Do you want to start your own blog? That’s always a good thing, but it’s not easy to find your way around at first. However, things are a lot easier nowadays, and with great platforms, you can start in a few simple clicks without paying anything at all. There are some good blogging tools, but WordPress is one of the most popular content management systems (CMS). In this guide, I want to show you how you can start your own WordPress blog for free in just a few clicks and less than a minute if you’re fast.
WordPress can either be hosted on your own server, but beware of security hardening, or you can make use of the free cloud service from WordPress.com. This tutorial on setting up your WordPress blog is focused on the latter. Installing WordPress to start a blog on your own server might take a few more clicks than eight, but if you’re really curious about that, you can have a look at this tutorial. We focus on the cloud-hosted version for now. If you always wanted to start but thought it’s too hard and technical, you no longer have an excuse to procrastinate. Let’s get to it.
Tutorial to start your own free WordPress blog
Now, I agree; it’s not really that important how many clicks it takes to get you started. Still, I wanted to know how simple things are in 2021, and that’s why I started with a fresh account and walk you through with a couple of screenshots along with the steps to this guide on launching your own WordPress blog. Now let’s start a WordPress Blog? What are you waiting for? Load up www.wordpress.com, and let’s get going.
- Click #1: Let the page load and click the blue “Start your website” button.
- Click #2: Click on the email field and enter your information.
- Click #3: Click on the username field and enter your information.
- Click #4: Click on the password field and enter your information.
- Click #5: Click on the blue “Create your account” button.
Alternatively, you could also use your Google or Apple account to log in. In this case, you’d not need to do it like that but click the icons on the right side to continue.
- Click #6: Click on the text field and enter the domain you want here.
- Click #7: Click on the free option if you don’t want a paid domain name.
- Click #8: Click on “Or start with a free site” if you don’t want a paid option.
That’s it. Your new WordPress blog is up and running. The blog is empty, but you can start blogging right here and now. Later you can learn about how to set up your WordPress instance and how to make it look nice with a pretty theme.
Well, since you’re already here, we can also do some more steps together to get your first post published. On the left side of the navigation bar, click on “Posts” and then “Add New.”
The editor will load up along with a small tour for you to learn about all the functions. This editor is called Gutenberg, and some refer to it as block editor. It has been around for a while, and while it lets you perform general writing relatively quickly with a good user experience, it lacks some functions.
Personally, I prefer the “classic editor” because it’s much easier to make text justified, how we always do it over here at TechAcute. Still, if you’re a new blogger and only just started a WordPress blog, you might as well skip the classic editor and jump straight on to the Gutenberg editor. Enter a title, enter some text, and then click on the blue “Publish” button in the upper right corner.
The sidebar will change slightly and offer you some other options to check into. If you are happy with everything, click on the blue “Publish” button once more.
The post is now ready, but since we only just started this blog, we still need to activate it on the WordPress cloud by clicking on the reddish “Launch site” button in the upper right corner.
They will ask you once more about the domain and plan now. Just confirm by selecting the free options here.
On the next page, you can see the rates of what it costs to upgrade your free WordPress plan to a paid plan and what features it would include. For TechAcute, we are currently running the WordPress Business plan, but perhaps you don’t need all these features right from the start. Maybe you can think about upgrading your plan after you started to monetize your blog and have some money coming in on the side.
As long as you can blog posts, you’re actually good to go, and that doesn’t cost a thing. You can still go for an upgrade and a cool domain name later on, perhaps when you thought of a cool brand. Click “start with a free site” just like before to carry on.
This is it. We are back to the WordPress dashboard, and you get the confirmation that we are launched and live. Don’t believe me? Here’s the evidence that it works.
As we are live now and everything is on the public Internet, you can share your blog with others and get busy writing some more blog posts. Time spent writing is never done in vain. You might feel like nobody would care, but there is always someone who reads what you wrote. As long as you keep writing, you will keep getting better, and more people will start to visit your blog.
This was it? That’s all it takes to start a WordPress blog? Yes, you’re done. You started your own WordPress blog in just a few clicks, and with some more clicks, you’re done and got your first post up. Congratulations and all the best for your future blogging endeavors on WordPress. If you want to learn more about what all the other buttons are good for, have a look at the guide below.
YouTube: Getting Started on WordPress.com – Welcome Video (Tutorial)
Photo credit: The feature image has been done by Gili Dailes. The screenshots in the body of the article have been taken by Christopher Isak and are owned by Automattic.
