I myself am more into domain names then building web sites, but when I found out how easy it is to create sites using wordpress, I have been building a great deal of them. I will explain how and what you need to start your own site/blog. Now remember, just because wordpress is considered a "blog" doesn’t mean that you can’t can make it look like a full web site. It’s all about how you lay it out, the theme you pick and the plugin’s you use.

First you will need a domain name. If you need a domain, check out www.Yofie.com ok, self promotion.. lol

Secondly, you will need Hosting. Now there are thousands of hosting providers, but this is what I use, because it’s easy and cheap! www.HostGator.com Once at HostGator, select Web Hosting. Now you have 3 plans to choose from. I use the "Baby" or "Baby Croc" plan. Currently it’s $7.95 a month. So sign up, with that package. It will take a little bit (24 hours or less) for them to set up your hosting account. Once you have paid, they will email you your IP address, Cpanel login etc.

Third, while waiting for your hosting login info, go to http://filezilla-project.org/ and download the All Platforms version. It’s free btw.

Now that you have a Hosting Account and an FTP manager, you will want to copy your Cpanel link from HostGator and paste that into your browser. Login using your hosting user id and password. Once into the Cpanel, on the right hand side, you will want to click Addon Domains. (you will already have the one domain in here that you signed up with, but if you want more then one site, you will be adding domains here) Under New Domain, type in the domain you want to add. Click the User Name (enter as you wish) and set the password. Then hit Add Domain.

Now you have a domain added, go back to the "home" of your Cpanel. Scroll down to the bottom and click the Fantastico De Luxe (blue smiley face). In the Fantastico De Luxe window, look at the left sidebar where all third party scripts are located and select wordpress. (this is another reason why I selected HostGator) Wordpress installation page will appear, just select “New Installation” and off you go. Fill out the forms. *If you want your blog to appear in the main directory of your wesite, e.g. http://yoursite.com and not http://yoursite.com/blog, leave install in directory blank. You’re done! You just installed your wordpress software and started your database. Now Just don’t forget the username and password that you used in the installation process, you will need that to login in your blog’s administrative panel.

At this point, you will want to select a theme to use for your blog. I use http://www.wpthemesfree.com/ they have some great FREE themes. Once you pick a theme, you will have to Download it. Download it to your desktop so it’s easy to find and unzip the file as well to your desktop.

Now open your Filezilla program. Once the windo opens, you will need your IP Address for your hosting. Put that number into the upper left box. The next box is your user ID for your hosting login account, then your password for your hosting account. Then hit ENTER or Quick Connect. (the port can be left blank, or use 80 or 22).

Now you will see all kinds of files open in the ftp file manager. First, on the bottom lower right (4th middle box) you will see files like .cpaddons and .cpanel etc. scroll down until you see Public_html and double click it! Then find the file that you created for your site. It will be the name you put in during Instalation of the blog. Double click that file. Now your wordpress files are open and you will need to double click on wp-content. Once that file is open, double click on Themes.

Now in the box that says Local Site, make sure it is searching in the "desktop" folder. Then the box under that, search for the file of the Theme you downloaded. Now click on that file (will have a yellow folder) and Drag that into the Theme folder section (4th middle box) and release the mouse. The files should start to transfer in. Once that is done transfering, you have just added a new theme to your blog.

Now it’s time to log into your blog. You will have a login link like this http://www.YourDomain.com/wp-login.php put in your login info and hit enter or login. Now that you are into your "backend" of your blog for the first time, you will want to click Presentation. You will see two basic themes and the one you picked as well. Simply click on the theme you want to use. This will automatically change your blog to that them.

After setting the theme, and still in the Presentation section, you will want to "play around" and change some things. So you will be clicking on Theme Editor and changing some things in there. Each theme is different, so again, just play around. Under the Manage tab, is where you will set up your Pages & Categories. The blogroll is for setting up links. This part is more trial and error.

Under the Plugins tab, there should be Two plugins in there already, but you will want to add many plugins to your site. The first one I always add is the FCK Editor. In the plugins page, you can scroll to the bottom of the page and click the Wordpress Plugin Directory and you can search within it.

Once you pick a plugin that you want, it will be the same process as you did for the theme. Download the plugin, unzip it. Login to your Filezilla. Look for the Public_html file, find your blogs file, then the only difference, you will open the Plugins file, instead of the Theme file. Again, drag the plugin file and drop it into the plugins file.

After doing the above, then login again to your blogs backend, click Plugins tab. Then you will have to Activate the plugin. After activating the plugin, you can go to a new page and your plugin should be activated. Now again, each plugin is diffent, so follow the directions for each.

It will take a little to get use to the Cpanel and the FTP manager (filezilla). It was also take a little getting use to the wordpress backend etc, but just keep playing around and it will come to you. Now have fun and get building! If you have any questions, I will try to help, so just use the Contact page on the homepage of my blog.