Wordpress offers 2 wonderful ways to blog. Today, we are only going to talk about their free service. I will cut right to the chase; let’s build a free wordpress blog together..

1. Point your web browser to wordpress.com.

2. Click the link near the top right part of the screen that says ‘Sign Up Now’.

3. Fill in your personal information. Make sure that you add some alphanumerics (such as: ^ ) # !) to your password to increase it’s strength. If you do not have an email address you can easily get a free one from services such as Gmail or Hotmail . If you need to go signup for a free email just leave this screen and open a new browser window or tab and signup, now.

4. Make sure the checkbox next to ‘Legal Flotsam’ is checked and the radial button that says ‘Gimme a blog! (like username.wordpress.com) is highlighted with a green dot.

5. Click the link at the bottom left of the page that says ‘Next’ and has an arrow —> next to it.

6. Now we will give your blog a ‘Blog Domain’. This is the web address that anyone in the world can use to access your blog so think carefully about a good title. The default Blog Domain Title is your username. I recommend you change this to something that is more descriptive of what will be contained in your blog. For example, if you are writing a blog about tools that can help people make money on the internet then you could call your blog webmastertoolssuccess.wordpress.com. Be sure there are no blank spaces in your blog domain name and you cannot use alphanumeric characters (such as: &%#”) either.

hint: Imagine you are doing a search on Google or Yahoo for something in particular.

Let’s use the example ‘Blog Domain’ I just showed you in step 6. webmastertoolssuccess.wordpress.com. You go to Google.com and input your search terms (supposing you are searching the web for ‘webmaster tools for success’) You input into the search bar ‘webmaster tools because I want success on the internet’. Google will return many results with those particular keywords in it. The domain webmastertoolssuccess.wordpress.com will be moved closer to the first results in the listing because of keywords (webmaster, tools and success) that are part of the ‘Blog Domain’. This makes it easier for people to find that particular Blog Domain. This is just a bit advanced so if you are not sure you fully understand it now, then stick around you soon will!

7. Now it’s time to choose a blog title. This should describe what your blogs about. It will greatly encourage people to click and go to your blog once it’s live on the internet, so choose carefully. I normally try to use a blog title that has the same words as my ‘Blog Domain’ (hint: this is better yet for top search engine results!) So, my example blog will be called ‘Webmaster Tools For Success’.

8. Choose the language you will be blogging in (default is English)

9. Most likely you will want to leave the checkbox next to ‘Privacy’ checked as a lot of people will find your sites using tools like Google and Technorati.

10. Click the ‘Signup —>’ link at the bottom left of the screen to proceed.

11. If you followed all the steps correctly then wordpress sent an email to the address you provided. You can go ahead configure your blog a bit further while you wait for the email to arrive. Fill in your First and last name and tell a little bit about yourself. Whether or not you use your real name is up to you.

12. Go to your email and click the link they provide and your blog is activated! (The mail comes from donotreply@wordpress.com)

13. The link takes you to a page that shows your username and password. Make sure you write this down and keep it in a safe place. You will need it everytime you login to update your blog.

14. Click the link right underneath you new username and password ‘Login’. Enter the username and password that were just provided you. And you are on your way!