How to Start a Blog in 2024: The Design/part2
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| How to Start a Blog: The Design |
Do you want to start a blog and make money online in 2024? If so, you are not alone. According to Statista, there were over 600 million blogs on the internet in 2021, and the number is expected to grow even more in the next few years.
Blogging is a great way to express your creativity, share your knowledge, build your personal brand, and earn passive income. However, starting a blog is not as easy as it sounds. There are many steps involved, such as choosing a niche, picking a platform, registering a domain name, setting up hosting, designing your blog, creating content, promoting your blog, and monetizing your blog.
That's why we have created this ultimate guide on how to start a blog in 2024. In this guide, we will show you how to start a blog from scratch, step by step, with no technical skills required. We will also give you some tips and tricks on how to make your blog successful and profitable. By the end of this guide, you will have your own blog up and running, ready to attract and engage your audience.
In the first section, we talked about 5 sections and basic points in creating a blog (you can refer to it and read from here), and now we will continue with the topic of design, so let’s get started.
Step 6: Design Your Blog
The sixth step to start a blog is to design your blog. Designing your blog is the process of choosing and customizing the appearance and functionality of your blog. Designing your blog is important because it will affect how your blog looks, feels, and works for your visitors.
There are two main aspects of designing your blog: themes and plugins.
- Themes: A theme is a collection of files and code that determines the layout, style, and appearance of your blog. A theme can change the color, font, header, footer, sidebar, menu, and other elements of your blog. There are thousands of themes available for WordPress.org blogs, both free and paid, that you can choose from.
- Plugins: A plugin is a piece of software that adds or modifies the functionality and features of your blog. A plugin can add or improve the security, performance, SEO, social media, analytics, contact forms, email marketing, ecommerce, and other aspects of your blog. There are over 50,000 plugins available for WordPress.org blogs, both free and paid, that you can choose from.
You can find and install themes and plugins from your WordPress.org dashboard, under the "Appearance" and "Plugins" sections, respectively. You can also find and download themes and plugins from other sources, such as WordPress.org Themes Directory, WordPress.org Plugins Directory, ThemeForest, CodeCanyon, etc., and upload them to your WordPress.org dashboard.
However, you don't want to install too many themes and plugins on your blog, as they can affect your blog's speed, security, and compatibility. You only want to install the themes and plugins that are necessary, reliable, and updated. You also want to backup your blog before installing or updating any theme or plugin, in case something goes wrong.
How to Start a Blog in 2024:The Basics/Part 1
So, which themes and plugins should you choose for your blog? The answer depends on your niche, audience, and goals. However, we recommend some of the best themes and plugins for WordPress.org blogs, as they offer the most benefits and advantages for bloggers. Here are some of them:
- GeneratePress: This is a lightweight and fast theme that offers a lot of customization options and features. GeneratePress is compatible with most plugins and page builders, and it is also SEO-friendly and mobile-responsive. You can use GeneratePress for free, or upgrade to the premium version for more options and support.
- Elementor: This is a powerful and popular page builder plugin that allows you to create and design your blog pages using a drag-and-drop interface. Elementor offers a lot of templates, widgets, and effects to choose from, and it is also SEO-friendly and mobile-responsive. You can use Elementor for free, or upgrade to the pro version for more options and support.
- Yoast SEO: This is the best and most comprehensive SEO plugin for WordPress.org blogs, as it helps you to optimize your blog for search engines and rank higher on Google. Yoast SEO offers a lot of features and tools, such as keyword analysis, readability analysis, meta tags, sitemaps, breadcrumbs, schema markup, and more. You can use Yoast SEO for free, or upgrade to the premium version for more options and support.
- Jetpack: This is a multifunctional and essential plugin for WordPress.org blogs, as it offers a lot of features and services, such as security, performance, backup, analytics, social media, contact forms, email marketing, and more. Jetpack is developed by the same team behind WordPress.com, and it is compatible with most themes and plugins. You can use Jetpack for free, or upgrade to one of the paid plans for more options and support.
There are other themes and plugins available, such as Divi, Astra, WPForms, MonsterInsights, etc., but they are not as good or suitable for WordPress.org blogs as the ones mentioned above.
Once you have chosen and installed your themes and plugins, you can start customizing your blog's design and functionality to match your vision and brand. You can access the customization options from your WordPress.org dashboard, under the "Appearance" and "Settings" sections, respectively. You can also use the live customizer or the page builder to preview and edit your blog's design in real time.
You can read the third and final part, which contains Sections 7 and 8, here
Conclusion
However, starting a blog is only the beginning of your blogging journey. You also need to maintain, grow, and improve your blog, by creating and publishing new and fresh content regularly, promoting and marketing your blog effectively, engaging and interacting with your audience authentically, and measuring and analyzing your blog's performance and results.
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