How can I start a blog, How to Create a Blog Site is a very relevant question and this post shows the answer and explains the step-by-step process of how to create a Blog.WordPress is the CMS mostly used for blogging and there are several good plugins available free and paid in WordPress to increase the functionality of the blog site. Here I recommend Bluehost web hosting for any blogger because it provides a free SSL lifetime for WordPress websites and good support as well.
Here is some step by step process for the Bluehost WordPress blog:
#1.Hosting and Domain
Bluehost could be the best hosting provider for WordPress blogs at the same time there are a lot of other providers for hosting. I purchased a shared hosting plan for 3 years along with a one-year free domain which will be renewed after a year.
You can purchase a hosting that you feel is suitable for you by selecting the desired plan, you can purchase by signup/login. The domain can be purchased in Bluehost or from any other provider. Now you can log in to Bluehost with the credentials they sent to you. A screen will appear once you log in and you can log in to your WordPress to manage your blog.
#2.Theme
There are many free WordPress themes available, I have been using Ocean WP theme for my WordPress blog. The theme is completely free and you can install all the required plugins on it.
Go to your domain name / wp-admin and log in for e.g. domain/wp-admin. Once you log in there will be a dashboard and go to appearance and themes.
Once navigated to this area type the name of the theme in the search box then install and activate.
#3.SSL(Secure Sockets Layer)
SSL enables the secure encrypted link between the web server and the browser. Bluehost does implement a free SSL for all the sites with WordPress.Either you can activate the SSL for your WordPress blog by going to the billing login or you can contact the support of the Bluehost and ask for the SSL to activate.
Login to Bluehost and Home>My site>Manage Site
Go to security and Enable SSL.
#4.Mail Configuration and Contact Form
After the completion of all the above steps, you can create a webmail for your domain. Use e.g.If the domain is domain.com, The email could be name@domain.com
Go to Email in Bluehost account >email>Add Email Account. You can add the email you want and provide the quota then create an account.
Once you created the email go to webmail and log in with the created email address and the password(which is used to log in to your Bluehost account)
#5.Plugins
Here are some of the helpful plugins that I use for my Bluehost WordPress blog.
Advanced Comment Validation: Comments Validation Plugin
Contact Form 7: It’s a simple and flexible contact form.
Google XML Sitemap for Images: This plugin will generate an XML Image Sitemap for your WordPress blog
Google XML Sitemap for Videos: This plugin will generate an XML Video Sitemap for your WordPress blog
myStickymenu: Simple sticky (fixed on top) menu implementation for the navigation menu.
Sassy Social Share: Slickest, Simplest, and Optimized Share buttons. Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest.
Smush: Reduce image file sizes, improve performance, and boost your SEO
Responsive Posts Carousel: Slider Plugin for WordPress
Yoast SEO: all-in-one SEO solution for WordPress, including on-page content analysis
Go to the admin panel of the website mentioned in step 2 then navigate to Plugins>Add new and install the plugins or you can download all those plugins and upload them one by one.
#6.Blog Development
Header
Create all the pages needed for the blog pages>add new, give the appropriate name for all the pages then go to appearance>menu you can see all the all the names of the created pages under pages, now create a new menu and name it then check the boxes of page names you want and click add to menu then save, this you can see on your WordPress blog.
Carousel
Dashboard>carousel and create a carousel. You can manage which posts to be displayed in the carousel.
Widgets
Dashboard>appearance>widget. Just drag the available widget and drop it into sliders and footers.
Footer
Go to appearance>customize, find the footer at the bottom of the page, and customize.
Posts
Dashboard>Posts> Add new, provide the post name, and start to write the post and publish, you can manage the carousel which posts appear on the slider of the homepage.
Pages
Dashboard>Pages> Add new, give the page name and in the title write the content you want on it and publish. This page you can add to the menu as well.
#7. Make Money From Your Blog
Bloggers are placing their Google ads on their blogs to earn money. Blog income does bloggers make money online moreover it’s a passive income for that you need to create a Google AdSense account and submit your website for approval. Once your website gets approved you can log in to it create ad units and place the code in your blog, Within a few hours it will start appearing in the blog. If anyone clicks the ad placed in your blog you will get a few cents for it, which will be viewable in your AdSense account.
