Get Your Free WordPress.com Blog Now

I haven’t found an official announcement, but the begging for WordPress.com invites now seems over.

If you want to get your own free WordPress.com blog now, just visit the WordPress.com Signup page, or click JOIN from the main page of WordPress.com.

Here are some things to know about your free WordPress.com blog:

• It’s About Blogging: A WordPress.com blog is all about blogging. It is not about designing, tweaking, adding, customizing, advertising, or personalization. It is about the words. It is about the content. Just blog to your heart’s content, as often as you want, and tell the world what you think, what your opinion is, and help us to learn more about your life and the world around you. Just blog.
• It’s Not About Web Design: Trust me. I am an expert in web design, layout, CSS, HTML, etc., and WordPress.com is NOT about web design. If you want to design your own web page, play around with the graphics, layout, and design, then get the free, full version of WordPress and tweak it to your delight. WordPress.com is about blogging.
• You Can Blog About Anything You Want (sorta): You can use your WordPress.com blog to blog about anything you want. Anything. Okay, let’s be clear about what anything means. It doesn’t mean “everything”. This is a community. You are part of a tiny society that makes up its own rules and regulations as it goes along. On every Administration Panel in WordPress.com there is a Feedback link. If the community, which has the ability to monitor what is going on with the WordPress.com community, determines you are not behaving properly, and reports this to the developers, you may have your blog removed, especially if it is in violation of the WordPress.com Terms of Service. You can cuss, rattle on about whatever you want, but if it offends enough people (not just whining but real offensive or illegal behavior like splogs, scrapers, or content theft), then you will probably be deleted.
• Domain Name is MYNAME.WORDPRESS.COM: If you want a domain name such as www.myname.com then you need to get your own host and use the full version of WordPress. If you want to blog free, then your domain name will be myname.wordpress.com. It doesn’t have to be your name. It can be ducksrus.wordpress.com. It doesn’t matter, but whatever user name you put in your application, that is the name that will be before the wordpress.com. Don’t like what you chose? Then delete your blog and reapply for a new one with a better name. Don’t ask the developers to change it. Just make a new one.
• No Javascripts or CSS: For security reasons, WordPress.com strips out Javascripts and CSS inline styles as well as some HTML tags from the post content written in the Write Post panel. If you want to use Javascript or inline styles, then get the full version of WordPress.
• WordPress.com is a Test Site: WordPress.com is a test site. Please remember that. Things will change without warning. Things will improve, things will break and be fixed, and things will change as you watch over time. As a participant in this test site, the developers appreciate participants using the Feedback button on the Administration Panels to let them know if something is broken or behaving badly. And to let them know what parts you like and enjoy. You don’t have to help, but it helps all of us in the WordPress.com community to work together to help improve WordPress.com.
• You Can Blog in Most Languages: On the Administration Panel > Options, you can now choose which language you will be blogging in. It is hoped that this option will soon change the language of the Administration Panels, but for now, it makes it easier to blog in your chosen language. There are dozens of languages used on WordPress.com which is amazing since not every free blog hosts such international flavors. Stay tuned for even more development in internationalization of WordPress.com.

So the purpose of WordPress.com is to give you an opportunity to blog for free, but it is a limited and controlled environment. It is also a test site, so stay tuned for changes, which makes it exciting. WordPress.com is not the blog for everyone, but everyone can use it.

Here is more information to help you with your new WordPress.com blog:

• What Do I Do With My New WordPress.com Blog
• WordPress.com FAQ Blog
• WordPress Codex
• Introduction to Blogging
• First Steps with WordPress
• What Can You Do With WordPress.com
• WordPress Versions: How Many and What’s the Difference
• Backing Up Your WordPress.com Blog
• How WordPress Users are Benefiting from WordPress.com
• A Guide to the WordPress Codex, the Online Manual for WordPress Users
• A Tagging Bookmarklet for WordPress and WordPress.com Users
• Need Help? The WordPress.com FAQ
• Hello WordPress.com Users and Testers
• What Do You Want to Know About WordPress and WordPress.com
• Adding Technorati Tags to WordPressMU Blogs
• Learning About Blogging and How to Blog

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Copyright Lorelle VanFossen, the author of Blogging Tips, What Bloggers Won't Tell You About Blogging.