How to start a blog?
Spoiler: I am NOT going to teach you how to write content in a blog, I am sure you are better than me on writing the content. This post is related to How to create self-hosted WordPress blog or How to setup WordPress blog in private server for a newbie. However, I will be discussing the additional tips in order to simplify your blog. The aim of this tutorial is to guide newbie blogger with step-by-step on how to create a blog in WordPress.
Well, if you are wondering why I choose this topic, there is a good reason behind it. I will try to discuss the potentials of should you or should you NOT start writing a blog.
Before proceeding with creating a blog, these are the other question you probably have in your mind!
- How to write a blog?
- How to get started with blog writing?
- Should I write a blog? If so,
- What can I make out of my blog?
- Can I make money from my blog?
- Can blogging is enough for surviving?
These are the articles I will be covering on my forthcoming content on CoolStuffBlog. So, let’s get started.
WordPress is FREE yet awesome content management system with millions of template available online. Especially, when applied the custom templates; WordPress make the website beautiful. You can always read more about WordPress from here https://wordpress.org/about/
Things you need before creating an online blog:
- Web hosting (use the promo for web hosting here)
- Domain name (using above promo, you can have the free domain)
How to choose right web hosting:
As a blogging start-up, it is always good to start from a small hosting package. There are thousand of WebHost who offer the premium hosting on the very small amount. I would suggest you begin with HostGator or BlueHost.
Related post:
Which domain name suite to my website:
If you are passionate about writing unique content and you don’t worry about the name of your domain but I would suggest if you could find the name where user can easily remember, than it will be a benefit. Some SEO geek also think domain name is also the key of success. However, there is DOES and DOESNOT in this case. Back in 90s; FaceBook, Google and Yahoo were not the phrase or daily use word, however it is become a brand in 20s. My advices in this case: have a simple domain name where you can have recurring user to your blog.
Ok, let’s start setting up the blog now.
- Download the latest WordPress .zip file from WordPress.org, here is the direct link https://wordpress.org/download/
- Login to your Control Panel (the one you recently bought through Bluehost), and click to File Manager. Go to public_html folder and upload your .zip file here.
- On the top menu you will see Extract option. To extract the file, click the .zip file and click the Extract option from top menu under file manager. Once extract you will see the folder called WordPress, if you open that folder you will see the lots of file and folder. Remember you have to move all this file in public_html folder. To do so, select all file and click Move from menu and type /public_html/ in the moving location.
Alternative: If you know how to setup File Transport Protocol (FTP), please extract the file before uploading, than login to your FTP and upload all file to /public_html folder.
- Now you need to create a Database. If you are still in Control Pannel, go to MySql Database Wizard; give your Database a name.
You are not done yet, please go to MySql Databases and create a user, REMEMBER: you need this users name and password later while setting up the WordPress. Please save this information on notepad or somewhere to later use.
After creating users, please Add User To Database, located just below ‘add new user’.
Assign user to your Database and give database user a ALL PRIVILEGES and click save.
If you site already have database, please open your wp-config-sample.php from public_html folder and rename it to wp-config.php
- Go to line no. 23 and change “database_name_here” with your database_name (remember your name have domain_db style name).
- On line no 26 change username_here to your blog user (something like domain_usr)
- Replace the password_here with password you use while creating the user.
All set for now. Let’s install the blog now. Go to your-domain.com/wp-admin/install.php, please choose name and description of your blog and input the DB_name, DB_user and password you earlier saved on notepad. Choose your login credentials for login to your blog and you are done. Hurray!! your blog is setup and you will receive a email from server in given email.
Alternative Methods: – Installing Private WordPress Blog from Control pannel
You can install the onClick WordPress and other software from cPanel, however I wouldn’t recommend that! Here is how it look like from control panel. 
After the successful installation, please login to your WordPress control panel. yourdomain.com/wp-admin with your registered email ID and password. Your custom WordPress domain is already setup with default WordPress theme. If you want to customized the default theme, there are thousands of free WordPress themes are available and it is very easy to change that.
After login, you will redirect to WordPress dashboard, where you have a sticky menu in left sidebar. Go to Appearance and Click Themes. Your default active theme will be there.
On the top there is a blue text button call Add New, by clicking on this you can get the various template. Please preview and theme before installing it. Remember to active it once you install it.
If you have downloaded the theme you can upload from upload menu. As shown in image below.
For the free WordPress custom theme installation, please use the filer option and search for the theme you want to have in your blog or website. The layout have an option of Grid, Colons and position of your sidebar. Features and you can search with category name from subject. The filter distinguish requires one from the very large number of themes.
I hope this tutorial “how to create a self hosted WordPress blog” help you to setting up your brand new blog from scratch, please do comment below if you still have any trouble. I will try to help you. Happy blogging! 🙂
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