blog. You can add any theme you want or any plugin that you choose.

Choosing a Theme to Install

You can easily install a theme from the dashboard of your WordPress dashboard. Three themes come pre-installed with your WordPress blog.

You can also find several more free themes in the WordPress directory.

The biggest dilemma is…should you use a free theme for your website?

When I got started over 8 years ago, I started with a free theme. That was because I knew nothing about PHP or CSS.

However, today with all the drag and drop page builders, I don’t think anyone should start with a free theme.

Unless of course you just don’t care about unnecessary footer links in your footer.

Even if you are not a programmer or thinking about learning code scares the crap out of you. The great news is you can get started with premium themes that will make your website look great.

WordPress Drag and Drop Website Builders

If you’re new to the WordPress community, then you may not have heard about the battle of the page builders.

While there are a ton of page builders on the market. I am only going to tell you about the two that I am familiar with or have access to and continue to use.

Remember….you don’t get fluff from me. If you want fluff, visit someone else’s site that is just trying to get an affiliate commission from you.

So anywhere here are the two page builders that I use and continue to use for clients of mine.

 

I know what you’re thinking. Why invest in these paid plugins when I can just get a free theme from the WordPress directory?

As I mentioned, you can get started with a free theme. But with these page builders available today, there is absolutely no reason to NOT get started with a paid premium themes.

Don’t Want to Learn How to Code?

Have you been putting off getting a website online, because you don’t know anything about PHP, CSS or anytime you look at the code it looks like it was written in a foreign language.

Well, don’t worry, with these themes, all you have to do is drag and drop.

If you can write an email or post a Facebook post, then you have all the experience you need to use these page builders.

Which Page Builder Do I Recommend?

This site is built with the Beaver Builder and Genesis Framework. I love using the power of the Beaver Builder plugin with the Genesis Framework.

This site no longer uses Beaver Builder on it. Now I am just using the Genesis Framework with the Daily Dish Pro Theme. I still use the Beaver Builder theme on clients websites and still highly recommend it.

If you don’t know what I’m talking about right now, that’s okay.

Beaver Builder has a shorter learning curve than the Divi Builder, based on feedback from clients.

They are both good and the best part is that it makes getting a blog or website online quickly.

You Can’t Go Wrong With Either One

The truth is that no matter which of these page builders you use, you can’t go wrong. They are both great themes and they are backed by great companies.

Divi actually just came up with a huge update and is supposedly really great. I haven’t personally played with the new updated version.

As I mentioned I am using the Beaver Builder and Genesis with this theme.

A Look at the Beaver Builder Cost?

Beaver Builder allows you to use the Beaver Builder Lite version. for free. So you can install it and play with it to help you decide if you want to invest in the theme.

If you decide you want to purchase it, at the time of this writing, there are 3 price points.

Standard: $99

Pro: $199

Agency: $399

The only downside with the Beaver Builder page builder is that there is a renewal fee every year.

This enables you to continue to get updates whenever they come out with them.

A Look at the Divi Website Builder Cost

They recently just came out with the new updated Divi 3.0.  As I mentioned, I haven’t played with it….but many people love it.

This theme does not have a free version so you can test it out. However, it is reasonably priced.

I know what you’re thinking why buy the Lifetime Plan if I am just starting my blog?

Well if you are like me, then WordPress is going to be your bread and butter. Especially, if you get really good at it and start using it to learn how to start a blog and monetize it.

I have clients who need websites and blogs and I have used both of these page builders for their sites. Both these WordPress page builders make it easier for clients to manage their own sites and add content without screwing up the site.

So why would I want to pay a fee every year to continue using this theme?

I hate monthly and yearly subscriptions.

So with the Elegeant Themes Lifetime Plan, I never have to pay a penny again. No matter how many updates they come up with.

Not only that, but I get access all 87 themes and popular plugins like Monarch and the Bloom plugin.

The Balls in Your Court

I’ve given you the price point of these page builders as well as told you why you need one of them. It will make your learning curve of how to start a blog a lot easier when it comes time to customizing your blog.

However, if you still want to get started with a free theme then browse the WordPress Directory to find something you like.

If You Do Get One of the Page Builders

I would appreciate it if you purchased them through my affiliate link. It won’t cost you anymore than if you purchased it online.

This just means that I will get a small affiliate commission if you go through my link. Of course, only purchase through my link if you feel that I helped you and provided you valuable information on how to start a blog.

If you do want to go through my links, this one is for the WordPress Beaver Builder and use this one if you decide to purchase the Divi Page Builder by Elegeant Themes.

Oh and if you need hosting then pick it up using this SiteGround Signup Link

Congratulations…You Set Up Your First WordPress Blog

Awesome, I am so proud of you that you didn’t quit along the way. If you made it this far, then you have learned how to start a blog.

Now comes the real work of growing your blog and your fan base….that’s a whole other story.

Bookmark this site as I will be providing you with valuable WordPress tutorials that will help you along the way.

If you signed up with Beaver Builder and Divi then stay tuned as I am going to be diving into both of the page builders and showing you what I learn along the way.

So hopefully this helped you become a little more comfortable with WordPress…after all that is my aim…if you feel this post helped you in any way, don’t forget to click the share buttons! This blog post is over 7,000 words and took me 4 days to write it and get it perfect just for you..

Things to Do Before Launching Your Blog To The World

I know you’re excited, you just finished installing WordPress. However, these are the next steps you should take before announcing your blog to the world. (Click on the links to be taken to the in-depth tutorial)

1. Become familiar with how to login to WordPress. It may sound funny, but most of my clients still have trouble logging in. You’ll be working on growing your blog every day and it’s important to be able to login.
2. Reset WordPress Admin: Double check to make sure that you did not use Admin as your WordPress username. If you followed along with my tutorial, then you didn’t.
3. Adjust your WordPress settings and take a tour of the WordPress dashboard so you can become familiar with it.
4. Create pages. The pages you create will exist outside of your blog feed. This tutorial will show you how to work with your WordPress navigation menu so you can create a menu that rocks.
5. Choosing a theme you will love. Don’t worry, nothing is permanent on your blog, you can always change it later.
6. Set up a Gravatar. This will replace the default “mystery man” gravatar that displays on comments with your image. It’s important to let people see who’s the person behind your blog and helps build trust and credibility.
7. Create an Author Box: Genesis makes it easy to create an author box. Author boxes show up at the end of the posts and the sidebar to let people know a short snippet about you.
8. Create a Favicon: This is the little logo of your blog on the title tag. You can see mine at the very top of the browser.
9. Upload Your Favicon: Now that you’ve created your favicon the right way, it’s time to upload it and let your visitors see it regardless of which device they access your blog from.
10. Install Google Analytics: This will help you track your visitors. You will be able to see if your visitor landed on your site through organic listings, social or referral traffic. Google analytics is a must if you want to grow your blog.
11. Set up social media accounts: Don’t wait too long, start setting your accounts up and let people know that you’ve got a great blog coming soon.
12. Install a Social Sharing Plugin: Make your content easy to share. I hate it when I visit other people’s blog and I can’t find their share buttons.
13. Working with WordPress plugins: Familiarize yourself with installing, deleting, and updating plugins. If you’re managing your own blog, this is something you need to know so you can install your plugins from the get go.
14. Set up a newsletter: Start collecting people’s emails the minute your blog goes live. Follow this tutorial to set up a newsletter using GetResponse.
15. Write your first blog post: If you’re new to WordPress, I know that the text editor confusing. This tutorial will walk you through all the hidden features, even the kitchen sink.
16. Create a backup plan It’s important to back up your blog on a consistent basis. Automated backups work best because they work day and night without you having to lift a finger.
17. Protect your blog from spam: Once you start using WordPress, you will realize what a pain in the ass spam can be. Your blog will start getting bombarded with spam from auto-bots. This tutorial will walk you through on how to solve this issue.
18. Write your about page: This is one of the most visited pages on a blog and it’s important to make yours personable.
19. Write a privacy policy: Every blog uses one and it’s important to let your readers know how your blog collects and uses information.
20. Install Yoast SEO This plugin makes it easy to ensure my blog posts are properly optimized and even setups my sitemap.
21. Submit your blog to Google Webmasters: We want to inform the search engines about our blog and Google Webmasters will inform if any errors should arise.
22. What Are Permalinks: Learn how to set up an SEO friendly website by making sure your permalinks are set up properly.
23. 6 crucial blog configurations to check on every blog before you go live.
24. Install the best social sharing plugin to help you get shares on your content. This plugin is responsible for helping me grow my blog.

Once you’ve completed all the tasks above, it’s time to GO LIVE!

But don’t leave yet…. want to secure your WordPress website even more?

Making the Most of Your htaccess WordPress File

What is your HTACCESS file?

This is another very important file for your WordPress site. It is known as the Hypertext Access file and is used by Apache-based web servers.

The .htaccess file can help with some of the following:

• Protect your site with a password
• enable server-side includes
• deny access to your website based on IP
• You can setup redirects
• Prevent directory listings
• and etc…

Now, I’m NOT claiming to be an expert. I don’t know everything there is to know about the .htaccess file.

But I do know how to do research and find things online.

I’ve added a few of the .htaccess rules I think that are important and I always add them to my website.

Don’t Worry, I will walk you through the process of adding them and even show you what mine looks like so you can ensure you are adding it correctly.

You don’t really have to know what these mean, all you need to know is that they are helping you protect your website.

These are all things that I have found on the Internet and it will save you time from having to go hunt each one down.

Sure you could take the time out and find them on your own, but why would you when I have already done it for you?

So use your time wisely and focus on starting your blog…I’ll keep providing your with easy to follow tutorials that will help you learn about WordPress quickly.

Be sure and make a backup of your current file before you start making any changes….a single syntax error could break your site.

What I like to do whenever I make a change in one of my files is use my FTP client to move the file to my desktop.

This way if I make a mistake on the original, I can always upload the one that I placed on my desktop…you won’t have to worry if you mess it up.

If your site goes down…don’t blame me 🙂

Let’s go…

Here are the snippets that I found online and use for my WordPress site.

Where do I Add the Code to the .htaccess file?

So you could use your FTP client to make these changes and that is what I will be using to make mine.

So go to the website that you will making the .htaccess files…I’ll be using the walkthrough website I set up on the tutorials above.

Now drag it and drop it on your desktop so you have a backup…just in case 🙂

Open the file with a text editor, by right clicking on it inside of the FTP client. I always use Sublime Text for my code editing. But if you’re on a PC you can download the Notepad++

When you open the file you will see this:

Don’t delete any of that…we will be adding code to what we already have.

You shouldn’t add or edit anything between the lines # BEGIN WordPress and # END WordPress

Everything in between the # BEGIN WordPress and # END WordPress is the default WordPress code. If you change or delete the code, your site won’t work.

Protecting Important files

Remember how I said that the wp-config file is a very important file for WordPress. You never want anyone to get access to this file. The code below will protect your error logs, wp-config.php and php.ini files.

 Prevent Directory Browsing

This code makes it difficult for hackers to figure you out. This little snippet prevents people from browsing your WordPress directories.

So What Should My File Look Like?

Here’s my file so you can see how and where I added my code:

After you make these changes, browse to your website….if it comes up then you’ve done it correctly.

If not then just drag and drop the one that you had as a backup on your desktop back onto your server.

Or you can delete any code that you added and try again.

There Are a Ton More Codes You Can Add

You could literally go crazy and add a ton more codes to your htaccess file.

But…

These are just a few of the ones that I use…you can start out with these and as you become more familiar with WordPress and feel more confident you will gather your own .htaccess codes to put into your site. These quick htaccess snippets will not only help you learn how to start a blog, but will help you ensure it is secure.

If you are feeling more confident and want to explore some more…here is a great site you can use that will help you secure your site even more. wpmudev

So hopefully this helped you become a little more comfortable with WordPress…after all that is my aim.

Continue learning and don’t ever stop…

Design and use your blog

You’ve setup your first WordPress blog. With so many options of free and paid themes, it’s time to decide which one you want to use to tell people about your site.

Keep Learning WordPress Basics

WordPress constantly changes and your new blog is going to need updates and maintenance. Think of it like a car, every so often you take it to get an oil change. While it won’t cost you money every time you update your WordPress blog. There are several things you need to keep learning.

Don’t worry, I will provide you with tons of WordPress tutorials along the way so you can keep your blog in tip top shape.

How to Design A Blog

No one likes an ugly website. While you don’t have to spend hours on the design of your website, you don’t even have to be a graphic designer.

One of the benefits of having a self-hosted blog is that you get access to tons of WordPress themes that you can use to help make your blog beautiful. If you’re using the Genesis Framework, you might want to check out some of my tutorials which will help you with your blog.

For more reading, you may want to eventually read:

1. Blog Design: Keep It Clutter Free and User Friendly
2. Best Advice for Blog Design and Blog Goals
3. How to Make Your Own Graphics For Your Blog

Managing Your Own Blog

Now that your blog is live and you’re publishing new content on a regular basis, it’s time to start managing it to ensure that it is always running smoothly and you can take steps to ensure it is protected.

We all have heard that WordPress sites are notorious for being hacked. Even if you’re not a PHP developer (I’m not) there are things that you can do to keep your site properly secured to deter hackers.

Here are some articles that will help ensure you take the necessary steps to protect your blog.

1. WordPress Maintenance Tasks: These tasks will ensure that your blog is running smoothly.
2. How to Update The WordPress Core: WordPress consistently comes out with updates, it’s important that you keep a fresh update of the software on your blog.
3. Optimizing Your Database: As your blog starts to grow it’s important to optimize the database to remove the clutter.
4. Manage Post Revisions: You may have noticed that whenever you write a new blog post, all your revisions are saved. I highly recommend changing the number of revisions that are saved.
5. WordPress Plugins: Learn everything you need to know about plugins.

 

Grow Your WordPress Blog

• Social Warfare Plugin: Install one of the best social media sharing plugins for your WordPress blog.
• Start Building Your Email List: It’s NEVER too early to start building your email list.
• Blogging Resource Tools: If you’re growing a business, you need access to tools and resources that can help you grow your blog.
• Promote Your Old Posts: As your blog starts to grow, you can’t forget about promoting your old blog posts.
• Automate Social Media: As a blogger, there’s always so much to do. Find out how I automate my social media tasks to help me grow my WordPress blog.
• Use Your WordPress Editorial Calendar: Write your blog posts far in advance so you won’t have to worry about NOT having a fresh blog post every week.
• Migrating Your WordPress Blog To Another Host: As your blog starts to grow eventually, you might be faced to move your blog to another hosting account that can handle all your traffic.
• How Often Should I Post On My Blog: Many new bloggers always want to know how many posts they should write every week.

It’s Never Too Late To Start Thinking About Security

I know you started a self-hosted blog in hopes of making money. Chances are you spend a ton of time creating awesome content on your blog. The last thing you want is to wake up one morning to find out that someone has hacked your site.

I’ve written some great tutorials that will help you take the necessary steps to protect your WordPress blog. These steps will ensure you are taking the necessary steps to protect your blog.

1. Changing WP Prefix Table: If you are using the default wp prefix table then you might want to consider changing it.
2. Adding Fresh Salt Keys: Salt keys encrypt your log in or log people out. If you feel that your password has been compromised, I recommend changing your salt keys.
3. Adding New Users: Whenever you add a new user to your blog, make sure that you are assigning them the proper role.
4. Create A Secure Database: Whenever you install WordPress, make sure you are creating a secure database that will tighten up your blog security.
5. Changing The Login URL: hackers know that every WordPress login is wp-admin, you might want to consider changing it to something more secretive.
6. Reset WordPress Admin: If you set up WordPress and you used “Admin” as your username. I’ve written a great tutorial that will help you change it.

How Do You Blog Roadmap

Now that your blog is set up, it’s time to get to work and grow it. Here are the steps that you will need to take on a regular basis.

1. Keep learning about WordPress and don’t worry about not knowing everything from the start. You can pick up my JumpStart WordPress guide to help you with laying the proper foundation for your blog.
2. Create your about page and then start writing your first blog post.
3. Research popular blog topics that people will share and focus on increasing your page views.
4. Start using Pinterest for business to help you grow your blog.

How Can I Make Money Blogging?

Everyone who starts a blog wants to turn it into a business. Read this post on how bloggers make money. You’ll get a ton of monetization ideas and what it really takes to start making money.

Feel free to use this infographic on your site

<a href=”https://susanvelez.com/how-to-start-a-blog/”><img src=’https://susanvelez.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/how-to-start-a-blog-infographic.png’ alt=’how to start a blog – infographic’/></a><br /> Please include attribution to https://SusanVelez.com/blog with this infographic.</p><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /> <p>