How to Create, Host, and Publish a Wordpress.org Blog for Free

Before 1 week ago, I thought there was absolutely no way to host a Wordpress.org blog for free, short of hosting it on my own computer, but I stumbled upon a free company that hosts it for you. Here’s how you do it:

1. Get a Domain. Getting a paid .com domain has major advantages in the internet world, but there are free alternatives. Getting a .tk domain is free.
2. Get Your Hosting. There are a couple different free hosters that I stumbled upon in the past couple days, but the one I determined to be the best is 000WebHost.
3. Forward Your Domain to Your Hosting Account. Your 000webhost dashboard will give you instructions on how to do this. It will take 1/2-2 days for the domain to actually update.
4. Download Wordpress Go to Wordpress.org and download the latest version. Then unzip that file and keep note of the new location.
5. Upload Wordpress This is where it gets a bit complicated. Go to “View FTP Details” on your 000webhost dashboard and download Filezilla. On Filezilla, fill out the username and password fields as instructed, but the “Host Name” field will need to be filled out with the IP shown on the left side of the FTP Details screen (because your domain probably hasn’t completed being forwarded.) Open up the “public_html” folder in the Filezilla interface. Go to your unzipped Wordpress folder. Drag and Drop all of the various files and folders from the Wordpress folder into the Filezilla interface. Wait for Wordpress to upload.
6. Set-Up Wordpress You will need to wait until your domain has forwarded (step 3) to fully set up your blog. Enter your domain into your address bar. Follow the set-up instructions given by Wordpress. When you get to the part asking for your MySQL information, go to your 000webhost dashboard and go to “MySQL.” Create a new database, username, and password. Give those values to your Wordpress blog.

There you go, now you have the most customize-able blogging platform ever, and you did it completely free.