Wordpress.org is a CMS (content management system) that you install on your web server. This means that you need to buy the domain, pay the monthly hosting fee, and install Wordpress. It’s not really that difficult. But if you aren’t a technical person, you might need to follow some tutorials. Personally, I use Hostgator as a host. It’s pretty good, but the menus and admin can get hairy at times.
If you’re really just looking for an easy-to-use, easy-to-setup blog website that has your domain name, look into Tumblr. It’s like Wordpress.com above - it’s a free hosted site. The difference is:
I think I understand you now. But I can’t really help you, unfortunately. I’ve never used Wordpress to buy a domain or to host a site. If you didn’t know, these are two different processes:
Buying a domain costs roughly $5-10 per year. Typically you buy them through registrars - Godaddy, etc.
Hosting a site typically costs around $9 a month (on Godaddy, Dreamhost, etc., but since you’re using Wordpress.com to host it’s only about $12 a year.
I own a number of domains that I bought through Godaddy. My only question on buying the domain through Wordpress would be: can you easily transfer the domain to another site? Or is it locked into your Wordpress.com account for the year?
If 5 months from now, you decide that you’d like more customization and thus need to move to a different host, can you do it easily?
Wordpress.org is a CMS (content management system) that you install on your web server. This means that you need to buy the domain, pay the monthly hosting fee, and install Wordpress. It’s not really that difficult. But if you aren’t a technical person, you might need to follow some tutorials. Personally, I use Hostgator as a host. It’s pretty good, but the menus and admin can get hairy at times.