WordPress is a piece of software that can be used, free, by anyone. You simply install it on your website, usually with just one or two clicks, wait for the email confirming your installation, and you’re ready to go.

To install the full version of WordPress, you do need your own domain name, and your own hosting.

When you choose your hosting company, make sure you choose one that offers you a “one-click install” for WordPress as this will make it as easy as possible to get started.

(There is a version of WordPress that you can use for free at http://www.wordpress.com without having to get your own hosting, but to my mind its limitations mean you miss out on half the fun.)

WordPress comes with a default theme called Twenty Eleven. (A theme is a design, and one of the wonderful things about WordPress is that you can change your theme, and therefore the entire look of your site, with just a click.)

Twenty Eleven is a nice-looking, easy to read generic theme that has quite a few slick features. Twenty Eleven looks like this:

and you can see a functioning demo of it here: http://twentyelevendemo.wordpress.com/

It’s a suitable theme for bloggers and for many small businesses that don’t want too corporate a look. I can see it working well for writers, cooks, gardeners, musicians and many other types of small business. All you’d need to do would be change the header image to one of your own, and perhaps the background colour too.

If you need a different look, here is where WordPress comes into its own. There are hundreds of fantastic, ready-designed themes that you can install for free and transform your site into something as slick and professional as if it had been designed especially for you – at a cost.

Thanks to WordPress, now everyone can create themselves a professional looking website, quickly and easily, and with no expense at all.