How to Start a WordPress Blog in 2024 (Beginner’s Guide)

Do you want to know how to build a WordPress site correctly?

We understand that creating a blog may be a daunting prospect, especially if you are not a geek. You’re not alone, believe it or not.

Whether you are 20 or 60 years old, the method is simple to follow. However, if you want assistance, our skilled staff can set up your blog for free.

What do you need to start a WordPress blog?

To start a WordPress blog, you’ll need three things:

1. A domain name idea (for example, encodebyte.com)
2. A web hosting account (the location of your website on the internet)
3. Your complete focus for the next 30 minutes.

Yes, you read that correctly. You can create a blog from the ground up in about 30 minutes, and we will lead you through the entire process step by step.

This tutorial will go over:

• How to Get a Free Custom Domain Name
• How to Choose the Best Web Hosting
• How to Install and Configure WordPress Blog
• How to Change Your Blog’s Design Template
• How to Write Your First Blog Post
• Using Plugins to Customize a WordPress Blog
• How to Add a Contact Form
• How to Install Google Analytics Tracking
• How to Optimize Your Website for SEO
• How to Make Money From Your Blog
• WordPress Resources for Learning and Mastery

All set? Let’s get started.

Step 1: Choose a Blog Name and a Platform

Choosing the incorrect blogging platform is the most common error made by novices when starting a blog. Thank goodness you’re here, since you won’t make that error.

Self-hosted WordPress, often known as WordPress.org, is more sensible for 95% of users.

Because WordPress is open source, it is completely free to use. You may install plugins, change the look of your site, and, most importantly, generate money from your blog without any limits.

A domain name is what users put into their browser to go to your website. It’s the internet address for your blog. Consider google.com, encodebyte.com, encodemore.com.

Web hosting is the location of your website’s files. It is the internet home of your website. Every blog requires web hosting.

A new domain name usually costs roughly $14.99 per year, and web hosting services are around $7.99 per month.

It may be difficult to choose a domain name. Visit this website to search domain name suggestion. https://instantdomainsearch.com/

Well, I think you have already picked your domain name. Now it’s time to register your domain. There are several companies that offer a domain name at a very cheap price. Well, you can buy your domain from Bluehost, GoDaddy, Namecheap, etc.

You can also buy your domain & Hosting fromHostinger they offer best price and service.

Step 2. Install WordPress Website

# Login to your cPanel and then click Softaculous Aps Insraller

# After that, From the WordPress section click the Install button. follow the image below

# Provide the Essential details and click to install.

Congratulations! You have created your first WordPress website.

You can now head over to the WordPress login page. Your login URL will look like this:

http://www.yourdomain.com/wp-admin

You can login to your WordPress site using the admin username and password you entered earlier.

Wasn’t that easy?

Essential Things To Do After Installing WordPress – Must Read!

Step 3. Selecting Your WordPress Theme

To change your theme, go to your WordPress dashboard and select Appearance » Themes.

Encodebyte pick Astra – Fast, Lightweight & Customizable WordPress Theme

Step 4. Creating Your First Blog Post

To begin writing your first blog post, navigate to the Posts » Add New menu in your WordPress dashboard.

When you’re finished writing, click the Publish button in the top-right corner of the page to make your blog post public.

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Step 5. Plugins & Customizations

After writing your first blog post, you should definitely start adding additional standard website components like a contact page, galleries, sliders, an email list, forums, and so on.

Plugins are required to offer all these extra features.

You may add new features to your website (without writing any code) with the help of WordPress plugins.
To install a WordPress plugin, follow our step-by-step instructions.

Having said that, let’s examine how to utilize plugins to enhance your WordPress site using a few key characteristics.

How to Create a Contact Form in WordPress

You can install this plugin on your site by logging into your WordPress dashboard and going to Plugins » Add New.

Then, in the search field, type ‘WPForms’, and click on the ‘Install Now’ button.

This will automatically install the plugin on your site.

After that, you must activate the plugin by clicking the ‘Activate’ button.

Now that you have activated WPForms, you are ready to create a contact form in WordPress.

To do this, navigate to WPForms » All Forms in your WordPress admin panel. Then, click the ‘Add New’ button.

For the sake of this example, we’ll choose the “Basic Contact Form” template. The Name, Email, and Message boxes will be added automatically.

To edit a form field, simply click on it.

When you click on a form field, it opens a ‘Field Options’ window on the left where you may make adjustments.

You may also adjust the order of the fields by dragging and dropping them.

If you want to add a new field, simply choose one from the list on the left sidebar.

You may drag it to your form or click on it, and it will be inserted automatically.

Be sure to click the “Save” button once you’ve finished modifying your form.

By selecting Pages » Add New and giving it the name “Contact,” you can now create a new page in WordPress. You must insert the WPForms block into the editor on the edit screen.

Next, click on the form you previously built from the drop-down menu, and WPForms will load an editor preview of the form in real time.

In order to view your contact form in action, save, publish, then navigate to the page in your browser.

You can also check this article How to Create a Contact Form in WordPress (Step by Step)

How to Setup Google Analytics Tracking

With Google Analytics, you can see who is visiting your blog, where they are coming from, and what they are doing when they are there.

Ideally, you should install Google Analytics as soon as you launch your blog so you can track its growth over time.

In order to install and activate the MonsterInsights plugin, navigate to your WordPress admin area. It is the simplest method to integrate Google Analytics to your website and is available for free. It is the best Google Analytics plugin for WordPress.

After activation, go to the Insights » Settings page to configure the plugin settings.

To link Google Analytics to your WordPress site, go to the settings page and select the ‘link MonsterInsights’ option.

To finish the setup, follow the on-screen directions. Once completed, you may view your website analytics report directly from your WordPress dashboard under the MonsterInsights page.

For detailed instructions, see our article on how to install Google Analytics in WordPress.

How to Optimize Your WordPress Blog for Search Engines

When starting a blog, most people do not optimize for SEO. SEO, or search engine optimization, assists users in finding your blog via search engines.

If you want more visitors, you must optimize your blog for SEO from the start.

The Best SEO Plugin For WordPress You must use it to rank your blog

More WordPress Plugins and Customization

There are several additional WordPress plugins available for installation. It might be difficult for beginners to identify the plugins they need.

EncodeByte frequently features the best WordPress plugins to assist you in adding the functionality that you want.

Here is a list of the top WordPress plugins recommended by our experts for your consideration.

• Backup – WordPress backup plugin of choice is All-in-One WP Migration. In the event that something goes wrong, you must regularly make backups of your website.
• Security – For WordPress, Sucuri Security is a free security scanner. To help you secure your site, we offer an in depth step-by-step WordPress security guide for beginners.
• Performance – To speed up WordPress, we advise utilizing either WP Super Cache (free) or WP Rocket (paid). See our post on WordPress speed and performance with detailed instructions for further information on this subject.
• Design & Customization – For designing unique landing pages, themes, or even just altering the look and feel of your site, we suggest utilizing the Elementor Website Builder, Divi or SeedProd page builder (without writing any code). See our post on the best WordPress page builders (compared) for further information on this subject.
• Traffic & Subscribers – Our top recommendation is to use PushEngage for push notifications. In doing so, you may maintain contact with website visitors even after they depart.
• Email Marketing – For email marketing, we advise use HubSpot or Constant Contact. We advise utilizing the free OptinMonster plugin to generate high-converting popups, scroll boxes, and call to actions in order to increase the number of email subscribers.

Require further suggestions? View our selection of the must have WordPress plugins and tools that are essential for any website.

Step 6. Making Money From Your Blog

After setting up and personalizing your own site, you’re undoubtedly wondering how to really get money from blogging.

Successful blog monetization may be achieved in a variety of ways. But there isn’t a get rich quick plan in existence.

If you’re prepared to work hard and exert yourself, the benefits will eventually come. There are no shortcuts, remember that.

The top methods for monetizing your blog are listed below.

1. Google AdSense

A common way for bloggers to monetize their sites is by placing adverts. The most effective method for monetizing a blog is to use Google AdSense.

For publishers and bloggers, it’s the biggest advertising platform. Bidding for keywords that match your content is permitted by Google, which serves as a mediator between you and the advertiser. You may obtain the highest possible prices for the advertisements by doing this.

Read our Ultimate guide to Get Google Adsense Approval Quick & Easy

2. Affiliate Marketing

3. Online Store

Many bloggers earn money by selling products directly through their blogs. This might include actual goods, digital downloads such as ebooks, artwork, music, and so forth. Some bloggers also provide consultancy services.

If you want to sell digital things like eBooks, we recommend Easy Digital Downloads because it is the plugin that we use. It includes all of the capabilities required to sell digital downloads.

If you want to sell actual things, we recommend WooCommerce, which is the finest eCommerce plugin for WordPress. It is also the world’s most popular eCommerce platform.

See our tutorial on how to simply start an online store using WordPress.

Another way to earn money is, set up an Amazon affiliate store to sell other people’s things on Amazon and make money; this way, you can sell other people’s products without having to deal with the headache of setting up their own store.

Another option is to create a membership website out of your blog where you can sell premium courses and material.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

We have addressed many inquiries after assisting thousands of individuals in beginning a blog. The most common queries concerning starting a blog are addressed in the following sections.

We really hope that our guide on setting up a WordPress blog was useful to you.