Personally, I used bitaddress.org to generate my wallet when I didn't had hardware wallet. I generated it on clean PC with disconnected internet and then I just wrote private key down on a sheet of paper. But if you want best security, you should follow step by step guide posted by mocacinno above.
you can use
https://www.blockchain.com/ without any problem. But if you have the ability to afford a hardware wallet it will be good for you. A hardware wallet is more secure than others. But you can't afford it blockchain is fine.
No, Blockchain.com isn't fine. It's not adviced to use web wallet as a main storage of your crypto. If you can't afford hardware wallet, then I suggest to use desktop wallets like Electrum. It's less secure than hardware wallets, but it's much better choice than web wallet.