Do you want to give this blogging thing a try but don’t want to spend anything before… giving it a try? I got the answers you are looking for today!
A lot of blogging experts will tell you directly this: if you are thinking about starting a blog, you should do it the professional way by registering a domain address and signing up to a hosting plan. It’s what folks call “the self-hosted WordPress blog”.
Usually, they tell you this is the only way because they want to sell you a hosting plan through their own “special offer”. If you take this out of the way, this approach is also kinda right because it makes you the sole owner of your own structure and content. It is the best way to start, but definitely not the only one.
After all, who are we, bloggers who blog about blogging, to say that you can’t start with a zero cost version of it? Instead of focusing on the “right” way to create, how about we push creating by itself for a change?
Some people don’t have any extra money to spare (specially if you think about these current times when everybody got hit by the effects of a virus). Some people do have a little money, but they want to try things out before committing to an anually billed service. And then there’s people who don’t have all of the details already figured out yet, but they want to try blogging anyway.
Finally, there are also people out there who are just looking to start a blog without the extra stuff. They just want to blog. So do it the free way!
By following this tutorial, you will end up with a fully functioning blog where you can choose its layout, its title and description, and start working on posting content with almost all of the WordPress publishing features 30% of the whole internet loves.
Also, your blog will have a .wordpress.com domain for as long as you want to keep it zero cost. Anyone will be able to access it, and yes, it will be seen as a legitimate blog if your content is up to the task.
Here are all the steps you need to create a free WordPress blog:
- Sign up to a free WordPress account;
- Register for WordPress’ free blogging service;
- Enter the details of your blog (title, URL, description, topic);
- Access you new blog’s administration panel to starting working on it!
Let’s begin! Throughout the tutorial, you will see instructions first, then the screenprints to help you along the way. Don’t worry, this is going to be fast.
Follow this link to open WordPress.com in a new window →
On the welcome page, click “Start your website”.
On the following page, enter the e-mail and password you want to use for your account. You can also log in using your existing Google or Apple account. Click “Create your account” to continue.
If you already have a domain name idea for your blog (remember the free version will have a .wordpress.com address), type it on the designated field and wait for the options list. Once you have found the free version, click “Select” (I’m using alifeablazeonline as an example below).
If you don’t have an idea, check out these tips to get to a great blog title and domain →
Pick a plan for your blog: since this is a “how to start a free blog”, click “Not sure yet? Start with a free site”.
Your site (blog, actually) has been created! Now it’s time for some initial settings that will only happen once so don’t give up now! Click “Get Started” to continue and set the title of your blog.
On the following screen, click “Name your site”.
Here’s where the naming happens: fill out the “Site title”, “Site tagline” (a short and catchy description of your blog) and adjust the preferred language and timezone for your blog.
Click “Save settings” to continue! WordPress will then show you a preview of your blog’s info in action.
Next, it’s time to confirm the e-mail address you have created your account with (if you haven’t done it yet). Find the message at your inbox and click the link to confirm it, WordPress won’t let you active your blog until you have done this.
If you need it, you can click “Resend e-mail” to receive it again.
Jumping ahead of things, WordPress will now ask you to create your blog’s menu. You can skip this and do it later, once you have a couple of blog posts in and you have set a clearer vision for your blog. Click “Skip for now” to continue.
Or you can do it now: click “Add menu” and you will be taken to the menu settings page to create titles that will be listed at the top of your blog.
And you are done with the initial settings!
If you have already confirmed your e-mail, click “Launch site” to activate your blog and see it in action. Open a new tab, type your blog’s address (don’t forget to add .wordpress.com) and check it out!
You get extra bonus karmic blogging points (lol) if you drop your new blog’s URL at the comments below, I would lo-o-ove to check it out too!
Once your blog is online, you will find a few example posts already published. It’s a great way to check out in advance how a blog post works – you can click the title of any of them and play around with its features.
Feel free to mess around, you can always delete them and have your blog all to your brand new posts once you are ready.
If you want to create a new one right away, click “Add new post” at the right corner and start working on your content!
I’ll leave an extra step that you may find crucial at the beginning of your blogging life: how to change your new blog’s layout to something more aligned with your topic or vision. WordPress has a lot, A LOT of free themes that you can instantly apply to your blog in one click.
Find the “Design” tab at the left menu and then choose “Themes” to find a list of pre-existing and free layouts for you to pick. Take your time and try to find one that best suits all of your ideas. Also, you can always change it again later if you change your mind.
Once you have found a great theme to use, click “Activate this design” and it will be applied to your blog. Have fun with this!
A last, and important, tip: to go back to the administration panel of your blog, always type:
https://YOURDOMAIN.wordpress.com/wp-admin
If it asks for your credentials, be sure to use the e-mail and password that you have used to sign up to WordPress in the first step of this tutorial.
This is where you will find all of the tools to publish new content, change layout themes and edit other settings of your blog.
Feel free to explore it while you are at your first blogging days, get acquainted with it and test everything you want. It will be, surely, your most visited URL address during your blogging life! 😉
I hope you have enjoyed this tutorial! I have tried to present a very detailed version of these steps so you can find answers to eventual questions you might ask yourself along the way. If there’s something you haven’t found here, feel free to drop a comment below or to e-mail me at alab@alifeablaze.online an I will be happy to help you out.
I sincerely wish you a great beginning to your blogging journey. Whenever you feel ready to step things up, I also have a complete tutorial on how to start a self-hosted WordPress blog just like this one and all of the other established blogs around that you surely visit and love. Click here to check it out →
Get it started an get to work, do your thing!
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