I know right, who doesn’t want to create a WordPress blog.
That might make them thousands if not millions of dollars online.
No one!
But since every journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. Before you can make anything off of your website, you’ll first have to create it.
But how can you do this with Namecheap’s hosting?
That my friend is what this entire post is all about.
So, pour yourself a nice cup of coffee. We may be here awhile.
Even so, I promise to make this guide as simple to follow as possible.
So, let’s get started.
Shall we!
How To Create and Start a WordPress Blog with Namecheap: Steps You’ll Take.
Here are the steps you’ll take in creating your WordPress blog with Namecheap.
- Find your niche.
- Buy a domain and hosting (This Month’s Namecheap Deals).
- Install WordPress.
- Clean and set up basic settings.
- Install theme and plugins.
- Optimize your WordPress blog for speed.
- Write your first blog post.
- What Next!
And to get you started fast, we will look at each step at in brief.
1. Why Do You Even Need A Niche?
To better understand this, let’s see what a niche is first.
What is a Niche?
Simply put, a niche is the topic of interest your blog will be centered on.
This to mean, what it is you’ll be blogging about.
A good rule of thumb is to choose a niche from the following categories: Wealth, Health, Relationships, and Passions.
Note: You can pick any niche you want, but make sure it’s profitable if you’re in it to profit.
But why should one care about a niche when it’s all about creating a WordPress blog?
Simple.
For, when choosing a domain name.
You don’t want to commit to buying a domain name only to, later on, realize you can’t use it. And all because it isn’t relatable to your niche interest.
I say this from experience. Before finally sticking with Repeat Blogger, I had bought several domain names which had to change since they didn’t fully align with what I wanted to do.
Note: I’ve rebranded to Aytalum, after 6 months then split into two blogs. I hope the point I’m trying to pass across is clear.
I don’t want this to be you.
So, if you are like me, with dynamic interests. Going with an adaptable domain name, as I’ve done, would be your best option.
But if you simply want to blog to promote your brand online, then it’s simple to tell in which niche you’re in.
But how do you go about choosing a domain name?
You can brainstorm like I did or use Flame Domain or Impossibility.org to generate interesting domain name ideas.
But since both of them are straightforward in their usage, I won’t waste your time with the How-tos. But essentially, you input different keywords (you’d like present in the domain) to be matched with others.
In the end, you want to pick a .Com domain name that’s weird or simple enough to be memorable. But one that communicates your intended purpose and is pronounceable.
2. How Do You Register a Domain Name and Get Hosting On Namecheap?
Now, that you already have a domain name in mind you’d like to blog with.
It’s time to have it registered along with getting web hosting.
So, here’s what you want to do.
Click on the Buy Now button and you’ll be taken to a page, from where you can search and add your chosen domain name to the cart.
Head back to the Promhttps://bloggingagain.com/NCos Page and get yourself the 50% off Shared Hosting Plans offer, by clicking on the Buy Now button.
Alternatively, click here to go directly to the shared hosting page.
On the page that follows, you’ll see three shared hosting packages: Stellar, Stellar Plus, and Stellar Business.
If you’re in a tight spot financially, the Stellar option at just $15.44 will work just fine. But I prefer the Stellar Plus option, not only for their unlimited options and Auto Backup Tool but at just $26.44 it’s a steal.
Either way, you’ll be set. So, choose one and get started.
Note: For the Datacenter Location, choose your preference depending on your target audience’s location. By default, it’s set to US datacenter.
Next up, you’ll choose your hosting’s primary domain name depending on its location.
In our case, choose I want to use a domain in my cart option and proceed. On the next page, click the drop-down menu and choose the domain name you earlier added to your cart.
Then click the Continue button, under Your Order summary box to proceed to your Subtotals page.
On this page, make sure your chosen domain name and hosting are present and looks right then confirm your order. The WhoisGuard is free so no need to disable it as it helps hide your personal information in the public Whois Database.
After confirming your order. You’ll then be required to log into your current account or create a new one (If you don’t have one yet) to be able to proceed to checkout.
Choose the appropriate action and then go on to checkout.
Once you’re done with your order. You’ll get an email containing your cPanel login details.
At which point, you’ll have everything you need to set up WordPress in the next steps. ie. A domain name and web hosting.
3. How To Connect Your Domain Name To Your Namecheap Hosting Account And Install WordPress.
The fun part begins.
Head over to Namecheap and log into your Account.
You’ll be taken to your dashboard from where you can manage different aspects of your account like domains, funds,.. etc.
Locate the domain you just registered and click on the Manage button associated with it.
You’ll come up to another page from where you can manage your nameservers.
Make sure your nameservers are set to Namecheap Web Hosting DNS. If not, simply click the dropdown menu and select that option.
Note: The same applies for addon domains.
Don’t worry about it much, we will be changing the nameservers later on, in our optimization step.
If you’re using a domain name from a different registrar, simply update its nameservers to point to Namecheap’s. dns1.namecheaphosting.com, dns2.namecheaphosting.com.
Now if everything looks great up to this point, it’s time to head over to your cPanel. Which can be done in one of two ways.
From your Namecheap account dashboard or directly using your domain name.
To do this from your account dashboard. Simply, locate the database icon under your domain products and hover on it. A list menu will appear on which you’ll click on the Go to cPanel option. See the picture below.
This action will take you directly into your cPanel. All logging in done for you.
The next option is to go to your login page via your domain name. Which can be done by simply adding ( /cpanel ) at the end of your domain.
Ie. https://www.yourdomainname.com/cpanel.
You’ll be taken to your cPanel login page, from where you’ll log in using the credentials sent to you when you bought hosting.
Either way, the destination, cPanel dashboard.
Now, there is something you’ll need to do before installing WordPress. And that’s installing an SSL certificate on your domain to secure your website.
Namecheap hosting packages all come with 50 positive SSL certificates for one year. So, there are no additional costs to you.
How To Install Namecheap’s Positive SSL Certificate In cPanel?
It’s simple. https://www.youtube.com/embed/gVdcwfuwpskBy using their cPanel plugin Namecheap SSL usually located at the top under Exclusive For Namecheap Customers section.
To do this, click the Namecheap SSL plugin.
On the page that follows you’ll see your domain name with an Install button under status. Clicking this button will start the installation process of the Positive SSL certificate on your domain name.
So, do it.
You’ll then be prompted on the next page to replace an existing SSL certificate. Accept.
Then after, enter the email address where you’d like the installation information sent to.
Click on the Install Certificate button to begin the installation process.
Ideally, it shouldn’t take more than 15 minutes to propagate.
You can monitor the progress in the Installed via plugin tab on the Namecheap SSL plugin’s dashboard.
You’ll know when it’s ready when the status changes from In Progress to green Active.
After this, you’ll be ready to advance on to the next step.
Click on the home/menu icon to go back to cPanel. It’s located on the upper left corner of the cPanel.
Installing WordPress Using The cPanel.
If you want to watch a video instead of the following process, I made one for you. https://www.youtube.com/embed/boj95hGGZHkNow, back in your cPanel dashboard, click on Softaculous Apps Installer plugin located under Exclusive For Namecheap Customers section.
This will bring you to Softaculous scripts installation page from where you’ll choose the WordPress application.
Alternatively, on your cPanel dashboard. Scroll down to the bottom, under Softaculous Apps Installer section and click on WordPress.
Both routes will land you on a WordPress installation page with several options.
Click on the Install button to perform a brand new WordPress installation.
This will take you to a setup page from where you’ll configure several options: Choosing your domain name and protocol, site name, site description, username and password, site language, backup options, temporary theme, and administrative email.
But for the sake of simplicity, I’ll walk you through these steps.
#1. Software Setup.
For choosing the WordPress version you want to install, you’ll want to choose the highest one.
For the Protocol, choose https://www or https://.
And for the domain choose the one you want to install WordPress on. In this case, the one you registered earlier.
Input nothing in the In Directory field. Leave it empty.
#2. Site Settings.
Here, input your desired Site Name and Site Description (tagline). Leave the Enable Multisite (WPMU) checkbox unchecked.
#3. Admin Account.
This is where you’ll set your desired Username and Password. Remember, you’ll be needing these when logging in to your WordPress dashboard.
And while the password can be memorable, make it also strong by adding special characters.
Note: You might want to note these down/save them somewhere safe and reachable. Lest you forget them.
You can leave the auto-populated admin email address as-is. ie admin@yourdomainname.com
#4. Choose Language.
This one is self-explanatory. So, choose the language you desire your website to be in. By default, it’s set to English.
#5. Select Plugins.
These plugins are optional, you can add them later on, if and when, you need them.
But essentially, the Loginizer is to protect against brute force attacks. And the Classic Editor a preference for if Gutenberg editor isn’t a favorite or is lagging.
Personally, I always have them and so would recommend it.
#6. Advanced Options.
You don’t really need to touch these since as they are, work fine.
But on the Automated Backups option, you could change that to Once a day.
You can leave the rest of the settings the same.
#7. Select Theme.
This doesn’t matter much since we will be installing a different theme later on. So simply select any by clicking on it.
The last detail you’ll need to specify before installing is the email address where the installation details will be sent to.
So, input your favorite email address here and click the Install button to complete the Setup and begin WordPress installation.
The installation process mostly takes a few seconds to complete. And once done, you’ll be able to see your website and log inside your WordPress dashboard for further customizations.
Note the administrative URL, it’ll be your path to logging inside your WordPress dashboard.
Note: It’s simply adding /wp-admin at the end of your domain name.
Now clicking on the administrative URL will take you directly inside your WordPress dashboard.
Note: Just make sure you noted down your Username and Password while setting up Admin Account details. At some point, you‘ll need them to log in.
Congratulations! My friend. You just installed a WordPress blog.
And in the following steps, we shall look at ways you can customize it into exactly what you want.
Because as is right now, it’s just a template, a Canvas so to speak.
But the hard part is over, in the next steps, the fun truly begins.
So, refill your coffee.
4. Cleaning And Setting Up Basic WordPress Settings.
Now, by default, a fresh WordPress install comes with a post, page, and comment as demo content.
To clean these up, we will need to delete/trash them.
Here’s a video of this process if you prefer. https://www.youtube.com/embed/TQ6mpco74CkSo, from the dashboard, click on the Posts menu. By default, it will open All Posts page.
Check the Hello World!’s post checkbox. After this, click on the Bulk Actions selection box and select the Move to Trash option from the item list. Finally, click the Apply button to trash the demo post.
Repeat the same for the demo pages, on Pages.
Once this is done, navigate to the Settings menu. This is where you’ll configure basic site settings.
You can tweak all these options to your liking later. For now, we are only interested in the General, Reading, Discussion, and Permalinks options.
Here’s what you’ll need to set in these four options.
1. General – Here, simply make sure everything is as you want it. The Site Title, Tagline, URLs, Language, Timezone, Date and Time formats, Start of the week and then Save Changes.
2. Reading – Check Discourage search engines from indexing this site setting and then Save Changes. This is because your blog isn’t yet ready, it’s under construction.:)
3. Discussion – Here, you only need to check Comment must be manually approved setting and Save the Changes.
4. Permalinks – This dictates your post URLs structure. The best Permalink setting for SEO benefit will be Post Name. So select the corresponding radio button and then Save Changes.
Now, if you noticed on the General options setting screen, there was an Email Address field with admin@yourdomainname.com.
This is very crucial to make sure you’ve set up. Among other reasons, it’s where your Password Reset link will be sent. In the event, you forgot your WordPress login Password or simply want to reset it.
So, let’s set it up quickly. 🙂
Namecheap cPanel Email Setup Guide.
To set this up, visit your Namecheap’s Web Hosting cPanel here ( https://www.yourdomainname.com/cpanel ) and log in.
Once in the cPanel dashboard, under the Email section, click on Email Accounts.
You’ll be taken to the Email Accounts management page from where you’ll click on the +Create button to begin the creation process.
The next step will be to fill in your email account details.
So, choose the domain name you’d like to create an email account for.
On the Username option field type in admin.
Leave the Security option as is, Set password now selected. And generate/type in your password (Make it strong by mixing numbers, special characters, lower and uppercase letters).
On Storage Space, leave it as is or select Unlimited. Either is okay.
Skip Stay on this page after I click Create checkbox and click on +Create button.
You’ll be redirected back to the previous screen from where you can log into your Webmail.
To do this, click the Check Email button of the corresponding email account.
Then choose any one of the Webmail clients apps to access your newly created email account.
Note: You can change between them later on to find your favorite.
That is it as far as cleaning and the basic setup go.
Next, we will look at how we can install our favorite themes and plugins. To beautify and add to our blog’s functionality.
5. Installing WordPress Themes And Plugins.
Earlier, during WordPress installation, we chose a default theme to get us started.
But now that we’ve got all that cleaning up and basic settings done. It’s time to get you a custom theme that’ll make your website look good, clean and professional.
Where To Download Premium WordPress Themes For Free.
Look, we both know to look good you need to invest money and effort.
But how much of each, entirely up to you.
One can get by just fine with a Free WordPress theme, but being unable to use some customization options can be super annoying.
Which makes knowing where to download premium WordPress themes for free of super importance.
Not only to keep costs down for when just starting out but also, to have a painless time with blog customization.
And while there’s no shortage of places to look, I would recommend MyThemeShop.
So, to begin with, visit their site. And on their menu, click on Themes or anywhere on their header image.
This will land you on their Themes page from where you‘ll filter out for Free ones.
Choose the one that appeals the most to you.
For this example, I’ll go with ribbon. But as you can see their most popular one is Schema.
Click on the one you liked the most and get more details about it.
You’ll be able to see its live demo and also download it from its details page.
Note: You’ll need to sign up before they can allow you to download their themes.
To download your theme from the dashboard. Find your theme under Active Free Resources list and click on Theme Files.
A pop up will then appear asking you if you’d like to get their premium support. Simply, click on Download without support.
How To Install and Activate a WordPress Theme.
Once your theme is downloaded. Head over to your WordPress dashboard.
Hover over the Appearance menu and click on Themes.
On the screen that follows click on Add New. Then Upload Theme.
You’ll see a Choose File option appear. Click on it, select the theme file you just downloaded, and click Open to finish the selection from the window that pops up.
Once this is done, hit the Install Now button to begin the theme installation process.
When the installation finishes, you’ll see options to either Live Preview it, Activate it or Return to Themes Page. Click on Activate.
The theme will be activated on your blog and you’ll be taken back to Themes page. From there you can visit your site to see it’s new look before you customize it.
Note: By now I believe you’re comfortable finding your way inside a WordPress dashboard. We shall then pick up the pace.
Now, to delete themes you no longer need. Head over to Appearance > Themes.
Hover over the theme you intend to remove and click on Theme Details.
This will open up the theme’s details window from where you can then simply delete it.
A verification pop up will then appear, on which you’ll confirm.
Now to customize your theme, head over to Appearance > Customize.
At this point, there won’t be much to see. But later on, as you publish posts, it’ll take shape.
Note: If you really need to see it’s appearance beforehand, you can publish lorem ipsum demo posts and pages.
Either way, on the left you’ll see settings to help you customize your site further.
Note: The best way to learn something is by doing. So play with the settings to see what’s what.
What you’ll realize, though, is that you need a Logo for your blog. Which you can get a cool one done on Fiverr for just $5.
Must-Have WordPress Plugins List For Your New Blog.
Now that you’ve got your WordPress website looking dope and all. It’s time to add extra functionality to it.
And this is where Plugins come in.
But while you won’t be needing all the 50k+ plugins in WordPress’ repository. There are those that are like mandatory, sort of.
These 11 are to get you started. But you’ll keep on adding to them as your blog’s functionality needs increase.
- Contact Form 7.
- Yoast SEO/Rank Math SEO.
- Wordfence Security.
- Jetpack.
- Akismet.
- W3 Total Cache.
- UpdraftPlus.
- WP Smush.
- WP AutoTerms.
- Google Analytics Dashboard for WP (GADWP).
- Pretty Links.
See how many WordPress plugin types your new blog will need to thrive.
Note: Every plugin has a how-to guide you can follow, so we won’t be covering how each one works.
Even so, let‘s look at how you can install and activate one.
How To Install WordPress Plugins.
Now, similarly to how we installed our theme above, plugins are installed in the exact same way.
But what I didn’t cover was how to install and activate (in this case) a plugin from WordPress repository.
So, I’ll pick Pretty Links as an example for this.
Go to Plugins > Add New. Then search for Pretty Links.
Click on its Install Now button and then once more to Activate.
You’ll then be redirected back to the Installed Plugins page. Where you’ll see all active and inactivate plugins.
You can either activate, deactivate, or delete these plugins by simply clicking on respective action links below them.
Once you’re done with installing and configuring all the plugins above.
You’ll be set for the next step, which is optimizing your blog for speed and performance.
6. Basic WordPress Speed and Performance Optimization.
Distraction levels online are on an all-time high and with it impatience.
So if your website loads for more than 3 seconds you’ll lose 53% of your visitors.
And when you think about it, that translates to more than half your profits.
So, why would you want to work hard on your website, to only drop the ball because of your blog’s performance?
It’s unacceptable, even more so when you can help it.
But worry not my friend, I’ll show you how to get the basics out of the way.
- Use a content delivery network (CDN)
- Configure a WordPress caching plugin. (W3 Total Cache)
- Smush images. (WP Smush).
For 2 and 3, you got them configured above. ie if you did. 🙂
So, in this step, we will only look at using a content delivery network (CDN).
And while there’re many paid ones out there, I recommend this free one, CloudFlare.
Here’s a video showing you how to get started with Cloudflare from Bjorn Allpas. https://www.youtube.com/embed/cBDY-CXWmI0
7. Writing Your First Blog Post On WordPress.
The wait is finally over.
It’s now time to do the fun part, content writing.
And since you followed through all this while, give yourself a pat on the back.
And if you need more coffee, pour yourself some, don’t hesitate on my account.
I’ll wait. I promise! 🙂
Welcome back, friend. 🙂
While you were on a break, I found a few resources to help you with this step.
- Write Unique Articles Fast With Or Without Any Smart Article Generator.
- How To Generate Blog Post Ideas Fast For Beginners.
- Top 10 Best Royalty Free Stock Photo Sites.
Now, if you don’t know what to first post on your blog, I recommend starting with a welcome post.
This could be a simple post welcoming your readers, telling them who you are, and what they stand to gain from reading your blog.
Once done, it’s time to publish it.
But first, you need to make sure there aren’t any grammar and spelling mistakes.
To do this, visit ProWritingAid and sign up, it’s free.
Once logged in they’ll guide you on how to use their editor. Paste in or upload your article to begin the editing process.
When you’re done. Head over to WordPress dashboard > Posts > Add New.
Follow along in this video from Robin Haney showing you how to publish a new post in WordPress. https://www.youtube.com/embed/7HNkGoQalU4%C2%A0
You also must educate yourself on the best SEO and Search engine marketing tactics to get traffic flowing from Search Engines like Google and Bing.
To help you with this, check out the free video course below from Miles Beckler. https://www.youtube.com/embed/A8EI6JaFbv4
Note: Once you have at least 3/5 posts up, go back to Settings > Reading. And Uncheck Discourage search engines from indexing this site setting option. Then Save Changes.
I know writing isn’t for everyone and that’s why I found this best content writing service to help you out.
They will do everything for you while you sit back and relax. All the heavy lifting such as competition and keyword research, LSI keywords optimization, choosing the best titles, writing the post, etc will be done for you.
And not just that but if you want them to post these articles for you, no problem, they will do it.
What’s even perfect is that you have complete freedom over your articles’ word count. This means if you want your articles at 800, 1200, 1,500 or 2,000 words, its no problem you simply say so and it’s done.
Learn More About Them And What They Can Do For You And Your Blog Here
What Next?
First off, Congratulations to you my friend.
You’ve made it this far in this guide on how to create and start a WordPress blog with Namecheap.
The next steps for you to take will be to keep repeating the last step #6.
And then promote your content on social media sites and answer sites like Pinterest and Quora for traffic.
Once you got the traffic, choose a monetization model to earn from your blogging efforts.
For beginners, AdSense ads and Affiliate Marketing are a good place to start.
Do you want your blog approved ASAP for AdSense ads? Here’s what you must have in place first.
I hope you enjoyed reading this guide post and got value out of it.
If so, consider taking the time to share it with your friends and family. It does help get the word out. 🙂
That’s it from me today on how to create and start a WordPress blog with Namecheap.
If you’d like to see any particular tutorial, drop it in the comments below. 🙂
Till next time.
Stay Blessed!
