For a free source I suggest blogger as well. Once you get the money though, hosting and setting up word press on your own site is worth learning. Hang in there. You have a long road ahead but if IM does end up being your thing it will be worth every bit of effort.
There is no free lunch, mate. Both suck this way or another.
Everyone has to start a business plan somewhere. Learn from your failures. Thomas Edison failed many times before he got it right. Once you learn and get it right it's a thing of beauty to behold !
To me that is worth more than the money I make from a project. Don't get me wrong... I do enjoy the income. However just being able to point to something with a wee bit of pride is priceless.
I reccomend blogger too, becasue your blog will be indexed faster.