How to Start a Blog ?
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| How to Start a Blog in 2020 | Blogging for Beginners |
Step 4: Configure Your Blog
If you have not yet installed WordPress, go to Step 2 to use our simple WordPress installation guide.
Now that you know the basics of your blog, we can go a little more into the details. WordPress is an incredibly powerful tool that allows you to create your blog in almost any way you can imagine.
You're probably thinking that your blog design looks pretty boring, right? Don't worry, I will show you how to change the site design and layout in this step, along with lots of other interesting tips and tricks for customizing your blog.
Change the design of your Blog
Everyone has a different idea of how you want your blog to look. One of the best things about WordPress is that you can change the entire layout and design of your site with a few clicks. Here are just a few examples of WordPress designs that are completely free (click on an image to see it larger):
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| How to Start a Blog in 2020 | Blogging for Beginners |
In WordPress, the site's provisions are known as "Themes." To change your theme you must enter your blog and go to "Appearance", there click on "Themes".
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| How to Start a Blog in 2020 | Blogging for Beginners |
Next, you will be directed to the topic search screen. There are lots of different ways to find a topic that you like. You can search by keyword, color, design, etc. using "Filter by features".
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| How to Start a Blog in 2020 | Blogging for Beginners |
If you are not sure where to start, click on the “Featured” link at the top of the page to get an idea of the variety of topics that are available.
There are hundreds of free themes available for you to choose from, so my suggestion is not to become obsessed with finding the perfect theme right away. After all, you can easily change it again later.
Once you find a theme you like, click on the "Install" link below the theme. Next, you will be directed to the installation screen. On that screen you must click on the "Activate" link to activate your new theme.
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| How to Start a Blog in 2020 | Blogging for Beginners |
To see your new theme in action, go to your site and see its appearance!
Widgets
Changing themes is the easiest way to make big changes to your site design, but there are small changes you can make once you have a theme installed.
One of the easiest things you can change are the "widgets" that control the elements in your sidebar area (and sometimes other areas of your site).
To do this, scroll over “Appearance” in the menu on the left and click on “Widgets”. Once on this page you can simply drag and drop the widgets to add or remove them from your site.
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| How to Start a Blog in 2020 | Blogging for Beginners |
As with most things in WordPress, changes to the site are very easy to make and can always be changed again. So go ahead and play with the widgets to examine how different settings would look on your site.
Plugins
Plugins are additional tools that you can add to your WordPress blog developed by third parties. There are hundreds of free plugins available that can do almost anything on your blog.
There are plugins to create contact forms, add social media buttons, or improve the visibility of your site to search engines.
There are simply too many to list here, but there is a free plugin with which I think every new blogger should start called JetPack.
Jetpack adds a lot of easy-to-use features to WordPress such as the ability to easily add images to the sidebar menus, post your entries on Facebook, and see how many people have visited your blog.
However, I have seen that most bloggers benefit from the additional features that are included. Here you can see how to install it: How to install Jetpack
Change your user details
When you start your blog it is important that you change your user data so that people know who is writing your blog.
To do this, click on the "Users" tab in the menu on the left. Then, click on "Edit" below your username
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| How to Start a Blog in 2020 | Blogging for Beginners |
On the user details page you could change at least change your "Alias" and Email. Your alias is the public name that will appear in all the posts you publish, so keep this in mind when selecting it.
Simply type what you want in the "Alias" box and then choose that same name in the drop-down box next to "Show this name publicly." You can also change your email address if necessary.
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| How to Start a Blog in 2020 | Blogging for Beginners |
What are the pages?
You will have noticed a tab in the menu on the left called “Pages”. In WordPress, pages are normally used for any content you want to include on your site that does not fit the category of a blog post. This could be things a "About me" page or a "Contact me" page.
Creating and deleting pages is exactly the same as for Entries. The difference is that the pages will not appear in the blog feed, which means that they will not appear on the home page as a blog post would.
You don't have to create any pages unless you want. However, WordPress has an “Sample Page” installed that I suggest you delete.
What follows next?
After completing this step you should have an attractive and functioning blog. There is no need to have everything perfect immediately.
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