How to Start a Blog Using WordPress

Blogging is a great way to communicate, build credibility and expertise, bring more traffic to your website, hone your writing skills, and so much more. Starting a blog is also a great way to create a web presence if you do not already have one and add it to your website.

WordPress

Blogging is all about writing content and building a community of readers. Thanks to services like WordPress and Blogger, anyone can start a blog. You do not need to know anything about web design or hosting. The following is a step-by-step process for setting up a WordPress blog. What you do with that blog is up to you.

1. Go to wordpress.com and create a free account. You will be asked to choose a name for your blog. Pick something that works for you and is easy to remember. Your name will be a part of your blog address, so make sure it is not too complicated. It will look like this: yourname.wordpress.com.

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2. Once you set up all the details and create your account, you will be able to log in to your account at wordpress.com and be taken to the dashboard.

3. Go ahead and create a test post. You can delete it later. To add a post, click on the New Post button in the gray bar that runs across the top or click on Add New under the Posts category on the left-hand bar.

4. Once you write your article, you will want to do a few other things before posting. First, you will want to add tags to your post. A title is just a way to organize and search for content on your site as your content grows. You can create whatever tags you want for each post. Take out keywords from your seat to use as tags. You add tags from the column on the right (from where you write your post).

After you add tags, you will also want to add a category. A category is more formal than a tag. Choose the category title carefully, keeping in mind the future. If you are starting a personal blog, you may have categories for Entertainment, Family, Recipes, etc.

After you add tags and categories, you can publish your post. Click on the link that says Visit Site to view your post after you publish it.

5. When you view your site and post, you will notice that your blog has the title you picked when you signed up and a tagline if you set it up. You will also see that it has a bland design. You will want to choose a better template to post your blog to than the default template.

To change your blog’s design, go back to your WordPress dashboard. You can do this directly from your blog by typing /wp-admin after the web address, e.g., yourname.wordpress.com/wp-admin. Be sure to hit enter.

When back in the dashboard, click Appearance in the left-hand column. Then click on Themes. This will take you to the themes page. Look through the theme thumbnails and pick one that you like. To use it, all you have to do is click on it. It will bring up a preview, and you will click on Activate this Theme at the top right corner of that preview. Viola, you have a new theme. Click on View this Site to see what it looks like.

6. you will want to customize your WordPress blog a little more. First, get rid of the default post that comes with the blog. To do this, go to your dashboard, clickk Edit under Posts, and mouse over the position name you want to delete. The option to delete will appear when you do so. Click on Delete. You can also choose to edit a post the same way. Just be sure to click on Edit instead of delete.

7. Your WordPress blog also comes with a default About page. This shows you that you can add static pages to your blog. You can have more than one page and include whatever information you want. For now, edit the About page to include information about you or your business. To do this, click on Pages from the left-hand menu (in the dashboard). Put your mouse over About and then click on Edit. Editing or writing new pages is very similar to editing and writing posts. Put your information in and publish it.

8. Adjust your widgets. Widgets are accessed through the Appearance button. Widgets are those things that fill up the sidebars on your blog. Your template will determine where you can put widgets. If you have more than one sidebar supporting a widget, you must choose which sidebar you want to appear in. To do this, click the drop-down box from the widget page under Current Widgets. This will show you what widgets are currently in what sidebar.

To add a new widget, choose a sidebar. Then click Add next to the device that you want. Try adding a Text widget. Once you add it, you must edit it to say what you want. To do this, go back over to the Current Widget list. Since you said it, it should appear there. Click Edit on the blue bar that says Text. Enter your Text into the text box and click done. Now, visit your site. Your Text will appear in the sidebar. You can add any widget you want but don’t overdo it.

9. You can customize your WordPress blog further by visiting WordPress.org and clicking on Extend. There will be a learning curve, but many free options exist.

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Alcohol scholar. Bacon fan. Internetaholic. Beer geek. Thinker. Coffee advocate. Reader. Have a strong interest in consulting about teddy bears in Nigeria. Spent 2001-2004 promoting glue in Pensacola, FL. My current pet project is testing the market for salsa in Las Vegas, NV. In 2008 I was getting to know birdhouses worldwide. Spent 2002-2008 buying and selling easy-bake-ovens in Bethesda, MD. Spent 2002-2009 marketing country music in the financial sector.