Sign Up with WordPress.com

Navigate to https://wordpress.com in your web browser.

Click Create Website.

Type an email address where you can receive the activation link.

Note: A green check mark appears at each stage if your entry is accepted.

Type a username of lowercase letters and numbers.

Type a strong password.

Type the name you want as the address of your site.

A check mark appears if the name is available.

A dropdown offers to sell you available, similar domains as an option.

Click No thanks, I’ll use the free address. (yourname.wordpress.com) and continue scrolling down.

A table shows you what features are available for free and for paid upgrades.

Click Create Blog to use the free website option.

The next screen begins the process of setting up your site, which is covered in the next section, “Set Up Your New Site.”

Click the link in the email you receive to confirm your account.

If the email is opened on a different device than you are signing up with, you are asked to log in to WordPress.com.

Note: WordPress sends you a second email informing you that the account is set up and offering a link to its tutorials.

Set Up Your New Site

Type a blog title.

The blog title appears in the header of all pages.

Type an optional tagline.

The tagline is a few words that further describe your site. The tagline appears below your title.

Click the Language and choose a language for your site. The default is English.

Click Next Step.

You can scroll through several hundred possible themes.

When you find a theme you like, click it to highlight it.

Some themes require payment, but most are free.

Click Next Step.

You see a sample of the theme with a description and its features.

Click Customize It.

If you choose not to customize at this time, you can click Next Step.

A new screen with customization options appears.

You see your site as it will look with the chosen theme.

A menu appears on the right with possible customization options for your theme.

When you choose an option — in this case, Header — a new section of screen slides out. Here, you are given instructions for changing the header image.

Click Add new image and another window appears for uploading your header image. When you click Select and Crop, the window closes.

After you finish making all your theme customizations, click Save.

On the Customize screen, click Next Step.

You can click one of these buttons to open a dialog box for entering your account information for other social media sites.

Click Next Step to begin entering content for your site.

Access Your Site’s Dashboard

Tour the Dashboard

Select Your General Settings

On the left admin menu under Settings, click General.

Change the title of your site, which you entered during setup, from here.

Change the tagline of your site, also entered during setup, from here. You can leave the tagline blank if you want.

You can have an image or an icon associated with your site across WordPress.com.

Click Choose File to select an image from your device.

Click Upload Image.

The image you uploaded appears with a white crop box on a new screen.

Resize the box by using the drag handles around the edges.

When you have selected the area of the image you want to use, click Crop Image.

Note: A confirmation screen opens to show your cropped image. Click Back to Blog Options to return to General Settings.

The cropped image now appears at the top right of General Settings.

You can choose and upload a new image any time, or you can simply remove the current image.

Click the Timezone and select a city in your time zone from the dropdown or your time relative to UTC (coordinated universal time).

Note: Scroll up in the pop-up list to find cities. If you choose a UTC setting, you must manually reset the zone for daylight savings time.

Click a date format ( changes to ).

Click a time format ( changes to ).

Click the Week Starts On and change the day that WordPress uses as the start of a new week.

If you plan to write in a language other than English, click the Language and choose it.

Click Save Changes when you finish.

Choose Your Personal Settings

On the left admin menu under Users, click Personal Settings.

If you were looking for My Public Profile, click here.

Click here to get an Akismet key.

Click a color scheme for your administration area ( changes to ).

Click Keyboard Shortcuts ( changes to ) to enable keyboard shortcuts for comment moderation.

Use this section to post your Twitter updates directly to your site.

To use a secure browser connection (HTTPS) when working in the administration area, click this option ( changes to ).

Click the Interface Language and choose which language to use for the administrative area.

If you have more than one WordPress.com site, click and select which is primary (which appears by default under My Sites).

Click these options to have WordPress.com automatically proofread your content when you publish or update ( changes to ).

Click proofreading options for English, such as checking for Clichés or Jargon ( changes to ).

If you will be writing in different languages, click this option to have WordPress.com automatically detect the language ( changes to ).

Click here to change your WordPress.com username. It is possible to change this, but you are warned of the consequences.

Update your administrative email here.

Update the website to which your comments are linked here.

Update your password here.

Click this button to automatically generate a strong password.

This is an example of a generated password.

Click Save Changes when you are done.

Create Your Public Profile

On the left admin menu under Users, click My Profile.

This area explains that the information entered here is public and where it will appear.

If you were looking for Personal Settings rather than My Public Profile, click here.

Type your first name.

Type your last name.

Type your full name.

Choose which version of your name you want displayed publicly.

Click Change your Gravatar.

A new tab opens in your browser, displaying your account at Gravatar.com. The account was automatically created when you signed up with WordPress.com.

You have a number of options for uploading your image, including linking to an existing image online or using your webcam.

You can crop the image you choose and then approve the final result. When you are done, close the tab.

You should see your new Gravatar in the toolbar as well as at the top of the My Public Profile screen.

Enter as much location information as you want the public to see.

Enter a bit about yourself (the bit you want to be public).

Under Contacts, you can enter as many or as few methods for the public to get in touch: email, social media, and phone numbers.

Click Update Profile when you are done.

You can add more than one profile image at Gravatar.com. Those additional images appear here, and you can delete any of them from here as well.

You can have additional links appear on your public profile. Enter a title and the URL here and click Add Link.

You can verify your accounts at various other services, such as Twitter, Vimeo, Goodreads, and others. This helps confirm you are who you say you are. Choose a service and click Verify Through Gravatar.com.