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2 Table of Contents PAGE 3 How to Launch a WordPress Blog. Quickly and Easily PAGE 3 What You ll Need PAGE 3 Domain name and hosting setup PAGE 3 Domain name PAGE 4 Where do you buy a domain name? PAGE 4 Web hosting PAGE 4 Let s set up your hosting account PAGE 6 Install WordPress PAGE 7 Choose a WordPress Theme PAGE 10 Install Your WordPress Theme PAGE 11 The Easiest Way to Get Your WordPress Theme Installed PAGE 12 How do you get the installation service from us? PAGE 12 Final Thoughts
3 How to Launch a WordPress Blog. Quickly and Easily Blogging is one of the most fruitful occupations these days. A few years ago this would seem crazy, but today blogger is a legit occupation, people actually make a living with it. While there are dozens of ways to build a blog nowadays, WordPress is the go-to platform for creating a professional blog ever since its launch back in 2003. Today there s over 75 million websites built with this awesome CMS (content management system). Bloggers love WordPress for its very intuitive admin panel, it is what WordPress is mainly famous for. It also supports themes and plugins, which makes it a very flexible platform. Running a professional blog with WordPress is quite easy and hassle-free. Creating a WordPress blog is very easy too. You do not have to be a geek to successfully launch a blog focused on knitting or macrame. And you do not have to pay an arm and a leg for it either. In this ebook we will provide you with a very easy to follow step-by-step guide on how to launch a WordPress blog in any niche and stay within a pretty modest budget. What You ll Need As has already been said above - launching a blog on WordPress is pretty easy. You do not need a lot of tools, money or time to do this. In fact, all you need are: A solid domain name idea. This is the name of your blog and its address that your readers will type in, like templatemonster.com A hosting account. This will be your blog s online home, the place where your files will be stored. A WordPress theme. This will be your blog s appearance. We will help you choose one. About 30 minutes of your time. Told you, this won t take long! Domain name and hosting setup First things first - you are going to need to set up your hosting and get a domain name for your blog. Domain name Let s start with your domain name. As we mentioned a few paragraphs above - your domain name is your blog s internet address. Domain name has a huge impact on a lot of things that affect your blog s success, from the click-through rate and type-in traffic, obviously, to brandability and advertising. So choosing a good name is very important indeed. Here are a few tips to make this choice a little bit easier for you:
4 Make it short. The shorter your domain name, the easier it is to type it in, share it with others, remember it etc. Make it brandable. Your domain name should sound like a brand. Generic names are bad for marketing, it is harder to remember them and, frankly speaking, they are simply boring. Make it pronounceable. You might think this point is irrelevant, your visitors will type the name in after all, not pronounce it. Well, from the cognitive point of view, the name you can pronounce is easier to remember than the one you can t. You are also more inclined to have positive associations with the things and ideas you can easily pronounce and think about. Don t you want your readers to think positively about your blog? Where do you buy a domain name? There are hundreds of domain name registrars (companies which can help you register and buy a domain name) out there. Such a domain name would cost you about $11 per year. But we want to launch a blog on a budget, right? Well, you can get a domain name for free from a web hosting company. Web hosting There are literally hundreds of hosting companies you can choose from. Each of them provides a number of various packages. No wonder most of the potential bloggers are intimidated by web hosting. But web hosting does not have to be intimidating at all. In fact, WordPress itself has already made the choice a lot easier for you. There are three hosting provides currently recommended by WordPress.org: BlueHost, DreamHost and SiteGround. All these companies have hosting plans compatible with WordPress requirements. To make this choice even more easy we will strongly recommend BlueHost right now. Why? Because they are the cheapest and they provide a free domain name. You can get your blog online for only $2.95 per month with Bluehost. Let s set up your hosting account First things first - you need to sign up. To do that go here and click the green button:
On the next step you will be asked to choose a plan, we recommend the basic one (we are still on a budget, right?): 5
6 After you select your plan you will be asked to type your domain in. This is where you ll need those domain name ideas we ve mentioned in the very beginning of this ebook. Add your account information and you are basically done. Note: you will be offered some extras when you finalize the purchase. It is totally up to you whether or not you buy these. Just be informed - you can skip the extras and add them to your package later on if you decide you do actually need some of them. Once your payment is processed you will receive the login details to access your cpanel (control panel). Install WordPress Installing WordPress via BlueHost is very easy, all it takes is just a couple of clicks. After you log into your cpanel you will see a lot of icons, scroll down and find the Install WordPress one:
7 Clicking the icon will lead you to the next step, which is choosing the domain for installation. Simply choose your domain name from the dropdown menu and click the Next button. Fill in all the info you ll be asked at this point and click the Install button. The installation will take a few minutes, you can see the progress bar at the top right corner: And that s it! Choose a WordPress Theme The design of your blog, it s visual appearance is of utmost importance. Internet is a highly visual thing after all. You want your blog to look clean and professional, and you want the design to complement your brand and its message. There is a huge choice of WordPress themes, both free and premium. But we recommend using premium ones. You might wonder why, since we stated above that this ebook is focused on building a blog on a budget. Well, a premium theme might save you a lot of money in the long run. You see, free themes are usually not supported and not updated. They also often lack proper documentation and have higher risk of having malware code. Imagine, something went wrong and you have to hire a professional WordPress developer to fix the issues you ve got from a free theme. This is not a way to save money, don t you think? So, now that we ve established you should buy a premium WordPress design, how do you chose the one for your blog? There are a few things you should pay attention to before you make a purchase: Design. Obviously, visual appearance is the very first thing you are going to make your choice by. Aesthetic preferences are very subjective though.
8 Hanna - A Beautiful Blog & Magazine WordPress Theme We do not recommend choosing a WordPress theme solely by looking at the picture. Web design is influenced by trends, industry standards and so called best practices. The easiest way to choose a good design is get the most recent one, since it will be done with the latest technologies and it will be in line with the latest web design trends. Yet try not to stick to trends too much. Clean, uncluttered and simple is the best choice design-wise, it will work for any type of blog you have in mind.
9 Love Life - Responsive Personal Blog WordPress Theme Mobile-first or responsive design. Check if the WordPress theme you like is fully responsive. We won t go too far in explaining this here, just know that Google has already updated their algorithms to prefer mobile-first websites in search results.
10 Compatibility. If you ve found a design that you like check the theme specifications before you make a purchase. You do not want to end up with a WordPress theme you can not use or have to modify significantly. The theme has to be compatible with the WordPress version you ve installed, your hosting plan and the plugins you want to use. You can always ask a pre-sales manager for this information. Documentation and support. Always check if the theme you like comes with full documentation and if there s any tech support available after purchase. TemplateMonster, for example, offers 24/7 support for the lifetime of your purchased theme. This means you can ask a professional for help whenever something happens with your theme, you won t be left alone to deal with a crisis. Install Your WordPress Theme So you ve chosen the perfect theme for your blog and successfully purchased it. Now it s time to install it. Installing a WordPress theme is pretty straightforward. Here s the process step by step: 1. Go to Appearance > Themes 2. Click the Add New button:
11 3. Now click the Upload Theme button: Now find the.zip file with your purchased theme and click Install Now button. 4. Activate the new theme. Once your theme is successfully installed you will need to activate it. And that s it, you are all ready to start customizing it and actually blogging! 5. Make sure to read the documentation. It might contain some additional steps you need to take, additional settings to configure etc. It might also contain a guide on how to properly customize your theme, i.e. add your logo, pictures, texts etc. The Easiest Way to Get Your WordPress Theme Installed In case the above steps on WordPress theme installation overwhelmed you we ve prepared an additional way for you to get that blog online fast. We will do it all for you! TemplateMonster Service Center is ready to install your theme in three hours tops. We have handpicked the best professionals and created a team just for this purpose.
12 How do you get the installation service from us? Simply place an order for theme installation service from our Service Center, it will cost you only $49. When your order comes through you will be contacted by one of the team members. You will be asked to provide your domain name and your hosting account login details. After your theme is installed you will be contacted again. In this scenario you still need to get the hosting account and domain name yourself. But if you ask a pre-sales rep to help you with choosing your WordPress theme and order the installation from the Service Center you pretty much clear your hands to do all the staff you actually want to do, like pre-write those blog posts that are going to make you money. Final Thoughts Launching a WordPress blog does not have to be a hassle. You ve seen for yourself now - it is pretty straightforward and fast. Reading through this ebook probably took you longer than creating a WordPress blog will. And if you still are not sure in your tech prowess or seem to be stuck with all the designs to choose from - we are here to help and even do it all for you! So stop postponing your dreams of becoming a successful blogger, stop listening to the silly excuses in your head and start blogging already. The internet is waiting!
13 Thanks for Reading! If you ve found this guide useful, chances are you ll like the other guides and e-books that we have to offer. While working on these e-books, our authors focus on the topics that help novice site owners build their online businesses and make their websites profitable: See other e-books P.S. Well-written content is crucial for your website, but there s is a ton of other factors that influence its success. Namely, impeccable design and robust architecture are the two cornerstone aspects of any online resource. In case you re just about to launch a new website or want to redesign your current one have a look at the awesome readymade solutions available from TemplateMonster. We ve got more that 26,000 website themes to choose from, and our products have been crafted by professionals. See our website themes