Setup a WordPress Blog in 10 Minutes
Social media is on the rise and so is the importance of creating one’s own digital media presence, be it through various applications out there or through a simple blog. Even before we go into the nuances of blogging and what it brings onto the table, let’s just walk through some steps of creating a blog of your own and most importantly help you take the next big move towards blogging and get you started.
After lurking around for a while, and dissecting various blog services out there I narrowed it down to Word Press as my blog host. Now you can either choose to have a blog of your own with the wordpress.com domain (example: www.thewisdompearls.wordpress.com) or you can go one notch further and be professional by taking the opportunity to own your blog (example: www.thewisdompearls.com) hosted through Word Press.
As an avid Jeff Bullas follower, I find his blog, simple, interactive and very eye pleasing and I wanted something similar. I asked him, and he gratefully obliged by referring me to his blog post – How To Create A WordPress Blog In 5 Minutes.
Jeff has already listed the simple basic steps of how to go about setting up your blog in under 10 minutes but I will go through them in brief + a few tips on how to save on the initial cost and how to integrate social media tools to get you started, up and running:
Step 1 – Domain Name Registration and Hosting
I followed Jeff’s advice and used Web Hosting Buzz to register my domain name and host it. You can do the same by clicking this LINK here. Select the plan of your choice.
Tip: Go to the web and find discount coupons for Web Hosting Buzz. You can get up to 50% off the various pricing. Try “SHRD50OFF” or “RSL50OFF“. If these do not work click this LINK to find more of these coupons.
Step 2 – Setting Up Your CPanel
Once you have registered your domain and hosted it, Web Hosting Buzz will send out an email with all the credentials you provided during registration. Make sure you have paid all the dues, because that will actually activate your domain and send it to their billing department for them to process and make it live.
Tip: The CPanel page would not load and let you login if you are behind a firewall or a secured connection, like your work place. You might would have to try loading the CPanel page from home.
As soon as you have the process completed, you would be able to login to the CPanel with your credentials.
Step 3 – Installing WordPress
On your CPanel page, scroll down to the bottom and you would see the WordPress icon. Click that icon and it will take you to the installation page. Click the Install button on the top. If you want you can specify the settings for your blog on the next page. Please note the admin credentials which you would need later on.
Tip: If you want the blog to be your home page on your website, make sure the field “In Directory” is kept empty.
The installation process takes a few seconds and you new blog is ready. You can visit it by going to your website.
Step 4 – WordPress Admin Panel
On your website/blog welcome page, scroll down to the bottom and you will find a Login option on the bottom right side. Click that and it will take you to the WordPress dashboard for your blog.
Step 5 – Publishing Posts
On the dashboard click the “NEW” icon on the top as shown and click on “POST”. Enter the text for the title and the body and hit the publish button. Your blog is live and you can see the published post on your website.
Step 6 – Blog Themes
If you want to modify and change the theme for your blog that includes text, colors and the overall feel, click “APPEARANCE” on the left menu on the dashboard. You can use one of the pre-customized themes that WordPress offers or you can load your own custom theme too.
Tip: I currently see only two themes on my dashboard. I have to figure out where I can get all the 100s of different themes in WordPress without loading a custom theme.
Step 7 – Social Media Plugins
Now that you have your own domain name, a personally owned blog to publish posts on, it would be a good idea to share this with the world wide web and get traffic on your website. You can plugin a whole wide range of social media tools that can help sharing very simply and easy.
For starters, I have picked four plugins – Digg Digg, Shareaholic, Disqus and Mobile Theme Switch. You can search for these by clicking the Plugins menu on the dashboard and typing in the respective plugin name in the search bar.
Once you find your choice of a plugin, click Install Now and the plugin would get installed in a few seconds. Now all you have to do is go back to the Installed Plugin menu and edit the settings for that particular plugin.
So now that you have your blog up and running, go ahead, do some brainstorming, and start writing your thoughts. Hope this blog post helped you get started and inspired you to blog more.
What are your thoughts on this blog post? Why do you personally feel one should have a blog? Any tips / suggestions you want to contribute towards making this blog more interactive? Feel free to post your comments below.
(Credits: Jeff Bullas www.jeffbullas.com, Retail Me Not www.retailmenot.com, Web Hosting Buzz www.webhostingbuzz.com)