Hopefully you read that and decided to start your own site, blogging is much more productive and fun when you collaborate with others, and Blogging Painters is the place for that! So now what?
There are several blogging/website platforms available out there, I have used WordPress, Blogger, Posterous, Joomla, Drupal, Iweb, Website Tonite and more. If you are doing a personal blog, then Blogger is a good one to use. If you want to do one for your your business and have more features available, WordPress is best in my opinion, so that is the one I am going to demo for you. This will be the first in a series of step by step tutorials on setting up a WordPress Site.
First, let’s talk about the terms “blog” and “website”. They have morphed in the past few years where the distinction is blurred. In the past, it was typical to have a static (not changing) site vs a dynamic (changing) site, then blogs were added as a separate tab. Now with WordPress, you can have both. Here is a great post with more info on Website vs Blog. Your home page can look like a regular website, but still have the features of a blog, like widgets to keep content current and seo capabilities. The best of both worlds! So even though we refer to them as blogs, they are more than that!
There are two versions of WordPress to choose from, WordPress.com vs WordPress.org. Again, it goes back to the purpose of your blog, if you are doing a personal, family or hobby blog, than the WordPress.com is fine. If you want to take advantage of the plugins and extra themes available, then you should use WordPress.org, and that is the one we will work with here.
You can start with the .com version and upgrade later if you wish, but it will be a lot of work, and it is very simple and inexpensive to get started, in one night and less than $50, you can be ready to go.
The first thing you need to do is pick a name, buy a domain, get hosting and install WordPress, sounds complicated, but if you use my favorite site, Hostgator, they will help you get it set up. They have a great live chat system that has solved many a problem for me! If you already have a domain or hosting, most have quick install of WordPress. There are a variety of hosting place, if you need help, contact me.
After you get WordPress installed, you will have a site that says “Hello World”! Follow along with us as we turn it into a site step by step!
So if you are ready to take the plunge, subscribe to Blogging Painters to make sure you don’t miss a post!
Feel free to ask a question in the comments section!
Thanks Chris!!!
You are welcome Paul, hope you will join us!
Good tips, Chris. I made the mistake on my first blog incarnation of setting it up as a wp.com, and learned months down the road that it came with limitations that would hinder my purposes. Nice to see that others can go into more informed than I did.
Thanks Scott, that is the whole idea, find the right fit for everyone!
Good post, Chris! What I like most about WordPress as the basis of a website is the ability for it to GROW with you over time. Need to add a page? No problem! Login to the backside of your website and add the page. No need to pay a web designer to add it for you – in just a rainy afternoon, you can learn the back end of WordPress quite easily. Thanks for sharing!
Absolutely right Tess! There are so many options in WP, and it is easy to start simple and grow into it, that is what I hope to show in this series. Next post will be looking at the dashboard. Thanks for stopping by!