Start Wordpress Blog PDF

How to Start and Grow
a WordPress Blog
Alex Chris | Reliablesoft.net

HOW TO START A WORDPRESS BLOG
So, you want to start a WordPress blog?
Maybe you're excited to get your voice heard, or want to use a blog to generate
passive income?
I'm not going to lie and say that it's easy to build your blog to become profitable,
but you have to start somewhere.
Professional bloggers make money because they've found a way to build an

audience and sell those audience products on other people's behalves (that's
affiliate marketing), sell their own products, or by selling ad space on their site.
But, the great thing for you is that you don't have to worry about that yet.
In this guide, I'm going to teach you how to set up a WordPress blog from scratch.
I'm going to guide you through the 10 steps you need to go through to get started
with a brand-new WordPress blog.
So, if you are a beginner to WordPress blogging, get a cup of coffee and let's see
how blogging can literally change your life.
ALEX CHRIS | RELIABLESOFT.NET 2

How to Start a WordPress Blog
Step 1: Select and register the perfect domain name .............................................................. 4
Step 2: How to choose the best WordPress hosting? .............................................................. 6
Step 3: How to install WordPress on your brand-new host ................................................... 11
Step 4: Understand Basic WordPress Terminology ................................................................ 14
Step 5: Write and publish your first WordPress post ............................................................. 16
Step 6: Change the appearance of your WordPress blog ....................................................... 20
Step 7: Install WordPress plugins ......................................................................................... 26
Step 8: Write and publish the most essential pages on your blog .......................................... 29
Step 9: Learn how to make money with your blog ................................................................ 34
Step 10: SEO Optimize your WordPress Blog ........................................................................ 38

Step 1: Select and register the perfect domain name

Your domain is an essential part of your brand identity. It sets the tone for your
site and lets readers know what kind of content they can expect from you.
Here are the main considerations:
• Keep it as short as possible

• Make sure it's easy to read, type, and remember (examples: yahoo.com, x.ai,
apple.com)
• Add a keyword that's relevant to your blog (examples: smartblogger.com,
healthline.com)
• Don't use hyphens or numbers — reading it out loud will be a nightmare
Another more complex consideration is your domain extension. For local SEO
reasons, it can be a good idea to register something like co.uk if you're in the UK.
That way, Google has a basic idea as to your relevance to a specific country.
However, in recent years, country-specific domain extensions have been used
worldwide as a matter of preference.
For example, you'll find plenty of tech companies with .io extensions (and you can
bet they're not all from British Indian Ocean Territory).

Why not head over to Bluehost now (the service I use personally), and pick your
own domain name?
They have a range of extensions to choose from that could make for an awesome
and memorable domain, such as .tech, .space, .club and .info.
Registering a new domain is easy, just follow their on-screen instructions and you
will be a proud domain owner in minutes!

Step 2: How to choose the best WordPress hosting?

Once you have a domain to use for your new WordPress Blog, the next step is to
choose your hosting provider i.e. the company that will host your blog on the
Internet.
There are plenty of factors (and even more options) to consider when picking
hosting for your site.
First of all, you're going to want to make sure the host is reliable, affordable, and
offers support if you need it.
There are three kinds of hosting options available for your WordPress blog:
Shared hosting, VPS hosting and Managed VPS hosting.
Shared hosting: pros and cons
Shared hosting is the most cost-effective solution and perfect for hobby blogs that
don't get a lot of traffic.
Pros:
• It's cheap. If you're expecting less than 500 visitors per day, go with shared
hosting from a provider like Bluehost for as little as $3.95/month.
• It's easy to maintain. The server is shared with all kinds of other sites, so you
will have your service managed along with everyone else.

Cons:
• It can be slow. Since you're sharing hosting with hundreds of other sites, your
site's speed can be impacted randomly by demand for other sites on the
server.
• Limited customer support. Shared hosting is cheap, so you can't expect a high
level of customer support.
VPS hosting: pros and cons
Virtual Private Server hosting (VPS) is the next step up from shared hosting.
Instead of sharing the server's power with a lot of other people, you get your own
space to work with.
Pros:
• Huge bandwidth and space. It's all yours!
• Configure the server in any way you like. Add domains, customize settings, run
apps on the server if you like.
Cons:
Usually quite costly. Bluehost, for example, charges starting at $14.99/month.
Pay for features you might not use. If you're a beginner, you don't need to the
functionality of a VPS.

Managed VPS hosting: pros and cons
Managed hosting is the top tier package you can get. With a managed host,
you're not responsible for any problems that might occur; you get a dedicated
team to help you 24/7, and priority support to help you optimize your site from
experts.
Pros:
• Top tier security. Never worry about backing your site up or getting attacked
by hackers.
• Fast sites. Managed servers are known for optimized loading times because
they use the best equipment available.
• White glove support. A huge part of the managed WordPress host experience
is support; you get 24/7 help and advice with anything you might need.
Cons:
• It's expensive. The most popular services, charge from $29/month for their
basic package.
My recommendation for hosting your first WordPress blog
For your first blog, anything more than shared hosting would be overkill.
You don't need bandwidth to support a huge number of visitors. You don't need
any advanced options, either.

As you grow your blog and get more traffic, you will have to consider migrating to
managed VPS hosting.
To get started in the fastest, most cost-effective way, use Bluehost's shared plan
which starts from $3.95/month.
Here's how to get started:
First up, go to Bluehost.
Hit the ‘Get Started’ button to pick your hosting plan. The basic plan is fine for
now, and you can always upgrade later or even cancel within 30 days if you
change your mind.

Follow the on-screen instructions to complete the registration of your new

hosting account.

Step 3: How to install WordPress on your brand-new host

The great thing about handling your blog set up with Bluehost is that you can
install WordPress in just one click.
Once you've made your purchase, login to your Bluehost account and just hit
'Install WordPress' (under the Website menu) and you're ready to go!
Wait a little time, progress through the dialog boxes. Don't worry, you'll get
prompted and kept in the loop every step of the way.
As soon as WordPress is installed, you'll be asked to set up a username and

password.
Make sure to use an extremely strong password, because it's terrible to get your
site hacked and it happens all the time.

Once the process is finished, your new WordPress blog is ready to use! This is how
the default WordPress installation looks like.
You can now login to the backend and start customizing your blog.
To log in to WordPress admin type the following URL in the browser window:
http://yourdomain.com/wp-admin and login with the username and password
created in the step above.

*Replace youdomain.com with the actual name of the domain you’ve just
registered.
Exciting, right? You have a WordPress blog! A proper one, too. And that means
you can start customizing your blog and publishing your first content.

Step 4: Understand Basic WordPress Terminology

Before getting into the details on how to publish your first post, you should
understand some basic WordPress terminology.
The difference between WordPress posts and pages

It's easy to get confused about posts and pages if you're new to WordPress.
They look similar on your site, the editor is the same inside WordPress, and
they've created in a similar way in the interface.
To explain the difference, let me use an example:
If you wanted to publish a blog post, you'd use a post. WordPress will place new
posts at the top of your blog like you'd expect.
If you wanted to publish an about page, or your contact us page, you'd use a
page.
Pages don't appear at the top of your blog like a post. They're one-off, timeless
content that isn't included in your RSS feed or with comments enabled.
You wouldn't want to start a conversation on your privacy policy page, would
you?

Pages are also hierarchical. This means you can have pages inside pages.
For example, if you had example.com/free-ebook and wanted to make a

download page for people to visit to download the ebook, you'd make a subpage
on the URL example.com/free-ebook/download.
As a general rule of thumb:
• Use posts for the dynamic parts of your website (i.e. your articles) and pages
for the static content (i.e. about us page, contact us, etc.).
• Have in mind that posts and pages are not the same as categories and tags.

Step 5: Write and publish your first WordPress post

Now it's time for the most exciting part of blogging: publishing a post.
On the left-hand menu, hover over 'Posts' and choose 'Add new'.
Here you can add your title and body text, and drag in images and videos.
Adding an image is easy. Just move the mouse over an empty area and click the
little image button.
Once on the next screen, you can drag files into the window or click ‘Upload’ to
browse images from your computer.

Saving post drafts and previewing
At any point, you're free to save your post as a draft if you want to come back to
it later and edit it.
Don't worry about losing anything you write in WordPress, because it will always
save your drafts automatically, too.

Make sure you preview the post before hitting publish to check for errors.
When you're sure it's ready to go, hit the big blue ‘Publish’ button to unleash your
first blog post on the world!
Why not load up your site in another tab now to check it out?
Editing and updating posts
Another great thing about WordPress' post editor is how easy it is to update your
posts once they're published.
The best blogs always keep their old posts updated so they can provide up-to-
date value to their new readers that come in from search engines.
To update a live post, go to 'Posts' on the left-hand sidebar and just go in and
make edits.

When you're editing something live, you'll notice the publish button changes to
an update button:
A quick tip for when you're writing inside WordPress: use a tool to check your
spelling and grammar.
For that, I'd recommend using Grammarly. It doesn't just catch simple mistakes; it
can detect problems with sentence structure and punctuation, too.
You'll soon get into the flow of publishing posts regularly, and keeping your blog
maintained. But that isn't all there is to blogging.

Step 6: Change the appearance of your WordPress blog

When previewing your first WordPress blog, you will notice that it comes with a
default theme, that has a specific look and feel.
While there is nothing wrong with that, if you want something different which is
also more professional and flexible, you need to consider investing your first $100
in purchasing a professional WordPress framework and theme.
Let's take it step by step:
What is a WordPress framework?
A WordPress framework is a set of designs and components you can use to

customize the look and feel of your site.
Unlike free themes — which are often restrictive in their customizability —

frameworks empower you to customize your site in a flexible way.
You can think of a framework as a layer that sits on top of WordPress and gives
you extra functionality, better security, and more flexibility.
An example of a powerful WordPress framework that helps you create websites

of any kind Genesis framework.

What is a WordPress Theme?
A WordPress theme defines the appearance of your blog.
A theme includes the design layouts for the different pages of your blog, fonts,
colors, formatting styles and everything that is related to the visual appearance of
your blog.
WordPress themes are either free or paid (premium).

Free vs. Premium themes
Whether you can get away without paying for a WordPress theme is a question
you'll tackle the moment you come to choose a theme for your blog.
So, what's the answer? Is premium always best?
In general, yes. Premium themes will come with rich customizability options,
support, and security.
Theoretically, it is possible to use a free theme and the right concoction of

random plugins to get a similar effect, but it's in no way recommended because
you never know how good the theme or plugins will hold up against hackers, or
interact with each other.
Use a free theme if...
• You don't have the budget for a premium theme (Usually $100)
• You're happy with using the theme 'as is' with limited customizability
• You're willing to risk security vulnerabilities or choose only from the approved
WordPress theme repository

Use a premium theme if...
• You have a specific idea of how you want your site to look and you want a fully
customizable starting point
• You value support and advice on how to edit your theme
• You prefer a high level of design quality
• You want to reduce the number of vulnerabilities on your site
There are plenty of fully customizable themes available through the Genesis
framework, you can check them out here.
When you use a free theme without a solid framework, you open yourself up to a
lot of hassle if you make any mistakes while editing code.
I know people who have accidentally wiped their sites repeatedly because they
were using low-quality themes they'd found somewhere on the internet.
Frameworks like the Genesis framework put you in safe hands with a high level of
security and support.

How to install a free WordPress theme
To select a theme from WordPress' theme library, hover over 'Appearance' on the
left-hand menu, and click 'Themes':
By default, WordPress comes with three built-in themes. You can hover over any
of the themes and click the “Live Preview” button to view how your blog will look,
before actually installing the theme.
For more free options, click the 'Add New Theme’ button, and you'll find all kinds
of themes to choose from.
If you've got a particular style in mind, you can click the 'Feature filter' button,
and narrow it down by its purpose, layout, and features.

Click on any theme you'd like to use to install and activate it. Now go to your site
to see how it looks!
If you don't like something about your theme, you can try to edit it with the
available options found in the Appearance > Customize menu.
If you have development experience, you can even try to adjust the code by
reading your theme's documentation. (Be careful editing code in Editor, however,
because one wrong line can break your whole site.)
How to install a premium WordPress theme
When you buy a premium theme, you'll download it from the store as a .zip file.
Unlike free themes you can access from inside of WordPress, you can't just one-
click install .zip files; you need to go into Appearance > Themes > Add New and
click 'Upload Theme':

Step 7: Install WordPress plugins

In addition to themes, you can alter the functionality and appearance of your blog
by using plugins.
What are WordPress plugins?
WordPress plugins are one of the single biggest factors why WordPress blogs are
so powerful.
They add new features and functions to your blog without making you write or
edit a single line of code.
Want to enable comments with Facebook? Show social sharing buttons? Backup
your whole site in one click?
Plugins can do it all.
And, they're easy to install from inside your site's WordPress back end. Just click
on 'Plugins' from the left-hand menu:

Now you know-how, which plugins will you choose?
Here's a list of essential (Free) WordPress plugins you should use on your new
blog:
WP Super Cache - Caching is essential for WordPress sites because it reduces the
size of your webpages. This puts less strain on the user's internet connection and
your server, and even improves your SEO. WP Super Cache is created by
Automattic — the same company that builds WordPress — so you know it's
trustworthy.
BackUpWordPress - Your data is precious, and the longer you have your blog and
put time into it, the bigger the risk becomes of losing it all. With a backup plugin
like BackUpWordPress, you never have to worry about losing data or having your
site ruined. If anything goes wrong, just restore your site from the most recent
backup!

Yoast SEO - Even though WordPress is set up for technical SEO out of the box, you
will want to use Yoast so you can write your own meta descriptions, get on-page
SEO guidance as you write, and rank more easily in search engines. Even the free
version of Yoast is a massive step up from vanilla WordPress SEO functionality.
Contact Form 7 - Need forms on your site? Maybe you want to make sure you
have an easy way for leads to get in touch with you, or to collect their
information? With Contact Form 7, you get shortcuts to easily add forms
anywhere on your site without having to type any difficult code.
Free vs premium plugins
Most of the plugins I've mentioned above, like Yoast and WP Super Cache, have
premium versions you can choose if you want extra features.
The catch with these examples (and most premium plugins you'll come across) is
that you're unlikely to need the advanced features premium plugins offer (at least
at the beginning).
However, you might want the support, security, and fast update cycle that comes
with going premium.
My advice for you at this stage is to use the free versions of premium plugins until
you outgrow them. That way, you're never paying for anything you don't use.

Step 8: Write and publish the most essential pages on your

blog
4 essential pages you need to include on your blog
Your visitors will come to your site with certain expectations; even if it's a blog,
they're going to be looking for an about page, a contact page, and others that you
might initially overlook.
Treat this next section as a checklist guide for the pages you should make next:
Home page
An optimized blog will always have its own home page — not just a list of the
most recent posts.
See Problogger, for example:

While there is a list of recent posts further down the page, the first thing the
reader sees is a big call to action to subscribe to the newsletter.
A big chunk of your page views will be going to your home page, so use that
opportunity to capture leads and show first time visitors what you're all about.
Elements to consider including in your home page:
• A headline to inform visitors who you are and what you do

• A clear Call to Action (that's an action you want users to perform), check out
our homepage as an example.
• Links to the most important parts of your website

• Description of your products or services
About page
Your about page should be a description of you and your blog. In many cases, the
about page is one of the most frequently visited pages of a website, so you'd
better make it hard-hitting, descriptive, and actionable.
Try to include all of the below in your about page:
Good examples of the kinds of content readers can expect

• Your story: why did you set the blog up, and what are you doing with it?
• An image of you or your team
• A call to action
• Facts about you and your blog
Blog page
Since you should have a main homepage, it means your blog page will live one
level deeper, on a URL like example.com/blog.
What should it look like?

A good way to answer that question is to look at the /blog pages of conversion-
orientated marketers, and see what they've tested and come out with.
Typically, blogs are a chronological list of articles. That's what readers expect, so it
tends to be what they get:
But, like any tightly optimized page, it should have visible email capture (opt-in)
boxes as a basic requirement. Also, consider adding:
• An 'about' widget: a condensed version of your about page with a quick bio
and a photo
• A list of your most viewed pages
• Featured posts
• Categories
• Archives
• Social media buttons so your readers can follow you
Contact page
Depending on what your blog's purpose is, your contact page could be your
biggest source of income.
For people providing services, contact pages are where you must persuade the
reader to get in touch. It needs to be well optimized and easy for the user.
For bloggers who primarily want to push readers to share, comment and
subscribe, the contact page doesn't need to be so purposeful — it just needs to
be there.
On your contact page, you should try to include:
• Your phone number

• Your email address
• A contact form
• Your physical address
• Reasons why the reader should contact you
• Your social media profiles

Step 9: Learn how to make money with your blog

How to make money blogging
Blogging is a great hobby, but it can also be your full-time job.
It takes a lot of work to build a community and an audience, but when you have a
big list of people to market to, you can generate a heap of passive income with
Adsense, affiliate marketing, and selling your own products and services.
Here's a brief explanation of each method:

Making money with Adsense
AdSense is a Google product. For publishers like you, it's a way to display
advertisements on your site and generate revenue without putting in the effort to
pick and choose which ads you're displaying.
Once you install AdSense on your site, you select where you want ads to show,
then set it (and forget it).
Your income depends on the keywords your site ranks for, and the amount of
traffic you get.
To put it bluntly, if your audience is small, you're going to get peanuts.

The bigger you get, however, the more likely you are to earn significant money
from AdSense.
Rank organically for content with affiliate links
Affiliate marketers make hundreds of thousands every year by writing content

that sells other people's products.

Here's a rough overview of the process:
• Get in touch with companies that sell products related to what you blog about,
asking for an affiliate partnership.
• Receive your own personal affiliate link that, when clicked, shows the
company that you were the one who referred them a customer
• Write a high-ranking blog post targeting a relevant keyword, including affiliate
links
• Get traffic to your affiliate links
• Get X% of the company's earnings for each referral
Obviously, this is nowhere near as simple as it sounds. For starters, you need to
know which affiliate program to join.
You need to learn how to write posts that deserve to rank high on Google, build
relationships with other companies, and learn copywriting to sell readers'
products.
These skills will all come in time. The more you write, optimize, and look at the
data, the better you understand your audience and are able to recommend
solutions that really solve their problem (and send you a bit of money each time,
too).

Sell your own products and services
Establishing a blog is one step on the road to becoming an authority.
When you're an authority, people will want to hire you and buy your products,
giving you another revenue stream alongside affiliate marketing and AdSense.
You'll know the problems your audience is trying to solve by the comments and
traffic you get, so setting up a blog is like the first stage of market research for any
products or services you might want to sell in the future.
Blogging about writing? You could sell an ebook full of valuable information from
your own experience, or a video course of writing tips.
You could also put yourself for hire as a marketing consultant or copy editor.
Run a nutrition blog? You could sell a collection of recipes, or your services as a
nutritionist.
Whatever your blog's about, where there's interest there's also revenue to be
made.

Step 10: SEO Optimize your WordPress Blog

To set your blog up to generate revenue, you'll need to know the basics of
content writing and SEO.
You'll need to network, build links, build a social media following and write the
top content in your niche that outclasses everything on the first page of Google.
Are you up to the task?

Yes?
Our SEO Course Bundle is your next step.
In it, you'll learn:
• How to grow your traffic to more than 500K organic visits per month (case
study included)
• SEO secrets you can use on any blog
• How to generate a ton of traffic while you sleep (for free)
• How to improve user experience and conversions
• The process of keyword research
• The what, why, and how of SEO's most important element: link building
• How to make thousands of dollars from AdSense
• How to quickly grow your traffic, without taking any risks

The guide is written by our Digital Marketing Manager that has more than
18 years of experience with SEO.
Packed with checklists, screenshots, and actionable tips, this is the only SEO
Course you'll ever need to read!
Buy the SEO Course Bundle and Save 57% Off – Limited Time Offer
Good luck with your WordPress Blogging and remember: building a successful
online business takes time, it needs a lot of patience and hard work but it's also
one of the best jobs in the World!

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How to Start and Grow

Alex Chris | Reliablesoft.net

So, you want to start a WordPress blog?

Professional bloggers make money because they've found a way to build an

ALEX CHRIS | RELIABLESOFT.NET 2

How to Start a WordPress Blog

Step 1: Select and register the perfect domain name .............................................................. 4

Step 2: How to choose the best WordPress hosting? .............................................................. 6

Step 3: How to install WordPress on your brand-new host ................................................... 11

Step 4: Understand Basic WordPress Terminology ................................................................ 14

Step 5: Write and publish your first WordPress post ............................................................. 16

Step 6: Change the appearance of your WordPress blog ....................................................... 20

Step 7: Install WordPress plugins ......................................................................................... 26

Step 9: Learn how to make money with your blog ................................................................ 34

Step 10: SEO Optimize your WordPress Blog ........................................................................ 38

ALEX CHRIS | RELIABLESOFT.NET 3

Step 1: Select and register the perfect domain name

Here are the main considerations:

• Keep it as short as possible

ALEX CHRIS | RELIABLESOFT.NET 4

ALEX CHRIS | RELIABLESOFT.NET 5

Step 2: How to choose the best WordPress hosting?

Shared hosting: pros and cons

ALEX CHRIS | RELIABLESOFT.NET 6

VPS hosting: pros and cons

ALEX CHRIS | RELIABLESOFT.NET 7

Managed VPS hosting: pros and cons

My recommendation for hosting your first WordPress blog

ALEX CHRIS | RELIABLESOFT.NET 8

Here's how to get started:

First up, go to Bluehost.

ALEX CHRIS | RELIABLESOFT.NET 9

Follow the on-screen instructions to complete the registration of your new

ALEX CHRIS | RELIABLESOFT.NET 10

Step 3: How to install WordPress on your brand-new host

As soon as WordPress is installed, you'll be asked to set up a username and

ALEX CHRIS | RELIABLESOFT.NET 11

ALEX CHRIS | RELIABLESOFT.NET 12

ALEX CHRIS | RELIABLESOFT.NET 13

Step 4: Understand Basic WordPress Terminology

The difference between WordPress posts and pages

To explain the difference, let me use an example:

ALEX CHRIS | RELIABLESOFT.NET 14

For example, if you had example.com/free-ebook and wanted to make a

As a general rule of thumb:

ALEX CHRIS | RELIABLESOFT.NET 15

Step 5: Write and publish your first WordPress post

ALEX CHRIS | RELIABLESOFT.NET 16

Saving post drafts and previewing

ALEX CHRIS | RELIABLESOFT.NET 17

Editing and updating posts

ALEX CHRIS | RELIABLESOFT.NET 18

ALEX CHRIS | RELIABLESOFT.NET 19

Step 6: Change the appearance of your WordPress blog

Let's take it step by step:

What is a WordPress framework?

A WordPress framework is a set of designs and components you can use to

Unlike free themes — which are often restrictive in their customizability —

An example of a powerful WordPress framework that helps you create websites

ALEX CHRIS | RELIABLESOFT.NET 20

What is a WordPress Theme?

A WordPress theme defines the appearance of your blog.

WordPress themes are either free or paid (premium).