WordPress domain hosting

Hi.

I have a very minimally technically literate author friend who wants a blog with his own domain name and a few static pages. I’m thinking that the best solution for him would be to get a wordpress blog( not his own copy of the app, the service )

Ok.

Will wordpress map his domain to his blog? Where does he apply? How much is the charge?

No.

Can anyone recommend a cheap place where he can get an anonymous domain name registration?

What do you mean by anonymous? You are required to provide accurate information when registering a domain by law. And there are services similar to spamhaus, etc.. that accept submissions for web sites that have “obviously” inaccurate information in the whois record.

If you want to _cloak_ your otherwise accurate whois information you can use domains by proxy –> http://www.domainsbyproxy.com/

That’s available with some domain registrars. Ive used it with some of my domains. I do not know if its available with all registrars.

As for cheap, try Google?
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=domain+registration&btnG=Google+Search

Also, I think all of this may overwhelm him. Is there anyway I can start a blog for him with the wordpress blog service, set up his domain, then turn it over _completely_ to him?

Yes, just give him the username and password you signed up with. Change the email on record to his.

Try asking for an invitation from http://blogrunn.com/ – plain ol’ wp blogs, free, space – but the only mapping will be as a subdomain such as myfriendsdomainname.blogrunn.com, pretty much like wordpress.com does (though I do seem to remember that wp.com was going to offer mapping for a price – and probably a fairly high one considering…. but it may have been dropped, or just not be ready for prime-time yet).