Beginners Guide to Starting a News Website With WordPress

Thinking of starting a news website? Even if youre not planning to be the next New York Times, theres plenty of space for creating your own news site for your favorite topic, local area, or anything else.Its also easier than ever to make your own news website thanks to a free piece of software called WordPress, which makes starting a news website accessible no matter what your budget or technical knowledge level is.In this article, were going to talk about why WordPress is such a good match for news sites. Then, well walk you through the process of starting a news website with WordPress in four steps. Lets talk news! Here are a few reasons why WordPress is a great choice for starting a news websiteIt offers a robust editor thats also easy to use.Its optimized for text content, but you can also add images and other multimedia content easily.The platform automatically shows your latest posts at the top, which is ideal for a news site or an aggregator.You can use themes and plugins to e asily customize your news website.How to start a WordPress news website (in 4 steps)Over the next four steps, well cover the basics of starting a news website. When were done, your only task is to get to work on your first articles. Lets begin with the very basics.Step #1: Choose a domain, select a web host, and install WordPressThe first step to starting a website of any kind is always the same. Youll need both a domain name and a web host to power your site. Heres what you need to keep in mind when choosing them:Domain name.  Your choice of a domain name should be memorable since its going to represent your news site from now on. Picking a domain is highly personal, so take your time and weigh up multiple options. If youre stuck, a domain name generator can help you brainstorm ideas.Web hosting.  Not all web hosts are made equal. You need to choose an option that offers great performance and features to make your life easier, such as automated backups, top-notch security, and more. In any case, shared hosting or a basic Virtual Private Server (VPS) should be more than enough to start you off. Here are some of the best WordPress hosts.Once you have both of those, youll need to install the WordPress software so that it can power your news sites. Many hosts can automatically install WordPress for you. Or, you can always do it manually. Our post on how to install WordPress covers your options.Step #2: Find a suitable WordPress news themeOnce you install WordPress, you can use a theme to control how your news website looks.To change your WordPress theme, youll first need to pick a new theme to use. The official WordPress.org Theme Directory  is a great first stop to find some free options.Head to the directory, click on the  Feature Filter  button at the top, then tick the  News  option under the  Subject  section and run a search. This way, youll only see themes designed for news websites:Picking a WordPress theme is difficult since we all have unique tastes and needs. However, there are a couple of aspects you should always keep in mind:Opt for themes with at least 1,000 installs and an average review score of four or more stars.Check if the theme youre looking at has received updates within the last six months.If youre struggling to find a theme that you like, check out our list of the best WordPress news themes.Step #3: Set up plugins to add greater functionalityWordPress already includes many features you need to run a news website out of the box. However, by using various plugins, you can easily add any functionality you think is missing.For example, you may benefit from using the WP News and Scrolling Widgets plugin. This tool adds a special section on your site for news articles and lets you display your articles in interesting ways: WP News and Scrolling Widgets Author(s): WP OnlineSupportCurrent Version: 4.2Last Updated: September 12, 2019sp-news-and-widget.zip 90%Ratings 291,244Downloads WP 4.0+Requires You may also want to set up a plugin to add social media sharing icons to your news articles. This will let visitors share posts with their friends, which has an impact on traffic numbers and the chance of a viral post. The free Orbit Fox plugin makes that really easy: Orbit Fox by ThemeIsle Author(s): ThemeisleCurrent Version: 2.8.10Last Updated: September 13, 2019themeisle-companion.zip 94%Ratings 4,283,244Downloads WP 4.7+Requires Finally, if you want to automatically curate news content from various sources, an RSS import plugin makes it easy to automatically display the latest headlines or use RSS feeds in other ways. For example, you can use a plugin called  Feedzy RSS Feeds  to import RSS feed items to your news site: RSS Aggregator by Feedzy Powerful WP Autoblogging and News Aggregator Author(s): ThemeisleCurrent Version: 3.3.11Last Updated: October 10, 2019feedzy-rss-feeds.zip 94%Ratings 581,789Downloads WP 3.7+Requires With over 50,000 free plugins, pl us thousands of premium options, you also have the option to add plenty of other features!Step #4: Get up to speed on creating posts and pages within WordPressSo far, weve been laying the groundwork for your news website, visually speaking. However, now its time to roll up your sleeves and get your hands dirty by publishing your first news article.To do this, youll need to use  WordPress new block editor  (AKA Gutenberg). This editor features a modern, uncluttered interface thats perfect for writing news articles. More importantly, formatting your text and adding multimedia files through the editor is easy:Using the editor is fairly intuitive, but we recommend you check out our Gutenberg for newbies article if you want to get the most out of it. We also have a more detailed block editor guide.Once you feel comfortable using the editor, get to work on your first piece and hit the  Publish  button when its ready!Or, if you dont like the new block editor, you can also disable t he block editor and keep using WordPress older Classic editor.The time for starting a news website is now!Using WordPress, youll be able to write, format and edit top-notch news articles, and showcase them in style.Starting a news website with WordPress is simple enough, and you can do it in four steps:Choose a domain, a web host, and install WordPress.Find a WordPress news theme.Set up plugins to add other key functionality.Get accustomed to the WordPress editor and start creating content. 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