How to Start a Profitable Blog Course
DAY TWO
Today we are going to dive into how to make your blog look nice, and how to get your blog ready for business.
This means today we are going to cover:
How to get back to your blog.
Clearing your WordPress Dashboard.
Picking and installing a theme.
Customizing your theme to get it ready.
Let’s jump into it!
How to get back to your blog:
If you started your blog using my guide or Bluehost recently, to get back to your blog your going to login to Bluehost. Then on the left side, you are going to click “WordPress Hosting” Then in the middle of the page, next to where it says WordPress click “Log In” which will bring you to WordPress.
Once you’re inside WordPress, you can bookmark that page so it’s easier to get back to when you want to edit your website or write new blog posts.
Clearing Your Dashboard
When you log in to WordPress, it might automatically bring you to the “Bluehost” section. To get to your main dashboard, click “Dashboard” in the menu on the left side.
When you first sign up for a blog, you’ll have all these messages from the different plug-ins on your dashboard, and it can be kind of overwhelming to try and navigate around. We’re going to start from the top and work our way down. Click the name or “+” below to reveal the steps for each item.
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The first plugin that we’re going to get off your dashboard is Jetpack. All you have to do for that is enter an email and password (you can use the same as you did for signing up for your blog).
After that, you don’t have to pay for anything. Just click “Back” on your browser until you get back to your WordPress dashboard, then refresh the page, or you can go to Bluehost.com login and go back to WordPress that way. Once you’re back on your dashboard, just click the “x” to dismiss the jetpack question at the top of your dashboard.
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The next plugin we are going to get out of the way is Monster Insights. This plugin connects with Google Analytics to give you information and insights about the people who are coming by your blog. It will tell you how many visitors you getting and things like that. To set up Monster Insights, you’re going to have to set up a Google Analytics account, which is super easy and shouldn’t take more than a few minutes.
Go to the Google Analytics website: https://analytics.google.com/.
Click the Create Account button.
Enter your Account Name and Industry Category. (I usually just use my blog name as my account name, and for the industry, I choose hobbies & leisure.)
Select your Business Size.
Select how you intend to use Google Analytics.
Select your business objective (I usually select examine user behavior)
Click the Create button.
Accept the Analytics Terms of Service and the Data Processing Amendment.
Click the Continue button.
Then click “skip for now” instead of connecting a data source.
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Then go back to your dashboard and then click “connect website to monster insights”
Select “Publisher”
Click “Connect Monsterinsights”
Login to your Google Analytics account.
Click “Complete Connection”
Leave all the settings as is and click “Save and continue.”
Leave all the settings as is and click “Continue.”
Scroll down and click “Complete setup without upgrading”
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Then on the left side, once again, click “Dashboard,” and under “First time SEO configuration,” click the “X” on the right side to dismiss the section. We will make use of Yoast SEO in the future, but we don’t need to go through the setup process right now since we don’t even have any content.
Then in the “Welcome to WordPress” section, click the “X Dismiss” to close the section. It’s just mentioning the different features and things you can do with WordPress.
We’re almost done clearing off your dashboard. Just a few things left to do.
On the left side menu, click “Plugins.”
Under Askimet, click “activate.”
then click “plugins” again on the left side to get back to the plugins page.
Under “All in One SEO,” click Deactivate.
Under “Optin Monster,” click deactivate.
Then in the left side menu, click “Dashboard” on the top right side under “site status: coming soon” you’ll see a button that says “screen options.” This is where you can turn on and off the different things featured on your homepage. I deselect everything but:
Monster insights.
Site Health Status
At a Glance
Activity
Quick Draft.
Once you clear off your dashboard it’s much easier to navigate, and now we’re ready to move on and pick your theme so we can start making your blog look like a real blog.
Picking a theme for your blog:
For the sake of trying to make this free course as helpful as possible, I’m going to use one free theme in all my tutorials and show you how to get your blog ready to launch with this theme specifically.
The free theme I’ll be using is called “Edge” It’s the theme I was using on my blog when I started making money and was able to take my blog full-time, so I like to use it in these tutorials because I know it’s a good theme you can be successful with. I’m not affiliated with the company or anything I just recommend it because I like it.
You can find it inside WordPress by on the left side clicking “Appearance,” then clicking “WordPress.org Themes,” then searching “Edge” It should be the first theme that appears. You’re then going to hover over it and click “Install,” and then click “Activate” From there, you will be able to customize the theme, which is what we will be covering in the next lesson.
If you don’t like the way Edge looks or want to choose your own theme, that’s totally fine, but some of the tutorials might be harder to follow. If Edge isn’t for you I really like WordPress themes through CreativeMarket.com.
You have to pay for the themes, but most of the time, they come with tutorials that show you how to set up their themes so you won’t be left to the wolves like you will if you just choose a random free WordPress theme.
Installing a theme:
The first thing you’re going to want to do is go to Bluehost.com and sign into the blog you made yesterday.
Once you get into your website by clicking “WordPress” you are going to look on the left side and click “Appearance” then “Themes”
Then at the top of the Themes section you are going to click “WordPress.org Themes” here is where you will be able to see all the themes already pre installed for your blog. Once you get into the WordPress.org Themes section you are going to search for “Edge”. Edge is the theme I’ll be showing how to use, and it is the first result that comes up when you search “Edge”.
You are going to hover over Edge and click “Install” this will install the theme onto your blog so you can work with it and edit it. After you click Install it will download the theme then you are going to press “Activate”
After you click Activate you will be brought to the theme page where you will see that the theme is installed then you are going to click “customize” there you can customize many things to make the blog look more like you and your style.
As you can see, I’ve already added a few things to the theme to make it look more my style. I’m going to talk you through some things you can customize.
*Important note:* Any time you make changes to your blog make sure you hit “publish” if you aren’t ready for those changes to appear for your readers yet on the publish button there is a little gear icon. When you click that gear icon one of the options is to “Save Draft” that allows you to save your changes without publishing them for your readers.
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About Edge: Here you can see more details about edge there isn’t anything in this section to customize, just more information/
Edge WordPress Settings: Here, you can update your blog title and logo, upload a header image, change the background of your blog to an image, and change your home page from displaying your latest blog posts to displaying a page instead.
Edge Theme Options: You can change things that have to do with your blog’s layout, You can change the pages that are featured on your home page, You can update your social media links that display on your blog, You can change different optional things for your theme, you can change the background image of your website’s footer.
Edge Slider Options: You can change the location of the slider (a thing that displays a large image with a button that displays a button), and You can change the pages that come up in the slider.
Edge Widgets: Main Sidebar you can edit your sidebar (where you see my photo above), and you can change your footer content.
Edge Colors: You can change the colors of the links and buttons.
Menus: You can change the menu that appears at the top of your website.
Additional CSS: this is where you would post custom code, you probably won’t use this section for a while.
The first thing I recommend changing is under “Edge WordPress Settings” and then “Site Title & Logo” it’s your Site Title and Tagline. Your site title will likely be your blog name but with spaces and without the .com part. Your tagline will be your blog’s mission, such as “Sharing my life and helpful tips”.
The second thing I recommend changing is the colors on your website, I would change them to the colors you plan to use.
Other than that I recommend just tinkering around and learning the settings with time.
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To add a logo to your blog you’ll first go create your logo.
For this I recommend Canva.com I use Canva pro. You can use a free trial if you aren’t ready to pay for Canva.
Once in Canva I recommend searching “logo” in the search bar. Once you find one you like click on it. Once inside the editor click “Resize” on the top left. Resize it to be 500 x 150 pixels. From there you will have to drag center it and make It larger. Then you can customize it to fit the name of your blog.
When you’re ready to upload it, login to WordPress and click Appearance then hover over Edge and click “Customize” , then click “Edge WordPress Settings” then “Site title and logo” under “Logo” upload your logo then scroll down and under “Site Logo/ Text Options” select “Display site logo only” then you’re ready to publish your changes.
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For this I recommend using Canva.com. I personally use Canva pro but if you aren’t ready to pay for Canva pro you can try the free trial.
Once in Canva I recommend searching “logo” in the search bar or using the same logo you did for your actual blog logo. Once you find one you like click on it. Once inside the editor click “Resize” on the top left. Resize it to be 512 x 512 pixels. Then you can customize it to fit the name of your blog.
When you’re ready to upload it, login to WordPress and click Appearance then hover over Edge and click “Customize” , then click “Edge WordPress Settings” then “Site title and logo” under “Site Icon” upload your new icon then you’re ready to publish your changes.
Here is what your website logo and icon might look like when they are done, uploaded, and published:
CHALLENGE SURVEY QUESTION:
If you joined my 6-day start a blog challenge, you probably know I’m giving away a $50 gift card (to Amazon, Target, Starbucks, or Walmart) to someone who answers the survey question after each day of the challenge.
Today’s question is:
Tomorrow:
Tomorrow we are going to be talking about how to organize your blog with categories, and what pages you need on your blog.