Hello, my name is Cephas and I am a web designer
I want to show you how to set up your WordPress blog

Starting a WordPress blog require extra effort, you need a domain name, hosting plan and design. This is against its rivalry blog where you can easily signup for a Google account and setup within minutes. Google acquires in 2003 and since then has been thriving mainly because of free hosting granted to a customer, unlike professional WordPress blog where you have to get a hosting a plan before setting up a professional blog, learn how to create a google blogger blog. WordPress also has a free platform to register your domain as a subdomain of WordPress. An example is www.mydomain.. Let me quickly take you to the difference between a free WordPress blog and blog.

DIFFERENCE BETWEEN FREE WORDPRESS BLOG AND ’S BLOG
Subdomain: when you open a WordPress blog and blog, they both give you a subdomain but gives an opportunity to register a third-party domain free. For example, if you have registered a blog on free WordPress platform, your URL address will be yourdomain., the same thing applies to , www.yourdomain..com but in , you can change to a custom domain www.yourdomain.com but in WordPress, you have to get a hosting plan before you can register a custom domain name.
Features: is enriched with a lot of features than free WordPress platform. You can make many changes as long as you are knowledgeable in HTML coding on but it is impossible in free WordPress platform
Now let’s talk about paid WordPress platform www.wordpress.org. On WordPress paid platform, you can design a WordPress blog or website with enriching and advanced features as to what has to offer. You can create a forum, e-commerce (where people can buy your products), free plugins are available to optimize your blog or website on WordPress

WHAT YOU NEED TO OPEN A WORDPRESS BLOG
A domain name
A Hosting plan

HOW MUCH DO I NEED TO START A WORDPRESS BLOG
Some hosting platforms require to pay in dollars while some require in local currency, naira ₦ but an estimate of what you will need in local currency cannot be more than ₦7,000 if you use the two platform I will be recommending some hosting platform. Continue reading the post to discover the platform you can get a hosting plan

GETTING A DOMAIN NAME FOR YOUR BLOG
- Your domain name has a lot of importance for Search engine optimization (organic traffic). Organic traffic is directing traffic to your blog or website without paying for ads search engines.
- You must make a lot of research before choosing a domain name.
- Specifying your niche is also important. Gone are the days when multi-niche blog use to thrive but these days you must specialize. Either it is a food blog, an education blog, tech blog etc. Niche is very important if you want your WordPress blog to grow and if you plan to monetize with it.

In Nigeria, I will be giving you a list of blog niche with high organic traffic
1. Jamb, WAEC, and NECO
2. Food
3. Relationship
4. Technology
5. Blogging

I don’t want to give you facts that are not genuine but these niches are the most searched niche in Nigeria as at the time writing this blog post and any of these niches will be good for your WordPress blog.

After choosing your niche, you can proceed to choose your domain name. Please note, your domain name must be related to your niche. For example, the domain name for my blog is http://www.digitalknowhow.com The keywords there are “digital”, “know”, “how” because it reflects a blog of teaching about “how to” do some things on “digital” world which is the internet. Same way you have to consider your niche before choosing a domain name.

HOW TO BUY A DOMAIN NAME
First thing is to check whether the domain name is available. Go to any domain name providers stated up and type the required domain name and check the availability. If your blog is for Nigerians, I would prefer you choose a domain name with .ng or .com.ng because it is for a targeted place. The (ng) means Nigeria, therefore if anyone searches a keyword in Nigeria that relates to your blog, your blog would tend to rate among the first page of the search engine. After deciding on your domain name, you can go on and purchase it.

TIPS ON GETTING A DOMAIN NAME FOR YOUR WORDPRESS BLOG

1. Make sure your blog keyword is in your domain
2. Be sure of your targeted country before buying your name
3. Never include your name in a domain name unless it is a personal blog
4. Make adequate research before choosing a name
5. Choose your domain extension wisely
6. Read more about choosing a domain name

WHERE TO BUY A WEB HOSTING PLAN
There are many websites that host website, among the top notch are
Bluehost
Dreamhost
Hostgator
Godaddy

And there are also local web host you can try out

DESIGNING A WORDPRESS BLOG
In this tutorial, I will be using Godaddy as an example but if you have any question whatsoever about the hosting you want to use, Just put your comment below and I will help you out

What you will be learning
--Buying your hosting plan
--Setting up WordPress
--Designing a WordPress blog
--Publishing your first age and post
--Must have plugins for your blog
--How to optimize your blog for SEO
--How to make money blogging

This tutorial is from www.digitalknowhow.com.ng
Click for tutorial on blogging and making money online in Nigeria

BUYING YOUR HOSTING PLAN
Check any of the websites posted above and look at an affordable hosting plan. Before getting to this stage I would assume you have gotten a domain name for your WordPress blog. Check the hosting features and choose the one you are going with.

Please note that I am using Godaddy for this tutorial.

SETTING UP YOUR WORDPRESS BLOG
Step 1
In your hosting dashboard, navigate to your hosting panel in order to have access to your cpanel page

Step 2
After navigating there, log in to the platform and locate the cPanel, in your hosting plan. The cPanel login details will be provided upon buying the hosting plan maybe through email, while some platform will give you access to login to your cPanel straight from the dashboard of your hosting plan.

Step 3
After logging into your cPanel, the next thing is to locate your WordPress software, at this place, you might find the “Installatron Software or Softaculous Software”. These softwares are used also to install WordPress if you cannot install WordPress in a single click

Is either you use those softwares to install WordPress on your server or you find a one-click WordPress software
Installatron and Softaculous are important in installing another CMS on your server. E.g. if you want to install Osclass, Joomla, Magento etc. They will do justice to that without stress

Step 4
After you have found the software and click it will redirect you to a place where you will install the WordPress software
Click on the install this application button

Step 5
It will bring some details to fill. E.g. blog name, blog title, and so on. Make sure you fill them out but you can also modify them later so no need to worry about them, you can choose to ignore, you can edit them later.

After filling all the necessary information, you can now install your WordPress software on your hosting plan server

Wait for the WordPress to install...
After installing, you will be given login details, open a new tab and go to www.yourdomain.com/wp-admin or you can decide to go from your cPanel. Log in to your WordPress, follow all details and enter your dashboard.

The link to enter your dashboard will be giving instantly in this form www.yourdomain.com/wp-admin

It may redirect you to setup wizard, click on skip or you may continue with it

Will continue the tutorial later today
The full tutorial is on www.digitalknowhow.com.ng


To be continued...
YOU CAN ALSO HIRE ME TO SETUP AND DESIGN YOUR BLOG FOR YOU FREE
Features
--Installing of necessary plugins
--SEO Optimized
--Responsive Blog
Terms and Conditions apply
Reach me
www.xephasconcepts.com.ng/contact

DESIGNING YOUR WORDPRESS BLOG
After getting to your dashboard, locate Appearance on your dashboard, there you will find a lot of free premium themes.

Download any theme
Activate it
Carefully read the documentation for better understanding on how to use the theme (search it online if it’s not with the theme). A different theme has a different way of designing
Use the Widgets tab under Appearance to make your blog looks beautiful
Create menu under Menus tab under Appearance

PUBLISHING YOUR FIRST PAGE AND POST
Go to Post tab, there you can post to your blog

Tips about a good blog post
Must be easy to understand
Must be free of errors (install Grammarly on your browser as an addon in order to check for errors in your post after typing)
Should contain images and videos (not compulsory)
Make sure you include a featured image (Check the right side of your
Make sure your keyword appears in the first paragraph of your post and in the title
Must be at least 300 words according to google but I will recommend above 800 words because search engine looks at lengthy of words before ranking
Make sure you include categories and tags on your blog post
Now that you have known what a good blog post would be like, its time you hit the post tab to create your first post.

MUST HAVE PLUGINS FOR YOUR WORDPRESS BLOG
There are some plugins that are relevant to your blog, I will explain to you a few of them

1. Yoast: very important for Search Engine Optimization. This plugin helps in analyzing your blog post to fit search engine requirements
2. Askimet: Until I found out about Askimet, I usually have a problem with spam messages. I need to filter my comment section manually but Askimet makes it easy buy doing the needful automatically.
3. WP Forms: With the help of this plugin, you can create forms (contact, billing and any other forms)
4. Jetpack: Jetpack is created by , it is useful for an automatic social share of blog posts which helps to increase your blog traffic. It is also useful for your site security and always check for your blog downtime every five minutes. You will also be notified if your blog is having issues relating to a server not responding
5. Google XML Sitemaps: Search engine optimization is very important after setting up a blog. Before search engines can index your blog, you need to have a sitemap on your blog. Google XML Sitemap after activation automatically create a sitemap for your blog for search engine indexing
6. W3 Total Cache: Cache is a place on an internet community where some files are stored temporarily. In order for a blog to have a better performance, this plugin is recommended. It helps to optimize your blog performance
7. Vault Press: Your blog backup and security are very important. This plugin is built for automatic backup of your blog in a matter of seconds
8. WP Smush: Too many images may affect your blog performance. Images may cause a page or website to load slow. WP smush helps to optimize the images for better performance
9. Add to any: It is a powerful plugin for sharing of content. Users of your blog can share your blog post to any social media platform with ease with this plugin

HOW TO OPTIMIZE YOUR BLOG FOR SEARCH ENGINES
Search engines like google, bing, yahoo, and so on are ways of generating organic traffic. In WordPress, there are tons of plugins you can use to optimize your site. I have explained some above (Yoast SEO, Google XML Sitemap, WP Smush) and many more. I will recommend Yoast SEO Premium Plugin, you just have to pay some bucks for it. Instead of coding, you can do all your optimization of a blog with the premium plugin

HOW TO MONETIZE YOUR BLOG
It is any blogger’s joy when a blog started producing returns but it’s not a day or months job. Before you can monetize a blog, you need to have the following

--Great contents
--Loyal Audience
--Consistency in managing
--Few bucks (this is where most people won’t mention, I will recommend having few bucks for paid ads on Facebook, Google and other advertising platforms you know they can bring traffic to your blog)

Ways you can make money with your blog
Google AdSense: Before applying for AdSense make sure you have
-15 original posts on your blog, not more than 800 words (recommended)
-About Page
-Contact Page
-Privacy Policy Page
-Disclaimer Page
-Terms of Service/Use Page
-Submit your blog to google webmaster for indexing
-Optimize your blog for search engine
After having all these your AdSense will be approved within a short period of time. After approval, you can place ads on your blog and start making money

Affiliate Marketing: Billions of dollars has been paid through affiliate marketing. Find an affiliate platform relevant to your niche, sign up and promote your affiliate links on your blog. Affiliate links pay in commission, different platforms with different commissions.
-Konga
-Jumia
-DomainKing
-PayPorte
-Wakanow and so on provide affiliate programs you can check out
If you are in a fashion niche and you register on a web hosting affiliate programs, you need to rethink

Sponsored Banner Ads: You can also place a banner ad on your blog and sell the space for interested people. Remember, no one will want to advertise on a website or blog with little or no traffic. You can check my blog www.digitlknowhow.com.ng to see an example of sponsored banner ads

Sponsored Post: A popular blogger Ifiong, the owner of infoguidenigeria.com once said that a sponsored post has earned him more money than Google AdSense. It is called content marketing. Some people may be interested in promoting their content on your blog, you charge them for it.

Now you are ready to open your blog. Make sure you follow all advice and tutorial in this post. If you have any issue you want to discuss with me, you can drop your comments below

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