If you want to start a WordPress blog in 2023 and earn money right away then you are at the right place. In this post, I will discuss a step-by-step process to create a WordPress blog from scratch.
If you are wondering how to start a WordPress blog, you’re not alone. The vast majority of the most popular websites are built using a self-hosted WordPress platform. WordPress is similar to legos in that you can connect blocks together to create a completely unique piece.
Do not worry, this tutorial is pure beginner-friendly and you do not need any kind of previous coding or technical background to follow this tutorial to start a WordPress blog or website.
In case you are wondering what WordPress is, you can read our detailed WordPress introduction for beginners.
So, let’s get started.
Table of Contents
What do you need to start a WordPress blog?
Disclaimer: Setting up a WordPress blog is not free. You need to pay for hosting and domain which are necessary to start a WordPress blog or website.
You need the following things to start a WordPress blog.
- Money of course (A minimum of 50 USD)
- Domain
- Hosting
- Passion and zeal for writing
Starting a WordPress blog/website in 2023
1. Buying a Domain
A domain is a permanent address for your website which your readers will be using to get into your website. For example: If someone wants to visit my website they need to type wptracer.com on their browser’s address bar and the browser will take the user to my website.
So, if you want to start a WordPress blog you need to have a unique domain name that has not been taken by anyone.
For that, you need to think of a unique name for your blog and search for the availability of a domain name.
For example: I want a blog on WordPress and think of keeping a name called WP Parker. Now I should look if this name is available or not.
So, to check if the domain name is available or not, we head over to a website called Name Cheap.
In the domain search bar, we need to type the desired domain name that we want to buy. In my case that will be WP Parker.
If the domain name is available it will show available and you can buy the domain. There may be plenty of chances that the domain might have been taken by others, as buying a domain is served on a first come first basis.
As you can see, wpparker.com is available for 7.98 USD. Now, I can click on add to cart button, create an account with Name Cheap and buy the domain.
Things to remember while buying a domain
- Keep the domain name short. A domain more than 15 letters is not considered good
- If possible go with .com do not buy other extensions unless it matches your need
- Buy a domain name that matches your brand name
- Avoid hyphens and symbols
After you buy a domain, from the Advanced DNS settings you need to add custom name servers from Name Servers options (we will do this later after buying a hosting). Name Servers will be different depending upon the hosting you buy.
It might be hard to grasp all the domain and name server things if you are a complete beginner but it’s simple and we will learn in the way. Do not panic.
2. Buying a hosting
The next major thing we need to have to start a WordPress blog or website is hosting.
Hosting is storage for your blog. It is a place where you will be storing all your website files like images, texts, codes and attachments. In simple, it’s a powerful computer with a hard drive that is connected to a strong internet allowing it to be online 24 hours.
I personally suggest you to buy a shared hosting if you are a complete beginner because it will be cheap for you and later on you can scale or level up the hosting as per your need, after you get used to with it.
At WP Tracer I suggest everyone to buy hosting from Hostinger because it offers a wide variety of hosting plans that are blazing fast at a cheap rate.
After you go to hostinger, You can scroll down and choose your hosting plan.
For starters, I suggest sticking with the basic plans as below.
Single Shared Hosting: It is the cheapest and limited hosting plan that Hostinger offers. I do not suggest you to go with this plan unless you are on a tight budget because there are certain limitations to this plan like you cannot add more than one website and the website loads slow.
You can opt-in with this plan starting from USD 1.39 per month.
Premium and Business Shared Hosting: I suggest you to go with either Premium Shared hosting or Business Shared Hosting as it offers more features like you can add up to 100 websites, you get a decent speed, free email, SSL and more.
Current Price
Premium Shared Hosting: USD 2.59 per month
Business Shared Hosting: USD 3.99 per month
P.S: You can always upgrade or downgrade to other plans after buying any hosting plans from Hostinger. That means you do not have to worry about anything.
After selecting the plan you can create an account with Hostinger and proceed to pay.
After payment login to your Hostinger account and add your domain which you have bought previously (In my case wpparker.com).
You can add a domain by going to the “Add website” option in Hostinger’s panel. After that, you need to enter your domain name and password (which is required later on to access the file manager).
After adding the domain to Hostinger you need to go to domain registrar (In my case namecheap.com) and add nameserver from hostinger.
The nameservers for Hostinger are:
ns1.dns-parking.com
ns2.dns-parking.com
You need to add the above two nameservers into your domain’s DNS setting from name cheap and then click Save.
To add the name servers to your domain name in Name Cheap, you need to log in to Name Cheap account which you used to buy the domain.
After you have logged in to Name Cheap, go to your Account >> Dashboard and when you see your domain name click on “Manage“
After clicking on “Manage” scroll down below and stop when you see “NAMESERVERS“
By default, the option will be selected as “Namecheap BasicDNS” change that to “Custom DNS“
After that add the nameservers from Hostinger
ns1.dns-parking.com
ns2.dns-parking.com
And click the tick button.
It may take a few hours for this process to work, which means your website (In my case wpparker.com) won’t be live until the DNS are fully propagated. On your hostinger’s panel, it will say “Your domain is not pointing to Hostinger.” until the nameservers are propagated fully.
After a few hours, your website will be ready to work. If you go to your browser’s address bar and type your domain name and click enter; it will show something like “Index of…” which means your website is ready to be set.
3. Installing WordPress
Now the next step is to install WordPress on our website.
Installing WordPress on your website using Hostinger is very easy.
After you log in to your hostinger account you need to click the hosting tab from the menu and choose your domain. After that, you need to scroll down to the bottom until you find an option called “Auto Installer”.
Click on Auto Installer.
After that from different options click on “WordPress“.
After clicking on WordPress a form will appear.
You need to enter your username, password and email. These credentials will be used later to log in to your website. Also, do not forget to add your website name on “Website Title”.
After that click on “Install”.
In 2 to 3 minutes WordPress will be installed on your website.
You can open the WordPress dashboard by adding /wp-admin slug to your website domain name in your browser’s address bar (Example: wpparker.com/wp-admin)
A login form will appear where you need to type your username/email and password to log in to WordPress.
After you are logged in, a WordPress dashboard with many settings will open. When you look at the dashboard for the first time it might be a little hard to grasp but it will get easy with time.
The above 3 steps; Buying a domain, buying hosting & installing WordPress is wrapped up in our below video. Consider, watching it.
4. Installing a WordPress theme
Now you have set up your website and logged in to your WordPress dashboard you need to install a good looking theme that matches your needs. WordPress by default installs a basic theme to your website which is too basic for customization so we need to install another theme.
If you are wondering what actually a WordPress theme is, then it is an addon to your website that decides the visual appearance of your website.
I personally suggest you to install the GeneratePress theme for your WordPress blog. The reason for suggesting you to install the GeneratePress theme is because of its simplicity and blazing fast speed.
Even our website WP Tracer uses the GeneratePress theme.
To install the theme go to Appearance >> Themes >> Add new and search “GeneratePress” in the theme search bar.
Then click on “Install” and then “Activate” the theme.
After installing the theme you can customize the logo, design, colour, footer and much from the customization menu. Depending upon the theme the customization options will be different.
The theme you just installed is the basic free version of GeneratePress. It only offers basic features. You cannot change theme colours, change footer texts and many other options are limited in the free version. So, I suggest you to get the premium version of the GeneratePress theme.
After you buy the GeneratePress theme from the below link you will get a premium plugin for GeneratePress which you need to upload and install from Plugins >> Add new >> Upload and upload the zip file and click activate. After this, you will have a premium GeneratePress theme with many customization options.
More resources regarding the GeneratePress theme.
- How to remove background colour of top widget sidebar in GenereatePress
- How to remove URL field in GeneratePress comment form
- How to add breadcrumbs in GeneratePress theme using SEO plugins?
5. Creating your first blog Post
Now, it’s time to create your first blog post on your WordPress website. To do that you need to go to Posts >> Add New. After that, a WordPress Gutenberg editor will appear where you need to write your content.
You can write content, add photos & videos, place links and do much more with WordPress post editor. In fact, if you are well known with MS Word then it is somehow similar.
You can add your blog title, add featured image; which will be the image that shows up on your preview link when you share posts on social media, add a category to your blog post and then finally publish your post.
You can then see your first blog post on your homepage (main page of your website). You can share and read your blog post after it has been published.
6. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
After you have set your blog and started writing posts you need to optimize your website for Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Search Engine Optimization SEO is a practice by which your website and your blog appear on Google and other search engines when people search for it.
SEO is a very vast topic and you will learn it gradually so I won’t be talking much about it in this post, however, I suggest you to install an SEO plugin called Rank Math that makes SEO easier on your WordPress website.
Setting up Rak Math is described thoroughly in the below video.
7. Earning with a WordPress blog
So, many of you might have searched “how to earn money with a blog?” So, here you come to the most exciting and motivating part of the blog creation process.
After, you create your blog you can earn money by showing advertisements from Google AdSense else you can do affiliate marketing, selling other products with a little commission.
The popular and legitimate way of earning money from website or blog can be Google AdSense. Consider reading our detailed guide on getting approval for Google AdSense on WordPress website.
FAQ’s
How do WordPress bloggers make money for beginners?
WordPress bloggers make money through Google AdSense and affiliate marketing. Through Google, AdSense bloggers can show advertisements on their blog whereas through affiliate marketing they can sell other products while receiving a commsion.
Is WordPress blog free?
WordPress platform itself is free but setting up a WordPress blog requires money. You need to buy a domain and hosting to set up a WordPress blog which requires money.
How much does it cost to start a WordPress blog?
You can start a WordPress blog with as little as USD 50.
Wrapping Up
Today in this post you learnt how to create a WordPress blog or a website yourself in just a few minutes. Creating a website with WordPress is easy but sometimes a simple problem can get you stuck. So, I suggest you learn by experimenting with things and taking the help of tutorials you find on Google, Yahoo and other search engines.
If you want to ask any questions related to starting a WordPress blog or if you are stuck somewhere then feel free to ask me in the comment section. I will be very much happy to help you.
If you are looking to start a blog, then your first step should be to choose a domain name that is easy to remember and easy to type.