Have you ever wanted to start a youth work blog the right way? We know at YWN that starting a blog can be a terrifying ordeal for some youth workers especially when you don’t have the slightest clue or have no technical skills.

Don’t worry I was in the same situation as you are right now trust me – you are not alone. Having helped over 100,+ users to start there blogging journey, I have now decided to create a step by step blog and video guide on how to start a WordPress blog without any technical knowledge for youth workers.

I have been thinking about this for a while now and just did not have the time to put everything in a step by step guide. A how-to article takes time and a lot of research to put together. But, nevertheless here we are now.

My aim is to get youth workers and youth organisations to be more active on the digital platform. We are at a time where it’s most needed. We need to blow our own trumpet as Vanessa Rogers wrote Blowing a Trumpet For Youth Services Everywhere.

In this article, I will make the process as simple as 1 2 3. I will walk you through step-by-step whether you are young, old or never touched a computer in your life. ( That’s My challenge) as long as you follow the instructions.

By the end of this article, you will be able to start your youth work blog and start your journey as a youth work blogger.

What will YOU need to start your youth work Blog

I have broken down the process into 3 steps in order for you to get your WordPress blog.

1. You need a domain Name ( This could be myyouthwork.com for your blog or organisation name)
2. You will also need a hosting company to host your blog ( this is where your website lives on the world wide web)
3. And lastly YOU. You have to do the work it will take around 30 mins the least if not less depending on how much time and effort you devote to the task.

So in this step by step tutorial, you will learn;

• How to register your new domain name
• How to choose the best web hosting platform
• How to install your new WordPress blog
• How to choose and change the blog theme

So are you ready? I know I am, let’s do this together.

Step 1: The Set-Up

It is important that in this step we spend time in choosing the right blogging platform for our youth work blog.

Many new to blogging make the mistake of not knowing which platform to choose from. You are here now so that you won’t be making that mistake luckily.

Here’s a video explaining what wordPress.com Vs WordPress.org

 

Video Source: www.wp101.com

So now you know the difference between WordPress.com and WordPress.org.

I know that the majority of people choose WordPress.org AKA self-hosted WordPress. Why do they choose this, well it’s free to use. it allows you to customise your blog site design. In many cases, most people choose this so that they can make money from their blog without any restrictions whatsoever

How to register your new domain name with siteground

I will be showing you how to register your domain name and your hosting using siteground. youthworknews.com is hosted using siteground as my hosting company. I have found that there very reliable and my website is very fast and mobile friendly.

Ok, now it’s time to purchase the domain name and hoisting together fr0m siteground. type in your web browser www.siteground.co.uk

Once you have typed in the information you should land on this page. see image below

Or just click here >>Click Here to register with Siteground>>

 

Now what you need to do is to click on the see plan which takes you directly to the payment plan section see the image below.

Now depending on what your needs are in regards to blogging, you can choose the plan that suits you best. You can choose the startup plan if your only planning to create one blog.

However, on the other hand, if you think that in the future you will be creating multiple websites for your youth club.orgnaisation then the best option is to go for the grow big plan.

I personally went for the grow big plan as I have been creating multiple blogs. Think this over very carefully if you are just interested in just one blog then its ok to choose the start-up plan.

Afterwhile if your having fun blogging and seeing the results of your work you want to create another blog then you should go big and choose the grow big plan. just to be on the safe side.

Once your ready to go and happy with the chosen plan, click on the orange button that says GET STARTED. now you’re ready for the next section.

in this section, you will need to fill in your chosen domain for your blog. You will need to type in the domain name you want. For example www.iloveyouthowrk.com. The reason you are typing on the name is to check if it is available.

Step 2. Installing WordPress 

Now that we have got step one in the bag, its now time for step 2.

Sign in to your siteground account.

Now that you have signed in to your siteground account its time to head over to the accounts section.

I want you to click on the “manage account” once you have done that you should see the following information.

Click on the manage account now. You will see the go-to cPanel I want you to click on that.

Before we install our WordPress Blog there is one more thing we have to do. this is a very important step, so follow the steps below.

Installing SSL Certificate

Now it’s time to install the SSL Certificate on the domain. Go scroll down to where it says SECURITY  and click on Let’s Encrypt.

Once you clicked on that, then you will then need to select the domain name where you will install SSL click on Install button and you are done !!

WELL DONE!

Once you have clicked on the cPanel and head on over where you can see the WordPress Logo.

Customize your settings

Click on the WordPress Installer now. You will now be presented with http://www under the protocol, you need to select the domain you just purchased.

What You’ll want to change your domain protocol to, “http://www.yourdomainname.com.” HTTPS protocols are only for secure sites.

Make sure that you chose the correct domain. This should be automatic. Leave the “In Directory” option blank.

Make sure it’s https://. This will make your site more secure. now that we got that out of the way, let’s continue to install or WordPress blog.

Now stay on that same page, You now need to scroll down and start customising your Site Name and Site Description. These are very important things which will be used when people search for your blog, so don’t leave them as-is.

Next what you want to make sure is that you pick a different username and password! This is what you’ll use each time you access your site and start to write blog posts. Write it down – you’ll need it in a different step.

You can watch the video if you don’t want to read the text

 

CONGRATULATIONS you have installed your WordPress. You now ready to start blogging. but before you do that there is one more thing that you need to do. You now have to install your theme.

How to Install A theme

Now that you have installed your WP it’s time to install your theme.

Here is a step by step video that will walk you through the process.

Now you are ready to start blogging. Familarise yourself with the WP Backend dash board to get better at it. Enjoy your blogging journey.

If you need any support you can reach out to me and I will be happy to help you. Come say hello on FB and meet other lovely people. https://www.facebook.com/youthworknews/