Get ready for an easy-to-follow guide on how to set up a WordPress blog in a weekend.
These are the basics of blogging that you should NOT skip over!
Why Start a Blog?
Honestly, why not?
Blogging serves as an amazing creative outlet that can be beneficial for just about anyone. I bet there is something in your life that you take the opportunity to talk about every time you have the chance, right? Why not turn that something into a blog?
I did that with my first blog, Twins and Coffee. I was a new twin mom and had SO much I wanted to share. So about a month into life with twins I decided to take the leap and start writing about my journey.
That blog is what has gotten me to where I am today. It taught me so much and now I get to turn what I have learned around to share with you!
Talk about full circle.
What Should I Blog About?
I imagine you already have an idea of what you want to write your blog about, but if you need some help figuring that out, click over to this blog post where I took a deep dive into how to decide on a niche for your blog.
It’s a pretty good read that will put you in a great position to move forward with the tips I am sharing here in this how to set up a WordPress blog post today.
How to Set-Up a WordPress Blog
I am going to share how to set-up a WordPress blog in five steps but if you are looking for a more in depth tutorial, click here for my free “How to Blog in a Weekend” course.
In the course, we walk through every step of the process with a whole lot of detail that one single blog post alone isn’t able to cover. I wanted to give ya’ll the opportunity to learn the basics of blogging in an easy-to-follow guide without a heavy price tag, which is why for now, it is 100% FREE (until January 2022)!
Don’t worry, though. You don’t have to sign up for the course. This blog post gives a good overview of all of the topics mentioned inside of it!
Let’s dive in.
Step 1: Decide What Your Blog Will Be About
When it comes to figuring out what you actually want to write about, you should ask yourself these four questions:
- What am I knowledgeable about?
- What am I good at?
- What could I talk about for hours and never get bored of?
- What is something interesting about my life/myself that would be fun to talk about?
I went with that last option for my first blog, Twins and Coffee. I knew my twins weren’t going anywhere and wanted to be able to connect with other twin moms while talking about the struggles of being a new twin mom.
After you decide on something from that list that you think you could write about for days on end, it’s time to come up with a blog name, domain, and social handles.
I suggest choosing a blog name that is easy to spell and that relates back to your niche. Then, ideally your domain should be blogname.com and socials @blogname.
A great way to check and see if the domain you’re hoping for is available is by simply typing the domain into your Google search bar and if you get some sort of error, odds are it is available (you’ll find out for sure when you set up hosting).
Then when it comes to your socials, simply type in your ideal handle in the search bar of Instagram, Tiktok, Pinterest, and Twitter to see if it’s available. If it’s not, try something like “blognameblog” or “blogname(location)”. If nothing is available that would make sense for your blog name, I’d suggest picking another name for your blog!
Step 2: Set-up Hosting for Your WordPress Blog
After you’ve decided on your blog name, it’s time to actually set up your site.
There are many different hosting platforms, but my favorite is New Blog Hosting for beginner bloggers. They are SO easy to work with and set everything up for you. They are also super responsive if you have any questions!
I suggest their Premium Plan which is $15/m. It offers everything you’ll need as a new blogger!
After you sign up for the platform (which is free), you’ll then select “order new service” which will be your hosting! Go through the steps (selecting the Premium plan and your ideal domain name) and once you’re done, they will do the rest!
They will keep in contact via email and you will end up getting your new WordPress dashboard login information shortly after signing up. They are SUPER fast!
Step 3: Set-up Your WordPress Dashboard
I go through this part in detail in my course, but ultimately you’re going to want to find your settings on the left-hand menu bar and make sure your blog name is typed in as well as your tag line before doing anything else.
From there, I suggest downloading the following plug-ins to get your site off on the right foot:
- Yoast
- W3 Performance
- Smush
- Updraft plus
- Insert headers and footers
- WP forms
- Gutenberg editor
- Jetpack
- Askimet
- Google Site Kit
- Smash Balloon Instagram Feed
- Gdpr consent form of choice
- Email marketing of choice
- Google web stories
I explain what each of the plug-ins do for you in the free course but ultimately, they are ideal for setting up your blog correctly. After you download them, be sure to go in and adjust the settings (for example, change colors to your ideal brand colors, add your social info, create accounts, etc.).
Step 4: Decide on a Theme and Customize Your Website
After familiarizing yourself with your new WordPress dashboard, it’s time to create your site!
All About WordPress themes
You’ll already have a default theme set by WordPress, but it won’t be too customizable and honestly, you should find something you LOVE instead.
Your website gives off the vibe of your whole brand!
You have two options here: you can go with a free theme or you can go with a paid theme. I highly suggest paying for a theme in order to avoid any mishaps that could come up should the creator of your free theme decide to stop updating it or possibly even trashing it.
If you’re testing out the waters with your new blogging gig, maybe focus on customizing your site with a free theme before taking the dive and paying for a theme, but all in all, I think paying for a theme is a great way to go because:
- they usually look better
- they offer more customization features
- they’re usually better set up for SEO
- & you’ll get life long support
My suggestion for a paid theme: Genesis + Restored316
You need both because Restored316 themes are something called “child themes”. That means that in order to work properly, you need a “parent theme” which for these specific themes is the Genesis framework.
Genesis is basically a framework (a parent theme) that adds extra optimization, security, and added functionality to your website. It works best with what’s called a “child theme”, aka what Restored316 offers!
A child theme works with the parent theme to offer a user-friendly way to further customize your site. You can use the Genesis framework without a child theme, but it won’t look nearly as good as with a child theme!
For more info, click here.
I know, this probably is a lot to comprehend when you originally came onto my site to learn how to set-up a WordPress blog but hear me out, I think it is essential to learn all you can in order to set up your site right the first time instead of having to mess around constantly while trying to actually run your blog.
I’ve been there. It is SO time consuming and frustrating. Get this stuff out of the way before you get to that point!
Back to your WordPress theme, I suggest going with Restored316 child themes but there are also other great ones out there! I love Restored316 because of their amazing SEO setup, amount of customization offerings for each theme, and of course, their amazing theme selection! They offer seriously stunning WordPress themes.
All About Customizing Your Theme
If you’re going with a free theme created by WordPress, setting it up is pretty simple. All you have to do after browsing through the themes is select “activate”.
Then you can move onto customizing.
But if you’re purchasing a theme, you’re going to need to upload it!
To do this, head to the “themes” section under appearance and click “add new”. If you are going with Genesis + a child theme from Restored316 (or anywhere else), upload the zipped Genesis framework folder, activate it, then upload your Restored316 (or other) child theme and click activate.
Now if you click over to your website, you’ll see the theme in action! It’ll be set up generically at first, but if you go to “appearance” and then “customize” you can get started customizing your site!
Each theme will have different options, so go through and check out all yours has to offer. Have fun with this part! You’ll be able to see in real-time how your blog will look with each adjustment you make.
One thing I will suggest: when you find the tab that asks you what page you want your home page to be and what page you want your blog to be, create a home page separate from your blog. This is how bloggers have creative home pages that aren’t just blog feeds.
We’ll dive into how to set-up your home page in the next section!
Step 5: Set-up Your Core Pages on Your WordPress blog
Now that you’ve started designing your site, let’s get your core pages set up.
The core pages you’ll want to have include:
- Homepage
- Contact Page
- About Page
- Privacy Policy/Disclosure Page
It is smart to have a true “home page” set up so that you can easily customize it however you want! Traditionally, blog themes will set you up with a specific home page for your blog but I think setting one up with the things you want to display is ideal when it comes to a website you truly love (Restored316 comes with customizable home pages for you to make your own which is yet another reason why I love them).
The next page you want to have set up is your contact page. Your contact page will be just that, contact info for your readers (and maybe brand partners!) to get ahold of you.
Your “about me” page will include information about you, your website, and any other core information you would love your readers/potential partners to have access to.
This page is VERY important. Having a privacy policy and disclosure page is required by law. It might just save you one day. I myself am not the most educated when it comes to why you need one, but this post by Boss Girl Bloggers includes great information on what legal mistakes most bloggers make and includes how to avoid making them yourself.
How to Set Up WordPress Pages
Setting up your pages is simple, customizing your pages is what can get time consuming!
Set-up your pages by selecting “add new” and make sure to title them as simple as you can (home page, contact, about me, etc). Then when it comes to customizing, I suggest you actually suggest you get off of your site before you begin.
I want you to browse through some of your favorite blogs as well as blogs in your niche and note down things that you like about their site pages. You’re going to use these ideas to customize your own site! Now, don’t copy someone else. But if you like how they set up their About Me page, try to do something similar. If you like that they have an About Me section on their homepage, you can do that too!
Okay, now for the actual customization. Earlier I suggested downloading the “Gutenberg” plug in. This plug in is also called the “clock editor” and it makes setting up blogs + pages SO SIMPLE!
You don’t have to know any code and it is pretty much just plug and play. Hover over the + button you see on your page (if you don’t see one, start typing and then hover around the right-hand side of the page and you’ll see it pop up). From here, you’ll see a handful of blocks pop up but I want you to click “browse all” and run down the list. Click them to add to your page to see what each block offers and you will be so surprised just how easy they make customizing your pages and posts exactly as you envision them!
Again, I go into a bit more detail about this in my free course so if you’d like a bit more info, make sure to sign up!
What to Do After You Set up your Blog
Hey! You’ve learned how to set up a WordPress blog!
Now comes your actual blogging career. Get started by writing your first blog post, creating a content plan, and of course, setting up your social media accounts!
I include a free more freebies in my course, including how to write a blog post, how to create a content plan, what other sites and apps are helpful, as well as what influencer/blogger networks you should sign up for so if I haven’t convinced you that it is worth your time yet, let me try one more time.
Because hey, it might teach you something that you didn’t even know you wanted to learn!
Anyway, I hope this blog post helped you learn how to set up a WordPress blog and helps you actually do just that! Welcome to the world of blogging!
It’s a wild ride.
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