Unlike most other CMS platforms, WordPress has two official websites – WordPress.com and WordPress.org. Both of these sites house valuable resources that will enable you to create your own blog but take different approaches.
WordPress.com represents the online service arm where creating a blog is as simple as making an email account. You won’t have to worry about hosting since the blog will be hosted on the WordPress servers and there are plenty of free templates available for implementation. However, you have to abide by their Terms of Service. WordPress may, for instance, take your blog down without notice if its main purpose is to promote an affiliate marketing opportunity.
This is where downloading the latest WordPress release from WordPress.org is more beneficial. Depending on your hosting provider, you may have to upload the WordPress files via FTP and go through a few steps just to set up your admin account. Since you have direct access to your site structure, you may upload plugins, add your own advertisement codes, install more themes and integrate other components to your blog. Beginners should try WordPress.com just to get a feel of the interface and then later set up a hosting account to install WordPress in order to understand why it is more than just a blogging platform.