Starting a blog for free is a quick and easy process. You don’t need any technical knowledge, provided that you use the right blogging platform, that is. There are several free blogging platforms online, but your best bet is WordPress, the most popular in the world. WordPress powers 24% of the web as of 2015. In spite of its many features, WordPress is easy to set up and maintain, and makes posting and other routine blogging operations simple to perform thanks to an effective and well-ordered admin dashboard.
Another advantage of WordPress is that it is flexible and scalable, so that you can build any kind of blog, from a small personal blog for friends and family only, to a big corporate blog with thousands of followers. There are many different themes that can change the look and feel of your WordPress blog, and most of these are free and easy to install and change. Finally, WordPress is backed by an enthusiastic and devoted community which provides plenty of resources and step-by-step guides on virtually any aspect of WordPress.
WordPress.com Versus WordPress.org
It’s important to understand that WordPress comes in two flavors: WordPress.com and WordPress.org. WordPress.com is an online blogging platform maintained by Automattic, the creators of the WordPress software, and lets you to start a new blog in just a few minutes. WordPress.org, on the other hand, is the official WordPress website where you can download the WordPress software that can be installed on your computer, whether you’re using Windows, Linux, or Mac. For the sake of convenience, we refer to the software as WordPress.org.
The WordPress software is free to download and use, but in order to set up a blog with it, you have to register a domain such as your-blog-name.com and pay for the hosting fees, which vary depending on the hosting provider you choose. Hosting fees can be as small as a few dollars. With a WordPress.com subscription, you don’t have to pay any hosting costs. Your domain will have the wordpress.com extension, and look something like blogname.wordpress.com. Later on, you can add your own domain to a WordPress.com blog with a paid subscription starting at $18 a year.
Pros and Cons of WordPress.com
WordPress.com comes with both advantages and disadvantages compared to WordPress.org. The big advantage is that the technical side of your blog is taken care of by the team at Automattic, which updates WordPress to the latest version and keeps the performance high. Your blog comes with a nice set of built-in plugins and you have hundreds of themes to choose from. The downside is that you only get 3GB of storage space for a free plan and WordPress may show ads on your posts. What’s more, you can’t add plugins or customize your theme unless you upgrade to a rather costly annual subscription.
By contrast, although it has to be set up and comes with hosting fees, a WordPress.org install doesn’t come with any of the limitations above, allowing you to install any theme and plugin you want and customize the code of your site until your heart’s content. But you do have to manually update your WordPress.org installation, themes, and plugins, as well as make sure that the plugins you use are compatible with each other.
If you want a simple blog for a small audience without paying anything for hosting, a WordPress.com blog is more than enough. On the other hand, if you want your own domain, which is recommended for a professional blog, business blog, or if you want to increase your credibility before a wider audience and look like a professional blogger, paying for the hosting is well worth it. Either way, the blog set up process is free.
To help you start a truly free blog, without any hosting fees, we focus this guide on WordPress.com. While we understand WordPress.com’s limitations, we believe that they are not a hindrance to you if you’re starting your first blog. What’s more, the possibility to move or transfer your blog data at any time from WordPress.com to a custom WordPress.org installation means that should you find the former too limited for your needs, you can easily move your site without losing any of your posts or content and unleash the full power of WordPress with customizable themes and thousands of remarkable plugins. For beginners, though, WordPress.com is the simplest and easiest way to start a blog for free.
Before You Create Your Blog
Do you know the name of your blog? What will it be about? What audience are you targeting if any? What type of content will you post on your blog? Knowing the answers to these questions before you start a blog will help you choose the right name and tagline, as well as configure the basic settings for your blog. Check our How to Configure WordPress General Settings to learn more about the name and tagline fields in the WordPress General Settings.
Start a WordPress.com Blog For Free
On your desktop or laptop, go to www.wordpress.com. Click on the Create Website button.
Step 1
Choose a free theme. WordPress.com offers you hundreds of free themes. Notice that there are different types of themes. Some are designed specially for journal-like blogs, some for photography blogs, others for business blogs. Choose any theme that you think will go well with the intent of your blog. Regardless of the theme you choose, you will be able to change it at any point later on through a setting in your admin dashboard. Also in the dashboard you will be able to filter themes based on their layout and colors, as well as find out whether a theme is responsive or not.
Step 2
Enter your domain name. The domain is the web address or URL that visitors will type in their web browser to access your site. As we’ve already noted, WordPress.com enables you to create a website without registering a domain and paying for hosting, by choosing the Free domain option. With this option, your blog URL will look like your-blog-name.wordpress.com. It’s not the most professional of domain names, but it’s enough for a personal blog, at least until you become familiar with WordPress. You can change your domain at any time, as well as export your WordPress.com blog data to a WordPress.org installation.
Step 3
Select the Free plan. As of 2015, a free WordPress.com plan comes with 3GB of storage space for your photos and includes community support through an active user forum. Please note that with a free WordPress.com plan you cannot directly upload videos to WordPress, though you can embed them in your posts from YouTube or other sites.
Step 4
Create your WordPress.com account by providing a valid email address and choosing a username and password. Once you do that, click on Create My Account.
Done!
That’s about it. You have just started a blog for free. Now you want to start customizing your blog and publishing your first post. Make sure you check our other guides, including How to Configure WordPress General Settings, How to Pick a WordPress Theme, and How to Write a Blog Post, as they will guide you through your first steps with WordPress. Most of these guides have been written for WordPress.org, but they apply to WordPress.com as well. Have fun with your new WordPress.com blog and remember – should you ever want to unleash the full power of WordPress, you can always transfer your WordPress.com blog to a WordPress.org installation.
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