5 Steps to Starting a Blog on WordPress

[caption id="attachment_1629" align="alignright" width="300"]wordpress web design Image courtesy of Cortega9 CC by-S.A. 3.0[/caption]

There are many benefits to starting a blog. You may be doing this to build a readership and customer base, or you may want to work on your marketing tools for your business. It may be a great way to keep your website content fresh and trending. If you are thinking about starting a blog on your WordPress site or if you just want to start a blog in general, here are five steps you can take.

Set Up the Blog

If you already have a WordPress site, then you will just need to turn on the blogging feature. The blog posts are created under the posts in the menu. They are easy to access. You may want to add the blog option to your menu and header. If you are starting the blog and do not have an existing website, you will need to choose a name, and either decide to host on WordPress, or to register a URL, and then find a site to host the blog. Once you have completed these steps, you are ready to start building your blog.

Determine What You Will Blog About

It is important to have a general idea of what you want to post about before you start. If you want to write a lifestyle blog, then you will have posts related to that. If you are blogging for your retail business or for a service industry, then your blog posts will focus on those businesses. This clear direction will help you over all.

3 Commonly Asked Questions About Using Images on Your WordPress Blog

As a part of your website on WordPress, you may have a blog. Your blog can be an important tool and a way to reach out to your customers. In order for your blog to accomplish the things that you want it to, you need to consider the content that you include on it. Visuals such as graphics, images and infographics are great things to include as part of your blog.  Here are some answers to common questions about using pictures and other visuals on your blog?

Do You Need a Visual with Every Post?

It is a good idea to have related images or graphs with every post on your blog. It helps to break up the text and you can use it to illustrate a point. Some blog posts may lend themselves to have more images, like if you have a blog post that illustrates how to complete a graph or make a dinner. If you do this, you can have an image that takes your reader through each step.

Where Can I Find Images?

There are a number of different places to find images. You can take the pictures yourself and edit them to use online. Camera phones have improved to the point that these images are often high enough quality to use yourself. You can find the images online. There sites that offer a subscription service that allow you to use their images for a monthly fee or to purchase different images to use on your blog. You can look for images that the owners allow you to use as long as you give them credit and post a link to the license. You should never just download images that you find without making sure that you have permission to use it. You can be sued for using images without the owner’s permission.