Online quizzes are popular and can be a great way to make money. But creating a quiz website can be confusing if you don’t know where to start.
We’ve helped many people build successful websites, so we know what works and what doesn’t.
This guide will show you how to make an online quiz website step by step. We’ll cover everything from choosing the right tools to making money from your quizzes.
You don’t need to be a tech expert to follow along. We’ll explain everything in simple terms.
What Do You Need to Build an Online Quiz Website Using WordPress?
To create a quiz website like Buzzfeed or others, there are a few requirements:
- A domain name (such as example.com or wpbeginner.com)
- A WordPress hosting account (this is storage space for all your website files)
- A WordPress theme (this controls the design of your quiz website)
- The right WordPress plugins (plugins are like apps and add features like quizzes to your website)
- 1 hour of your undivided attention
Depending on how many quizzes you want to start with, it’s possible to create your entire quiz site from scratch to launch in under an hour. We’ll walk you through each step.
In this tutorial, we will cover the following:
Ready? Let’s get started!
Step 1: Choosing the Right Website Platform
To create a website, the first thing you need to do is choose a website builder platform.
It is very important to choose the right one to start with since moving platforms later can be a huge hassle.
Since you’re here reading this, you’re on the right track. We strongly recommend WordPress because it’s 100% free and allows you complete freedom to create any type of site you want. Over 43% of all websites on the internet are powered by WordPress.
However, there are two types of WordPress software, so you’ll need to make sure you’re using the right one. First, there is WordPress.com, which is a blog hosting platform. The second is WordPress.org, which is the free software we recommend.
We will be using the second option (WordPress.org) because it’s more powerful. For a detailed comparison, you can see our guide on the difference between WordPress.com and WordPress.org.
To create your online quiz website, you’ll also need a domain and web hosting. Choosing the right web hosting is important because it supports your whole website. You want to find fast, reliable hosting that can grow with you as your website grows.
Typically, a domain name can cost $14.99 per year, and hosting usually starts around $7.99 a month. This can be a big cost if you’re just getting started.
That’s why we recommend Bluehost.
Bluehost is officially recommended by WordPress, and they have agreed to offer our readers a free domain and a big discount on web hosting.
Best of all, Bluehost automatically installs WordPress for you, so you can get started building your quiz website right away.
Pro Tip: It’s smart to choose a niche or specific topic for your quiz website.
Instead of creating a general quiz website that would have to compete against big sites like BuzzFeed, you can become known for specializing in a certain topic, like video games, geography, or pop music.
To start, go ahead and click on our Bluehost link.
Then, click ‘Get Started Now.’
Now, you will pick a plan. There are four to choose from, starting from $1.99 per month.
If you pick the Basic plan and find that you need more resources, you can always upgrade to a higher plan.
After selecting a plan, you will now choose a domain name or connect an existing one to your website.
Alternatively, you can click the ‘I’ll create my domain later’ button if you’re not ready for this step.
Up next, you will see some package extras to add to your hosting account.
We recommend unchecking them all, as you can always purchase them later if you need them.
You will now complete your payment information and Bluehost will automatically install WordPress for you.
Once done, you should be able to log in to your Bluehost dashboard. There, just navigate to the ‘Websites’ tab and click ‘Edit Site’ on your newly created WordPress site to log in to WordPress.
You can follow our guide on how to make a website for details on how to set up WordPress and start adding content to your site.
Step 2: Picking the Perfect WordPress Theme
When using WordPress, the theme you choose is what determines the layout and design of your website.
There are thousands of free and premium themes available, which can make it hard to choose.
Although there are quiz themes available, we recommend looking for a simple theme instead.
You don’t need to buy a fancy theme with quiz features included because they’re often slow and bloated and will lock you into using their design forever. Instead, it’s better to use plugins to add quizzes to your website. We’ll show you how to do that below.
By using a simple theme, you’ll have the option to change your design in the future without breaking any quizzes or other features.
If you want a quick pick, our top recommended theme for an online quiz website is Astra.
You can get started with Astra for free, and it includes dozens of professionally-designed templates.
If you want to build a completely custom WordPress theme, then we recommend using SeedProd.
SeedProd is a drag-and-drop website builder for WordPress that lets you build completely custom websites without writing any code.
For more theme options, see our list of the best simple themes to focus the design on your quizzes, or see our pick of the best magazine themes for more image-heavy designs.
Once you’ve chosen a theme, you can see our guide on installing a WordPress theme to set it up.
Step 3: Installing the Right Online Quiz Plugins
After you set up your theme, the next step is to add quizzes to your new website.
The best way to do that is with a quiz plugin.
Plugins are like apps for your WordPress site. They allow you to add all kinds of different features to your site.
There are a few different quiz plugins we recommend:
Thrive Quiz Builder is one of the best quiz plugins for WordPress, used by over 21,000+ website owners. It allows you to create engaging and complex quizzes without touching a line of code.
You can use the pre-made quiz templates to quickly create the following types of quizzes: right / wrong, number, percentage, personality, and survey. Or, you can build your quiz from scratch using the drag-and-drop builder.
When users finish a quiz, you can also display a results page that’s personalized to them. For example, you can show specific content for one quiz result and another set of content for a different result.
Other powerful features include question weighting, detailed analytics, custom certificates and badges, a quiz dashboard for easy management, and more.
You can learn more about the plugin in our Thrive Quiz Builder review.
Formidable Forms is an advanced form builder that lets you create custom forms with a powerful drag-and-drop builder, including contact forms, online calculators, and more.
It comes with dozens of form templates, or you can create your own from scratch.
You can use Formidable Forms to create quizzes that are automatically scored for the user. After they submit the quiz, you can email them the score, which makes this plugin a great tool to grow your email list.
Note: You’ll need to get at least the Business plan, which includes the Quiz Maker add-on.
For more details, see our guide on how to easily create a quiz in WordPress and our Formidable Forms review.
Interact Quiz Maker is a powerful app for creating viral quizzes so you can generate leads.
It offers a drag-and-drop quiz builder with features to customize the design, style, and colors of your quizzes. Plus, they include over 800 pre-built quiz templates that you can use out of the box or customize.
One standout feature of Interact is that you can create branching quizzes that show questions based on the user’s answers to previous questions. They also have social sharing features so your quizzes can go viral when people share their results.
Interact also integrates with email marketing services so you can grow your list.
MemberPress is the best LMS (learning management system) plugin for WordPress.
If you want to create an online quiz site with courses, scoring, and grades, then MemberPress is the best option. It’s a full course solution that lets you create lesson plans and subscription levels, manage user access and payments, and so much more.
For more details, you can see our complete guide on how to create and sell online courses in WordPress and our MemberPress review.
Once you’ve created the quizzes on your website, you may want to start making money on your website. We’ll cover that next.
Step 4: Monetizing Your Online Quiz Website
If you want to make money on your website, there are several ways to do it.
Build an Email List
Firstly, we always recommend starting an email list.
Quizzes are a smart way to get email subscribers because people are often happy to enter their email addresses to receive their quiz results.
Email marketing is important because most website visitors may be unable to find your website again and will not come back. Once they’re on your email list, you can send them fun newsletters and get them to return to your website.
You can even get paid sponsors for your email newsletters once you have built up a good number of subscribers.
To get started, see our guide on how to start an email list the right way.
Display Ads
An easy way to get started monetizing your quiz website is to sell ads.
You can see our guide on how to monetize a WordPress blog with Google AdSense to get started.
Once you have set up Google AdSense, follow our guide on how to optimize your AdSense revenue for more tips.
While Google AdSense is popular and easy to set up, the money you can earn is limited, and Google takes a big cut.
Another option is to sell ad space on your website directly so you can negotiate the price yourself. To learn more, you can see our guide on how to sell ads on your WordPress blog.
Alternative: Let the Experts Build Your Quiz Website
While creating a quiz website yourself can be rewarding, it’s not the only option. If you’re short on time or prefer a hands-off approach, consider WPBeginner Pro Services.
Our team of WordPress experts can build your entire quiz website for you, tailored to your specific needs. Here’s what we offer:
- Professional website design with a focus on quizzes
- Mobile-responsive design for all devices
- SEO optimization to help your site rank well
- Ongoing support to help you manage your website
Book a free consultation call today and learn more about how we can bring your quiz ideas to life.
Bonus: Best Tools & Resources to Grow Your Quiz Website
WordPress is a super powerful platform and has all the tools you need to grow your traffic and take your website to the next level.
We recommend the following plugins to help grow your website more quickly:
- All in One SEO (AIOSEO) – It’s the best WordPress SEO plugin and will help you rank higher in the search engines.
- MonsterInsights – It allows you to install Google Analytics in WordPress easily, so you can understand where your visitors are coming from and what content on your site is the most valuable.
- PushEngage – With PushEngage, you can send push notifications to your site visitors, encouraging them to return to your website.
Looking for more? See our list of must-have WordPress plugins.
To help you learn WordPress, here are some useful resources:
- WPBeginner Blog – This is where we publish our WordPress tutorials, how-tos, and step-by-step guides.
- WPBeginner Videos – These step-by-step videos will help you learn WordPress FAST.
- WPBeginner on YouTube – Need more video instructions? Subscribe to our YouTube channel with more than 298,000 subscribers and 56 million views.
- WPBeginner Solutions Center – Quickly find the best WordPress tools, curated by WPBeginner’s team of WordPress experts.
- WPBeginner Deals – Exclusive discounts on WordPress products and services for WPBeginner users.
We also have some must-follow guides that you should bookmark for when you need them:
- Most common WordPress errors and how to fix them
- Beginner’s guide to troubleshooting WordPress errors
- The ultimate WordPress security guide (step by step)
- How to increase your blog traffic (proven tips)
If you need more help with WordPress, we also have an active WordPress Facebook group with over 97,000 members where you can get answers to any WordPress question.
That’s it!
We hope this article helped you create a step-by-step online quiz website. You may also want to see our guide on how much it costs to build a WordPress website or our expert pick of the best AI chatbot software.
If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.
Dennis Muthomi
I am using Thrive Quiz Builder on 2 of my clients’ websites, I configured it to show their quiz answers on their email inbox. Since installing it on one of the sites, we’ve seen a significant boost in email suscribers. The quiz was recently added to the other site, so I’m looking forward to seeing the results in a few days.