I’ll be honest. I love WordPress. I’m a WordPress junky. I was using WordPress when the Internets were still calling this thing you’re reading a weblog. Does anyone use a feedreader anymore? Yeah, that’s how long I’ve loved WordPress.
So if you want my advice you should use… WordPress.
Now that that decision is made you need to decide on a domain name. If you’re picky this could take months to come up with one. If you fly by the seat of your pants, well then maybe 5 minutes. And if you just can’t come up with anything, you can always use your name.
I’m actually all three of the above mentioned people so for my personal blog anyone can find it by typing worldofdissonance.com, lifeisrough.net, or laurenstoenescu.com in the URL bar. It’s called parking a domain and it helps if you like to change your mind a lot. Not that I would know anything about that.
Then you will need a host – for reasons I probably don’t need to explain, I’m partial to WebExHosting – but begrudgingly I will admit you can use any host. I should mention that if you sign up at WebExHosting you won’t need to download WordPress to your computer because they (I) offer a one-click install of WordPress along with a lot of other software. They (I) will even install WordPress, themes and plugins for you if you like.
WordPress has an innumerable number of themes and plugins to customize your website to your liking. Many, and I mean MANY, are completely free of charge.
So let’s recap –
1. Purchase a domain name – $12.95 a year
2. Sign up for hosting – starting at $8.00 per month
3. Install WordPress, Theme, Plugins – Free
4. Contact support with any (even silly) question you may have. – Free
And that is how you get started! You don’t have to be a tech genius by any stretch of the imagination. You just have to be willing to ask for help. Helping is our (my) specialty!
Questions?
[contact-form to=’lauren@webexmedia.net’ subject=’Contact form from WebExMedia blog post – Starting a Blog’][contact-field label=’Name’ type=’name’ required=’1’/][contact-field label=’Email’ type=’email’ required=’1’/][contact-field label=’Website’ type=’url’/][contact-field label=’Comment’ type=’textarea’ required=’1’/][/contact-form]