With the release of Joomla 3, an increasing number of webmasters turn to this popular site-building platform and wish to create a unique blog on it. This guide is just about that. When you prepare to start a blog, make clear what should be included in your blog and how to customize an overall arrangement for better visual experience.
As multiple Joomla extensions enable rich functions for your blog, including the free and the paid, get the utmost out of certain extensions if needed. Move on to the following step-by-step guide and create a blog in Joomla 3 in an easy manner.
Make a Preparation for Your Blog
Before everything, lay the ground work for blogging. Set clear objects about what kind of blog you are going to start with. Make it clear and then register a great domain name to star off.
Understand the basics of Joomla blog – Have a plan in mind about what should be included in your Joomla blog. Sections, categories and articles are necessary for a blog, which make all content in a perfect order. Perhaps, some advanced features, like banner, drop-down menu, social media integration and comments system can also be taken into consideration.
Choose a great domain name – Think out a catchy domain name with personal style and that should be easy to remember. And then, select a domain extension from multiple options, like .com, .net, .cn, etc.
Select a reliable Joomla hosting company – A reliable Joomla hosting solution gives you a leg up to develop a blog. Target the companies with great reputation and then select one which hits the spot with you. In addition to affordable price and great support, a quality hosting solution should also come with sufficient resources, like web space, monthly data transfer, latest programming language, etc.
Even better, the hosting provider enables more benefits for you, like free domain registration, free account setup, free advertising credits, etc. Here, we suggest you to go with a solution integrating with cPanel for an easy installation of Joomla 3.
Install Joomla 3 on Your Blog
Perhaps, you can download Joomla zip file from Joomla.org and then upload it to your blog via an FTP client. However, we are going to install Joomla on blog via cPanel in this guide. The Softaculous is a great one-click installer for an easy installation of multiple applications. Go to cPanel > Software and Services > Softaculous and install the latest version of Joomla.
Make sure that you have registered a domain name for this blog and then choose it form the drop-down list. Choose the latest version from two options and give your blog a proper name along with a brief description. Set the admin account information as required, in terms of username, password, real name and admin email. Click “Install” to have all settings confirmed.
Since you have successfully installed Joomla on your blog, log into blog dashboard with the newly created account.
Set Up Blog with Joomla 3 Extension
Since everything is ready, go and set up your blog with a blogging extension to simplify matters. The selected one is Blog Factory, which is a free Joomla extension with a fresh look. By featuring commenting system, following system, fully customizable CSS, and many other possibilities, Blog Factory help you make a hit in this field with ease.
Download Blog Factory
Download the free version of Blog Factory and then upload it to your Joomla blog. Log into blog dashboard and go to Extensions > Extension Manager. That allows you to upload and install new extensions on your website. Choose the blog_factory_4.2.2 zip file from the computer and upload it to your site.
Go to Extensions > Module Manager and check all modules belonging to Blog Factory. Click “Publish” to take the modules of Blog Factory into effect.
Each has its own function for blog customization. For example, the calendar module is used to specify when to display certain posts, and the category tree module is designed for a standard management for all posts. Customize those modules if needed or leave the default setting.
Set up Blog Factory via Components > Blog Factory
The Dashboard displays the latest status of your blog, in terms of general statistics, latest posts, latest blogs, top rated posts and latest comments.
And then, move to the Settings interface. That enables multiple settings for the customization of posts, comments, media manager, etc. Customize all tabs one by one.
General – Leave router plugin and categories enabled for better management of your blog.
Posts – Enable posting rating, guest view and bookmarks to interact with your visitors. Decide what tags and attributes are allowed in each post under the Writing mode.
Comments – Determine who will set the final approval for all comments and whether to enable guest comments & rating. Set the number of comments on each page and have them arranged in perfect order. Enable pingbacks and update services if needed.
Media Manager – First of all, enable media manager if there is a need to integrate each post with media files. Set the limit for media manager folder and customize the quota for all groups.
Export to Joomla! – Determine whether to enable auto export and that can be overwritten for individuals. As thus, it would be better to leave the default setting and move to the next tab.
Avatars – This is where to allow avatars for your blog. Set the maximum size for each avatar according to your web design.
Banned Words – Type some bad words that cannot appear on your blog.
Permissions – An Access Control List (ACL) enables you to set user permissions for each group.
Backup & Restore – That is a great method to backup your blog in case of blog crash or some other troubles. Besides, you can also restore backup by overwriting the existing data.
Create & Manage Blog Content
Having the basic settings settled down, you should start with the first piece of content. Think about what will be posted on your blog and how to take visitors’ fancy. Create blogs via Blog Factory > Blogs and then assign each blog to a user. Once opening an “Add new blog” interface, customize the details and content of this new blog.
Go to Blog Factory > Categories and create as many categories as needed to diversify all blog content. Click “New” and enter the basic information for this new category as required, in terms of title, description, tags, etc. And then, click “Save & New” button to go on with category creation.
Publish the first post on your blog via Blog Factory > Posts. Select a blog and category to hold this post, and then make a decision on who can visit it. Set the post status, comments permission, metadata and tags according to personal needs. Name the post properly and type any content as planned.
Users with the permission for comment can evaluate all posts via Blog Factory > Comments. Select the post to be evaluated and leave a comment personally. The administrator has the ability to edit, publish, unpublish or delete a comment.
You can edit 6 types of notifications in advanced and send notifications to users & administrators via email. Blog Factory releases several templates for email customization. What’s more, the “Reports” lists the rate of progress of your blog while the “Bookmarks” allows you to add many bookmarks to specify blog content.
Make Your Blog Unique & Attractive
Blog Factory integrates many third-party extensions for multiple purposes, like Ads Factory, Community Builder, Love Factory, and so on. Enable more possibilities for your website if needed. What’s more, select a premium Joomla blog template from multiple options and make your blog as unique as possible.