Getting a blog
June 12, 2008
This is really easy. Just follow these directions.
- Go to http://wordpress.com/
- Click the button that says “Sign Up Now!”
- If you are at all password-challenged, write down EVERYTHING as you go along!
- Pick a User name. This will be the name that you use to log on to WordPress. If you’re doing this for class, you probably don’t want an anonymous username and should go for something like “Mrs. Yourname”. Choose something you’ll remember!
- Choose a password you’ll remember, without picking something that’s so obvious your students will be able to guess it and hack into your account and remove all your homework assignments. Some suggestions are – meaningful dates, a significant other’s middle name, a favorite pet, etc. The best passwords are combinations of letters, numbers and symbols. (NOTE: I have had some problems with using symbols and had to change my password. Caveat Blogger.)
- Re-enter your password, and then enter your e-mail address.
- Check off the legal box, and the radio-button that says “Gimme a blog!” and click Next.
On the next screen, WordPress will assign you a domain name based on your e-mail address. (i.e. Yourname @ whatever.com will get you Yourname.wordpress.com. This should be fine for you, and there’s no need to change it. But you can if you want.)
WordPress will also automatically assign you a blog name of Yourname’s Weblog. Feel free to change that. May I suggest Mrs. Yourname’s Homework blog. Whatever you want. Make it descriptive and something you’ll remember! (Are you sensing a pattern here?)
The default language is English, but WordPress can handle many different languages, including Hebrew. So if you’re teaching עברית or work in an עברית בעברית school, go for it. But as you can see (if the last sentence contained Hebrew and not gibberish) you can type in other languages even if you stay with English as a default.
Privacy: This is up to you, but if a student forgets your blog address, it may be helpful to be able to do a Google search for it. I’d suggest you check off that little box.
Click Sign up. WordPress will send an e-mail to your account. Open it, and click the link inside to finish your registration.
Congratulations! You now have a blog!
Next post: Now what?
