On any “free” hosting you pay by displaying their ads.
Yes, in order to have your own blog hosted you need to buy a hosting package from a host company. Do your search, and read about good and bad hosts…
There is no “easy” hosting. You either learn the basics or you pay somebody to do it for you.
This might help:
Getting_Started_with_WordPress
I use Yahoo! Webhosting and for someone just starting out, I think they’re great.
They have some tools to help you set up your site/pages, so that might suit your needs.
They do make it pretty easy to host WordPress, as they offer it as an add-on, so you just click to add it. Now, it’s the older version of WordPress they set up right now, so you still have to upgrade to 2.5, but I found that worked well myself. You have to modify the database permissions if you set it up as an add-on first, (Instructions for that are here: http://codex.wordpress.org/User:MichaelH/Installation_Notes/Yahoo ) but once you do that, the update works well.
Anyway, I’m happy with their hosting and it’s not very expensive, either. Good Luck!
@greengoddess
There’s a link right here on the WP forums with some hosting alternatives you can check out.
It really depends on what you need and what you want to do. However, setting up WordPress to run becomes your responsibility from that point on.
You need to do things in the right order
1) Pick & Buy your domain name: yourblogname.com
2) Arrange a hosting plan (a decent linux plan is good for running WordPress. There are requirements for running WordPress listed here)
3) Set up WordPress and start blogging
Some hosts have what is known as Fantastico, which is a “one click” type install for some common software, WordPress usually included.
Those links I left you should be enough to get you started.
Personal note: What I find funny tho is how so many of us for so long said “never trust a one click wonder”, yet we’re all upgrading our plugins that way now with 2.5!
great, thank you all very much!
