Jo has asked me to setup a WordPress account for her. We have an account at Dreamhost and all that is needed is a new user account (no charge) and a new domain name ($12/year) — no fee if you want to use a subdomain. It is pretty easy to do. Dreamhost automatically creates the database, and the install is just one click. It has to be a new user account because the WordPress install will over write everything in the account. Also, the domain name tool will allow you to create a new domain name even if it is unavailable. And you have to register it and it has to work before you can login as an administrator. It took 30 minutes for my domain to work.
Would I suggest anyone with little computer and web experience try this? Perhaps not. It is about as simple as it can get but there are steps that will throw you if you don’t watch out. I found a security add-on that is already helping me. Since the beginning of this post I am getting Chinese character spam. With the security add-on I can block IP addresses and even ranges of IP address. And, the add-on is free.
I see that there is a Dreamhost WordPress service that runs $24/month. It is expensive to go that direction compared to just installing WordPress in a hosting account.
Next thing to check out is their ecommerce software.