How to Start a WordPress Blog in 7 Steps (2026 Beginner Guide)
In the last post, we talked about what you need to know before you start a WordPress blog. Now, we will build a WordPress blog step by step with Core Web Vitals optimization in mind. Make sure to follow the steps in order to get the benefits I’m giving away!
Before You Start: What You’ll Gain
In this post, I’ll walk you through the entire process of creating a WordPress blog, from buying your first domain, to setting up hosting, installing a theme, and finally optimizing WordPress.
To achieve a Core Web Vitals Performance score of 100, I spent extensive time researching hosting options, rebuilding test sites, and tuning optimization plugins through real trial and error. That know-how took significant effort to build, but I’ll share the essential framework you need to reach strong performance quickly. (I’m pretty sure WordPress optimization is one of my bread and butter right now.) But I can promise you one thing.
Follow the sequence, and you can build a high-performance WordPress blog with strong cost efficiency.
A top-performing blog improves user experience and technical quality, both of which are meaningful for Google search visibility.
If you purchase hosting through the verified affiliate route, I will share my tuned optimization plugin settings file.
7 Steps to Create a WordPress Blog
1. Learn what you need to know before creating a blog
Start by looking at the big picture. When it comes to creating a WordPress blog, it’s important to know what your options are (domain, hosting, theme).
2. Choose a blog topic
You should choose a topic for your blog that you want to blog about. A so-called “job blog” that doesn’t have a theme can write about whatever you want, but in the long run, not having a theme puts you at a disadvantage when it comes to partnering or contracting with companies.
- Read: Monetized blog topics, 3 tips to get it right! A must for new bloggers
- Read: WordPress Month 1, Why I Built 6 Blogs (4 AdSense Approvals, Operational Performance, and Plans)
3. Decide on and purchase a domain name
When it comes to deciding on a domain name, it’s advantageous to be on-topic-or rather, to be able to encompass a topic-and easy to remember. In general, here are some factors to consider when creating a domain that scales well
- Short and memorable: A domain name that users can easily remember and type.
- Favorable for branding: Your domain name should represent your brand or service well
- Universality: Consider names that aren’t limited to a specific region or niche
- Use the .com extension: It’s the most common and trusted domain extension, and it’s even country-agnostic.
- Include keywords: For search engine optimization (SEO) purposes, it’s a good idea to include relevant keywords, but don’t make it too long or complicated.
A good thing to know is that once you have a domain, you can extend your homepage by prefixing it with certain words. Just like those wplaybook subdomains!
For example, InnovateHub.com can cover any topic, right? That means you could put music or edu or money or travel or whatever in front of it and it would be a natural domain to talk about innovative ways to do each of those things.
Buy a domain
We recommend buying your domain from Namecheap. It’s a domain site that’s recognized by Google search engines, and most importantly, it’s cheap. Follow the video below to finalize your domain purchase!
- Must-watch: Buying a domain for less than others
4. Buy hosting
I recommend ChemiCloud hosting, which I think is the best value for money at this point in time (March 24). It is a hosting company I selected after substantial real-world testing, and many community members are already satisfied with it.
ChemiCloud has excellent performance and 24/7 customer support, so I’m very happy with the move.
Buyer beware
Please use the official ChemiCloud link before purchasing. Verified buyers receive the LiteSpeed Cache configuration file used in this guide.
As of March 24, 2024, you can choose hosting contract length based on your time and budget. The reason for this change is that many of you have been blogging as a side hustle, which has slowed down the pace of blogging.
If you don’t have a lot of time to invest (or if you’re not a full-time blogger and you’re thinking of blogging as a side hustle), or if you can afford it, we recommend signing up for a 3-year contract.
- Must-watch: Connecting hosting for less than others
WPlaybook Authentication Methods
Once you’ve purchased your hosting, please verify it on WPlaybook Open KakaoTalk! Send me your ChemiCloud invoice number and I’ll send you the optimization plugin settings file you need in step 6!
- How to verify your ChemiCloud invoice number
- Information required for verification
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5. Install a theme for your WordPress blog
Once you’ve connected to hosting, you’ll need to install a WordPress theme. WPlaybook distributes the ALL100 theme for blogs, which is based on the Kadence theme.
- Also Read: Introducing the WPlaybook ALL100 Theme, a WordPress blog-specific theme created by WPlaybook
Watch the video below to finish installing the theme!
6. Learn to set up WordPress properly
You’ve installed WordPress and your theme, and now it’s time for foundational settings. The 30 minutes you invest in proper setup today can save you 30 hours of troubleshooting later.
- What to bring: You’ll need a blog logo, a main screen, a picture for your About page, and an author block picture.
- Must-Watch: Learning WordPress Setup Properly (Feat. Today’s Pain, Tomorrow’s Gain)
Recommended sites for free logo creation
There are a lot of free logo maker sites out there, but there’s a reason they’re free. The quality sucks. If you want to create a logo for free, there are two platforms to choose from.
- Canva – popular worldwide and has tons of templates
- Miricanvas – If you’re more comfortable in Korean
WPlaybook Logo Service (Paid)
If you are building a branded blog, consider WPlaybook’s logo service. It helps you create a custom logo that matches your blog’s tone and color system.
Here’s an example blog using WPlaybook Logo Service in action.
7. Set up WordPress optimization plugins
This is the final step. This step is similar to the previous step 4. You will need the WPlaybook LiteSpeed Cache configuration file that was delivered to you after you verified your hosting purchase. The LiteSpeed Cache plugin speeds up your WordPress blog in two main areas.
- Optimize images in your blog
- Caching blog pages
This is a huge, overwhelming topic to get started on. Let’s briefly talk about how things are currently set up!
Blog image optimization settings
In simple terms, WPlaybook’s current setup first standardizes uploaded images to JPG files, then the LiteSpeed Cache plugin automatically converts them to WebP format for better performance.
Blog page caching settings
It is set to speed up the page by storing the page contents in advance (caching) and displaying them directly to the visitor instead of scraping pictures and text information from the server when the visitor enters the blog. Also, for returning visitors, it is set to speed up the blog by using the cache information of the browser instead of the Internet. browser’s cache information rather than the internet, which speeds up your blog for returning visitors.
How to apply
- Read: How to set up the LiteSpeed Cache plugin (coming soon)
- Must-see videos
Once you’ve made the above settings, give the optimization plugin some time to work, and your WordPress page should score ALL100.
Closing thoughts
Now that you’re done creating your WordPress blog, it’s time to start writing! 🙂
