WordPress Tutorial

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Learn how to use WordPress step by step, using our super detailed WordPress Tutorial. Build your blog and start earning money!

If you have reached this post, it means that you have already obtained a domain name and a hosting for your blog. If you have not already done so, you will see that it is very easy if you follow instructions in our post “Buy Domain Name and Hosting“.

Surely you have also already installed the free program to create websites, WordPress content management. If you have not already done so, check our post “How to Start a Blog” and you will see that it is super fast and easy.

Let’s get started!

First of all, you need to log into your WordPress admin. You can access this by going to:   yourdomain.com/wp-admin.

WordPress dashboard might look a little daunting at first, but you’ll be an expert with a little practice.

Step1 – Chose new design

Your blog will look so poor, so the first thing you should do is change your theme (WordPress designs are called themes). There are thousands of free themes to choose from. But, it can be easy to get trapped in “choose the appropriate design” and not walk away with anything. You can swap out your theme any time. To install a new theme, hover over the “Appearance” menu in the sidebar and click “Themes.”

WordPress comes with a few preinstalled themes. Instead, we’ll search for flashier themes. Click the “Add New” button at the top to get access to thousands of WordPress themes.

WordPress has a “Feature Filter” that lets you search for something that will fit your style. The 3 categories are “layout,” “features” and “subject.” Here’s what your filter requests might look like. After applying the filters, you’ll see great themes that are completely free 😉

If you click on the theme’s thumbnail, you can get an instant preview of what your blog will look like. Once you’re satisfied with the theme chosen, click the “Install” button.

Once the installation is complete, click the “Activate” button and you’re all set. If you can’t find a theme that you like, there are premium themes that you can purchase from sites like:

• Themeforest.
• Elegant Themes.
• StudioPress.
• Thrive Themes.

By now, your theme should be activated and ready to go. Let’s move on to customizing your new theme on this WordPress Tutorial.

Step2 – Customize and optimize your WordPress blog

There are endless customizations that you can make on a WordPress blog. We’ll stick with the essentials.

Themes are the foundation of your design and include the core functionalities. WordPress also has plugins that can add to or extend the functionality of your blog.

For example, you can use plugins to add forums, contact forms or sliders. While they might seem like basic features, they aren’t always available by default.

The first step is to click the “Customize” button on your active theme.

Menu options in the sidebar will vary, depending on the theme you choose. The main category to edit is “Site Identity”. Here, you can add the name of your blog and a tagline if you wish. When you’re done, click the “Save and Publish” button.

Step3 – Write your first Posts and Pages

There are two main ways to write content for your blog.

Pages: WordPress Pages (posts of the “page” post type) are best for static content, like About Us, Contact, and Pricing pages. “Static” doesn’t mean it can never change. Instead, static content is content that is “less time-dependent than Posts”. Pages are organized in a hierarchical fashion. That is, they can have child pages.

Posts: WordPress Posts (posts of the “post” post type) are what WordPress was originally created for — blogging. A site’s posts make up its blog. It’s written as of the date published and may decrease in value over time, since it’s typically time-dependent. Think of posts as newspaper articles. Do you go back in time and think, “Last February’s newspaper doesn’t tell me about this March’s weather forecast. Or for example, your post about next week’s ideas is mostly pointless after the event ends. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have posted the announcement on your blog, and it doesn’t mean you should delete or unpublish it after the event.

WordPress uses an intuitive editor, similar to your favorite word processing tools. New entries are created directly from your WordPress admin. Click on “Posts” or “Pages” in the left sidebar. This will populate a list of your blog entries in descending order. Since we’re working with a fresh install, you won’t see anything here. To create a new entry, click the “Add New” button at the top or in the sidebar.

You’ll be brought to the editor and you can begin blogging. First of all, add one title to your new post. Immediately after, WordPress will create a permalink based on the keywords used in your title.Then Click the “Toolbar Toggle” icon to get a few more editing options to spruce up your posts. The new tools are especially useful when creating subheadings throughout your articles.

You’ll want to add visual assets to your blog posts as well. Images help engage readers and can often illustrate concepts better than words. To add new images, ensure that your text cursor is in the place where you want your image to appear, and click the “Add Media” button.

Now, inside “Upload files” tab, you can drag and drop your image file into the media box, or use “upload” button to upload new image. After your image has uploaded, select your image and click the “Insert into post” button. You can format sizes and add hyperlinks to your images if you wish.

After you’ve completed your article, you’ll need to make a few last minute optimization. If your blog has thumbnails, you should set a featured image. Featured images are thumbnails that appear above each post. You can set your featured image by clicking on “Set featured image” at the bottom of the right sidebar. You can also use descriptive tags about your post, to make it easier to locate by search engines.

Before you publish your post, you can view what your blog post will look like by clicking the “preview” button at the top of the page. Before you hit that publish button, you want to make sure that your entry looks and feels the way that you want it to. If everything checks out, you’re ready to publish your first blog post.