How To Start a WordPress Blog on Genesis Framework

Congratulations on taking the first step in creating a WordPress blog.

Below you will find out how to start a WordPress blog that runs off of the Genesis Framework. This isn’t a hard process to follow and I will try to make it as easy as possible. It’s important to know that you will need to invest some money to make this happen. If you are serious about starting a blog, then this framework is worth the price and investment to make it happen. If you have not done so already, have a look at our Why We Love Studiopress Sites Themes (And You Should, Too!) tutorial to learn more. It’s an excellent informative post about why the framework is the best choice.

Read this first: Blog For The Passion & Not For The Money
Next Up To Read: 7 Quick Tips About Creating Blogging Goals

Below are five steps to follow to start a blog that runs off of this Framework.

1. Choosing A Domain

I think the hardest part of starting a WordPress blog is choosing a domain name.

Here some tips to remember when picking a domain:

Short and memorable name
No numbers or special characters in the name
Name should relate to your niche or close to it
.com is the most recommended domain extension

There are two excellent companies to buy domains names from, both of which I currently use:

GoDaddy – Sometimes they have specials on domains.
Host Gator Domains – They also have specials occasionally.

2. Choosing A Web Host + WordPress Install

This is a crucial step when setting up your blog. Slow loading pages and frequent downtime is not only bad for SEO, but it gives a negative experience to your subscribers or first-time visitors. This can cause traffic loss and a bad bounce rate. Cheaper is not better in regards to web-hosting. You get what you pay for. It’s worth the investment, just like your domain name, to be with a reliable business.

Currently, I am using Cloudways hosting, which means my blog is in the cloud. Check them out! The price is reasonable and it’s the best hosting by far to use. I’ve only had one downtime in the last few months and it was only for a few minutes.

Also Read: WPOutcast’s Experience With Cloudways WordPress Hosting

Below are some great options for web-hosting a WordPress blog. Take a very close look at all of them. Remember you can earn money back from your blog by promoting your web host to your visitors with an affiliate link.

For the following web hosts, there should be an option to install WordPress automatically from your cPanel dashboard. This is the easiest and best way to install WordPress.

WPEngine – The #1 managed WordPress Hosting to use, costly but for high traffic blogs.
Site Ground – Current special $3.95 per month cheapest plan
Godaddy Hosting – Hosting made for WordPress. $7.99 per month (on sale for $3.99)
Host Gator – Shared Web Hosting starting at $3.95 per month (current special)
Blue Host – This is the recommended web host to use by thousands of bloggers ($3.95 per month current special)
Dream Host – $5.78 per month (current special) – They do have specials from time to time

3. Choosing A WordPress Theme

There are hundreds of themes to choose from for the Genesis Framework that you can find online. Of course, there are also plenty more listed here on WPoutcast, and we publish new ones regularly. You can search through our categories and find something that fits your niche. It’s that simple.

There are also free themes out there for the Genesis Framework, but you still need to purchase the framework to install the free themes. The framework is just $59.95 if you go the free theme route.

There is nothing complicated about installing a theme for the Genesis Framework, just read the readme file (install instructions) that comes with the zip file. To show you how easy it is to install, I have written a guide on How To Install A Genesis Framework Theme. It’s a pain-free process, but it’s important to view guide that comes with the download. This guide will have instructions on how to use every single feature that the theme provides.

Screenshots Of The Options Panel: A Look Into The Genesis Framework Settings

Get a glimpse of the Genesis Framework Settings in your WordPress admin dashboard. Framework and theme setting will vary depending on the theme and layout of your blog.

Head on over to the StudioPress Sites homepage and search through their theme marketplace for a theme that suits your blog. You may also look through our categories on WPOutcast for lots of third party themes that run off the Genesis Framework. Carefully read each theme guide before purchasing, or you might run into some major issues.

For more information on this, read our guide: 3rd Party Genesis Framework Theme: Tips and Warnings

I would be happy to install the Genesis Framework, a child theme and a few must have plugins to get your blog ready for success. This would be for a certain amount of money. Get in touch with me; I could have your blog up within 24 hours or less once we agree on the service.

4. Plugin Styling

After you have installed your theme and completed all of your settings changes for the framework and theme widgets, you need to install some plugins. These are essential to your blogs success and even keeping it secured from many online threats. Keep in mind that you do not have to use all the ones that WPOutcast recommends, but we consider many of them to be must haves. Take a look at the WordPress Plugins Used By WPOutcast page when you get a moment. Read each description and features of the plugins suggested to know what they do. Some plugins even have screenshots of them in action.

Also Read: How To Install A WordPress Plugin

Feel free to ask me questions about any of those plugins if you are unsure of them. I can even tell you the exact settings that I have enabled for them. All of these plugins also have a support forum where you can find help. Keep in mind that most of the support on these forums in from other users, as support from the theme’s author is typically very limited.

Make sure you look through our WordPress Stuff category for some excellent tips.

Essential Things To Do After WordPress Install

After installing a blog, some important things should be done right away that I always recommend to people to do first. Listed below in no particular order they are as follows:

SEO

How To Set Up The Yoast Premium SEO Plugin – Our Current Plugin of choice
The WP Meta SEO Plugin: An Alternative SEO Plugin – An excellent alternate plugin if looking for a Yoast alternative

Using Photo’s In Blog Posts

Popular Websites For Finding Free Stock Photos

Back To Top Button

Add A “Back To Top” button In The Footer – Genesis Framework

Images + Optimization

How To Add A Gravatar To Your WordPress Blog – As a Blog admin, you really should have one for your blog. Doing this is simple.
How To Optimize Images With Short Pixel: Improve Website Performance – Optimizing images helps with page speed most of all.
Restore Image Title – Gives the ability to add the correct “alt” tags to images. Hover your mouse over an image to see the title appear that we wrote.

Blog Security

How To Secure A WordPress Blog – A Step By Step Guide – This is important that you add extra security protection. Don’t always count on your web hosts to be your only line of defense.
How The Akismet Plugin Can Help Combat Spam – Make sure you set up the free version, it helps stop 95% of spammers who try to spam your comment area.

Favicon

How To Add A Favicon Using A Plugin That Works On Smart Devices – This plugin installs all icons even for mobile devices.

JetPack Plugin

What JetPack Modules To Enable? – Only enable few JetPack modules that are essential, the rest just eat up server resources.

Lazy Load Images +More

How To Set Up The a3 Lazy Load Plugin – This plugin does a little more than just lazy load images, helps speed up the page loading.

Social Sharing Buttons

Social Warfare Plugin: Increase Social Shares Plus Much More

Enabling Comments & Registration

Optimizing Comments And Guest Posts For Your Blog – Double check you have these settings done

5. Theme Customization

For customization, you can do a lot to a Genesis Framework theme with thousands of code snippets posted online. If you want custom work done to your theme, you could hire a Genesis developer, or post a question on the community forum and get free help. This community forum is filled with newbie bloggers, programmers, volunteer moderators, official StudioPress staff, and theme designers. You can even join the Genesis Framework Google+ Community to get the latest things going on with the framework, plus so much more!

Suggested Category: —> Genesis Framework Tutorials
Out of Ideas? —> How To Get Ideas For Blog Topics When You Have None

Recommended Customization tips

Following are the best tutorials to make the blog more personal and over-all better in many ways.

How To Customize The WordPress Login Page – Add a colored background and your logo to the login page
3 Websites For Finding Free Stock Photo’s To Use – Using images in blog posts has so many benefits.
Replace the Default Comment Avatar Image With Your Own – I was never a fan of the default avatars for comments, add your logo image as a placeholder
The Category ID & Post ID – Where To Find These? – Category and Post ID’s are needed to edit some widgets, find out where to get them.

Earning Revenue From Blogging

Here are blog posts to read to give you idea’s on many ways to make money from blogging. With a little hard work, you can succeed in any niche.

You can search through our category on Make Money Blogging to find ways of earning money online from blogging.

I do hope that this guide on how to start a blog running on the Genesis Framework has helped you in some way. Please consider sharing this with your social media followers. If there are any questions about this topic, please ask away in the comment section. Ping me on one of my social media profiles.

I can help improve your GTmetrix score in a half hour for $50. Keep in mind that I will do what I can within the time limit. Depending on your blog it will be a little improvement or a huge one. I will also provide some tips that I would do that I didn’t have time for. Email me and provide a link to this blog post so I know you read this post and want my help.

WordPress Support

I wrote a blog post about how to get support. (Different Ways To Get WordPress Support) You may get in touch with me and I’ll see what I can do to help. I’m cheap and in a good mood, work for free.

If you want me to install the Genesis Framework and a theme from the official StudioPress Sites marketplace + set up the free Yoast SEO plugin, send me an email for a price.

Good luck with your blog.