A new blog gives you a dashboard and no instructions, and most people stall right there. Chris Record recorded a short series that walks through the settings one at a time, and the transcripts sit here beside the videos.
The order is deliberate. Change the site title and description first, because a surprising number of blogs never do and it costs them every time somebody searches. Build a contact page using a free form service. Put the links you want into the sidebar. Write a bio and choose a picture that does not look like a placeholder. Then face the first post, which is where most people freeze.
He stays patient rather than clever throughout. It is a person clicking through the screens with you and saying what to type, which is exactly what you need after twenty minutes of staring at a settings page.
A recruitment post for a traffic co-op is mixed in, and one personal piece about the birth of his son, so this is not purely instructional.
Work through the setup posts in order before you write anything else. An hour here removes the vague suspicion that something is configured wrong.