How to Create a WordPress.com Account
If you’re just starting out and don’t want to spend money purchasing a domain name and hosting your site with a third-party web host, WordPress has a great solution for you. To create your WordPress user account, follow these steps:
1
In the address bar of your browser, enter the URL wordpress.com.
The WordPress.com opening page appears.
3
In the Blog Address text box, type the word you’ve chosen as your blog address.
Whatever you enter here becomes the URL address of your blog. It must be at least four characters (letters and numbers only), and don’t worry about choosing the perfect thing; you can change this later. You can use any blog address you want; however, if you choose a blog address that doesn’t follow certain rules, WordPress displays a message.
If you see this message, you need to pick a new one because WordPress doesn’t allow duplicate blog addresses. Keep in mind that search engines catalog your content based on your chosen URL, so use a domain name that relates well to your site’s content.
4
Select the suffix for your blog address.
In the drop-down list to the right of the Blog Address text box, you have several options. One is free, and the others cost you $18 to $25/year. WordPress gives you the option to purchase available domain names if you want to spend an additional $18. WordPress also makes the .net, .me, and .org suffixes available for purchase.
For now, select the free wordpress.com suffix; you can always upgrade to a paid domain later if you want.
5
In the Username text box, enter the name you want to use to log in to your blog from now until forever.
Your username must be at least four characters with letters and numbers only. WordPress automatically fills in the username box with the same username as the blog address you typed in Step 3; however, you don’t have to use that one and can choose to type in your own, unique username.
For security purposes, choose a username that’s different from your blog address because that makes it more difficult for anyone to guess. You can change the username on the blog you’re creating right now after you log in and have access to the Dashboard.
6
Type a password of your choice, first in the Password text box and then again in the Confirm box.
You use this password to log in to your new WordPress account. Choose and then type a password that you’ll remember, but not one that would be easy for anyone to guess. Your password must be at least four characters. WordPress gives you a visual indicator of the strength of your password choice, with strength meaning how easy or difficult it is for someone to guess what your password is.
7
Type your e-mail address in the E-mail Address text box.
This address isn’t made public on your blog; rather, it’s used for communication between you and WordPress. You can change this address later, in the Options section on your WordPress.com Dashboard.
WordPress has several upgrade options such as domain names, space upgrades, and custom design. During the signup process, WordPress offers a Value Bundle that provides you with upgraded features for $99, which you can add to your blog by clicking the Upgrade button in this step. For now, though, click the Create Blog button to obtain a free blog.
9
Click the Create Blog button.
This completes the signup process, and a new page opens with a message that WordPress has sent you an e-mail containing a link to activate your account. As you wait for that e-mail to arrive, take a moment to fill out the Update Your Profile! form on this page. Enter your first name, last name, and a few sentences about yourself.
Then click the Save Profile button. Later, you can choose to display your profile information on your blog.
10
Choose a theme and start blogging.
The final signup step is to choose one of several themes that WordPress provides for your blog. Don’t worry about your choice here because you can come back and change your theme anytime. For now, find the Twenty Eleven theme and select it for your blog by clicking its thumbnail.
11
Check your e-mail and click the Activate Blog link in the e-mail message from WordPress to activate your new WordPress blog.
The Dashboard for your WordPress account loads in your browser window with a message welcoming you to WordPress. The Dashboard also displays a few helpful items to help you get started.
If you don’t want to see the Welcome box at the top of your Dashboard page, click the Hide This Screen link in the bottom-right corner of the Welcome to WordPress.com box.
Your new blog is yours to use for the life of your blogging career on WordPress.com. You can log in to your blog anytime by clicking the Log In button in the top-right corner of the WordPress website.

Blogging & Social Networking Glossary
archive
1. (noun) A list of previous blog posts, in chronological order. 2. (verb) To place files or blog posts in a safer place (on DVD or another server) for longer-term or backup storage.

Blogging & Social Networking Glossary
attribute
Used in an HTML tag to give an instruction to a Web browser. For example, in This link goes to <a href="http://www.google.com">Google</a>, the <a> tag gets an attribute (href) and a value ("http://www.google.com") to go along with the basic tag. In this case, the attribute indicates to the browser that what comes next is a hypertext reference — in this case, a Web page.

Blogging & Social Networking Glossary
blacklist
An often-centralized list of e-mail addresses, URLs, and IP addresses used by spammers that are then forbidden in any blog post on your blog. With an up-to-date blacklist, a lot of spam is stopped before it becomes a comment.

Blogging & Social Networking Glossary
block
To stop all contact with a MySpace user. He can’t comment on your blog page or send you any message that you actually receive.

Blogging & Social Networking Glossary
blog
A combination of the words Web and log. Bloggers (individuals, groups, or businesses) post a chronological log of information. Content is determined entirely by the author(s) of the blog; many are personal journals.

Blogging & Social Networking Glossary
blog post
An entry in a blog, possibly containing text, images, and other media.

Blogging & Social Networking Glossary
blogger
The author of a blog.

Blogging & Social Networking Glossary
blogging policy
Outlines what you’re allowed to post in your blog.

Blogging & Social Networking Glossary
blogging software
Technology that enables you to blog. Can be either hosted or nonhosted.

Blogging & Social Networking Glossary
blogroll
A collection of links used or recommended by a blogger.

Blogging & Social Networking Glossary
cookie
A short piece of computer code, stored on your computer, that enables Web sites to remember certain settings and information the next time you visit that site.

Blogging & Social Networking Glossary
Dashboard
A kind of control panel in Blogger that shows you the blogs you’ve set up, giving you access posting, using help resources, or even creating another blog.

Blogging & Social Networking Glossary
definition list
A type of HTML list that gives a term and then its definition and has built-in spacing to lay out those elements properly.

Blogging & Social Networking Glossary
disk space
Amount of room available on your hard drive.

Blogging & Social Networking Glossary
domain
A domain is the address, or main URL, that people type in the browser to get to your Web site. The domain name you choose can’t be used by anyone else.

Blogging & Social Networking Glossary
domain registrar
A service that enables you to register a domain name.

Blogging & Social Networking Glossary
entry
An single posting in a blog containing text, images, or other media, or any combination of those things.

Blogging & Social Networking Glossary
Facebook
A social-networking service that enables you to keep in contact with families and friends via the Web.

Blogging & Social Networking Glossary
Flickr
A Web site that allows you to share, organize, edit, and otherwise manage your photos.

Blogging & Social Networking Glossary
Friend List
Your virtual online address book in MySpace. You can become someone’s friend by either sending a fellow MySpacer a Friend Request or by being on the receiving end of a Friend Request from another MySpace user.

Blogging & Social Networking Glossary
hosted services
Manages the data, software, and Web hosting of a blog; the blogger just manages the content.

Blogging & Social Networking Glossary
HTML
The computer coding used by Web designers to create Web pages.

Blogging & Social Networking Glossary
hyperlink
A navigation tool that allows a user to go from one Web location to another by clicking. Hyperinks (or just links) are typically underlined.

Blogging & Social Networking Glossary
hypertext reference
In HTML, the address that a hyperlink connects to when clicked. For example, in This link goes to <a href="http://www.google.com">Google</a>, the hypertext reference (href) is http://www.google.com. Hyperlink references can also jump to new positions on the same page, open a new e-mail message, or begin a file download.

Blogging & Social Networking Glossary
link
Short for hyperlink, a navigation tool that allows a user to go from one Web location to another by clicking. Links are typically underlined.

Blogging & Social Networking Glossary
Mom test
A self-test that flags inappropriate blog posts. If you’d let your mom read the post, then it’s probably passed the Mom test. Specifically, don’t blog about topics you think will hurt others; don’t blog about others without their permission, even about topics you consider inconsequential; and don’t identify friends and lovers by name without their permission.

Blogging & Social Networking Glossary
MySpace
A social-networking service that enables you to keep in contact with families and friends via the Web.

Blogging & Social Networking Glossary
MySpace profile
Your MySpace identity. It can contain as much or as little information about you as you’d like.

Blogging & Social Networking Glossary
news aggregation
The ability to aggregate news by using RSS feeds. Having a news aggregator included with your blog package allows your site to pull in information from another blog.

Blogging & Social Networking Glossary
nonhosted service
Blog software that you set up on your own Web server. It allows you to take on all responsibilities related to maintaining your blog.

Blogging & Social Networking Glossary
ordered list
Contains items that must be listed in a particular order, such as a list of ranks or preferences. It may also indicate a list of steps for the reader to follow.

Blogging & Social Networking Glossary
pinging
An automated notification system for search engines and newsreaders, letting those services know that your blog has been updated. A ping occurs when one computer asks another whether it’s there; the second computer confirms its presence.

Blogging & Social Networking Glossary
post
1. (noun) An entry in a blog containing text, images, other media, or any combination of these. 2. (verb) The act of creating and/or uploading a blog entry.

Blogging & Social Networking Glossary
private profile
A MySpace profile that’s limited on who can view it, such as only people on your Friend List.

Blogging & Social Networking Glossary
public domain
The status of publications, processes, and product designs that are free from copyrights and/or patents and are available for anyone's use.

Blogging & Social Networking Glossary
social network
A service, such as Facebook or MySpace, that enables to keep in touch with people you know — and meet people you don’t know.

Blogging & Social Networking Glossary
spam
Unsolicited electronic messages sent in bulk that may be commercial, nonsensical, or malicious. In addition to e-mail spam, blog comments and blog forums can be targeted by spammers.

Blogging & Social Networking Glossary
tag
A relevant keyword associated or assigned to a piece of information, such as an image, a blog entry, or a video clip. Tags are usually chosen informally by the content creator or by the online community; they help give content to nontext media and organize information for ease of searching.

Blogging & Social Networking Glossary
Trackback
A technology that tracks references to a blog posting that occurs on other blogs. They allow bloggers to link to blog posts on related topics.

Blogging & Social Networking Glossary
transparent
1. Being honest and truthful on your blog. Also means that you admit mistakes and engage in dialogue with readers who leave comments. Considered proper blogging etiquette. 2. Integration of applications, programs, and media from different sources in such a way that the end user is unaware that the content is not self-contained.

Blogging & Social Networking Glossary
unordered list
unordered list is a series of bulleted items and is used for lists that don’t require numbering.

Blogging & Social Networking Glossary
video blog
A blog consisting of video files, or the practice of placing a video file in a blog post.

Blogging & Social Networking Glossary
video-sharing service
A service, such as YouTube, that enables you to share video with others.

Blogging & Social Networking Glossary
Web host
The Web server where you software, graphics, and other files live online.

Blogging & Social Networking Glossary
Web server
Technology that looks at what Web page is requested and then feeds the browser the appropriate file. It does most of the hard work of serving Web pages to visitors coming to your Web site.

Blogging & Social Networking Glossary
whitelist
A list of preselected users who are allowed to comment on your blog.

Blogging & Social Networking Glossary
YouTube
A video-sharing service.