Launch a WordPress.com Blog In A Day For Dummies^®

Launch a WordPress.com Blog In A Day For Dummies®

by Lisa Sabin-Wilson

Launch a WordPress.com Blog In A Day For Dummies®

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Copyright © 2012 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, NJ

Published simultaneously in Canada

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ISBN: 978-1-118-37981-3

Manufactured in the United States of America

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Introduction

Blogs are here to stay. Authors, students, parents, business owners, academics, journalists, hobbyists — you name it — use blogs as a matter of course.

WordPress has been a huge part of the blogging boom. Today, it’s the most popular blogging platform for personal, business, and corporate bloggers alike.

To a brand-new user, some aspects of WordPress can seem a little bit intimidating. After you take a look under the hood, however, you begin to realize how intuitive, friendly, and extensible the software is.

This book introduces you to WordPress.com and gets you started writing and managing your own blog. It also covers managing and maintaining your WordPress blog through the use of WordPress plugins, widgets, and themes.

What You Can Do In A Day

As part of the In A Day For Dummies series, I designed this book to contain about a day’s reading (or a couple days if you’re taking your time). I focused only on WordPress.com so you can quickly digest enough information to launch your own blog. You should have just enough information to get you started tailoring a WordPress blog that fits your own tastes and needs.

Foolish Assumptions

I’ll never know what assumptions you’ve made about me at this point, but I can tell you a few things that I already assume about you:

You know what a computer is. You can turn it on, and you understand that if you spill coffee on your keyboard, you’ll have to run out and get a replacement.

You understand how to hook yourself into the Internet and know the basics of using a web browser to surf websites and blogs.

You have a basic understanding of what blogs are, and you’re interested in using WordPress to start your own blog. Or you already have a blog, are already using WordPress, and want to understand the program better so that you can do more cool stuff and stop bugging your geeky best friend whenever you have a question about something. Or, even better, you already have a blog on another blogging platform and want to move your blog to WordPress.

You know what e-mail is. You know what an e-mail address is. You actually have an e-mail address, and you send and receive e-mail on a semiregular basis.

Icons Used in This Book

Icons emphasize a point to remember, a danger to be aware of, or information that I think you may find helpful. Those points are illustrated as such:

Tips are little bits of information that you may find useful.

I use this icon to point out dangerous situations.

All geeky stuff goes here. I don’t use this icon very often, but when I do, you know you’re about to encounter technical mumbo-jumbo.

When you see this icon, read the text next to it two or three times to brand it into your brain so that you remember whatever it was that I think you need to remember.

This icon directs you to the companion website for the book — — where you can find videos and articles relating to WordPress.com.

Go online for a quick exercise or task to create or enhance your WordPress.com blog.

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