Ultimate Guide: How to Start a WordPress Blog (Step by Step)

Do you want to start a WordPress blog the right way? We know that starting a blog can be a terrifying thought specially when you are not geeky. Guess what – you are not alone. Having helped over 130,000+ users start a blog, we have decided to create the most comprehensive guide on how to start a WordPress blog without any technical knowledge.

The process is easy to follow whether you are 20 years old or 60 years old. However if you need help, our expert team will help you setup your blog for free. → Click Here to Get Your Free WordPress Blog Setup! ←

What do you need to start a WordPress blog?

There are three things you need to start a WordPress blog:

1. A domain name idea (this will be the name of your blog i.e wpbeginner.com)


2. A web hosting account (this is where your website live on the internet)


3. Your undivided attention for 30 minutes.

Yes, you read it right. You can start a blog from scratch in less than 30 minutes, and we will walk you through the whole process, step by step.

In this tutorial, we will cover:

• How to Register a Domain Name for Free


• How to Choose the Best Web Hosting


• How to Install WordPress


• How to Change Your Theme


• How to Write Your First Blog Post


• How to Customize WordPress with Plugins


• Resources to Learn WordPress

Ready? Let’s get started.

Step 1. Setup

The biggest mistake beginners make when starting a blog is choosing the wrong blogging platform. Thankfully you’re here, so you won’t be making that mistake.

For 95% of users, it makes more sense to use WordPress.org also known as self-hosted WordPress. Why? Because it is free to use, you can install plugins, customize your site design, and most importantly make money from your site without any restrictions (see the difference between WordPress.com vs WordPress.org).

Now you have probably heard that WordPress is free.

You might be wondering why is it free? What’s the catch?

There’s no catch. It’s free because you have to do the setup and host it yourself.

In other words, you need a domain name and web hosting.

A domain name is what people type to get to your website. It’s your website’s address on the internet. Think google.com or wpbeginner.com

Web hosting is where your website live. It’s your website’s house on the internet. Every website needs web hosting.

A domain name typically costs .99 / year, and web hosting normally costs .99 / month.

That’s a lot for beginners who are just starting out.

Thankfully, Bluehost, an official WordPress recommended hosting provider, has agreed to offer our users a free domain name and over 60% off on web hosting.

→ Click here to Claim this Exclusive Bluehost offer ←

Bluehost is one of the oldest web hosting companies, started in 1996 (that’s before Google). They are also the largest brand name when it comes to WordPress hosting because they host millions of websites including our own.

On top of all this, Bluehost has been working with WordPress since 2005, and they are committed to giving back. That’s why they have promised us that if you cannot get your blog online within 30 minutes by following this tutorial, then our expert team will complete the process for you without any cost. They will compensate us, so you don’t have to. Contact us for free blog setup help.

NOTE: At WPBeginner we believe in transparency. If you sign up with Bluehost using our referral link, we will earn a small commission at no extra cost to you (in fact, you will save money and get a free domain). We would get this commission for recommending just about any WordPress hosting company, but we only recommend products that we use personally use and believe will add value to our readers.

Let’s go ahead and purchase your domain + hosting.

Open up Bluehost in a new window and follow along.

First thing you need to do is click on the green Get Started Now button to get started.

On the next screen, select the plan that you need (basic and plus are the most popular).

After that, you will be asked to enter the domain name for your website.

Lastly, you will need to add your account information and finalize the package info to complete the process. On this screen, you will see optional extras that you can purchase. It’s entirely up to you whether or not you purchase these, but we generally don’t recommend purchasing these. You can always add them later on, if you decide that you need them.

Once completed, you will receive an email with details on how to login to your web hosting control panel (cPanel). This is where you manage everything from support, emails, among other things. But most importantly, this is where you install WordPress.

Step 2. Install WordPress

In the cPanel, you will see dozens of small icons for different services and features. This can be a bit overwhelming, so ignore 95% of them because you will never need to use them.

Scroll down to the website section and click on the WordPress icon.

You will be redirected to the Bluehost Marketplace Quick Install screen for WordPress. Click on the Get Started button.

On the next screen, you will be asked to select your domain name. Choose the domain from the dropdown and then click Next.

After that, you need to enter your Site Name, username, and a password for your site. You also need to check all the checkboxes and then click Install.

The QuickInstall will start installing WordPress. The marketplace will prompt you to browse WordPress themes, while WordPress is being installed.

No need to do that right now. We’ll show you how to get free WordPress themes in the next step.

Once WordPress is finished installing, you will see the success notice in the top header bar.

Click on the Installation Complete link, and it will take you to the screen with your WordPress login URL and password.

Congratulations, you have created your WordPress site. That wasn’t too bad right.

Your WordPress login URL will look like this:

http://yoursite.com/wp-admin

Click on the WordPress login link to login to your dashboard.

Now we’re ready to customize your site’s appearance and start blogging.

Step 3. Selecting your WordPress Theme

The visual appearance of your WordPress blog is controlled by themes. When you first visit your blog, it will look something like this:

This is not very appealing to most people.

Customizing the look and feel of your blog is by far one of the most exciting and rewarding part in the journey of creating your WordPress site.

There are thousands of pre-made WordPress themes that you can install on your site. Some of them are free, while others are paid.

You can change your theme by going to your WordPress dashboard and clicking on Appearance » Themes.

Go ahead and click on the Add New button.

On the next screen, you will able to search from the 4100 free WordPress themes that are available in the official WordPress.org themes directory. You can sort by popular, latest, featured, as well as other feature filters (i.e industry, layout, etc).

When you have found the theme that you like, simply bring your mouse on it, and it will show the Install button. Click on it and wait for the theme to be installed. After that, the install button will be replaced with an Activate button. You need to click on it to Activate the theme.

Once you have installed your theme, you can customize it by clicking on the Customize link under the Appearance menu.

If you need help selecting a theme, then please refer to our guide on 9 things you should consider when selecting a perfect WordPress theme.

Once you have selected your WordPress theme, you are now ready to create your first blog post.

Step 4. Creating Your First Blog Post

To write your first blog post, click on the Posts » Add New menu in your WordPress dashboard.

You will see an editor area where you can write your first blog post.

Once you’re done writing, go ahead and click on the Publish button on the right to publish your first blog post to the world.

On the posts screen, you will notice several other sections such as Categories and Tags. You can use these to organize your blog posts. We have a great writeup on the difference between categories vs tags, which we highly recommend that you read.

To utilize all the features on the posts screen, you should read our article on how to add a new post in WordPress (video included).

Often beginners are confused between posts and pages menu in the WordPress dashboard. That’s why we have written a complete guide on the difference between posts vs pages in WordPress.

Step 5. Plugins & Customizations

Once you have written your first blog post, you probably want to get started with adding other usual elements on your website such as a contact form, about page, and more.

To further customize WordPress and add features like contact forms, galleries, sliders, etc, you need to use WordPress plugins.

WordPress plugins are apps that allow you to add new features to your website.

There are over 46,000 WordPress plugins available. At WPBeginner, we feature the best WordPress plugins to help you add the functionality that you need.

We have a step by step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Often readers ask us which plugins do you use on your website. You can check out our Blueprint to see the list of plugins and tools that we use.

Here’s a list of 24 must have WordPress plugins for business websites.

Step 6. Mastering WordPress

WPBeginner is the largest free WordPress resource site for beginners.

At WPBeginner, our main goal is to provide cutting-edge helpful WordPress tutorials that are easy to understand for small businesses, bloggers, and non-techy WordPress website owners (see more about us).

To expand your WordPress knowledge, you should check out:

• WPBeginner Dictionary – The best place for beginners to start and familiarize themselves with the WordPress lingo
  
• WPBeginner Videos – New to WordPress? Watch these 23 videos to master WordPress.


• WPBeginner Blog – The central place for all our WordPress tutorials.

You can also subscribe to WPBeginner’s YouTube Channel where we regularly share video tutorials to help you learn WordPress.

Lastly, you can use Google to type your question and add WPBeginner in front of it. Our users find this very helpful because you’ll likely find an answer to any WordPress questions that you have.

In case you don’t find an answer to your question, simply use our contact form to send us a message. We love helping users get started with WordPress.

We hope that you found our tutorial on how to start a WordPress blog to be helpful. You may also want to check out our article on 19 actionable tips to drive traffic to your new WordPress site.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

The post Ultimate Guide: How to Start a WordPress Blog (Step by Step) appeared first on WPBeginner.

How to Start Your Own Podcast (Step by Step)

Are you looking to start a podcast? Want to know what does a perfect podcasting setup look like? In this guide, we will show you how to start your own podcast with WordPress – step by step. You will learn about how podcasts work, the best podcast equipments, the podcast WordPress plugin that you absolutely need, and more.

No matter your age or technical skill set, you can easily start your own podcast by following the step by step process outlined in this article.

Here is an outline of everything that we will cover:

• What is podcasting & how podcasts work?


• Things you need to setup your podcast


• Choosing the best web hosting and domain name


• Setting up a media hosting service


• Choosing the proper podcasting equipment


• Recording your first podcast


• Publishing your podcast with WordPress


• Uploading your media files to Blubrry


• Setting up Smart Podcast Player Plugin


• Adding your first podcast in WordPress


• Previewing your podcast with iTunes


• Submitting your podcast to iTunes


• Podcasting resources to help you grow

Ready? Let’s get started.

What is Podcasting & How Podcasts Work?

A podcast is an episodic series of audio files which users can subscribe to download and listen.

In order for your podcast to work, you need to have an audio file and a RSS Feed that users can subscribe to stay updated and download new episodes when they come out.

Because WordPress comes with a built-in RSS feed system for blogs, many podcasters choose to use WordPress as their podcast website platform.

You can connect your podcast website with podcasting apps like iTunes to make it easier for millions of users to listen and subscribe. We will cover this later in the article.

Now that you know what is a podcast and how it works, let’s take a look at how to setup a podcast.

Things You Need to Setup Your Podcast

For a professional podcasting setup there are few things that you will need to get started.

The first thing is a website or blog where people can find more about you and your podcast.

The second thing is the equipments to record your podcast.

Lastly, you need to have the right tools to publish your podcast on the internet, so you can get maximum subscribers and reach.

We will walk you through the whole process step-by-step.

Step 1. Website Setup: WordPress Hosting and Domain Name

The most important step in building a website is to choose the right platform. Thankfully you’re here, so you won’t be making any rookie mistakes.

We recommend using WordPress.org also known as self-hosted WordPress for setting up your podcasting website.

WordPress is free to use, you can install plugins, customize your site design, and most importantly make money from your site without any restrictions (see the difference between WordPress.com vs WordPress.org.

We have already explained why WordPress is free? in our previous article.

There’s no catch. It’s free because you have to do the setup and host it yourself.

In other words, you need a domain name and web hosting.

A domain name is your website’s address on the internet. This is what people type to get to your website. For example: google.com or wpbeginner.com.

Web hosting is your website’s house on the internet. This is where all your files and images are stored. Every website needs web hosting.

The typical cost of web hosting is .99 per month and a domain name usually cost around .99 per year.

This is a lot for someone just starting out. Thankfully, Bluehost, has agreed to offer our users a free domain name and over 60% off on web hosting.

In real numbers, this mean you can start your podcasting website for .95 per month.

→ Click here to Claim this Exclusive Bluehost offer ←

We recommend using Bluehost because they are one of the official WordPress recommended hosting providers, and one of the largest web hosting service in the world.

After signing up with Bluehost, please refer to our step by step guide on how to start a WordPress blog. You will be up and running in no time.

For more hosting recommendations, see our guide on how to choose the best WordPress hosting.

If you choose a different hosting company than Bluehost, then you can follow the instructions in our complete step by step WordPress installation tutorial to get started.

Step 2. Setting up a Media Hosting Service

The next thing you will need is a good media hosting service. Your podcasts are large audio files.

Serving these large files from your web host will consume a lot of server resources. This will make your website slow and often unresponsive.

For best user experience, we recommend that you use a podcast specific media hosting platform like Blubrry.

Most smart podcasters use a separate podcast hosting service to serve their podcast files. It is the smartest and most efficient way to run a podcast.

Here are few reasons why we recommend Blubrry:

• Blubrry is optimized for podcasting using WordPress. They offer a powerful plugin called Blubrry PowerPress which makes it easy to manage your podcast from WordPress site.


• It comes with the a large user community consisting many successful podcasters behind it. If you need help, then join the forums to learn from others who are podcasting for a long time.


• Blubrry comes with great tools like ID3 tagging, iTunes optimization, automatic media artwork management, etc.


• They have a top-tier content delivery network which makes your content delivery faster and more reliable.

Step 3. Choosing Proper Podcasting Equipment

As your podcast grows, you will learn about new tools that you can use to produce higher quality podcasts. However as a beginner, the most important tool that you need is a good microphone.

Please do not use your computer’s built-in microphone to record your podcast. Your users will instantly notice the terrible sound quality.

There are 3 popular mic choices among podcasters.

Samson C01U (USB) – Entry level Microphone

Rode Podcaster (USB) – Best USB mic that we found. We use it for our WPBeginner videos as well as our List25 Youtube videos.

Heil PR-40 (XLR connection, not USB) – This is what the Pro’s use. You will need to buy an audio mixer as well.

Other equipment that you probably want to purchase: mic arm, shock mount, and a pop filter. We purchased the Rode Podcaster kit that came with a Mic Arm and shock mount.

You would also need a decent headphone. We’re using Sony MDR7506.

Once you have the right podcasting equipment, you will be ready for the next step: recording your podcast.

Step 4. Recording Your First Podcast

To record your podcast, you will need an audio recording software. This software will help you record and edit your audio files.

The best podcast recording software which is used by most podcasters is Audacity. It is a free, cross-platform, and open source software capable of recording studio-quality professional podcasts.

After installing Audacity, you need to open it up and create a new project from the File menu.

To record your voice, simply click on the record button.

Now feel free to record your podcast. Don’t worry about awkward pauses, breaks, coughing, or any glitches you might make while narrating.

You can edit the recording as many times as you want.

You can also import music files from File » Import and set them as background music.

Audacity is a very powerful tool, and it is not possible for us to even cover its basic features in this article. However, TeamAudacity has an extensive Wiki with detailed tutorials specifically written for new podcasters.

We will recommend you to go through these tutorials. It will take you some time to become familiar with the software, but it’s totally worth your time and effort.

Once you have recorded your podcast, you need to export it.

Most podcasters export their audio files in MP3 format because it creates smaller file sizes with good quality.

You also need to be smart about naming your podcast files. Remember podcasts are episodic series, so it would be best to use a naming practise that uses episode or serial number in the file name.

Some suggestions would be WPB001.mp3 or WPBep001.mp3.

Save the final version of your podcast file to a separate folder on your computer.

Step 5. Publishing Your Podcast with WordPress

After you have created a few episodes, and you are satisfied with their quality, it’s time to learn how to publish your podcast with WordPress.

You will need to login to the admin area of your WordPress site.

First thing you need to do is install and activate the Blubrry PowerPress Podcasting plugin. For more details, see our step by step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Upon activation, you will see a PowerPress menu item in WordPress admin menu. Clicking on it will take you to plugin’s settings page.

If you are using Blubrry to host your podcasting files, then you need to click on the button to configure Blubrry statistics and hosting services.

Clicking on the button will bring up a popup where you need to enter your Blubrry hosting account email and password.

Next, you will need to fill out rest of the information on the settings page. Provide a title for your podcast and fill out iTunes fields.

These iTunes fields for description, category, subtitle, artwork, etc will be used in your podcast’s RSS feed, and iTunes will use them to place your podcast in their directory (more on this later).

Don’t forget to click on the ‘Save Changes’ button to store your settings.

Your WordPress site is now ready to publish your podcast.

Step 6. Upload Media Files to Blubrry

Before you publish your podcast with WordPress, you first need to upload the podcast file to your media hosting service, Blubrry.

You need to login to your Blubrry hosting account and then click on Podcaster dashboard.

Next, you need to click on ‘Upload New Media Files’ link under podcast hosting section.

This will bring you to another page where you need to click on the Upload New Media button and start uploading your podcast files.

After you have uploaded your podcast media files, you will be able to use them on your WordPress site.

Step 7. Setting Up Smart Podcast Player

Most podcasters use WordPress plugins to display a podcast player on their website. This player allows users to listen to a podcast directly from your website.

The problem with most WordPress podcast player plugins is terrible user experience for your subscribers and listeners.

Patt Flynn, one of the well-known podcaster, realized the problem and decided to solve it by creating a solution for his website. That’s how Smart Podcast Player came to life.

Smart Podcast Player adds a beautifully built podcast player which allows users to play, share, and download podcast episodes from the player itself.

It is mobile-ready out of the box which means your podcast player looks and works great on all devices.

It is a paid WordPress plugin and pricing starts from per month. This price entitles you to premium support and access to tutorials and videos.

First, you will need to install and activate the Smart Podcast Player plugin. For more details, see our step by step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Upon activation, you need to visit Settings » Smart Podcast Player page and enter your license key.

You can get this license key from your account on Smart Podcast Player website.

Next, you need to click on the ‘Player Defaults’ tab to setup plugin settings.

You will need to provide your podcast feed URL. Since you are using PowerPress, your podcast feed URL will be like this:

http://example.com/feed/podcast/

Don’t forget to replace example.com with your own domain name.

Next, you need to provide your iTunes subscription link. Since you haven’t submitted your podcast to iTunes yet, you will need to come back here and fill this when your podcast is available on iTunes.

After that you need to enter your show name and artist name.

Smart Podcast Player comes with beautiful design options and allows you to match your podcast player with your WordPress theme. Under player design settings, you can choose theme and color for your podcast player.

Don’t forget to click on the save changes button to store your settings.

Now that Smart Podcast Player is ready, you need to disable the podcast player that comes with PowerPress.

Since you are using Smart Podcast Player, you don’t need PowerPress to add a media player into your posts.

You can do this by visiting PowerPress » Settings page and scroll down to the ‘Blog posts and pages’ section. Click on ‘Disable’ under ‘Display Media & Links’ option.

Don’t forget to click on the save changes button to store your settings.

Step 8. Adding Your First Podcast in WordPress

Everything is now in order, and you are ready to add your first podcast in WordPress.

To publish your first podcast, you need to go to Posts » Add New page.

It is highly recommended that you create a separate category for your podcast episodes. This will allow you to keep your podcast episodes separate from rest of your content. You will also be able to easily publicize your podcast feed later on.

After that you need scroll down to the bottom of the page, and there you will see ‘Podcast Episode’ box.

Blubrry hosting users need to click on the folder icon and select the file they uploaded to Blubrry media.

Other users need to paste their media file URL in here. Click the verify button to make sure that your have pasted the correct URL.

Now you need to scroll back up to the post editor section. Give your blog post a suitable title and add description of this podcast episode in the visual editor.

You will notice two buttons in the visual editor labeled SPP and STP. These buttons are added by Smart Podcast Player plugin.

The SPP button allows you to add the full Smart Podcast Player which contains all your podcast episodes. Users can play them one by one.

However, since you are creating a blog post for a specific podcast episode, you need to click on the STP or Smart Track Player button.

Select ‘Play a specific episode of your podcast’ and then provide the URL of the Media file you want to be played.

You can get the URL of the media file from ‘Podcast Episode’ meta box where you just added the episode.

After adding the media file URL, click on the build shortcode button.

You will see a shortcode appear in the post editor area.

That’s all, you can now publish and preview your blog post and you will see your podcast episode live with a beautiful player.

Congratulations, your WordPress podcasting site is ready to go live.

Step 9. Previewing Your Podcast with iTunes

Now that you have set up your podcast website with WordPress, it is time to submit it to iTunes and getting more subscribers.

Before submitting it to iTunes, you might want to check how your podcast will look in iTunes. To do this, launch iTunes and go to File » Subscribe to Podcast and enter your feed URL. Your feed url will look like:

http://www.example.com/feed/podcast

Don’t forget to replace example.com with your own domain name.

Once you enter the URL in iTunes, it will fetch the feed and display it. As you can see in the screenshot below, it fetched the artwork, description, subtitle, etc.

If everything looks good, this means you are ready to submit your podcast to iTunes.

Step 10. Submitting your Podcast to iTunes

To submit your podcast to iTunes, you need to download and install the latest version of iTunes on your computer. Next, Launch the iTunes and click on the iTunes Store button on the top right corner of the screen.

iTunes will now access iTunes Store. Click on the Podcasts menu, and then scroll a little to find the Podcasts Quick Links section. There you will see a link to Submit a podcast.

This will open the Podcast submit process. You will need an Apple ID to submit your podcast to iTunes directory. If you are not already signed in, iTunes will prompt you to login.

The first thing you will need is your podcast feed URL. Your podcast feed URL will be like this:

http://example.com/feed/podcast

Don’t forget to replace example.com with your own domain name.

Since you are using PowerPress, your feed will already include tags required by iTunes Store for podcasts.

Upon submission, your podcast feed will be submitted to iTunes review queue. After approval by iTunes review staff, it will be added to iTunes directory, and you will be notified via email.

Podcasting Resources to Help You Grow

Congratulations on starting your podcast with WordPress. If you want to make your Podcast successful, then we recommend you join:

Podcaster’s Paradise by John Lee Dumas

John is a good friend of ours, and he is an inspiration for most new podcasters. In just a few years, he has taken his podcast from to 7 figure annual income. If you’re thinking of starting a podcast, then you want to learn from him.

Your podcast’s website is built with WordPress. Here are some actionable tips to drive traffic to your new WordPress site.

We hope this article helped you start a podcast with WordPress. You may also want to see our list of 24 must have WordPress plugins for business websites.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

The post How to Start Your Own Podcast (Step by Step) appeared first on WPBeginner.

How to Start an Online Store in 2016 (Step by Step)

Do you want to start your own online store? We know that building an online store can be a terrifying thought especially when you are not a techy. Well, you’re not alone. After helping hundreds of users start their online store, we have decided to create the most comprehensive guide on how to build your online store with WordPress (step by step)

What Do You Need to Start an Online Store?

There had never been a better time to start an online business than today.

Anyone with a computer can get started within a matter of minutes and without acquiring any special skills.

The three things you need to start an online store are:

1. A domain name idea (this will be the name of your online store i.e wpbeginner.com)


2. A web hosting account (this is where your website lives on the internet)


3. Your undivided attention for 30 minutes.

Yep, it is really that simple.

You can setup your own online store with WordPress in less than 30 minutes and we’ll walk you through each step of the process.

In this tutorial, we will cover:

• How to Register a Domain Name for Free


• How to Choose the Best Web Hosting


• How to Get a SSL Certificate for Free (required for accepting payments)


• How to Install WordPress


• How to Create a WooCommerce store


• How to Add Products in your Online Store


• How to Select and Customize Your Theme


• How to Extend Your Online Store with Plugins


• Learning to Learn WordPress & Grow Your Business

Ready? Let’s get started.

Step 1: Setting up Your Online Store Platform

The biggest mistake most users make is not choosing the right platform for their online store.

Thankfully you’re here, so you won’t be making that mistake.

There are two popular eCommerce platforms that we recommend: Shopify or WordPress + WooCommerce.

Shopify is a fully hosted eCommerce solution that starts at / month. It’s a hassle-free solution where you just login and start selling. The downside to Shopify is that it gets quite expensive, and your payment options are limited unless you pay additional fees.

This is why most users choose WordPress + WooCommerce because of the flexibility it offers. It does require some setup, but it’s worth doing it for the long run. WooCommerce is the world’s largest eCommerce platform.

In this tutorial, we will walk you through how to setup an online store in WordPress using WooCommerce.

To setup your store, you need to have a domain name, web hosting, and a SSL certificate.

A domain name is your website’s address on the internet. It is what users will type in their browsers to reach your website (for example: google.com or wpbeginner.com).

Web hosting is where your website lives on the internet. It’s your website’s house on the internet. Every website on the internet needs web hosting.

SSL certificate adds a special security layer on your website, so you can accept sensitive information such as credit card numbers and other personal information. This is required for you to accept credit card payments on your website.

Normally a domain name costs around .99 / year, web hosting costs around .99 / month, and SSL certificate costs around .99 / year.

That’s a lot of startup cost.

Thankfully, Bluehost, an official WordPress and WooCommerce recommended hosting provider, has agreed to offer our users a free domain name, free SSL certificate, and a discount on web hosting.

Basically, you can get started for .95 / month.

→ Click here to Claim this Exclusive Bluehost offer ←

Bluehost is one of the oldest web hosting companies, started in 1996 (that’s before Google). They are also the largest brand name when it comes to WordPress hosting because they host millions of websites including our own.

NOTE: At WPBeginner we believe in transparency. If you sign up with Bluehost using our referral link, we will earn a small commission at no extra cost to you (in fact, you will save money and get a free domain). We would get this commission for recommending just about any WordPress hosting company, but we only recommend products that we use personally use and believe will add value to our readers.

Let’s go ahead and purchase your domain + hosting + SSL.

Open up Bluehost in a new window using this link and follow along.

First thing you need to do is click on the green Get Started Now button to get started.

On the next screen, select the plan that you need (starter and plus are the most popular).

After that, you will be asked to enter the domain name for your website.

Lastly, you will need to add your account information and finalize the package info to complete the process. On this screen, you will see optional extras that you can purchase.

It’s entirely up to you whether or not you purchase these, but we generally don’t recommend purchasing these. You can always add them later on, if you decide that you need them.

Once completed, you will receive an email with details on how to login to your web hosting control panel (cPanel). This is where you manage everything from support, emails, among other things.

Go ahead and login to your cPanel. You will be greeted with a popup informing you that WordPress with WooCommerce is pre-installed on your website.

You just need to click on ‘Login to your site’ button, and it will take you to your WordPress site’s dashboard.

Congrats, you have finished setting up hosting and domain part.

The next step is to setup your WordPress site and then your online store.

Step 2. Setting up WordPress

Bluehost has automatically installed WordPress and WooCommerce on your website.

When you first login to WordPress, you will see a welcome message. You will be asked what kind of website you want to set up.

Go ahead and click on ‘I don’t need help’ link. Don’t worry we will walk you through all the necessary steps.

Closing the setup wizard will show your WordPress admin dashboard which looks like this:

First, you need to visit Settings » General page to setup your WordPress site title and description.

Setting up HTTPS to Use SSL

Your WordPress hosting package came with a free SSL Certificate. This certificate is pre-installed for your domain name. However, your WordPress site needs to be configured, so it loads as https vs http.

On the Settings » General page, you need to change your WordPress Address and Site Address to use https instead of http.

Don’t forget to scroll down to the bottom of the page and click on the save changes button to store your settings.

Your basic WordPress setup is complete. Now it is time to setup your online store.

Step 3. Setting up Your WooCommerce Store

Before you can start selling, there are a few things like currency, payments, and shipping information that you need to set up.

You will be seeing a ‘Welcome to WooCommerce’ notification on your WordPress admin pages. Go ahead and click on the ‘Run setup wizard’ button in the notification.

This will launch the WooCommerce setup wizard where you need to click on the ‘Let’s go’ button to get started.

WooCommerce needs few essential pages for cart, account, shop, and checkout. You can click on the continue button to automatically create these pages.

This will bring you to the next step.

Now you will need to tell WooCommerce where your store is located and which currency and unit measures to use.

After selecting your location and currency, click on the continue button to move on.

Next, you need to enter shipping and tax information.

WooCommerce can be used to sell both digital downloads and physical goods that need shipping.

You need to check the box if you will be shipping goods, or you can leave it unchecked if you will only be selling digital goods.

Next you need to answer the tax question. WooCommerce can help you automatically calculate and add taxes to your prices.

If you are not sure, then you can leave it unchecked. You can always add tax information later from WooCommerce settings.

Click on the continue button to move on.

Next, you will be asked to choose a payment method for your online store.

By default, WooCommerce comes with support for PayPal, PayPal Standard, and Stripe payment gateways. There are many other payment methods available for WooCommerce which you can install later if you need.

The easiest way to accept payment is using PayPal Standard.

Simply enter your PayPal email address and click on the continue button.

A lot of people including us, use both PayPal and Stripe. By using Stripe, you allow your users to enter their credit card information on the checkout page without having to leave your site and going to PayPal.

You can setup Stripe by following the instructions on the WooCommerce screen.

Once you’re done, your WooCommerce online store is all setup.

You need to click on the ‘Return to WordPress dashboard’ link to exit the setup wizard.

After finishing the WooCommerce setup, you are now ready to add products to your online store.

Step 4. Adding Products to Your Online Store

Let’s start with adding the first product to your online store.

You need to visit Products » Add New page to add a new product.

First, provide a title for your product and then some detailed description.

On the right hand column, you will see the ‘Product Categories’ box. Click on the ‘+Add New Product Category’ to create a category for this product. This allows you and your customers to sort and browse products easily.

Scroll down a little and you will notice the Product Data box. This is where you will provide product related information like pricing, inventory, shipping etc.

Below product data box, you will see a box to add product short description. This short description will be used when users are viewing multiple products on a page.

Lastly, on your right hand column you will see boxes to add a main product image and a product gallery.

Once you are satisfied with all the product information you have added, you can click on the Publish button to make it live on your website.

Repeat the process to add more products as needed.

Step 5. Select and Customize WordPress Theme

Themes control how your WordPress sites look to the users when they visit it. For a WooCommerce shop, they also control how your products are displayed.

There are thousands of paid and free WordPress themes available.

Your Bluehost hosting account, automatically installs the Storefront theme for your website. You will need to customize it to meet your needs.

Head over to Appearance » Customize page. This will launch theme customizer where you can change different theme settings.

If you don’t like the Storefront theme, then you can use another theme by visiting Appearance » Themes page.

If you need help selecting a theme, then please refer to our guide on 9 things you should consider when selecting a perfect WordPress theme.

Step 6. Extend Your Online Store With Plugins

Now that you have your online store ready, you probably want to get started with adding other usual elements on your website such as a contact form, about page, and more.

To further customize WordPress and add features like contact forms, galleries, sliders, etc, you need to use WordPress plugins.

WordPress plugins are apps that allow you to add new features to your website.

There are over 46,000 WordPress plugins available. At WPBeginner, we feature the best WordPress plugins to help you add the functionality that you need.

We have a step by step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Here’s a list of 24 must have WordPress plugins for business websites and another one with 20+ best free WooCommerce plugins.

Often readers ask us which plugins do you use on your website. You can check out our Blueprint to see the list of plugins and tools that we use.

Learning WordPress to Grow Your Online Business

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At WPBeginner, our main goal is to provide cutting-edge helpful WordPress tutorials that are easy to understand even for non-techy WordPress website owners (see more about us).

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We hope that this tutorial helped you learn how to build an online store. You may also want to see these 19 actionable tips to drive traffic to your new WordPress site.

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