Begin blogging
If you would like to set up your own website that can be regularly updated with new ideas and descriptions of events in a chronological order, it doesn't get much easier than using Wordpress.com. This guide takes you through the step by step process of setting up and starting with a Wordpress.com blog.
Set Up a Wordpress Account
- Go to the WordPress.com website sign up page (note: do not confuse this site with the software development site of WordPress.org).
http://www.wordpress.com/signup/ - Choose a username for yourself. The username is used to identify you as an author of your posts. This can be different than the name of the blog, which is helpful if you are going to have a blog with multiple authors.
- Choose a password and enter it once in each of the boxes provided. A password should always be something easy for you to remember but difficult for other people to guess. Please note: if the status bar underneath the password field does not say "Good" or "Strong", then you will not be able to proceed.
- Enter a valid email address that you can access (your initial password will be sent here).
- Read the "Terms of Service" and check the "Legal Flotsam" checkbox.
- Select the "Gimme a blog! (Like username.wordpress.com)" radio button
Press the "Next" button. Note, if your username is taken, or your password
isn't strong enough, you will need to change those before continuing.
Choose a Domain Name
On the next page you can set the subdomain of your blog. Note, you will not be able to change this once it is set. A subdomain is a child of a regular domain. In this example, the domain name is wordpress.com, and our subdomain is flossmanuals. Therefore, our web address, or URL, is http://flossmanuals.wordpress.com. Your subdomain will have to be unique to wordpress.com or you will be asked to create a new one.
You can also give your blog it's title. You can change the title in the future if you need to.
Set the language using the drop down menu.
And finally, press the "Signup" button.
You will then be prompted to check the email you provided to activate the accoun. Click the link provided in the email and you should see a message saying "Your account is now active!".
Log In to Your New Blog
After you have activated your account, browse to the domain you chose.
Find the Meta section in the sidebar and then click the Login link.
Use your login credentials; you should have gotten them by e-mail after having followed the activation link.
If all went well, you're logged in to your new blog (what once said 'login' should now say 'logout').
Customising your blog
After you have logged in you will see the "Dashboard" screen.
Click on "Design" and you can select a different overall look for your site
Creating a blog post
After you've chosen a theme, you can then start creating content by clicking on "Write" in the dashboard menu. To create a post in your blog, click on "post"
Adding a static page
To create a static page that will not appear as a post but will be accessible via the navigation menu, click "page".
Once you have posted content, you are now ready to let the world know about your site's existence. See Distributing and Publicizing Your Blog's Content
