First, you’ll need to create a username and password. When you sign up for wordpress.com, it’s not necessary to use a domain name like www.yourdomainnamehere.com because WordPress will automatically assign you a sub-domain based on your username (i.e., if your username is myname12345, the site URL will be http://myname12345.wordpress.com). You can change this later if desired by changing the settings from within the dashboard of your site—but that’s another tutorial altogether!
Next, select and confirm your email address before continuing with creating your blog account; this is how WordPress emails important information such as resetting passwords or notifications about comments on posts (if enabled).
The first step to starting your blog is to select a theme. It doesn’t matter whether you’re using WordPress.com or self-hosted, there will be plenty of free themes available for you to choose from. There are several things to consider when selecting a theme:
- Make sure it’s simple and easy-to-use
- Make sure it looks good on all devices (responsive)
- Check if the theme creators offer support and updates for their product
Writing and publishing posts
- Writing and publishing posts
- Editing, scheduling, or deleting a post
Joining the community via groups and forums
There are many groups and forums that you can join to meet other bloggers and get help starting your blog.
- WordPress Support Forum: This is the official support forum where you can post questions, share ideas and get feedback on your blog. Questions are answered by other users and more experienced experts who have been involved in the community for years.
- Thesis Forums: This forum allows users to ask questions about using Thesis, a popular theme for WordPress blogs. If you’re having trouble with creating or maintaining a site using this theme, check out their forums for help from others who use it.
- Alltop Social Media Blogging Sites Listings: This list includes sites such as Twitter (for posting), Facebook (for sharing), Google Buzz (for sharing) LinkedIn (for connecting), and StumbleUpon (for finding new content).
Setting up basic security
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Adding widgets to the sidebar
Widgets are mini apps that can be added to a website, and they’re made by third-party developers. You can add widgets to the sidebar or footer of your blog, depending on what you want them to do. There are many different types of widgets that come in all different shapes and sizes, so it’s up to you how you want your blog to look!
There are two ways that I like using widgets:
- To display the latest posts from my favorite blogs (I like seeing what’s going on with my favorite blogs)
- To add social media buttons so readers can share posts with their friends
Editing the header, footer and navigation menu
You can customize your site’s header, footer and navigation menu. The header is the area at the top of every page in your blog; it includes your blog’s name, tagline and any widgets you have placed there. The footer is typically located at the bottom of each post; it contains information such as author bio, social media links and comments count. Finally, the navigation menu is a list of links on the left-hand side of your site that allows readers to navigate through different sections or posts within your blog.
If you’re using WordPress software, editing these three elements (header, footer and navigation menu) will be familiar because they are similar across all WordPress sites (as long as they’re not customized). To change them in one go:
- Go to Appearance > Customize from within your Dashboard (or use this direct link)
- Click on Header / Menu / Footer blocks respectively
- Click on “Actions” next to each block – this will open up an options box for changing things like colors/text size etc
Finding support if you get stuck or have questions
- Use the search bar.
- Ask a friend or family member for help.
- Join a forum or community where you can ask questions and get answers from other people who have been in your shoes before.
- Seek help from a professional such as an editor, designer, or web developer (if you need one).
There’s lots of help available for setting up your blog on WordPress.
There’s lots of help available for setting up your blog on WordPress.com. Here are some resources to get you started:
- Support Forum: You can post questions and get answers from other members in the support forum at http://forums.wordpress.com/.
- Documentation: The WordPress documentation has lots of useful information about how to use your site and what plugins you might want to install on it (plugins are small programs that add extra features). You’ll find it here: https://codex.wordpress.com/Main_Page
Conclusion
So there you have it, an introduction to setting up a blog on WordPress. We hope this guide has been useful and will help you start your blog on WordPress. If you have any questions or comments please let us know in the comment section below!