Everybody can start a WordPress Blog with this process flowchart

January 2nd, 2008 · 1 Comment

Very recently, I started a WordPress blog and learned a lot from other bloggers in a short time. With the information listed below on how to start a WordPress blog, I hope that I can help people that want to start a blog.

If I miss essential information in the list below, please feel to leave a comment so I can improve this list and flowchart. If you have good resource information on how to create a successful blog, please leave the web site address behind with a comment.

Again, I just started myself. The number of posts that I have written is still very low but I can use constructive comments and opinions.

Process flowchart: How To Start A WordPress Blog

A picture outlines the process better than 1,000 words so I thought it is a good idea to provide a high level overview of the process steps that I took for my WordPress blog. Please click on picture below to see whole the process flowchart in large view.

click on image to enlarge

Process steps with sub process steps

With a few sub bullets, I provide you more detailed information.

Not listed in the process steps are testing and back up steps but we all know to do this as much as possible.

Register/obtain domain name
- Select a name that reflects your blog purpose
- Select a short easy to remember domain name
- Good sites to buy a domain:
  - GoDaddy.com
  - Register.com
- “domain name selling stores” are called domain registrars

Select a web host provider that:
- supports PHP scripts
- allows execution of PHP scripts and provide you with a least one MYSQL database
- provides you enough network bandwidth for a lot of visitor traffic
- is known for high ratio of server uptime. Server uptime is important because web host server down equals blog site down
- installs and upgrade WordPress with a click of a button:

Point your domain name to the web host provider’s name servers (DNS servers)
- The Domain Name system (DNS) serves as the phone book for internet
- Translates an IP address to a readable domain name
- Get the DNS address from your web host provider and add this address under your domain name account from GoDaddy.com, Register.com or any other domain registrars
- Example: To make DNS link to a domain name that you have registered through GoDaddy.com:
  - Go to GoDaddy.com
  - Click on “My Account” (upper right area of screen)
  - Enter your login name and password provided by GoDaddy and click “Secure Login”
  - Click on “Manage Domains”
  - Click on the domain name you wish to modify
  - In the Name Server Summary area choose “Click here to see details or modify”
  - Enter the new Name Servers from selected web host provider
- Example: To make DNS link to a domain name that you have registered through Register.com:
  - Go to the Register.com
  - Click on login to go to the Account Management area
  - Enter the username and password provided by Register.com
  - Select the domain name for which you wish to change DNS Servers

Create an email account under your new domain name
- This email address will be used during the WordPress account creation
- You can create a separate email account for blog feedback that you might receive.

Register for a WordPress account with your new domain email account
- WordPress sign up link: http://WordPress.com/signup

Install WordPress files
- If you have a web host provider that has a one click install than you are lucky and you can skip the following sub bullets;
- Download WordPress files at: http://wordpress.org/download/
- Follow install instructions at: http://wordpress.org/docs/installation/5-minute/

Select a WordPress theme (blog template)
- Stay away from one column templates. One column templates often limits your freedom with widgets and plugins
- Choose a WordPress template at: http://themes.wordpress.net/
- You can sort available theme templates by descending order on number of downloads so you know which templates are very popular

Install your selected WordPress theme on your host provider server
- Upload your theme to your web host server with a free FTP Client from CNET Downloads:
  - Core FTP LE
  - Leech FTP
  - CoffeeCup Free FTP
  - AceFTP Freeware
  - FileZilla
- Using an FTP client to access your host web server, create a directory to contain your theme in the wp-content/themes directory provided by WordPress. For example, a theme named Test should be in wp-content/themes/test. Your theme may provide this directory as part of the archive
- Additional Wordpress theme installation instructions: http://codex.wordpress.org/Using_Themes

Configure your WordPress blog
- Logon to your WordPress blog at: http://www.yourdomainname.com/wp-admin/
- After logon, bookmark the WordPress admin blog page because you will go to this page very often
- Go to the menu/toolbar option: Presentation and ensure the correct theme is listed under current theme
- Under Presentation, you will also find a sub menu with a choice to select Widgets. Drag and Drop the widgets you want to see on your sidebars
- Under Options on the menu/toolbar you will find menu sub menu choices. Go through each of them and adjust settings as you wish.

Update Permalinks
- Change your Permalink structure. Change the default permalink choice that displays your links as: http://www.your-blog.com/?p=123 to date and named base or create a custom permalink. One of the best permalink choices for search engine optimization is: date and named base as shown in the following format example: http://www.your-blog.com/2008/01/01/my-first-post/Search engines will now use the keywords in your web links in their search engine database.

Install and configure WordPress plugins
- Wordpress plugins are the true power behind Wordpress, they are tools to extend the functionality of WordPress
- Wordpress plugins simplify your Wordpress customization by adding additional blog features
- You don’t need programming knowledge in order to use plugins
- Must have plugins:
  - All-in-One SEO Pack – Optimizes your Wordpress blog for Search Engines
  - Comment Timeout – This plugin automatically closes comments on blog entries after a user- configurable period of time.
  - Google Sitemaps – This plugin will create a Google sitemaps compliant XML-Sitemap of your WordPress blog
  - Subscribe to Comments – Subscribe to Comments is a robust plugin that enables commenters to sign up for e-mail notification of subsequent entries
  - WP-Polls – With this plugin you can add web polls to your blog.
  - Search WordPress plugin site for other good plugins: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/browse/popular/

Create static WordPress pages
- Create an About page (still on my To-Do list for this blog)
- Create: what is RSS page with an RSS link to your feed
- Create a custom 401 Error Page (still on my To-Do list for this blog)

Subscribe to Feedburner
- Read: what is RSS if you don’t know what RSS is
- Feedburner will show you statistics about your RSS Subscribers
- Sign up for Feedburner
- If not done yet, install Feedburner Feedsmith plugin
- Create large RSS icon link so your visitors can subscribe to your RSS Feed

Setup statistic tools for your blog
- Measure how successful your blog is
- Set realistic goals for your blog and monitor your goals with statistic blog tools
- Statistical blogging tools:
  - Google Analytics
  - Feedburner
  - WordPress Statistics plugins
  - Your web host server statistical logs and tools

Write quality posts
- Place yourself in the shoes of your readers when writing a blog article and ask yourself the question: what did this article teach me and did it help me.
- Only quality posts will generate traffic
- Quality is more important than quantity
- Use accurate grammar and spelling

Promote your blog
- Enable RSS feed for your site and ask people to subscribe to your blog feed. Look at my what is RSS that explains the reasons
- Visit other blogs and leave constructive comments (networking is important)
- Submit your site to search engine directories
- Add Digg.com and Sphinn.com buttons
- Respond to comments left by visitors
- Remove inappropriate comments on your blog
- Use Ping-o-Matic service for post promotion
- Set expectations for your visitors. In the about page, you list your goals and provide useful information about the intent of your blog

Improve Your Blog for Search Engine Optimization
- Use All-in-One SEO Pack plugin
- Create a different title for each post
- By reading the title only, the visitor must be able to know what to expect from your blog article
- Create a different blog post description, through the All-in-One SEO Pack
- Use blog post tags to add additional search engine keywords
- Create a sitemap for your blog with the Google Sitemaps plugin