6 Steps To Create Your Own WordPress Blog

If you’re an aspiring blogger or someone who’s interested in owning your own content for any number of purposes you’ll find this 6 Steps To Create Your Own WordPress Blog guide extremely valuable. There are plenty of free blogging sites out there, however this article will be focused on the creation of your own domain.

Before you begin open a Word Doc or Google Docs Document where you can store account info and other important info. Let’s name this document, “Blog Info Doc”.

1) Purchase Your Domain (GoDaddy coupon link)

Click the link above and purchase your domain. I recommend a .com for SEO purposes however .net and .org domains also carry strong SEO weight. Do not click on any of the add on purchasing options from GoDaddy as they’re all designed to profit on newbies like yourself. Use the discount link above to save some money. Store your GoDaddy account login and password in the Blog Info Doc that you created prior to beginning. (Full disclosure, it’s an affiliate link in which I’ll receive a small commission)

2) Set Up Hosting (Host Gator coupon link)

I recommend hosting your site through Host Gator. Not only do they have extremely reasonable prices, they have fantastic customer service. Use the link above, and pick the baby plan (1 domain) and enter in the domain you purchased from GoDaddy when prompted. Take note of your name servers, there will be two. They’ll look something like this (NS23.hostgator.com, NS24.hostgator.com). Update your Blog Info Doc with your Host Gator login/password and Name Servers.

3) Set Your Domain With Name Servers

Log back into your GoDaddy account, click on where it says “Hi, Your Name” in the upper right hand corner, then click “Visit My Account”. Next click “Domains” in the middle of the page which will open a drop down list. Find the domain you purchased and click “Launch”. In the middle of the page you’ll now see Name Servers, click “Manage”. Next click, “Edit Name Servers” then enter your Name Servers in the fields. See the photo below for example.

4) Install WordPress On Your New Blog

Head over to your Host Gator control pannel (which will be cpanel.yourdomain.com) and log in. Scroll down towards the bottom of the page in the Software/Services box and click on “QuickInstall” In the QuickInstall screen you’ll see Blog Software “WordPress” on the left hand side. Click WordPress, then click Continue. You should see your domain listed. Add your email address and title your blog (the title can be changed at any time). For Admin User enter “Admin”, then add your first and last name in the fields below. Once you have all fields filled click “Install Now!” Once WordPress has been installed you will receive an Admin password. Add this to your Blog Info Doc along with your Admin User name (which again should be “Admin” without quotes).

5) Logging Into Your Blog

Type the name of your domain into the URL bar and click enter. On the bottom right hand corner of the page you should see “Log in”. Clicking that will bring you to the WordPress login page for your blog. (Pro-tip, to get to this login page at any time bookmark this “yourdomainname.com/wp-login.php). Log in by entering “Admin as the Username and the long Password that was provided upon installing WordPress in the previous step.

The first thing I recommend doing is changing this password to something you’ll remember. To do this, click “Users” on the left side, then “admin” which should be the only user listed. On the next screen you can change your password at the bottom of the page.

6) Creating Your First Post

To create your first blog post click “Posts” from the menu on the left site. Mouse over the “Welcome” post and click “Edit”. Change the title of the post from “Welcome” to whatever you’d like your first post to be. Add some text to the body then click “Publish” on the right side. Tada you’re done! You’ve successfully created your first WordPress blog that YOU own!

Once you’ve got your blog up and running you can begin to mess around with the settings including changing the blog’s theme, layout, title, widgets, and so on. I’d also recommend adding sever plugin’s which are best practices. I’ll go over which plugins are essential and how to install them in a future post. Hope you enjoyed this 6 Steps To Create Your Own WordPress Blog guide and that you have a wonderful time blogging your heart out!