Do you want to start a blog? Want to create a medium of earning money online? We can help you get started with WordPress Blog. Our 7 steps guide will help you build the foundation of your blog that can generate earning for you. And yes, you can make money blogging!
Why WordPress: WordPress is world’s #1 content management platform and 90% of the blogs you see on internet are based on it. So why go for something else when you have the best platform available for FREE.
Tutorial Summary: In this tutorial we will cover the following:
- Secret to register a Free Domain name
- Choosing the perfect WordPress Web Hosting
- Installing WordPress in 30 seconds
- Setup Themes & Plugins
- Install Google Analytics Tracking
- Writing your first Blog Post
- Tips on how to make money with your blog
Are you ready? Let’s start to building your WordPress Blog
Step # 1: Register Free Domain Name
You will need a domain name for your Blog, it will be your blog’s address and identity that anyone on the internet can use to reach your blog’s content – think of it as a location pin which can be used to navigate to reach the location.
Before we tell you how to get the free domain, lets look at what you should consider before finalizing the name:
- Choose short and unique name (keeping relevance in mind)
- Ensure the domain name is easy to spell and remember
- Avoid using numbers or hyphens
Brainstorm a few domain names as there are likely chances that someone else already registered the amazing names you have thought of 🙂
Now that you have the ideas ready, we will jump to the next step about web hosting – where we will tell you the best web hosting plans that will include Free Domain Registration – instant saving!
Step # 2: Choosing Web Hosting
Web Hosting is where your blog’s content will be stored, whenever an internet user navigates to your domain name – the content of your blog will be served.
Choosing the right web hosting is very important. In today’s world, website’s Speed & Uptime are the biggest factors of its success or failure. No matter how great your blog is, but if your web hosting sucks you will end up loosing all your efforts.
Normally a domain cost $15/year & web hosting cost $8/month – we know that’s alot of anyone who is just getting started.
Good new is that Hostgator offers Free Domain registration & 60% OFF on web hosting for our readers. Sounds good? Check the exclusive partnership offer.
Hostgator is one of the leading web hosting companies in the World since 2006, hosting 1,000,000+ websites. With our special offer you will get Web Hosting for just $2.75/m including Free Domain registration. You can go ahead with Hostgator’s hatchling plan which is perfect for beginners.
Step # 3: Install WordPress on Hosting
Once you have purchased web hosting with free domain from Hostgator, login to the cPanel. Hostgator’s hosting plan include one-click WordPress installation options, that’s right, you don’t have to do any tough work. WordPress installation will take 30 seconds or less!
Step # 4: Setup themes and plugins
Great job in setting up WordPress on your website so far.
In order to configure themes and plugins you will have to login to the WordPress Admin portal using the credentials you specified during the installation. Your wordpress admin url will look like http://yourdomain.com/wp-admin
Once you are logged in navigate to “Appearance” on the left menu and you will find “Themes”. Standard installation comes with the default WordPress theme, you can search from 1000s of free themes and install it to get started.
Once you have selected a theme, you can start installing Plugins to your WordPress blog. Here is the list of important WordPress plugins that we suggest every blogger should use:
- Login Lockdown (Security Plugin) – helps locking down wordpress login when incorrect password is used multiple times.
- Yoast SEO (SEO Plugin) – helps in improving your blogs search visibility by providing analysis of the post/pages content based on readability best practices.
- WP Mail SMTP (Mail Plugin) – setup your wordpress you send email using SMTP authentication, helps in reducing chances of your emails being marked as SPAM.
- Akismet (Comments Plugin) – helps in automatically highlighting spam comments & moderation.
Step # 5: Install Google Analytics Tracking
It is very important for a blogger to know the details of the traffic it receives including understanding the bounce rate, traffic sources, landing & exit pages. You can get all this data by simply installing Google Analytics on your website (you don’t need to know coding for this).
Yoast SEO plugin that we mentioned above allows you to install GA tracking code from the plugin management page (by simply copy pasting the code Google Analytics generate for your website).
Once you are done, you will start getting full visibility of the traffic on your blog.
Step # 6 – Write your first Blog Post
You are now all set to post the content on your Blog, it is easy and WordPress itself does the tough job by managing the styling of your content.
Here are a few tips from the Blogging Experts to remember when posting on your blog:
- Title should be easy to understand, explaining what the post is about.
- Write atleast 250 characters in a blog post
- Use heading (h1/h2/h3) & bullet points to highlight different sections and sub-topics
- Include relevant keywords and emphasis on the key phrases in the post
Step # 7 – How to make money with your Blog
Before we discuss ways to make money, please note that Blogging is not a short cut to getting rich. Successful bloggers earn thousands of dollars every month but they have invested years to get to this earning level – being patient and steady is the key to becoming a successful blogger.
Here are a few ways you can make money from your Blog:
- Google Adsense: Signup for Google Adsense and start displaying ads on your site. Your earning will depend on the traffic volume, their geography and the clicks delivered.
- Affiliate Marketing: Many companies offer affiliate partnership where you are paid to direct customers. When a visitor clicks the affiliate link on your site and make the purchase, you get a commission. Find affiliate opportunities relevant to your blog and start sending your visitors to the deals.
- Sponsored Posts: Alot of bloggers solely rely on sponsored posts for earning. You can write paid reviews and promotional articles for the companies operating in your Blog’s niche.
- E-commerce Retail Store: You can install Wocommerce plugin and start selling the products online. Alot of websites have a specific page where they list products to sell the products to existing readers that enjoy their content.
- Dropshipping Store: You can start a WordPress Dropship store using Wocommerce and AliDropship plugins. AliDropship allows you to sell Alibaba products to your visitors, once you receive an order you can get the item directly delivered to your customers address while keeping the margin.