Wordpress, is a blog publishing system, used by everyone from your next door neighbor, to multi-national corporations. While the software itself is, and available for download, you need a host, to use it.

One option, a free one, is to use Wordpress.com.

Wordpress.com, owned by the makers of Wordpress, provides and hosts free Wordpress blogs. Your blog is hosted on their servers (blogname.wordpress.com), absolutely free. This is an option that has been taken by over 700,000 bloggers! (And Counting). If you want to go this route, sign up, is relatively easy.

The signup page is here. The first step, is to choose a username. This doesn't have to be the name of the blog you want to create, just the name you want to login under. You have the option to have several blogs, each with their own names and urls. For my username, I choose polarbear1876, same as my Hubpages account.

Next, enter your email address. Its important to use a working email address, as you will need to click a confirmation link, to start blogging. Your temporary password will also be sent here, so, be sure to use an email address you are able to login to, within 24 hours.

Next, you have to agree to their "Terms and Conditions", just like any other site. Wordpress is usually pretty comic about their legal names. For example, they require that you acknowledge that you accept the "Legal Flotsam", and "fascinating terms of service".

Ok, after accepting, you have 2 options. You can either start your blog (or your first one) now, using the username you provided, or just sign up with the username and start a blog later. Like I said earlier, Wordpress lets you have multiple blogs, so if you click the first option, its not like you can't start another one, anyway.

I chose "Gimme a Blog!", which redirects you to a blog starting page. If you choose just a username, they'll just send out the email, next. If you do choose to start a blog now, the next step involves some decisions.

If you opted to start a blog, you will now need to choose a URL. This is the web address visitors will go to, to find your blog. Because Wordpress is hosting this blog, you will be able to choose a subdomain (yourblogname.wordpress.com). This address cannot be changed, once you accept it, so be sure to choose carefully!

Next, choose a blog name. This can be changed, so a little less pressure here. Basically, this is the title of your new blog. For both the URL and the blog title, I'm choosing "PolarBear1876". Keeping everything simple, folks.

Next, choose the primary language of your blog. If you're reading this, you most likely will be blogging in English. Pretty simple step, which requires no explanation.

Next, choose your privacy level. Check the box, if you want your blog in web directories. If you want a little more privacy, uncheck this box. If you're gonna blog about a hobby, a topic, or something along those lines, you may want to check the box, as it will bring the majority of traffic to your blog.

Once you've made all your decisions, and configured your blog, click "Sign Up". This is where the people who chose only a username, rejoin us. Now, you must check your email, and confirm your account. The confirmation email should arrive within 30 minutes. Open the email, and click the confirmation link. Your account is now active.

You will be brought to a page, which displays your username and temporary password. Keeps this somewhere, as you will now need to login. You're gonna want to do a "Copy and Paste" for the password, and type the username in, manually. To login, click the "Login" link under your username and password notification.

In reality, this brings you back to the homepage for Wordpress. The login is on the righthand side, under the title "Already Hip?". Enter your login info, and click the login button. Awesome, you're in.

You now should have a bar across the top of the page, a blue bar, with options. To write your first post, click "New Post", on the bar. To go to your "Dashboard", or your blog control panel, click "My Dashboard", on the bar.

The first thing you'll want to do, is change your password. You still have the temporary one, remember? You will want to change it, to something you can remember. Go to the same bar I talked about in the previous paragraph. Roll over the "My Account" link, and a menu will appear". Click "Edit Profile". Scroll down the page until you see a box on the right hand side, titled "Update Your Password". Enter your new password, and confirm it, by typing it again. Then click (right under the box) "Update Profile". Now the next time you login, use your new password.

Congratulations! You now have a Wordpress blog, for free! (Here's my new one!) I've provided links to answers, to commonly asked questions, below.