How to Start a Blog in WordPress

Do you have something worthy on your mind to share with the world today? Absolutely the best way to go about it is to pen your thoughts in the right direction on the right platform that can help you reach out to the very people who would love to read your piece d’art! What better way than to have your own blog! And a free one at that, of course!

The best way to begin is with creating your own blog using the WordPress platform, the whole world’s looking for new and upcoming content from genuine contributors just like you! Wondering about ‘How to start a blog in WordPress for free’, or ‘How to create a blog on WordPress’? Without further ado, let us see how easily it is to setup your own free WordPress blog in a jiffy!

Here’s How:

For the uninitiated, let us consider that you already have something that you are currently working on (writing per se), or have an idea that you will soon commence on your digital anvil. Prior to that, you wish to understand ‘how to setup your own blog site or website’, or ‘How to make a blog on WordPress’, Correct? Consequently, let us see what do you need, and ‘How to make a blog on WordPress’!

To begin with, heading over to WordPress.com lands you on to the main page where you can simply Sign Up, and Create a New Account for yourself. Pretty straight forward – How to start a blog in WordPress – isn’t it? As soon as you have logged in to the site, you will be taken to a page where you can select the sort of account you wish to operate. For now, we’ll select ‘Free’ account, of course since, we’re here for a Free Blog site, right? On the next page, you will have a few options to pick from, describing your actual purpose for having created a new account to write a blog on. Select the blog title and the tag line that best describes the topic you have written on. On the next page, you can either choose from a huge compilation of designs available for free, or jump into writing without any further waiting to do.

Voila! That’s all it takes to get into the writing pad for creating a new blog on WordPress.com! Quick, Easy, and Simple. Go ahead, have a go at your keyboard, and share whatever that you wished to share with the millions out there in the digital space!

But wait, that’s not the only thing you can do, or need to create a successful blog. There’s more on offer than you ever imagined! Take a deep dive with us, and see the goldmine at the end of the rainbow!

GoldPress Rush!

Names & Entities

Moving down the line, let us consider that you have posted your blog or have started blogging on WordPress, and it is visible online. Along with it, there would be a link or a URL, which takes viewers to your blog. That’s the domain name or the title of your blog site; for example, yourwrittenblog.wordpress.com; where “yourwrittenblog” is the name you chose for your blog or website (i.e. when blogging on WordPress). This website domain has been exclusively assigned, and created for you! No matter how many blogs or articles you create and post when blogging on WordPress, that is, uploaded here, are free for your entire lifetime!

However, if you feel the need to have your own website on which you would like to have the visitors visit your blogs, such as www.yourwrittenblog.com, then you would need to go ahead, and ‘Sign Up’ for one or the other of the premium plans offered on the Purchase page of WordPress.com. You can choose from Personal, Premium, Business & Commerce plans from the available list. 

Remember, the ‘Enterprise’ plan is custom-tailored for larger enterprises, considering the huge requirements of a large organization. Each optional plan differs by the various features that are available for managing and hosting your blogging website.

Most importantly, before you sign up for any of these plans, you must have thought of a website name for yourself, or if you do own a company, a name which aligns with that corporate entity. Most successful website names, or as they’re commonly known as ‘Domains’ reflect the topic or niche segment that you are catering to. For ease of use, or rather for your visitors to locate your topic of articles posted as blogs, the domain name should construe the very essence of your blogs’ topics.

Hosting & Servers

As you signed up, your website or blog will be hosted by WordPress.com. in the free plan that is. Paid plans offer you the choice to move your website content on a different internet or web server of your choice. Some install, and setup their own web server domain and server disk space, and have it up and running 24×7, with a view to manage it themselves. Though, this is advised only for those who have thorough IT technical background, or have someone to look after it. It can be quite cumbersome, and at times expensive, trying to maintain and run your own personal web server. For peace of mind, majority of people seek web hosting providers, which are pretty cost effective, and take away the hassle of maintaining and running the web server, which serves all your blog pages to your visitors. There are a lot of options to choose from, we’ll discuss them in yet another article. 

Managing WordPress

If you did go ahead with selecting your own domain and server space, the next step is to install and setup the WordPress system. This is required to host your website and get it Live for your visitors. It is basically what displays your web pages on your website. All you need to do is, simply find the WordPress installer from WordPress.com, and follow the instructions for installing WordPress on your web server domain! That’s it, done in a jiffy!

Configuration & Managing

Once you have completed installing the WordPress module onto your domain server, you need to configure few basic things. Begin with accessing the dashboard of your website by loading this URL – www.yourwrittenblog.com/wp-admin. Here you can define a unique name or title as well as tagline for your blog. Moreover, you can adjust the permalink structure (through Settings -> Permalinks option), and even choose a preferred time zone (under Settings -> General option) visible on the main Dashboard page. 

Theming & Styles

At WordPress.com, about hundreds of unfathomably beautiful pre-designed, ready-to-use themes are at your disposal to choose from, for your website! Additionally, since you chose a paid plan, that number increases ten-fold! Personally, I must admit it can be quite a daunting task to pick one theme from the entire lot displayed there! Chose one which suits best your topic, or even colors or branding of your company, if you did create this weblog as a website for your company! Under Dashboard on the main page, you can head over to Appearance -> Themes option, and settle down for some time until you make yup your mind from the bevy of themes!

Appearance & Layouts

The best thing that WordPress provides for any blog or website, is customization beyond anyone can dream of. Especially, the ease & simplicity with which one can go ahead and change the entire structure, layout, colors, elements visible on each and every page of the website! Every theme that you hand-picked from the list in the previous step, is created with expansive options for customizing its appearance to match your preferences.

On the Dashboard, navigate to Appearance -> Customize option, and take a pause and gather what you want to change or customize. Elements like site identity, colors, fonts, and layout can be modified as per your fancy! If you do have the image files for the rest, you can even add a logo, header image, and background image that pertain to your topic of blogs, or your company too!

Extended Functionality through Add-on Plugins

Just like aftermarket accessories for your, say car, you can even search, and add additional “Plugins” into your WordPress website! That’s the beauty of it! These additional plugins extend the functionality of your website, some plugins protect your website by increasing security against hackers and even provide Spam protection, increase your websites performance, and much more! Under Dashboard, which is our central console for managing the website, head over to “Plugins -> Add New”. Pick one that best suits your needs and purpose of your website. Done.!

More Pages

For all your efforts, it is customary to provide information such as About Yourself or Your Company, as well as some medium to Contact You. Without these, your visitors won’t be able to reach out to you, and thus defeating the purpose of creating such a beautiful website! Simply Click on ‘Add New Pages’ under Pages in Dashboard. Voila! The pages magically appear out of nowhere! Before you close to managing your website, add all the necessary information as required in the content section, and Publish your pages, making them visible for everyone and Search Engines to see!

Godspeed!

Before we sign off, letting you lose for writing on your favorite topic, Create New Blogs by clicking on “Add New” under “Posts” on Dashboard to create new pages or entries for each new blog you wish to write and publish under your name! Here, you can also format the text, add images, embed videos, and more using the built-in WordPress editor! Once completed, Click on “Publish”, to get your blog Live for the world! There, We’ve completed your guide on ‘how to start a WordPress blog for free’ in no time!

Connecting Worldwide

Today, your blog or your website needs to be reachable to your audience. And, the only sure shot way ahead is to promote your blog on all the available avenues as possible. To begin with, leading social media platforms, leading bloggers on the topic you have chosen to write on, and lastly but most importantly, all search engines that will list your blog in search results when people will search for the topic you have written about. Utilize all these possible sources to leverage and amplify the reach of your blog effectively to gain multifold for all your efforts so far! 

End Piece

Always remember to create unique topics, with high-quality content, precise language, and few images depicting what you’ve written about to gain the maximum in the long run! Happy Blogging!

FAQs

Are WordPress blogs profitable?

Given the topic on which you have written, Yes! You can even monetize your blog, if it gains enough visits or traffic from visitors seeking the precise information that you have provided on your blog. 

How do I write my first blog post on WordPress?

You can simply begin with creating a Free Account and going ahead with writing a blog on WordPress.com for starters to see how it goes. It’s fairly easy, and quick to publish your first blog!

Is WordPress blog really free?

Absolutely, A resounding Yes! If you simply want to keep writing without wondering about the hassles of managing a server or the intricacies of WordPress, it is free for a lifetime!