I wrote an article some time ago called Create a Blog You Can be Proud Of that demonstrated how to create a blog from scratch all the way to having a blank WordPress theme. This article will take you from that standard theme to one that includes the plugins, pages and posts you should have to get your blog going.  Follow the steps and you will soon have a blog that you will really enjoy.

It Starts with the Kubrick Theme

Under the Meta heading click on Login

Enter in your Username and Password. Welcome to WordPress!

At the WordPress Dashboard click on Options

Change the Blog title. Change the Tagline.

Press Update Options and then press View Site

You should see your new Blog title and your new tagline. Under Meta press login to go back to the WordPress Dashboard. Press Options and Privacy. Change the visibility of the blog so that everyone including search engines can see your blog.

Press Update Options. On the WordPress Dashboard go to Options and Writing. Look at the bottom of the page where it says Update Services. Make sure that the ping is set to http://rpc.pingomatic.com/

Press Update Options. At the WordPress Dashboard go to Options and Permalinks. Select Custom and enter /%postname%/

Press Update Permalink Structure. At this time you need to change your WordPress Theme. For a detailed explanation of how to do this read 50 Things to Do to Start a Blog From Scratch - Part 2.

Now That Your Theme is in Place

Go to the WordPress Dashboard - Users - Your Profile. Change the display name from admin to your name.

Press Update Profile. You need to add some pages to your site. Start with an About Page. If you need help adding a page read my article called Using the WordPress Write Post and Write Page Editor.

Now is a good time to write your first Post. Delete the Hello World post that came with the Kubrick WordPress theme.

Write your first post by describing what your blog will be about. While you are writing add your first category. At the end of the post include some tags (keywords for your post). After you publish this post you can go back and copy the text and paste it into your About page. Get your plugins installed.

Installing Plugins

WordPress Database Backup - I am listing this one first because I think it is one of the most important plugins you will install. It will automatically backup your blog every day and send you the backup in an email. You should do this!

WordPress Automatic Upgrade - Another important plugin. This one automatically upgrades your WordPress whenever there is a new release!

Akismet - This one comes with WordPress but you need to activate it and get an API key. Akismet is a spam blocker. For more information on how to install this one read my article titled Installing the Akismet Plugin. This is a good one to start with. It will help you get the idea of how to install a plugin.

All in One SEO Pack - This plugin is important for gettting your blog optimized for search engines.

Brian’s Threaded Comments - This gives you threaded comments and a wandering comment form.

Dagon Design Sitemap Generator - This plugin does all the work for your Sitmap page. It is an HTML sitemap, which means that people can see it. IT is different than the XML sitemap that you will create for Google. If you have questions about installing plugins you can read the article I wrote about installing this plugin titled More Progress on the 50 Things to DO to Start a Blog from Scratch.

FeedBurner/FeedSmith - This plugin detects all ways to access your original WordPress feeds and redirects them to your FeedBurner feed so you can track every possible subscriber. For more information onsetting up FeedBurner read my article titled Making Progress on the Starting a Blog from Scratch List.

Google XML Sitemap - This one is for the search engines. People on your site will never see it. The instructions will help you upload it to the search engines when you have it installed.

NoWWW - This is really a matter of preference. Do you want your site to be http://www.whatever or just http://whatever? If you install this plugin you will get rid of the www. You get this plugin at the WordPress Plugin Directory.

Sociable - Automatically add links to your posts to popular socail bookmarking sites. This plugin makes all links Nofollowed.

Related Posts - This one is good for SEO. It is a little tricky to install. Make sure you have a backup before you do it.

WP-Contact Form - This plugin is a drop in form for users to contact you. I go in to a lot of detail about installing this plugin in an article I wrote called 50 Things to Do to Start a Blog from Scratch - Part 3. If you read this article it will help you through the process of installing all kinds of plugins.

Add the Widgets

A good place to start is with the Text Widget you need for the Feedburner plugin. For more information read Making Progress on the Starting a Blog from Scratch List. Add a tag cloud widget. Tidy up your blogroll and your categories.

Finishing Touches

You should add a few more posts and a couple of categories. You should try and have at least five pages in place. Get Adsense set up. For information on getting your Adsense account working read Google Adsense. You may want to further monetize your site by setting up a Paypal Account to receive donations. Read How to Start Monetizing Your Blog. That should have your blog in a really good place. Now you need to focus on writing articles and promoting your blog!