Chapter 4

Where to Go from Here

In This Chapter

Getting started

Checking out dummies.com

Now that you’re armed with the information and details you need to use the WordPress.com hosted service, it’s time for you to get started!

Taking Your First Steps

You can get started by paying particular attention to a few key areas of your WordPress.com account on the first day, such as

Signing Up: If you don’t already have your account set up, you can do so by visiting http://wordpress.com and clicking the Sign Up button to get started. WordPress.com will ask you for some vital information, such as your name and e-mail address, to set up your new account.

Managing Your Profile: Your WordPress.com profile contains your photo (if you want to include it), your name, links to your other profiles on the web, and a short bio. You can create and manage your profile by logging into your WordPress.com account and clicking on the My Profile link under the Users menu in your WordPress.com Dashboard.

Customizing Your Site: Choose from over 170 themes to dress up the look of your site by going to the Themes link in the Appearance menu in your WordPress.com Dashboard. From there, you can select a theme to use on your site, and you can even come back tomorrow and pick a new one because WordPress.com gives you so many options.

Adding a Domain: If you have your own domain name and would like to use it to replace the default URL for your WordPress.com blog (for example, yourname.wordpress.com), you can purchase the domain upgrade, and then WordPress.com takes you through the steps of mapping your domain to your WordPress.com account.

Creating Content: The main point of having a blog on WordPress.com is to create content for others on the internet to read and learn from. You can create a chronological listing of posts (some people call them articles) by visiting the Posts menu in your Dashboard. You can also create static pages, which are kind of like posts, but they aren’t included in your chronological list of posts and are designated as static because they typically do not change that often (like an About Me or Contact page).

Visiting dummies.com

Along with the information in this book, additional WordPress.com content is housed at the official For Dummies website. Point your web browser to www.dummies.com/go/inaday/wordpress to get some additional tips on creating and enhancing a WordPress.com blog. Visit the site to find

Ten great WordPress.com blogs: I share links to ten of my favorite WordPress.com blogs to help inspire you as you create your blog.

A gallery of the images from this book: Sometimes it’s tough to see the details of the images in your eReader of choice. Visit the website to get a closer look.

Video training: I’ve posted videos highlighting the steps for creating a blog post at WordPress.com, moving an existing blog to WordPress.com, and how to feed Flickr photos to your WordPress.com blog.

Step-by-step articles and tutorials: Learn how to upload figures to your blog, upgrade your WordPress account, use RSS widgets, and more!