Your First Website

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If you don’t yet have a website, at some point, you will want to arrange for that. Websites are technical time-suckers and can be lessons in pure frustration.

The simplest way to get started is with a blog, and best of all, it’s FREE. There are a number of blogging platforms and services available that you can use, but I’m going to steer you towards WordPress. WordPress ROCKS!

The best place to start is by going to http://www.wordpress.com . There, you can sign up for a free account and choose a blog template that you like and start arranging things the way you want them to look and blog to your heart’s content.

The ONLY downside to this is that your site name will look like this: http://www.yourname.wordpress.com. AND the fact that you can only choose from the templates that WordPress provides (but they have plenty, so don’t fret!).

The upside is, that there are no costs associated with having WordPress host your site. (when another name follows your name, that means that the other name is the host). If you prefer that your site address is this: http://www.yourname.com, then that means you will have to buy/register the yourname part and then you will have to pay for a hosting company to keep your website files on its server so that the public can access your site. I know this isn’t technical terminology – I’m trying to explain this in easy to understand English, so if you are web-savvy, forgive my lack of wanting to talk like a geek.

There are other blog companies, and I’ve tried a few of them, but hands down, I love WordPress the best. (and I don’t get anything for recommending them).

Later on, when you’re ready to buy your own domain name, you can transfer your WordPress site and not lose any of your hard work.

To get started, go to WordPress.

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