Head over to wordpress.com and you can register a free blog. Then after you feel more comfortable you can install wordpress on your own server.
Several options for people not wanting the hassle of installing and maintaining WordPress:
Visit http://www.transycan.net/start-blogging/ and start a blog there.
Visit http://wordpress.com/ and start a blog there.
The downside of going with less hassle is less control. I’m not a ‘computer person’ at all, but after a few tries I feel comfortable with the program. If it’s really going to be a personal blog and stay a personal blog forever, then the simple plans will work. But if you think it will ever evolve into something bigger, you are better off plunging into the deeper water now. Why? Because traffic is related to longevity and you don’t want to start all over at a later date. Plus, if you establish a website on your own it’s yours forever, and it’s your trademark being promoted.
Contrary to what Wendel says, I’d recommend going with WordPress.com if you want to just try it out for a while. Here’s what I recommend:
1. Get a domain name. I use GoDaddy for my names, but different people like different things.
2. Get a free blog on WordPress.com. Then buck up the $10 to attach your own domain name to it.
3. Use it for a while. If you decide at some point that you need to switch to your own hosting or that you want to put ads on it (no ads on WP.com), or that you just want to customize it more, then you can always export your blog from WP.com and install WP on your own server, and import it there. No loss of content or anything else. And no loss of traffic, since you can just repoint the domain name and your readers will follow along.
The important bit is step 1. Once you have your own domain, then it’s possible to do a lot more things. Plus you’ll have your own “brand” like Wendel is talking about.
Yeah, what Otto said.
I did start with a WordPress.com site but chucked it after a couple of weeks. You can easily learn this stuff that fast. I didn’t know about the $10 deal, good idea!
Edit: And Otto, speaking of history, I recently switched to a new user name here so it matches my new website name. Any way to attach the history of my old user name to this one?
I don’t think so. Mods definitely don’t have that kind of access to the backend.
Thanks Moshu,
It never hurts (much) to ask.
Here in Austin we have a WordPress Yahoo! user group. That’s another resource people might find useful, look for it in your area. I’ve found someone here who is really good at PHP (which I’m not) and I am grateful that he’s available on a reasonable retainer fee. Knowledge is power and sometimes it’s worth paying for it.
