WordPress is the most popular blogging platform in the world – more than one-quarter of all web sites run on their code. There are good reasons for that: it is incredibly flexible, supports third-party themes that create distinctive looks, supports self-hosting and hosted usage and has thousands of plugins that add endless amounts of flexibility.

But having a high-powered, Swiss Army knife platform might be intimidating for someone who just wants to share their recipes or post about their family vacation. Luckily, you can skip most of the fancy features and get down to blogging business in a couple of minutes. WordPress gets you up-and-running on a free blog in just six steps:

  1. First you need to pick a category. This doesn’t lock you in, but it narrows things down for your initial setup.
  2. Next your asked what kind of site you want to create. Choose “Blog” and keep going.
  3. Pick a theme… or don’t. You’ll be able to do this later, but if one inspires you, select one to help you visualize things right out of the gate.
  4. Picking your address. This is what goes in front of the “.wordpress.com” in your URL. You can always purchase a unique domain for your blog at this stage or later on. Blog have been around for a while, so your first choice might not be available. Get creative!
  5. Now you need to pick a plan. You can stick with the free option or upgrade for additional features. Again, you can always upgrade later on and stick with the freebie option for now.
  6. The final step is entering your email address and creating a username and password.

That’s it! You’re ready to start blogging on WordPress and now have a powerful, flexible platform that you can trick out over time as your blog grows and your audience follows. Ready to start blogging on WordPress? go to WordPress.com now and get started.

In a few months you might just have enough great content to print a blog book!