How to Start a WordPress Blog (Step-By-Step Guide 2023)

18Jan 2023 by Moonthemes 1838 Comments

Updated: Jan 18, 2023 By: Dessign Team

How to start WordPress blog for beginners

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Do you want to learn how to start a WordPress blog? We started our first blogs over 10 years ago, built many websites, and helped thousands of users get their own blogs online. In this simple tutorial for beginners on how to start WordPress blog in under 20 minutes, we will guide you through the process from getting a domain name to setting up your WordPress blog.

If you thinking what WordPress hosting should I choose for my new blog, we partner with SiteGround which we use and recommend for anyone looking for reliable, secure and with the best 24/7 support hosting also recommended by WordPress.org as the best one for beginners. List of the best blogs to read about WordPress and WordPress news.

We would love to help you get yours online as soon as possible so that you can get your own voice heard, teach others, and make money on the side. List of the best free blogging sites to get your own blog online fast and cheap or the best website builders for your next project.

How to Start a Blog Using WordPress? (Step by Step Tutorial for Beginners to help you star in 2022)

Each of the Setup points are cover in details below

  1. What to Blog about? personal blog, lifestyle, health & fitness, food, cooking, bakery, travel, beauty, fashion, wedding, photography, news, quotes blog, auto blog, small business website, video blogging, etc..
  2. What is the best blogging platform? Without any questions, WordPress is the best blogging platform for both beginners or advanced bloggers. WordPress controls over 44% of all the websites and its considered the most popular CMS (Content Management System) for bloggers.
  3. What Hosting to pick? When it comes to WordPress hosting we recommend SiteGround as the best Affordable hosting for any WordPress websites including blogs. SiteGround is recommended by WordPress.org as the #1 hosting provider.
  4. What hosting plan to choose? The easy answer is the StartUp plan, since its only $2.99/month remember you can always upgrade to other plans later. Since you just starting out you probably will not have much traffic so you don’t need an expensive plan.
  5. What domain name to choose? A domain name is the name of your website for example: www.mybestblog.com, if you already have few ideas for your blog name you can see if its available, if not don’t worry you can pick your domain name later.
  6. How to Setup my SiteGround account? Fill out all your account information, Name , Address, Phone number, email address, package information and submit to finish and setup your account.
  7. How to Install WordPress on your new Blog Site? SiteGround has a 1-click WordPress install its very simple and easy to follow it will take you less then 2 min to have your WordPress install.
  8. What Blog WordPress theme to pick? You have many options in this point, you can go with a free WordPress blog theme, or use any of our Premium WordPress themes free and we will help you install and setup your theme.
  9. What Security Plugins to Install? Its very important that before you start to write your first blog post, you install few security plugins such as: Sucuri, Wordfance and iThemes security so your site will not get hacked and panelized by Google security.

What to Blog About?

Many people who own successful businesses started with a simple blog. They gained followers and reputations. When they decided it was time to start their businesses in earnest, they already had the clients and supporters needed to help them get off the ground.

We all know starting an online business is hard, but if you don’t have the right visibility, then it is almost impossible to be successful from the get-go. That’s why having a blog will help you in the long run.

There are many topics you could blog about it, but you should focus on your passion, something you have great knowledge of and experience with and which you would like to share with the world.

On the other hand, you don’t have to be an expert at something, just someone who cares enough to write about it a few times a week. You can even use a lack of knowledge in an exciting way—by collecting information and writing creative and useful articles for people who enjoy sharing your journey.

It’s important for you to think about what you really want to get out of your blogging: exposure, meeting new and interesting friends in your niche, making some money while enjoying what you do, getting extra freedom and time to be with your family and friends, and so on. We all have reasons for doing what we do. In most cases, we want to do what makes us happy while also making some money along the way. That allows us to enjoy our free time.

What is the best Blogging platform?

What blogging platform to choose? Without any questions, WordPress is the best blogging platform for either beginners or advanced bloggers. WordPress controls over 44% of all the websites and its considered the most popular CMS (Content Management System) for bloggers.

WordPress.org was built for bloggers in mind so you know that there is no other option than go with WordPress. The most well know bloggers in the world are using WordPress CMS to make money, sell online courses, make online videos, review products..etc..

WordPress started in 2003 when Mike Little and Matt Mullenweg created a fork of b2/cafelog. The need for an elegant, well-architected personal publishing system was clear even then. Today, WordPress is built on PHP and MySQL, and licensed under the GPLv2. It is also the platform of choice for over 35% of all sites across the web.

The WordPress open source project has evolved in progressive ways over time — supported by skilled, enthusiastic developers, designers, scientists, bloggers, and more. WordPress provides the opportunity for anyone to create and share, from handcrafted personal anecdotes to world-changing movements. People with a limited tech experience can use it “out of the box”, and more tech-savvy folks can customize it in remarkable ways.

1. Pick WordPress as your website platform

WordPress.org powers more then 44% of all the website, so this is great choice for you to pick the top platform. We love WordPress as it has so many free plugins to use and its great for website or blog, so if your website need blog you already have both of the best. WordPress is your CMS (Content Management System) where you can upload new themes or plugins. WordPress also have many security plugins that you can install to keep your website safe.

The best thing about WordPress is that its Free open source, its SEO ready, its supported by Automattic then company with over 1500 full time workers and thousands of volunteers making it safe and free for everyone. With WordPress you can make simple site for your business or very large VIP website for large traffic organization. So if you start small and decide to get into larger website you will not need to change CMS as WordPress will handle all your need and traffic.

2. Pick Reliable WordPress Hosting Provider

SiteGround best hosting for bloggers

SiteGround is one of the best hosting company providers for WordPress users optimized for speed and security. SiteGround offers daily updates to their plugins and core WordPress. They are official “WordPress.org” recommended hosting providers.

They have a speedy support team with advanced WordPress expertise available 24/7. SiteGround was founded in 2004 and has grown to one of the top hosting companies around the world. It’s headquartered in Sofia, Bulgaria with 9 locations in 3 continents and over 500 people strong, today hosting over 2,000,000 domains. Read our full SiteGround Review.

If you looking for some creative ideas for your new domain name we put together a list of the best free domain name generators to pick the perfect domain name for your online business.

WordPress.org is officially recommednding SiteGround as the best choice for any WordPress website or blog. SiteGround has tools that make managing WordPress sites easy: one-click install, managed updates, WP-Cli, WordPress staging and git integration.

We have a very fast support team with advanced WordPress expertise available 24/7. We provide latest speed technologies that make WordPress load faster: NGINX-based caching, SSD-drives, PHP 7, CDN, HTTP/2. We proactively protect the WordPress sites from hacks.

WordPress.org recommends SiteGround as best hosting

SiteGround is one of best hosting providers to offer Managed WordPress hosting plan at this price $2.99/month for a StartUp plan that comes with 1 Website, 10 GB Web Space, Free WordPress installation, Free WP migration and much more..

SiteGround is much focused on WordPress hosting as their best seller, they make it very easy for anyone looking to make WordPress website with just 1-click WordPress install and most of their apps or add-ons are 1-click install which we found super easy and pleasant to use.

And if you want to switch to SiteGround from another hosting they have free WordPress site migration to make it easy for any beginner to easily transfer any website to SiteGround.

What we found was very useful is that they offer custom website migration fro additional fee, so if you want an expert to transfer your site it can be done for you. Knowing that any technical part of your website can be taken care of for you is what make SiteGround managed WordPress hosting your best option to have.

Which SiteGround Hosting Plan to Pick?

SiteGround hosting plan explained

SiteGround has 3 main hosting plans for each of their hosting types , StartUp, GrowBig and GoGeek each plan comes with 30-days money back guarantee, unmetered traffic, Free WordPress installation, Free SSL, Free CDN and Free Email, the biggest difference is that the StartUp plan only offers 1 website, so if this if just for you and you will only want to have 1 website than the StartUp plan is perfect.

In case you want to build more websites for yourself or clients than going with the GrowBig plan will be more desirable and better in long run.

StartUp Plan $2.99/mo: Great for anyone wanting just build one personal website with low traffic, this plan is perfect for beginners looking to build WordPress website or blog

GrowBig Plan $4.99/mo: This is probably the best plan option for anyone, you can build unlimited website for yourself or clients, you will get over 20GB web space and it will hold around 25,000 monthly visitors.

GoGeek Plan $7.99/mo: This plan is more for a agency or freelancers building clients website, so if you think you will be in business of building multiple website for clients or want to open small agency this will be perfect hosting plan for you and it will handle around 100,000 visits a month.

SiteGround Domain Name Register

SiteGround domain register

Once you pick your plan that most fits your needs, we strongly recommend going with the GrowBig plan as it gives you unlimited number of websites to install.

Now you will choose your domain, if you don’t already have a domain name, you can register one through SiteGround for only $17.99/year or if you already have your old domain name, you can easily select I already have a domain and it will transfer it to your SiteGround account.

3. Install WordPress on SiteGround

Once you login to your SiteGround dashboard Under Home – Click “Setup Site” You can Start New Website or Migrate Website. For this tutorial please select Start New Website

SiteGround add new website WordPress

Once you elected Start New Site – Now you will choose Application – Please now Select WordPress

choose WordPress application from the screen

Once you select WordPress, Then Set up Login screen appears – Please enter your Email Address and Password then select Continue

set up your login info for WordPress install

Once you select Continue – It will take few minutes for your website to be created using WordPress. Creating Your Website Screen Will appear

creating your website screen

Congratulations you set up your new Website using WordPress – You can now login to your WordPress dashboard and upload new theme or add new users or applications

2. Easy to Follow for Beginners Video Tutorial Overview 2022

4. Pick & Install WordPress Blog Themes

How to Install a new WordPress blog theme? When you go to Appearance–themes you will see few options up top: Premium Themes, WordPress.org Themes and Upload. WordPress.org theme are all free themes from WordPress.org directory and Upload is where you can upload your new .zip file theme. Or if you switch or signup with SiteGround you will get access to our premium themes free.

Install New WordPress Theme
Install New WordPress Theme

Click on Appearance–Themes – Upload Theme – Choose File – Look for your .zip WordPress theme file, then click Install and then Activate. Congratulations your new theme is now activated!

WordPress Upload Theme
WordPress Upload Theme

How to Customize a New Blog Theme?

WordPress Customize Blog Theme
WordPress Customize Blog Theme

Once you install and activate your new blog WordPress theme, go to Appearance -Customize and in this section you will have options to add new logo, widgets, menus, homepage settings etc.

All our Premium themes come with a step by step video setup where you can watch the video and follow thru. You also will have a .xml file which is the demo content file if you want to import your theme demo content so your site looks exactly like the demo site, go to Tools- Import – WordPress Importer and then search for your .xml file and upload it.

WordPress.org Blog theme Directory
WordPress.org Blog theme Directory

If you looking for a free WordPress blog theme, then WordPress.org directory is the best place to search for a blog theme. In the top-right search bar type “blog” and hot enter and you will get a list of all the best blog WordPress themes.

We also have a list of the best Free WordPress Blog themes for 2022. The best free blog WordPress themes are Astra and Ashe are both perfect to start your first blog website.

Both free WordPress themes are perfect for personal, lifestyle, health & fitness, food, cooking, bakery, travel, beauty, fashion, wedding, photography, news, quotes blog, auto blog, small business website and any other kind of amazing blogs. 

5. How to add blog plugins to my site?

How to add new blog plugins to my website? The best thing about WordPress is that it has thousands of plugins available for you to download for free or premium. If you go to WordPress.org under Plugins Search for Blog and you will see list of the best plugins if you want to start a WordPress blog.

WordPress.org Plugin Directory for blog
WordPress.org Plugin Directory for blog

Once you decide what blog plugin to install on your site, you can go to Plugins – New Plugin and search for that plugin and then install and activate.

Blog Designer is a good handy and free solution for everyone who is looking for a responsive blog page with the website. Blog Designer provides you with a variety of 8 different blog templates to setup your blog page for any WordPress websites. Sometimes, we always stick with one blog layout as per theme, but it’s not easy to change or modify only blog layout very easily, only you can do it by modifying code and css files.

Blog Designer WordPress Plugin 2020
Blog Designer WordPress Plugin

We have many Beautiful and modern blog themes to pick from, once you decide that you like to use one of our blog themes you can follow the instructions to send us temporary login to your site and we will setup and install the blog the for you free.

6. What are the best Security plugins for a blog website?

What WordPress security plugins should I install on my new Blog site? Security is the most important aspect of your site, you should always have few security plugins install as they will monitor your website 24/7 against viruses, malware, backdoor links, etc..

We put a list of 3 most popular and free WordPress security plugins, make sure you install them on your new blog site and activate to protect your site at all time.

When your website gets hacked, it will send notification to Google and if you don’t remove the virus, Google will penalize and remove your website form search engines for safety reasons. When you see a message “This Site might harm your computer” make sure you follow and run the security plugin to remove the malware.

Sucuri Security WordPress Plugin free 2020
Sucuri Security WordPress Plugin free

Sucuri Inc. is a globally recognized authority in all matters related to website security, with specialization in WordPress Security.

The Sucuri Security WordPress plugin is free to all WordPress users. It is a security suite meant to complement your existing security posture. It offers its users a set of security features for their website, each designed to have a positive effect on their security posture:

  • Security Activity Auditing
  • File Integrity Monitoring
  • Remote Malware Scanning
  • Blacklist Monitoring
  • Effective Security Hardening
  • Post-Hack Security Actions
  • Security Notifications
  • Website Firewall (premium)
Wordfence Security Plugin
Wordfence Security Plugin

Wordfence includes an endpoint firewall and malware scanner that were built from the ground up to protect WordPress. Our Threat Defense Feed arms Wordfence with the newest firewall rules, malware signatures and malicious IP addresses it needs to keep your website safe. Rounded out by 2FA and a suite of additional features, Wordfence is the most comprehensive WordPress security solution available.

iThemes Security Plugin 2020
iThemes Security Plugin

iThemes Security (formerly Better WP Security) gives you over 30+ ways to secure and protect your WordPress site. On average, 30,000 new websites are hacked each day. WordPress sites can be an easy target for attacks because of plugin vulnerabilities, weak passwords and obsolete software.

Most WordPress admins don’t know they’re vulnerable, but iThemes Security works to lock down WordPress, fix common holes, stop automated attacks and strengthen user credentials. With advanced features for experienced users, our WordPress security plugin can help harden WordPress.

Dessign WordPress Blog themes
Dessign WordPress Blog themes

Get Started With WordPress + Write Your First Post

Once you have a theme, you will be ready to work with WordPress. WordPress has a great community of people and support where you can find many useful resources.

Why is WordPress the best blogging platform? It’s a community of like-minded people who develop plugins, themes, and resources that will help you succeed. WordPress is growing each day, and it has over 44% of the market share when it comes to blogging and websites. WordPress has the best SEO plugins and coded templates. It is always innovating in order to stay the number one blogging platform in the world.

Its wide range of options and settings when it comes to the aesthetics and overall presentation of your blog is also what makes WordPress such a great choice.

Below is a quick overview of how you can get started in WordPress, pick the right theme, and get beautiful photos for free that will make your blog look professional. It also includes information about how to start writing your first blog post.

Conclusion

I hope this step by step How to Start a WordPress blog site help you understand what hosting to pick or how to install and activate a WordPress blog theme.

When you signup with SiteGround our best WordPress hosting partner you will get a FREE lifetime access to our Premium Blog Themes and the best customer service so we can install and setup your blog website in case you need some help.

How to Start a WordPress Blog?

To start a WordPress blog you first need to get a domain name, reliable hosting we recommend getting SiteGround as WordPress.org recommends SiteGround as best blog hosting provider, Install WordPress with 1-click install, Activate a blog theme, and start your first blog post.

Is WordPress blog free?

WordPress as a platform is free, WordPress themes are free, but you need to buy a hosting! We recommend SiteGround as its the most recommended hosting provider by WordPress.org and its around $2.99/month

How can I make money with my WordPress blog?

There are many ways of making money with WordPress Blog. You can add Google banner ads on your blog, review a product, sell sponsored blog posts, sell ebooks, sell courses on how to make stuff, recommend Amazon products with affiliates.

How much does it cost to start a blog?

To start a WordPress blog it will cost you around $2.99/month if you sign up with SiteGround the most reliable hosting provider for bloggers. WordPress platform is free, you will get a free domain name, and most WordPress blogs are free, so you just need to pay for hosting.

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