1. Step-by-Step: Setting up a WordPress.com Site

2. But FIRST…
We’re going to talk about the difference between WordPress.com and WordPress.org.
Yes, Virginia, there is a difference.

3. WordPress.com WordPress.org
Sites are hosted by WordPress. This arrangement is like Blogger, Wix, Weebly, Webs, and many, many others
Free: You can upgrade to a Premium plan
Themes: Lots of free themes, but you can purchase themes for a modest one time fee
Domain name: If you own a domain name already ( - you can attach it to the WordPress.com site for a modest yearly fee.
This is a self-install hosted elsewhere - like with GoDaddy, Blue Host, Host Gator and dozens of other hosting services.
Not Free: There are monthly or annual fees associated with these hosting services.
Themes: Lots of free themes available through WordPress. There are themes you can purchase as well.
Domain name: You must have (or purchase) your own domain name.

4. There are pros and cons to each set-up
WordPress.com
Pros: A lot of the work is done for you
No backend maintenance required
WordPress.com does backups
Free
Can add-on extras
Cons: A lot of the work is done for you
Cannot use outside plug-ins
Themes can have limited functionality
Limited Monetization (i.e., having ads on your site)
WordPress.org
Pros: More control over your site
Use whatever WP themes you’d like
Can customize themes and CSS
Can use whatever plugins you’d like
Monetize whenever you’d like
Cons: More of the burden falls on you
Must do WP updates
Must do your own maintenance: backups, spam control, etc.
Cost $$

5. It depends on what you want to do.
So, which one do I choose?
It depends on what you want to do.

6. WHAT?!!

7. That’s not meant to be misleading
Ask yourself: What’s the site for?
Is this a personal blog?
Are you developing a site for your bricks and mortar business? For your non-profit?
Are you showcasing materials, like a portfolio of photography or artwork?
Are you selling products from your site?
If you are selling products, are they digital only or things like t-shirts?
Are you only planning on one site or more than one?
How much experience do you have already with website creation and maintenance?

8. I know, this Meetup is about setting up a WordPress.com site, right?

9. Yes, but how the questions are answered will help fill out the picture regarding the template you should select and the type of services you may need.

10. This isn’t important right now, but it might be down the road
This isn’t important right now, but it might be down the road. Keep it in the back of your mind.
You’ll be relieved to know you can always upgrade from Free or migrate your site from WordPress.com to WordPress.org.

11. On to the meat of the evening.

12. We’re doing WordPress.com Free tonight, so we’ll walk through the steps.
Step 1: Go to WordPress.com and select ‘Create a Site’. Type in a site address.

13. Write everything down! Step 2 I can’t stress this enough: Site address
Username
Password
It will save you oodles of time (assuming you remember where you put the piece of paper with all the info!)

14. Step 3
Look carefully!
You do NOT have to select a custom address.

15. Step 4:
Select a FREE
theme.

16. Step 5

17. That was easy, wasn’t it?
Now it gets a little more tricky - at least to my mind. WordPress presents the user with “Reader”, a plain vanilla place to add content: post and pages.
I hate it. This is a personal thing I realize, but it feels very limiting. I much prefer working with the Administrative Dashboard; it gives more detail and options, but can be overwhelming to to new user.
Note:
Pages are static. The content on these pages shouldn’t change much. Maybe it’s an About or Mission page for your site, or Directions.
Posts are not static - this is where you’d put content that changes frequently but doesn’t go away. So for example, if you’re writing a blog you’d create a new post for each blogged item.

18. Reader

19. Administrative Dashboard

20. Either way, you add content
Pages: Static
Pages can be ‘Parent’ pages or ‘Child’ pages. Parent pages are at the top of the navigation hierarchy and Child pages are under them. So if you have an ‘About’ page and a ‘Directions’ page under it, About is the Parent and Directions is the child. Pages do not have categories or tags.
Posts: Changing
Posts have Categories and Tags. See note to the right.
Posts represent changing content. So if you are writing a daily diary blog cataloging daily emotions, for example, you would write a blog post every day and attach it to a category - Happy, Ecstatic, Sad, In Love - whatever. You, and your blog visitors, would find your different types of blog posts by its category, in this case different emotions.
Note:
Categories for posts help people find items you’ve posted. It’s kind of like a table of contents. You shouldn’t have too many categories - just main topics or broad areas.
Tags for posts are kind of like an index in a book and you can add as many of those as you like.

21. Images
Images illustrate your content in either Pages or Posts. Images can be added where you type in your content through “Add Image”. These are usually uploaded from your computer and added to the post or page as a featured image or embedded into the content.
Images can be a powerful tool and some templates are really driven by images. Photographers, for example, will select a portfolio style template that helps display their visual content better.

22. YOU CAN ALWAYS CHANGE IT.
Templates
You may not love the template you first selected or you may find that it doesn’t really suit your purposes.
YOU CAN ALWAYS CHANGE IT.
Don’t get too caught up in the template hamster wheel. There are lots of other free templates to choose from.

23. So, play with it a little! Add some posts, pages and images.
Seek out and change the theme to see if something works better.
Add some widgets! (We haven’t talked about this yet, but we will…)

24. Widgets
Widgets are the little add-ons that make your site more interesting. Widgets can be in a sidebar (right or left), in the footer, or in the header. Much of where these go depends on the theme selected.
WordPress.com gives you a pre-selected bunch of widgets - you can’t add any news ones. (Nor can you add any plug-ins. What you see is what you get.)

25. That’s probably enough for tonight and will give you lots to think about and work on.

26. Do you want a Part II next month?