WordPress is a simple and customisable online blogging platform making it ideal for building portfolios. Here’s a guide to the basics of getting a blog up and running on a free hosted WordPress account.

Setting up your blog

1. Go to WordPress.com
2. Click ‘Get started here’

3. Enter your blog address, pick a username, password and enter your email address.
4. Click ‘Create Blog’ under the free column.

5. Enter your first name, last name, and a short bio and click ‘Save Profile’.
6. Login to the email address that you provided and click on ‘Activate Blog’.
7. It will say ‘Your blog is active’. Click on the link.

8. Go to WordPress.com and click on the WordPress logo in the top left.

9. It will show the name of your blog. Click on it (in blue) to be taken to your dashboard.

Logging into your blog

Once you have set up your blog it will be accessible from the following type of link:

http://yourchosenusername.wordpress.com/wp-admin/

Replacing ‘your chosen username’ with the username you picked. After visiting the link, enter your username and password and press enter to log in.

Adding categories

To keep your blog organised you can add categories which you can assign your blog posts to.

1. Click on posts in the left hand column

2. Click on categories

3. Under ‘Name’ type the name of your category. Click on Add New Category below.

4. Click Add New Category.

Adding a blog post

1. Click on ‘Posts’ in the left hand column

2. Click on ‘Add New’
3. Enter a title
4.Type in your article. Note that if you want to paste it in, you have to click the following box first and then paste it in or it will carry over the formatting.

Tip: If you want to delay when the post will be published, click Edit next to publish immediately and change the date.

5. Select the category you want the post to appear in.

6. Click on Publish to publish the blog post when you’re finished.

Linking within a post

1. To make a link in a post, highlight the part of the sentence that you want to link.

2. Click on the link icon (on the left below).

3. Type in the URL box the website link. Click Add link.

It will now appear linked.

Adding an image to a blog post

1. To add an image click on the first icon to the right of Upload/Insert:

2. Click on select files

3. Find and choose your image. If you’re unsure leave it on medium. Click on Insert Into Post.

Embedding video from YouTube in a  blog post

1. Go to a youtube video. Click on ‘Share’ underneath the video.

2. Click Embed

3. Click on the iframe link and copy it.

4. Go back to your post and click on the HTML tab.

Paste in the iframe link and switch back to the visual tab. After updating your post your YouTube video will be displayed.

Embedding video from SoundCloud

1. SoundCloud is more suitable for audio recordings than YouTube. After you have signed up to Soundcloud and uploaded an audio recording, click on the Share button on the top left of it.

2. Copy the iframe embed code.

3. Paste the embed code into your WordPress blog post via the HTML view and then switch back to the visual view

Changing the appearance of your blog

1. Click on Themes under appearance in the left hand column.

2. Click on Install Themes.

3. Tick the boxes of your choice of what themes you want to search for and click find themes. Make sure you have ticked ‘Fixed width’, ‘Two Columns’ and ‘Right sidebar’. Click Find Themes.

4. Once you’ve found a theme you like, click install.

Customising your theme

Some themes give you the option of changing certain aspects of the theme in the Appearance column. You’re usually allowed to change some general theme options, the background and the header. Try clicking in Header if it’s there.

If you can change the header it will tell you what size it must be in pixels.

After you have uploaded an image click save changes.

Adding widgets

A theme needs a right-hand sidebar in order to add widgets. Click on Widgets under Appearance.

Available widgets are listed on the left. Widgets currently displayed on your blog are on the right. Usually, the Primary Widget Area is the one that a theme uses, but that’s not always the case. If dragging widgets into that area doesn’t do anything, try dragging them into another Widget Area and refreshing your blog.

Clicking on the right hand arrow of a widget will open the customisation options for that widget. You can make alterations to the widget and then click the blue save button.

Finding new widgets via plug-ins

You can’t get new widgets for your blog by themselves — they come from plug-ins. Plug-ins are packages of files that let you do additional things on your blog — like display YouTube videos or your Twitter feed in widgets. Once you have installed a new plug-in, new widgets appear in the ‘Available widget area’.

In this example we’ll install a Twitter feed plug-in and then drop its widget into our sidebar.

1. Click on ‘Add New’ under Plugins in the left hand menu.

2. In the search box, type ”Twitter Only Widget” and click Search Plugins.

3. Click on Install Now. If prompted, click OK.

4. Click Activate Plugin.

5. Click on Widgets under Appearance in the left-hand menu. Drag the Twitter Only Widget from the left hand side into your first widget area on the right.

Click on the left hand arrow to the right.

6. Enter your Twitter username and how many tweets you want to display. Click save.