I’ve recently discovered how easy it is to create a very effective / powerful WordPress based blog site and I’m excited to be helping some of my friends to create their own to get their messages out to the world. So I put together this article on “How to”

1) Signup for a new WordPress account at WordPress.com

2) Pages – Add any specific pages to your blog (for example “About Me”, “Contact Me” via the Pages section. Pages provide easier navigation to more ‘static’ style information that you might want your readers to access.

3) Themes – The beauty with WordPress is that you can change the look and feel or your site with literally a click of the button. It comes with loads to choose from – simply select from the Themes section. Main choice apart from the actual design is the number of columns (my preference is two columns for a ‘cleaner’ view). Some themes have their own specific settings available within the Themes section.

4) Widgets – Add widgets to your site to bring it alive – caution – my recommendation is to only use widgets when they add genuine value to the end user experience. For me a clean simple but useful site is far more user friendly than an overcrowded / overcomplex one. Some of the default widgets i suggest include Categories (if you use this functionality extensively) and Recent Posts to give users an overview of what you’ve recently written. My personal favourites are category or tag clouds which provide a more graphical representation but again only use where they add value.

5) General Settings – Main settings of interest here are the Site Title and Tagline which are shown on most Themes. You might also want to change the timezone and date formats to be more reflective of where you pysically are.

6) Clear Up and Post your First Article ! – you might want to clear up a few of the default settings within WordPress just make it that bit more professional looking – for example the initial “Hello World” posting which is automatically generated. See my separate article here on adding posts to WordPress.

Welcome to the world of blogging which I find so satisfying to be able to share my thoughts and knowledge with the greater Global community.