Step by-step how to set up a WordPress.com site

Step-by-Step:
Setting up a
WordPress.com Site

But FIRST…
We’re going to talk about the difference
between WordPress.com and WordPress.org.
Yes, Virginia, there is a difference.

WordPress.com
● Sites are hosted by WordPress. This
arrangement is like Blogger, Wix,
Weebly, Webs, and many, many
others
● Free: You can upgrade to a Premium
plan
● Themes: Lots of free themes, but you
can purchase themes for a modest
one time fee
● Domain name: If you own a domain
name already
(www.yourdomain.com) - you can
attach it to the WordPress.com site
for a modest yearly fee.
● This is a self-install hosted elsewhere
- like with GoDaddy, Blue Host, Host
Gator and dozens of other hosting
services.
● Not Free: There are monthly or
annual fees associated with these
hosting services.
● Themes: Lots of free themes available
through WordPress. There are
themes you can purchase as well.
● Domain name: You must have (or
purchase) your own domain name.
WordPress.org

There are pros and cons to each set-up
WordPress.com
Pros: A lot of the work is done for you
● No backend maintenance required
● WordPress.com does backups
● Free
● Can add-on extras
Cons: A lot of the work is done for you
● Cannot use outside plug-ins
● Themes can have limited
functionality
● Limited Monetization (i.e., having
ads on your site)
WordPress.org
Pros: More control over your site
● Use whatever WP themes you’d like
● Can customize themes and CSS
● Can use whatever plugins you’d like
● Monetize whenever you’d like
Cons: More of the burden falls on you
● Must do WP updates
● Must do your own maintenance:
backups, spam control, etc.
● Cost $$

So, which one do I choose?
It depends on what you want to do.

That’s not meant to be misleading
Ask yourself: What’s the site for?
● Is this a personal blog?
● Are you developing a site for your bricks and mortar business? For your non-profit?
● Are you showcasing materials, like a portfolio of photography or artwork?
● Are you selling products from your site?
● If you are selling products, are they digital only or things like t-shirts?
● Are you only planning on one site or more than one?
● How much experience do you have already with website creation and maintenance?

I know, this Meetup is
about setting up a
WordPress.com site, right?

Yes, but how the questions are
answered will help fill out the picture
regarding the template you should
select and the type of services you
may need.

This isn’t important right now, but it
might be down the road. Keep it in
the back of your mind.
You’ll be relieved to know you can always upgrade
from Free or migrate your site from WordPress.com to
WordPress.org.

On to the meat of the
evening.

We’re doing WordPress.com Free tonight, so
we’ll walk through the steps.
Step 1: Go to WordPress.com and select ‘Create a Site’. Type in a site address.

Step 2
I can’t stress this enough:
Write everything
down!
Site address
Email
Username
Password
It will save you oodles of
time (assuming you
remember where you put
the piece of paper with all
the info!)

Step 3
Look carefully!
You do NOT have to select
a custom address.

That was easy, wasn’t it?
Now it gets a little more tricky - at least to my mind. WordPress
presents the user with “Reader”, a plain vanilla place to add content:
post and pages.
I hate it. This is a personal thing I realize, but it feels very limiting. I
much prefer working with the Administrative Dashboard; it gives
more detail and options, but can be overwhelming to to new user.
Note:
Pages are static. The
content on these pages
shouldn’t change much.
Maybe it’s an About or
Mission page for your site,
or Directions.
Posts are not static - this is
where you’d put content
that changes frequently but
doesn’t go away. So for
example, if you’re writing a
blog you’d create a new
post for each blogged item.

Either way, you add content
Pages: Static
Pages can be ‘Parent’ pages or ‘Child’ pages. Parent pages are at the top
of the navigation hierarchy and Child pages are under them. So if you
have an ‘About’ page and a ‘Directions’ page under it, About is the
Parent and Directions is the child. Pages do not have categories or
tags.
Posts: Changing
Posts have Categories and Tags. See note to the right.
Posts represent changing content. So if you are writing a daily diary
blog cataloging daily emotions, for example, you would write a blog
post every day and attach it to a category - Happy, Ecstatic, Sad, In
Love - whatever. You, and your blog visitors, would find your different
types of blog posts by its category, in this case different emotions.
Note:
Categories for posts help
people find items you’ve
posted. It’s kind of like a
table of contents. You
shouldn’t have too many
categories - just main
topics or broad areas.
Tags for posts are kind of
like an index in a book and
you can add as many of
those as you like.

Images
Images illustrate your content in either Pages or Posts. Images can be added where you type in your
content through “Add Image”. These are usually uploaded from your computer and added to the post
or page as a featured image or embedded into the content.
Images can be a powerful tool and some templates are really driven by images. Photographers, for
example, will select a portfolio style template that helps display their visual content better.

Templates
You may not love the template you first selected or you may
find that it doesn’t really suit your purposes.
YOU CAN ALWAYS CHANGE IT.
Don’t get too caught up in the template hamster wheel.
There are lots of other free templates to choose from.

So, play with it a little!
● Add some posts, pages and images.
● Seek out and change the theme to see if
something works better.
● Add some widgets! (We haven’t talked about
this yet, but we will…)

Widgets
Widgets are the little add-ons that make your site more interesting. Widgets
can be in a sidebar (right or left), in the footer, or in the header. Much of where
these go depends on the theme selected.
WordPress.com gives you a pre-selected bunch of widgets - you can’t add any
news ones. (Nor can you add any plug-ins. What you see is what you get.)

That’s probably enough for
tonight and will give you lots
to think about and work on.

Do you want a Part II
next month?

Step by-step how to set up a WordPress.com site

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