WordPress has become the most powerful CMS on the internet and more then 50% of the top 100 blogs in the world are using it. Every day people are building WordPress websites with no technical skills and making good amount of money online. Guess what? You can do it, too.
You can build a great looking with a mere $100-200 investment. Setting up an WordPress blog is one of the most easiest things that I’ve ever done in my blogging career. I mean it’s a super easy process that any can do.
In this article I will be discussing about building a WordPress blog from scratch, installing a theme, uploading the plugins, etc.
1. Get a Domain & Hosting
The very first thing that you would need to do is to get a Good domain name for your business and a WordPress Hosting. Choosing a good domain for your business is very important, as domain plays a great role. So, here are few tips on choosing a good domain name:
- Avoid hyphens, symbols and numbers in the domain – Who likes the hypens in the domains, I don’t. Using hyphens can be very confusing sometimes, when the name of the domain is told verbally.
- Choose a Easy to type domain name – Always make sure to choose a domain name that is easy to sound. Use easy to remember keywords that would make people easily remember your domain. For Example, recently I had to choose a domain for my entrepreneurs blog, so I taken “BlogPreneurs”.
- Don’t pick a wrong spelling domain name – Never choose a wrong spelling domain. For example – WordPress4beginners.com can be interpreted as WordPressForBeginners.
- Always try to get the top level domain .com – If it’s not available and you’re really want the domain name try considering .net .org !!
- Buy a Legal domain name – This is very first thing I do when buying a domain name. Always make sure that the domain you’re buying does not violate any copyrights or trademarks.
Hosting is the base of your business, so it is important to choose a good hosting provider. I always recommend Hostgator & Bluehost for hosting and namecheap for purchasing a domain name.
2. WordPress Design
If visitors don’t know what to do next, they will always find an exit. So, having a good design, navigation, content area and the optin forms is something that one need to consider before purchasing a premium theme. If you’re just starting out than I’d defiantly suggest you to go with Elegant Themes, as they have a lot of quality themes and that just for $39.
When I first started WordPress Kube, I simply brought an magazine style theme from ThemeForest marketplace for $35. Considering the fact that most theme shops charge more than $50 for a single WordPress Theme, it’s the lowest price you can find for a Premium Theme with a good support. Having a good theme is as important as choosing a good business name for your site.
Recommendations:
3. Branding & Logo
After installing the theme, your next step is to get a good logo to match the theme / design of the site. The logo is important, as it will help you to build brand of your blog. Getting a premium logo is definitely a concern for most of the bloggers as it cost hundreds of dollars, because most people don’t understand creating a logo from scratch takes a lot of time. Of course you will be able to get a logo for $5 or $10 from sites like fiverr or DigitalPoint Forms, but then your blog would be much better with a text logo 
.
If you really want a good logo that will help you to establish your brand, then here are 2 recommendations:
- Logonerds – Logo Nerds are perfect place to get a logo in budget. I’ve been using them since 2 years and currently they are designing an logo for WPKube & my upcoming Entrepreneurs Blog. They charge $27 for a professional web logo.
- Graphic River – Another cool graphic site for getting a premium logo. You can find a collection of great logo templates, many of which have never been purchased before.
4. Essential Plugins
Plugins are the most important part in your WordPress Blog. Most of the bloggers emphasis on producing quality content to get more leads to their small business, but forget about building social presence and making their business blog search engine friendly.
Once, all the essential plugins are installed, your blog is ready to launch.
Conclusion
The thing is most of the themes & plugins, I’ve been talking about come with a cost, but I don’t want you to think that you need to purchase any of these things (except domain & hosting) in order to succeed. I am never going to tell you that you need to spend money on premium theme, plugins or custom logo in order to make money. When I started my online business, I only spent money on domain name & hosting.
I’d like to hear your thoughts on this – How would you create a beautiful blog with a mere investment? Any tips you have picked up to make the process better ? Please let us know in the comments below.
And finally after all these you can choose monthly maintenance services too.
Web design can be a really inexpensive and effortless job ( and even highly rewarding) if you thoroughly look for the most efficient, reliable and convenient tools. Web hosting is not a problem when it comes to money, there are a lot of services out there who can give you reliable servers and great bandwidth for merely nothing. Design, on the other hand, is something else. I for one choose to do things myself. I design my own themes in Lubith and for a $90/year subscription I can generate all the attractive layouts that I need.