Fairy Blog Mother
When you start using WordPress, in whatever format (.com or .org), it is necessary to create a WordPress account. This involves creating a username, but this can be often confused with creating a blog in WordPress.com.
Two of my friends asked me for advice in blogging, so I suggested they create WordPress.com blogs to learn how to blog effectively. They dutifully went to WordPress.com and clicked on the ‘Sign up now’ button (see below):
Then they were confronted with this page:
Now WordPress.com sneakily make the first option a darker blue so that you fill in that field first before you realise what you are doing. This is what happened to one of my friends, and he ended up creating a blog before he knew what was happening.
But I advise creating a username first before creating a blog. This is because you can add on as many blogs as you like onto your username, and it doesn’t have to be part of the URL or web-address of your first blog. Neither do you need to worry about keywords or search engine optimisation, as your username will not be scrutinised by spiders. Just make sure it’s relevant to you and is memorable.
My username is ‘alicedesigns’, because I created my first blog http://alicedesigns.wordpress.com, but it would have been more appropriate to have my username as ‘aliceelliott’ and create my first blog with a separate web-address coming off it. As it happens I now have 13 blogs hanging off my username.
So to create your username without creating a blog, click on the next section and the link ‘Sign up for just a username’:
This will then give you this page:
Now you have to fill in the fields with the information you require. If WordPress says your desired username is already taken, try again with a memorable number after it. It doesn’t matter if you add initial capitals, WordPress will ignore them.
Then create a strong password (WordPress will indicate its strength) using the same procedure: use memberable numbers and maybe even symbols like an exclamation mark. Repeat it to confirm its the right one, and make a note of your username and password somewhere safe in case you forget it.
Next add in a relevant email address, because after you’ve clicked the ‘Sign up’ button, WordPress will immediately send you an email with a link that will activate your username, so stand by your email account ready to confirm.
It will then automatically go to a webpage saying your username is yours! And now you have a WordPress account, ready to create as many blogs as you would like. Go to WordPress.com, sign in at the very top with your new username and password, and go to ‘Your Profile’ under ‘Users’ in the left sidebar and fill in your details. I will write a post about that very soon.