7 Easy Steps On How To Set Up A Blog Using WordPress

My non-profit friend Emily asked me for advice on setting up a blog.

Clever WordPress Logo In Van Gogh's Starry Night

I recommended she use WordPress (it’s what I use in this blog) for the following reasons:

• Cost — WordPress is mostly free (you will have to spend $10 to $20 on hosting stuff (explained below)
• Flexibility — WordPress is open-source and has many different developers supporting it with widgets and plug-ins.
• Google Loves It — WordPress appears to be indexed by Google faster than other blog platforms (including, ironically, the Blogger platform which is owned by Google). This quick indexing is important in terms of Google sending you free traffic.

7 Easy Steps On How To Set Up A Blog Using WordPress

Here’s a 51-minute video tutorial by blog pro Chris Abraham explaining how to set up WordPress.

In it, he explains everything you need to get WordPress set up — they include these 7 highlights (in that order):

1. Getting Your WordPress Account — Username, password, naming your blog (At first, your blog name will be [TheNameYouChoose.WordPress.com] (later, you can register a domain name and point the blog to it so that “WordPress” is not in your URL)
2. Activating Your Blog
3. Understand the WordPress Dashboard
4. Setting Up A Theme (the design) — He uses the Neat themes: I use Thesis/CopyBlogger (note: you can the theme any time)
5. Inserting A Picture Of Yourself
6. How to Register A Domain Name So That It Doesn’t Include “WordPress” — Abraham shows how to register a name through GoDaddy and then how to adjust the settings on WordPress. After that, your blog will be available for viewing at the new URL you registered (I’m a big fan of GoDaddy because they’re available by phone to help you with this integration).  Note: This will cost you $10 on GoDaddy and $10 on WordPress.
7. How To Post A Blog Entry — This can be done in Visual mode (looks like MS Word) or HTML mode. He covers such keys to posting asL
   1. How To Link To Other URLs
   2. How To Insert Unusual Characters — Such as a trademark ™ or copyright ©
   3. How To Insert An Image (or video)
   4. How To Add Tags

Thanks, Chris Abraham, for sharing your tutorial.

Once you set up WordPress, you’re going to want to set up Google Analytics so that you can view data such as:

• Number of visitors
• Number of page views
• The keywords that people search Google on to end up on your site
• Which articles on your site are most popular
• etc.

Read this 3 Easy Steps To Using Google Analytics to learn more about how/why to do this.

Best of luck with your blog!