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Building a Blog Using WordPress.com
Let’s imagine how someone might use a blog. Bill is a woodworker. He loves the smell of sawdust in his workshop. He goes to the lumberyard and picks out his supplies, takes them home, and makes cabinets for his wife to put the family china in. He is proud of his work and enjoys the compliments visitors to his home pay him. One day, Bill heard from a friend that there were woodworking blogs on the Internet. In the past Bill used the Internet only to look up an address or movie times; he never thought of looking for information about woodworking.
At home he began looking into it and found hundreds of woodworking blogs. People had written blog entries on plans, wood shop design, choosing materials, and all things related to woodworking. Bill loved reading about other people doing woodworking projects and looking at pictures they took during construction and finished products. After reading a number of blogs, Bill decided he wanted to try it on his own. Let’s build Bill his very own woodworking blog.
Signing Up for WordPress.com
Before you begin using WordPress.com, you need to sign up for the service. Don’t worry it’s free and gives you access to their software and a whole community of people using WordPress.com.
1. Open your web browser and navigate to Wordpess. This is the home page for WordPress.com, and it’s the place where you sign up for blog hosting service
2. Click the Sign Up Now button. The Sign Up page appears. On this page, enter all the information you need to set up your blog on the WordPress.com servers.
3. In the Username field, enter a username for your WordPress.com account. When choosing a username, you want to make it unique and easy for you to remember. For example, Bill might choose something like “woodworkingbill.” WordPress.com requires your username to be at least four characters long and have only letters and numbers in it.
4. Next, in the Password field, enter a word or phrase you are going to use for your password. As you enter your password, WordPress.com evaluates it and lets you know whether it is a good one. When choosing a password, make it unique and easy to remember. Try to have a combination of letters and numbers. The case of the letters matters also, so use a combination of upper- and lowercase. WordPress.com also allows you to use the characters !ӣ$%^&( in your password.
5. In the Confirm field, enter your password again. WordPress.com asks you to confirm your password to make sure you get it right.
6. In the Email Address field, enter your email address. This enables WordPress.com to communicate information and administration notes. Make sure it is correct.
7. Beside the Legal Flotsam box, click Fascinating Terms of Service. This opens the Terms of Service Page. Terms of Service is a nice title for a bunch of legal information about using the WordPress.com website. You should read over this if you have the time and patience.
8. When you are finished with the Terms of Service page, click the Back button on your browser. You are returned to the WordPress.com Sign Up page.
9. When you return to the Sign Up page, the Legal Flotsam box should be checked. If it isn’t, check it now.
10. Next, because you are here to create a blog, click the Gimme a Blog button.
11. Click Next. This opens the Blog Information page. You use this page to give basic information about the blog you are starting.
12. The Blog Domain field is filled out with what WordPress.com thinks you might want as your blog domain address. This is a subdomain of the WordPress.com domain, so you don’t need to pay any domain fees or register it. You can edit the Blog Domain only once, so choose wisely. You can use letters and numbers only (no symbols) and need to have at least four characters.
13. The Blog Title field is filled out with what WordPress.com thinks you might want as your blog title address. This can be changed at any time. Make the name representative of what you want to talk about in the blog. Bill chooses Bill’s Wood Working Weblog.
14. Next, select the language you want your blog and configuration pages to use. Your blog comes with several things: navigation, configuration, and help pages that are displayed in a particular language.
15. Select your privacy settings. If you want to have your blog listed in search engines such as Google and Technorati, and in public listings around WordPress.com, click the check box beside Privacy. If you prefer to keep your blog more private, ensure this privacy box is unchecked.
16. Click Signup. You are now signed up with WordPress.com with your very own blog. Next you need to activate your account.
Activating Your Account
After you have signed up for WordPress.com, you need to activate your account. WordPress.com is a public website that bad guys can use for bad things. These bad guys want to use WordPress.com’s servers for nefarious purposes. To keep bad behavior to a minimum, WordPress.com asks you to activate your account.
WordPress.com sends an email to the address you provided when you signed up. The website tells you it can take up to half an hour to get the email, but it is usually instantaneous. When you receive the email message, read it and follow the instructions in the email. The instructions include a link to activate your blog.
After you have clicked on the link to activate your blog, WordPress.com tells you that your site is active and gives you your username and password. Now you’re ready to log in to your blog or view it. Notice that a blog entry is here already. WordPress.com creates a blog entry so you can see what one looks like. The title of the entry is “Hello World” and the text welcomes you to blogging with WordPress.com.