Ultimate Guide to Blogging for Beginners Using WordPress

A lot of my content is focused on blogging for beginners.

I concentrate on those topics because I want to help people get into blogging, especially those who are brand new to it.

It’s important to provide a guide that explains the basics and advanced tactics for blogging for beginners. Otherwise, you might not even know where to start. When you don’t know where to start, blogging can become overwhelming, and you might change your mind about trying it out.

Instead of quitting blogging, save this guide and use it to help get you started.

I do want to note that this blogging for beginners guide is geared towards those who plan to use the self-hosted and free WordPress blogging software.

First Steps of Blogging for Beginners

Blogging used to be the act of creating text-based articles for your website.

However, blogging has really evolved over the years. It’s more than just text-based content. Blogging includes images, videos, and other visually appealing media. Blogging can be done on a website, through social media, or even solely by video.

There are many reasons why you would want to create a blog.

Some people create blogs to express themselves personally and document their lives. I blog to show you how to turn your blog into a profitable business. Blogging costs very little, whereas a brick-and-mortar business can cost several hundred thousand dollars.

WordPress is by far the best blogging software to choose from. It’s free. It’s secure. It’s open source. It powers more than 43% of all websites on the internet. By using the free self-hosted WordPress software, you will enjoy full control over your blog.

The first and most important step before starting your blog is to choose a niche and try to narrow it down.

A niche is the topic you will be blogging about. It should be something you’re extremely passionate about because you’ll be able to write about a passion forever. You should also try to narrow down your core topic to something specific in the passion that you’re more an expert of. This will make blogging a lot easier to make successful.

Before you even think about launching a blog, you need to know who your audience is.

After you choose your niche, you can start to research who in the niche fits your content-consuming avatar or the persona of your perfect reader. If you work to narrow down your niche, you’ll be able to understand your target audience a lot better.

Knowing who you need to write for and what you need to write about to meet their needs and wants is extremely important in blogging.

And finally, you should create content in bulk before you launch your blog. I’ll get more into the content creation process below, but you should try to create anywhere from 5 to 15 articles before launching your blog so that you can stay ahead.

Now that you understand the first steps of blogging for beginners, it’s time to move on to getting your blog started.

 

Getting Started with WordPress

Getting started with WordPress might seem intimidating, but it really is easy.

The first thing you need to do is choose a good domain name.

Your domain name is your blog address. My domain name is seriousbloggers.com. I recommend searching for an available domain name and registering it at Name Cheap. The “dot com” domain name is easiest to remember by the masses but there is also a “dot blog” domain option, too. Just make sure you get the domain name to match your brand name if it’s available.

A domain name costs around $20.00 per year. Make sure you activate SSL or secure hosting, which is typically free.

After choosing your domain name, you need to get basic shared hosting. This will usually cost around $150.00 (or less) for a full year.

I suggest using DreamHost because it is extremely affordable, well-trusted, has been around for years, and offers easy one-click WordPress installation features. You can even choose a plan dedicated to WordPress hosting. I’ve been using DreamHost for more than 15 years.

Installing WordPress is simple whether you use a one-click feature on your web hosting service or you do it manually.

You need to create a MySQL database, which is easy. You need to get the WordPress files on your hosting service. Then, you need to go through the very simple WordPress installation process (a few pages of clicking a button).

You need to set some basic WordPress settings to get your blog started.

When logged into your WordPress blog’s dashboard, go to Settings and then General. Review the settings and make sure everything is correct. If you keep the URLs the same, your blog could be broken.

Go into the Permalinks Settings and choose “Post Name” as your Permalinks structure. This will make your pages and posts more friendly for search engines and readers.

You may need to create a new admin user.

Some hosting services will create a default one during the one-click installation process. Login with the default one (after setting a password) and create a new username. Make sure the new user is set to be an administrator. Login with the new user and then delete the old one while transferring posts and content to the new user.

This will get you started with WordPress, and you can now move on to improving the look of your blog.

 

Designing Your WordPress Blog

Now that you have installed WordPress, it’s time to make your blog look better for your potential readers.

WordPress offers look and feel customizations through the use of Themes.

There are different types of theme options. You can use the many free themes available for WordPress. You can also use a premium theme creator such as DIVI by Elegant Themes. If you have a budget, you can get a custom theme created for your WordPress installation.

Installing a theme is simple.

Go to Appearance and Themes on your WordPress Dashboard. You can add themes from there by searching for free themes in the WordPress theme database or uploading your own theme (zip files) if you’ve downloaded one elsewhere. After you download your theme, activate it and then set any settings that might come with it.

Plugins are extension and modification files that expand the features of your blog.

There are plugins for practically everything you can imagine. There is an enormous number of free plugins available that you can search for and install in your Plugins section of the WordPress Dashboard. There are also many websites that offer premium plugins and even custom plugin development services if you have a budget for it.

There are some essential plugins I recommend installing on WordPress.

For search engine optimization, I use Yoast SEO. The free version is probably all you need but the paid version does come with some great features. You should also install Jetpack to help with optimization and caching to speed up your blog. Akismet is great for combatting comment spam. WooCommerce is the best option if you want to create a store or sell from your blog.

It might be tempting to add as many plugins as possible, but you shouldn’t do it. Too many plugins will create bloat and slow your blog down. They can also pose security risks if they need to be updated frequently or become buggy.

Adjusting your Widgets and Menus from the Appearance section of your WordPress Dashboard can help you customize your blog. Widgets are extra content and features you add to your sidebar and footer sections. Menus are your site links.

You’ll see that there are posts and pages on your WordPress Dashboard.

Posts are your blog articles. You can set categories to blog about, too. I recommend only setting a few – of your cornerstone content categories. Pages are static pages on your blog, such as the homepage, blog page, about section, and other pages like that.

Now that you’ve installed and customized your blog, it’s time to move on to learning more about the content side of blogging for beginners.

Blogging for Beginners Guide to Content Creation

Content is king when it comes to blogging, but it is only king when it is of the highest quality and most value-packed nature.

The first lesson has to do with your headlines or the titles of your blog posts. They need to have a hook in them. This means they need to catch the attention of the reader and make them want to read the rest of the content. Look at some of the blog headlines that have caught your attention and try to mimic that on your own blog.

You need to structure your blog posts for your readers. Use short sentences and paragraphs, take advantage of white space, use bulleted and numbered lists when appropriate, break sections up using subheadings, and make your content easy to scan and read.

Don’t just add a bunch of text to your blog post and then publish it. Add some images, embedded videos, and other media for visual appeal. This will help catch the attention of your readers, put them in a good mood emotionally, and want to continue reading what you have to say.

There are different types of blog posts to publish. Some of the most commonly listed results on Google Search are Listicles (top 10, 20 ways to, etc.) and How To article types. It’s best to use the format that is most commonly used on Google search for your particular niche.

Getting ideas for new content is relatively easy. You can use websites like Reddit and Quora to search for questions related to your niche. You can use social media for the same thing. The best way to get ideas is to ask your own audience directly what type of content they would like to see in the future.

Make sure you take time to edit your blog posts and correct any spelling and grammar issues. It doesn’t have to be perfect, but it should be as close as possible. I suggest using Grammarly to help you speed up the process and catch the little stuff that is really easy to overlook. Grammarly helps me so much I’m able to write more for my blog.

Now that you’ve finished the content side of blogging for beginners, it’s time to move on to the marketing side of your blog.

 

Marketing Your Blog

You must market your blog in order to attract readers and customers. In this section, you’ll learn the Blogging for Beginners guide to blog promotion.

Don’t just join any social media platform. You should definitely market on social media as it will be where you get a large chunk of your readers, but you should join every platform available. Join the platforms where your audience is. Study them, learn where your audience is most active, and join those platforms.

You need to create a basic social media strategy. Your strategy should include what content you will post on social media, when you will post it, how often you’ll post, and how often you’ll engage with others. You should always be engaging more than posting. Engagement on social media is how you win.

It’s important to be consistent on social media. You should post multiple times a day and every day. Most social media success comes from folks who post more than five times a day. It sounds like a lot, but with tools like Buffer and the built-in scheduling features on most social media platforms, you can make this task very simple.

It’s important to create a mailing list from the start of your blog or right now if you haven’t already. Kit is currently offering a free newsletter plan with up to 10,000 subscribers. Mail Chimp is another good mailing list provider. A newsletter is a direct connection with your audience, and social media and search engines can’t be between you and them. It’s important to have a mailing list along with your blog.

To build your mailing list, you need to advertise it all over your blog. Put a signup form on every post and every page. Have a popup that encourages readers to join your newsletter. You should also offer a lead magnet for subscribers. This is something of great value that you offer for free in exchange for someone subscribing. It could be an eBook or an extensive guide about your niche.

Make sure you create the best newsletter issues possible. Each issue should aim to be better than the last one. In order to keep subscribers, you need to ensure that the content in your newsletter is of the highest quality and packed with value. Try to send it at least once a month, but most bloggers show higher success rates when newsletters are sent once a week.

You should network with other bloggers, especially those in your niche. Most bloggers are not that competitive, at least not to the point where they’re your enemy. Niche bloggers can help each other out with content exchanges, collaborations, and audience sharing. It’s best to surround yourself with people like you.

You should be writing blog posts for other blogs in your niche. This is called guest blogging. It’s a good way to build backlinks and help develop your expertise and reputation within your niche. Try to befriend bloggers before asking them to allow you to guest blog because it’s a lot easier to get a yes. But if you get rejected, keep going; just go look for other related blogs and ask them. Someone eventually says yes.

And with guest blogging, allow it on your blog, too. If other bloggers in your niche contact you, consider allowing them to guest post. Make sure their content is of a high quality. Make sure any images they share are public domain or licensed to you to be able to share. Accepting a blog post from them is a good time to ask if you can write for them as well.

Practice the above marketing tips for blogging for beginners, and you’ll have no problems getting more readers to your blog posts.

 

Blogging for Beginners SEO Guide

SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, is a very important subject to learn for blogging for beginners who want to get their links on better pages on Google Search.

SEO is where you perform tactics and actions with your content and blog to give it an optimized chance of ranking better on search engines. Most search engine users don’t go past page one of any given search. I know I rarely do it myself. So, the idea behind SEO is to get on page one for the keyword that you’re targeting. It’s one of the best ways to grow your blog audience aside from social media marketing.

There are three types of SEO. On-page SEO is what you do to your blog and its content to rank higher on search engines. Off-page SEO is mainly building backlinks and getting a reputable score for your blog on other websites. Then, there is technical SEO, which is making sure your blog is readable by all people and devices, runs fast, and is easy to navigate. Each SEO type is easy to work with once you turn it into a habit.

To find and research keywords for blogging, start by brainstorming topics relevant to your niche and audience. Use keyword research tools to identify high-traffic, low-competition keywords. Analyze competitors’ content to discover additional keyword opportunities and trends. Finally, consider search intent and choose keywords that align with the information your audience is seeking.

There are many different tools for Keyword Research. If you have a budget, higher-end tools such as SEM Rush and Ahrefs are known to give the best results. If you need more affordable resources, Uber Suggest and Keywords Everywhere might be what you’re looking for. RankIQ is another great tool that utilizes AI to help you research your keywords. You can also use Google Search, Search Console, Analytics, and Keyword Planner at no cost if you’d rather use something free. Sometimes, using a mixture of different tools is the best way to do it.

The first step in writing SEO-optimized content for your blog is ensuring it is of the highest quality and packed with value. No matter how many times Google changes its search algorithm, that rank factor will never change and will always be the most important. You should also include your keyword in your content in different spots.

Using Yoast SEO for WordPress, you can audit each post and learn where to put your keyword. This is a free plugin, but the paid version offers more. I choose the paid version every time I create a new blog. It’s one of the best SEO plugins for WordPress.

Building backlinks for a blog involves creating high-quality, valuable content that others want to link to. Reach out to other bloggers and websites in your niche, offering guest posts or collaborations. Utilize social media and online communities to share your content and engage with potential linkers. Additionally, use tools like Ahrefs or Moz to identify and replicate your competitors’ backlink strategies.

Try to avoid Black Hat SEO tactics. These are tactics that Google would define as trying to cheat the system or being dishonest. Click-bait is a good example of being dishonest and it should never be done on your blog. Using your keyword too many times is another form of Black Hat SEO that you should avoid. If what you’re doing is dishonest or a form of cheating, it’s Black hat, and it can get you penalized by Google or even get your website banned from their search engine.

SEO has always been a topic around blogging for beginners. As you can see, it’s not as difficult as it looks. You just need to do it every time you write.

 

Monetizing Your Blog

One of the biggest goals I’ve seen in blogging for beginners is the desire to make money. I’m here to tell you that it’s quite possible and, in all honesty, quite easy to do.

Affiliate marketing is a great way to make money blogging. The idea is that you join an affiliate network like Amazon or an individual platform’s affiliate program. Then, you create content that promotes to purchase of the products. You use affiliate links. You must disclose that you are using affiliate links just so you know. You’ll earn a commission if someone purchases an item using your link.

You can also earn revenue on your blog using ads. You can either use an ad network like Google AdSense and earn commissions for ad clicks (kind of like affiliate marketing), or you can sell ads directly. Selling ads directly will enable you to make more money but you also have to do all of the work. Google AdSense-type networks just require you to add some code, and then you’ll start earning based on your blog’s traffic and activity.

Sponsored posts and reviews are a great way to earn money with a blog. The idea is that you post a blog post or review that contains links to other websites for services and products. Usually, the company buying the ad space provides the article but sometimes you might write it as in reviews or something like that. Be sure to check any images given to you to use for the content. Make sure you can legally use the images so you don’t risk being sued.

One of the best ways to make money with a blog is to sell your own products and services. You have the full potential to make a large amount of money based on the worth you set for your products or services. The best things to sell are digital items such as private communities, paid newsletters, eBooks, online courses, consulting, and applications. Most bloggers will create their own product or service as an end goal for earning profit with their blog.

Creating a monetization strategy for blogging involves several key steps. First, identify your niche and target audience to ensure your content aligns with their interests and needs. Next, diversify your income streams by incorporating methods such as affiliate marketing, sponsored posts, ad placements, and selling digital products or services like e-books, courses, or memberships. Consistently producing high-quality, engaging content will help attract and retain readers. Additionally, leverage social media and email marketing to grow your audience and drive traffic to your blog. Finally, analyze your performance metrics regularly to optimize your strategies and maximize revenue.

Be sure to set realistic goals when it comes to your monetization strategy. A goal of making a million dollars in a few years sounds nice but is nearly impossible to achieve. If you set high standards, you’ll burn yourself out when you can’t achieve them. Instead set smaller and more realistic goals that work their way up to larger goals. When you start achieving your smaller goals, it’ll motivate you to keep going and keep getting better.

It’s a good idea to use tools to help track your income and expenses. This can help you better budget for advertising and see what works in generating profit. This is especially important if you have multiple income streams. Pay attention to your profit and losses to avoid a particularly bad situation later down the road.

You want to make sure you understand taxes as a blogger. Save everything as far as receipts and invoices go. Make sure you gather up all your important tax documents each year, as well. You’ll have to pay taxes each year for your blog. I’ve paid in for a few years now for both federal and state. You might want to hire an accountant or tax professional to make sure you do your taxes correctly so that no audit may occur.

When it comes to blogging for beginners, profit is a topic that many new bloggers will have. Follow the advice above, and you should be off to a good start.

 

Building a Community Around Your Blog

Building a community around your blog is the best way to attract loyal readers. In this section, I’ll show you the best community-building tactics for blogging for beginners.

You should be responding to every comment and email sent to you. If someone leaves a comment on your blog, reply to it and try to ask questions to keep the conversation going. If someone sends you an email, try your best to respond and help them. Make sure you check your spam folder to see if their email messages accidentally go in there. If someone took the time to talk to you, it’s your job to acknowledge them and respond back in a timely manner.

Host some Q&A sessions for your blog readers. You can create a blog post for this and answer questions as the comments are submitted. You could also do some sort of live stream on YouTube or something like that. You can utilize social media to do Q&A sessions, as well. Your followers always enjoy being able to find out what and when from you, the niche authority.

Consider creating some kind of membership community. You can create a free community or even a paid membership product. A community will allow you to directly interact and engage with your followers. You can use this platform to build a very close relationship with your readers. You should also use your community to network members with each other and provide them as much value as possible.

There are many different types of community and membership platforms to choose from. You can use traditional forum software such as XenForo (premium) or Simple Machines Forum (free). You can also use a more modern community platform such as Mighty Networks or Circle. WordPress has many different plugins, including Member Press and Restrict Pro, to create your own community using your blog. Find the platform that best suits your community and go with it.

You should do live sessions and webinars. You can use these opportunities for courses, masterclasses, interviews, and accountability meetings with your blog audience. You can make these free or charge a fee and profit from them. Doing an event at least once or twice a month will be a great way to build a more loyal audience with your blog.

There are many different tools and platforms for doing live video events. You can use Zoom, Teams, or even YouTube to conduct your event. If you want to make the event a paid event, you’ll need to plan and schedule the event behind some sort of paywall or online community. Consider participating in a few live events to get a feel for them and see how you want to do it before you get into it.

Community is a great way to get more experience in the blogging for beginners adventure that you will be experiencing.

 

Blogging for Beginners Tips and Hacks

Enjoy this final blogging for beginners tips and hacks that will help you make a better blog, get more readers, and make more money.

Be sure to optimize any images and videos you add to your blog, pages, and posts. The idea is to ensure that they’re of good quality but as small as possible. The larger the file, the longer it takes to load. Longer-loading files can make your blog slower, and that is the last thing you want.

Install a caching plugin on your WordPress blog. Jetpack is a good plugin for this, but there are also others worth using. This will help speed up your blog and optimize unnecessary load times so that your readers can get to your content quicker.

Blog security is important. Make sure your password is secure. Consider 2-step verification to enhance your security. Never share your password with anyone. Be careful of the plugins and themes you add. Make sure they are compatible with your WordPress version and have been updated recently. Do a general Google search of the plugin or theme to see if there are any security issues with them.

There are many different plugins to further secure your WordPress blog. For extra security, enable something like CloudFlare. You can also look for firewalls and security tool suite plugins to enhance your blog security. Jetpack has many great security features that are worth checking out, as well.

Consider using an analytic service to measure your blog traffic and user activity. This can help you determine what is working and what is not working in your content and marketing strategies. You can also make better decisions about making money with your blog. Monster Insights is a good plugin to add to make reading Google Analytics 4 (GA4) easier on your blog. I personally recommend the paid version for the best results.

Try to get an understanding of each key metric on your analytical platform. Research one metric at a time until you get a full understanding of what it is and how it works. Then, move on to the next metric. After you’re done, try to get an understanding of how all the metrics relate to one another, and this will make you an expert at reading your analytics.

As a blogger, you’ll eventually deal with some trolling, abusive comments, and spam. It happens to all of us at some point. The best way to deal with it is to actually deal with it. Don’t feed the trolls – delete their comments. Don’t respond to the abusers – delete their comments. Add the spammers to the spam feature on WordPress. Install Akismet (plugin) to help you combat spam. Just get rid of that stuff as soon as you can.

It’s up to you how often you want to post to your blog. The more you post, though, the more quickly you can grow your audience. That means you can post every day if you want to. I post once a week, and I’m happy with that frequency. You might decide to post twice a week, as many other bloggers do. Whatever frequency you choose, the important thing is being consistent about it because that tells your audience when to expect new content and that helps to build trust and loyal readers.

Learn some basic copywriting and storytelling tactics. Copywriting is sales speak and allows you to emotionally involve your readers in an effort to get them hooked or in a buying mood. Some of my favorite copy formulas are PAS (Problem Agitate Solve) and AIDA (Attention Idea Desire Action). Storytelling will also help you connect with your readers. Everyone loves a great story especially when they can resonate with it. Write for them more than you write for yourself.

Branding is important for blogging for beginners. Branding is what helps you get recognized quickly by members of your target audience and market. Branding involves using different logos and colors. You also need to use the same voice and try to remain on the same expertise that you’re writing about. You want to be known for something when branding.

You should take your blog seriously and turn it into a business. That’s what I did. Serious Bloggers is a registered LLC. I treat it like a business, even if most of the content is free for the taking. By treating it like a business, I make better decisions for the blog and its content.

Work on making enough money to actually start hiring help. You can hire a few freelance writers here and there to make some content. Then, you can look to hiring a part-time writer to help keep your blog active. Eventually, you might be able to have some full-time writers and even a community manager to take your blog to the next level. It’s good to have goals and dreams for your blog, as it will help you stay motivated to continue it.

 

Blogging for Beginners Conclusion

We’ve come to the end of this blog. You’ve had the chance to learn just about everything you need to know to get started with blogging for beginners. Now you need to put your new skills in action and go out there and start writing those posts.

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Consider giving me a one-time tip for providing this 5,000+ word article for free. If you can’t, it’s no biggie, but if you’d like to, I definitely welcome it.

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About the Author

Shawn Gossman has created content, blogged, ran online communities, and shared a passion for digital marketing for over twenty years. Shawn believes the best way to help content creators, businesses, brands, and marketers is to give away more than you sell. The same advice is recommended for the readers who follow this blog. Shawn also offers various services for extra help in content creation and blogging.