WordPress: How to Create a Free Blog?

What is a blog? 

A blog is a collection of articles. These articles, also called posts, are texts written directly by you or by someone else who does it for you. You can publish many types of articles on your blog which can be made on platforms such as WordPress. These may include articles explaining how to do something, articles of thoughts and opinions, rankings and reviews, stories, recipes and the list goes on. In short, everything that can be told and explained by means of text, audio and video, can become an article on your blog. 

What is the difference between a blog and a website? 

A blog is a type of website typically used to share thoughts and ideas on a specific topic with an audience of readers. Websites are generally used to show information about a business or organization, while blogs can be used for both commercial and personal purposes. A blog is updated regularly with new articles, while a website can remain virtually unchanged over time. 

The blog is used to create content that answers specific questions concerning your sector and that interest your target audience. It allows you to improve the visibility of your site, because you can rank for many keywords with each article, and it increases the popularity of your brand. That’s why I recommend starting a blog even if you already have a website. Opening a blog on your site will allow you to get better results in terms of visibility and traffic. 

WordPress.com is one of the most popular and well-known platforms for creating a free website or blog. It should not be confused with the CMS (or content management system) that you can download from WordPress.org. (also in this case for free) and for which you would therefore need a hosting where you can install it. In the case of the service that WordPress.com offers, you just need to create a user account to get your blog for free as the blog is installed for free on the servers of Automattic, which is the owner of the platform. 

Create a free blog with WordPress 

I’ll explain the steps you need to follow to create the blog from scratch, that is, having to create the account on WordPress.com as well. You will see that it is very simple and that in reality the creation of the user account is the last step. 

WordPress Account Registration

The first thing to do is to enter WordPress.com Then click on the button “Start your Website“. Create a new account on wordpress.com. You may also use your Google or Apple account to log in. On the next page you will need to create your account. Enter your username, email and password and that’s it. At the end click on Create an account. The website will send you an email to confirm that your address is correct. Click on the link and confirm everything. 

WordPress Name and Domain

The third screen is where you decide the name of the WordPress blog. Consider that you can change this choice whenever you want in the future. In this same screen you will then have to tell WordPress what your site is about, why you want to create it and how experienced you are in creating a website. All this info is asked of you to improve your experience but do not stress: write a little what you want.

The next step is to choose a domain for your blog. Since the blog is free, the domain must be of the type given to you by wordpress.com. In my case the choice the website gave me was: <the name you want> .home.blog. Sometimes it will be something like <name you want> .wordpress.com. It depends! If you want to completely decide which domain to have (so without the home.blog or wordpress.com at the end) you should choose one of the other options that wordpress.com gives you. However, it is something you can do later, without problems. 

Last Step

The last step is to decide on the annual plan. In this case it is the free one. Choose wordpress.com domain name. Once this step is finished, you will arrive at the control panel of your new blog. Now your blog is created and you can start posting content!

WordPress.com can be used to create a blog for free, but the features are limited and I advise against using it as the results will be unprofessional. You will need to fill in a form with your site data: the title of the site; the email of the WordPress user; your domain; the WordPress username; the password to log into WordPress. Please note your username, password and email address that you will use to access the platform immediately!