Build Your Own Blog in 30 Minutes An Easy to Follow, Step-by-Step Guide for Teens

By Christopher Hou and Elizabeth Hou

In today’s technological world, we are all fascinated with blogging on the internet. An increasing number of teens and businesses run blogs on several social media websites. In fact, some of the web's most influential voices now belong to bloggers as young as 13. Blogs created by teenagers come from all over the world and can attract hundreds, or even thousands of readers a day. They can generate advertising revenue through sponsorship, and their creators become stars when they are brought to attention by the mainstream media. Both adults and businesses are desperate to view inside perspectives from teenagers. Somewhere out there could be the new big thing, and it's almost certainly being dreamed up by a bunch of teenagers. But with many teens who are eager to express their ideas outside of sites like Google+ and Facebook, it is extremely difficult to create blogs without having proficiency in coding languages such as XHTML, CSS, XML, and JavaScript. Furthermore, there might only be a few web design tutorials only using outdated techniques. There are few thorough classes on web design that are taught at schools and it seems impossible to start blogs without reading thousands of code snippets on hundreds of websites. In short, many think that starting a website is very intimidating and time consuming due to the immense coding and web designing skills needed. In addition, the process seems confusing due to there being so many options available. Although these worries may have been true back in the early 2000s, in recent years, things have significantly changed, and starting a blog isn’t as complicated or expensive as one may think. Many Content Management Systems, or CMS’s, have already started to dominate the entire web development industry because they run websites without the need for hand coding. One CMS platform, called WordPress, runs over 75 million websites, making up around 20% of all websites and over 60% of all CMS-related websites. With WordPress, one does not need to know programming at all to start a blog. Thus, more and more people with only basic computer skills are starting their own blog webpages and becoming famous in their respective fields, even having life changing stories to tell.

This easy to follow, step-by-step guide is written to help users by getting rid of any confusion, providing crucial information, and best of all, eliminating the need for coding skills. Only very basic and well-known computer skills are required. Our underlying goal is to help you easily build a blog and have it ready to go in under 30 minutes.

Be aware that WordPress does not allow children under 13 to use their program for strict safety and security concerns. Be sure to consult a parent and exercise safety and security.

We started a charitable youth organization called CodeBytes recently (see our website: www.code-usa.org), which we use to reach out to less fortunate children through computer science education. Our rationale is to not just teach coding skills, but to also interest children in pursuing knowledge and learning skills. Thus, we may help them do better in school and have a better future. We believe we can change people’s lives little by little by working together. In order to further teach kids coding and web design in a simple and quick fashion, we have developed this easy to follow, step-by-step guide. The basic goal of writing this book was to raise money so that we could buy more computers and devices for more kids. We want to thank you for purchasing our book and helping these kids have a better future.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Christopher Hou and Elizabeth Hou
• Release date: Jan 3, 2016
• ISBN: 9781310593260

Book preview

Preface

In today’s technological world, we are all fascinated with blogging on the internet. An increasing number of teens and businesses run blogs on several social media websites. In fact, some of the web's most influential voices now belong to bloggers as young as 13. Blogs created by teenagers come from all over the world and can attract hundreds, or even thousands of readers a day. They can generate advertising revenue through sponsorships, and their creators become stars when they are brought to attention by the mainstream media. Both adults and businesses are desperate to view inside perspectives from teenagers. Somewhere out there could be the new big thing, and it's almost certainly being dreamed up by a bunch of teenagers. But with many teens who are eager to express their ideas outside of sites like Google+ and Facebook, it is extremely difficult to create blogs without having proficiency in coding languages such as XHTML, CSS, XML, and JavaScript. Furthermore, there might only be a few web design tutorials only using outdated techniques. There are few thorough classes on web design that are taught at schools and it seems impossible to start blogs without reading thousands of code snippets on hundreds of websites. In short, many think that starting a website is very intimidating and time consuming due to the immense coding and web designing skills needed. In addition, the process seems confusing due to there being so many options available. Although these worries may have been true back in the early 2000s, in recent years, things have significantly changed, and starting a blog isn’t as complicated or expensive as one may think. Many Content Management Systems, or CMS’s, have already started to dominate the entire web development industry because they run websites without the need for hand coding. One CMS platform, called WordPress, runs over 75 million websites, making up around 20% of all websites and over 60% of all CMS-related websites. With WordPress, one does not need to know programming at all to start a blog. Thus, more and more people with only basic computer skills are starting their own blog webpages and becoming famous in their respective fields, even having life changing stories to tell.

This easy to follow, step-by-step guide is written to help you by getting rid of any confusion, providing crucial information, and best of all, eliminating the need for coding skills. Only very basic and well-known computer skills are required. Our underlying goal is to help you easily build a blog and have it ready to go in under 30 minutes.

Be aware that WordPress does not allow children under 13 to use their program for strict safety and security concerns. Be sure to consult a parent and exercise safety and security.

We started a charitable youth organization called CodeBytes recently (see our website: www.code-usa.org), which we use to reach out to less fortunate children through computer science education. Our rationale is to not just teach coding skills, but to also interest children in pursuing knowledge and learning skills. Thus, we may help them do better in school and have a better future. We believe we can change people’s lives little by little by working together. In order to further teach kids coding and web design in a simple and quick fashion, we have developed this easy to follow, step-by-step guide. The basic goal of writing this book was to raise money so that we could buy more computers and devices for more kids. We want to thank you for purchasing our book and helping these kids have a better future.

Table of Contents

Preface

Why You Should Start Your Blog Today

Step 1: Let’s Get Started with the Free Blog Site First

Step 2: Get Started with a Paid Blog Site

Step 3: Set-up Your Blog

Step 4: How to Start Your Blog

Step 5: Configuring Your Blog Webpage

Step 6: Start Blogging

Step 7: How to Promote Your Blog

Step 8: Make Money Blogging

Appendices

Add YouTube Video to Your Post

Use JetPack Sidebar Image Widget

Set-up Email Subscriptions to Your log

Set-up Visitor Stats for Your Blog

Use JetPack Publicize

Connect to Your Social Networks

Add Sharing Buttons

Add Links to Your Blog

Change Text Font Size and Color

Useful Plugins for Your Blog Webpage

WHY YOU SHOULD START YOUR BLOG TODAY

What are blogs? Short for weblog, blogs are websites where individuals or organizations post interesting topics or opinions. A blog author (blogger) links to stories or other websites with relevant and interesting information. Blogging is not just for having fun but improves your personal knowledge, writing skills, explores your passion and takes initiatives in a more meaningful way. If doing safely and correctly for the right reasons, you may develop a lifelong portfolio of your career and even change your life. The internet is exploding in a lightning speed right now. More people than ever are online looking for something at any moment, 24/7. This explosion in