How to create a Wordpress Blog

1. A Dummies Guide for
Basic Blog Creation
Blog Building from the Get-Go
By: KevinLiu
March6th 2014

2. About the Author
Hi, my name is Kevin Liu.
I am a 3rd year business student at the
University of Waterloo.
I created this guide for educational and
academic purposes only.
This guide will explain a beginner’s
process in making a WordPress Blog.
Check out my blog at
movintie.wordpress.com.
This travel-inspired blog was created
using all free services.

3. What You’ll Be Learning in This
Guide
How to Create a WordPress Blog
How to Choose a Theme
How to Share Your Blog
How to Create a Post
How to Create a Page
How to Imbed Photos & Videos
How to Add Widgets
… on page 1
… on page 5
… on page 8
… on page 13
… on page 15
… on page 19
… on page 23
How to Code in HTML
… on page 26

4. How to Create a WordPress Blog
Lesson Number
1

5. What is WordPress?
WordPress is a free and open source blogging
tool and content management system based on
PHP and MYSQL, which runs on a web hosting
service. Features include a plug-in architecture
and a template system.
2

6. How to Create a WordPress Blog
Step 1: Open up your Internet browser
and navigate to wordpress.com.
Step 2: Once inside the website, click the
Get Started button on the left.
- This will bring you to a sign up form.
Step 3: Fill in the sign up form.
Fill in your:
1. E-mail Address
2. Username
3. Password
- It must be at least 6 characters
Tip: Use upper & lower case characters, numbers, and
symbols for a strong password.
4. Blog Address
- Choose the (.wordpress.com) free address.
3

7. How to Create a WordPress Blog
Step 4: Scroll down and click Create Blog
at the bottom of the page.
- This will bring you to a blog set up page.
- If you are looking for something more robust, you
can always choose one of the upgrades.
1. Premium for $99.00 per year
2. Business for $299.00 per year
These upgrades give you many more features that are
not offered in the free version.
4
Step 5: Fill out the blog set up page.
Fill in your:
1. Blog Title
Tip: Be creative! Make sure your blog title is relevant
to what your blog is about.
2. Tagline (optional)
3. Language
4. Posting Goal
Last Step: Click Next Step.
- This will bring you to a theme choice page.

8. How to Choose a Theme
Lesson Number
5

9. What is a theme?
Fundamentally, the WordPress Theme system is
a way to "skin" your weblog. Yet, it is more than
just a "skin." Skinning your site implies that only
the design is changed. WordPress Themes can
provide much more control over the look and
presentation of the material on your website.
6

10. How to Choose a Theme
7
Step 1: From the theme choice page,
mentioned on page 4, select a theme.
-This will bring you to a customize page.
Tip: Choose a theme that aligns with your blog’s
overall feel.
Example: Use a theme that is green when writing
about the environment, such as Yoko or Organization.
Note: Only some of the themes are free.
Free $69
Last Step: Click Next Step at the bottom right
corner if you are satisfied with your theme
choice.
- This will bring you to a share page.
Tip: At the bottom of any page during the blog setup process
is a “back to previous step” button. Use this button to redo
the theme choice process.

11. How to Share Your Blog
Lesson Number
8

12. How to Share Your Blog
9
Step 1: From the share page, mentioned
on page 7, share your blog by clicking
Connect with Twitter or
Connect with Facebook.
-Facebook: Sign in and click the Okay button.
-Twitter: Sign in and click the Authorize App button.
-If you don’t want to share your blog, simply click the
next step button.
Last Step: Once you have shared your
blog, click Next Step.
-This will bring you to a post creation page.

13. How to Create a Post
Lesson Number
10

14. What is a post?
Posts are the entries that display in reverse
chronological order on your home page. In
contrast to pages, posts usually have comments
fields beneath them and are included in your
site's RSS feed.
11

15. How to Create a Post
12
Step 1: From the post creation page,
mentioned on page 9, choose what kind
of post you would like to post.
-This will bring you to a post setup page.
Before you can create a post, you must confirm your e-mail address.
A confirmation e-mail should have been sent to you when you created your blog.
Your options are:
1. Text
2. Photo
3. Video
4. Quote
5. Link

16. How to Create a Post
13
Step 2: Fill in the Title and write your Blog
Post.
-Say whatever is on your mind!
Step 3: Click Save Draft.
-You have now created the post, but now you must
publish it.
Step 4: To publish your post, navigate to
your Dashboard and click Posts.
-Go to page 17 to see how to navigate to your
Dashboard.
-Your post should be saved as a draft in this page.
Step 5: Click your written post.
-You can also create a new post from this page by
clicking Add New.

17. How to Create a Post
14
Step 6: In the Publish Sidebar, click Draft
and change the setting to Published, then
hit OK.
-This changes the current Draft into a Published post.
Last Step: Click Update to finish the
process.

18. How to Create a Page
Lesson Number
15

19. What is a page?
Pages are for content that is less time-
dependent than Posts. They can be organized
into pages and subpages. They also can use
different Page Templates which can
include Template Files, Template Tags and other
PHP code.
16

20. How to Create a Page
Step 1: Hover over your profile picture on
the top right of the WordPress homepage.
-A dropdown menu will appear.
Step 4: Click Add New.
-This will bring you to a Page Creation Page.
Step 3: In your Dashboard, click the Pages
tab in the left sidebar.
Step 2: In the Dropdown Menu click your
blog.
-This will bring you to your Dashboard.
17

21. How to Create a Page
Step 5: In the Page Creation Page, fill in
the Title and Content of your new page.
Last Step: To publish your page, click
Publish on the right sidebar.
Tip: If you’d like, you can save your page as a draft and
work on it later by clicking the Save Draft button.
18

22. How to Imbed Photos & Videos
Lesson Number
19

23. How to Imbed Photos & Videos
20
Step 1: From your Dashboard, navigate to
the Page or Post you would like to imbed
a photo or video to.
-Go to page 17 to see how to navigate to your
Dashboard.
Step 2: In the page or post, click on the
area in the textbox you want your image,
then click Add Media.
-A Insert Media page will appear.

24. How to Imbed Photos & Videos
21
Step 3: In the Insert Media Page, click
upload files and upload your desired
photo or video.
-Drop your file onto this page to upload.
-The maximum size is 1GB.
Step 4: Click Insert Into Post.
-This will post your image or video onto your page or
post.

25. How to Imbed Photos & Videos
22
Last Step: Click Update to save all your
changes.
-Your picture or video should now be visible on your
post or page.

26. How to Add Widgets
Lesson Number
23

27. What is a widget?
Widgets were originally designed to provide a
simple and easy-to-use way of giving design and
structure control of the WordPress Theme to the
user. WordPress Widgets add content and
features to your Sidebars.
24

28. How to Add Widgets
Step 1: In your Dashboard, hover over the
Appearance tab.
-Go to page 17 to see how to navigate to your
Dashboard.
Step 2: In the Appearance tab, click
Widgets.
-This will bring you to a list of Widgets.
Step 3: Identify the Widgets you want on
your page or post, then click and drag it to
your desired Footer.
Last Step: Click the Save button.
-This will create the Widget on your page or post’s
footer.
25

29. How to Code in HTML
Lesson Number
26

30. What is HTML?
Short for HyperText Markup Language, the
authoring language used to create documents
on the World Wide Web.
27

31. How to Code in HTML
Step 1: From your Dashboard, navigate to
the Page or Post you would like to edit in
HTML.
Step 2: In the Page or Post, click the Text
tab.
-In this tab, you will be able to add any HTML code
you want.
28

32. How to Code in HTML
Step 3: Look up a HTML code that you
want to use in your page or post.
Tip: Google is a very helpful resource for this process.
Example:   creates a standard space between
text.
Last Step: Insert the desired code then
click Update.
-Click Preview Changes to see if your code was
successful.
29

33. Webopedia (n.d.). What is HTML?. Retrieved March 5, 2014, from
http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/H/HTML.html
WordPress. (n.d.). WordPress.com. Retrieved March 2, 2014, from http://www.wordpress.com
WordPress. (2014, April 3). Wikipedia. Retrieved March 4, 2014, from
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WordPress
WordPress.org. (n.d.). Using Themes « WordPress Codex. Retrieved March 4, 2014, from
http://codex.wordpress.org/Using_Themes
WordPress.org. (n.d.). Pages « WordPress Codex. Retrieved March 4, 2014, from
https://codex.wordpress.org/Pages
WordPress.org. (n.d.). Writing Posts « WordPress Codex. Retrieved March 4, 2014, from
https://codex.wordpress.org/Writing_Posts
WordPress.org. (n.d.). WordPress Widgets « WordPress Codex. Retrieved March 4, 2014, from
https://codex.wordpress.org/WordPress_Widgets
Works Cited
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34. Thank you