Blogging with Wordpress
and Why You Don't Want a Free Blog
There are two wildly popular platforms or software available for bloggers - Google's BlogSpot and Wordpress.
Google's Blogspot is free and is hosted on Google's servers. But my humble and biasted opinion is that if you are really wanting to build a real business, then avoid Google's Blogspot.
Yes, BlogSpot is free, but you don't have control over your fate.
Google does.
What if you build a blogging business that makes a real income with a blog on Blogspot and for some reason or another Google decides to shut down your blog site?
The result is that you are screwed. Think it doesn't happen?
Go to your favorite search engine and search for problems with blogger.com or Blogspot.
Do you want to wake up one morning to your once profitable blog on Blogspot.com and find the following ominous message from Google?
"This blog has been locked due to possible Blogger Terms of Service violations. You may not publish new posts until your blog is reviewed and unlocked."
Ugh!
Take control of your own business. Get your own webhost and install your own copy of Wordpress.
Wordpress is one of the many options available to bloggers who are looking for free software online which makes it incredibly easy to publish their own blog. This software is easy to use, provides a variety of templates or themes, and you can find excellent support to bloggers.
6 Reasons to Choose Wordpress
There are many great reasons to choose Wordpress to start a blog. Let me give you my top 6 reasons. These include:
1. an incredible variety of templates or themes, both free and paid
2. the ability to categorize and tag posts easily
3. built in features such as spell check, previews and autosave
4. the ability to easily and quickly post text, audio files and video files
5. a variety of privacy options and the ability to track statistical data related to the blog
6. And the sixth great reason to choose Wordpress is the number of free plugins available.
Ok, so what is a plugin?
A Wordpress plugin is a little software program that is "plugged into" your Wordpress software. This gives your Wordpress blog new and enhanced functions.
If this is too geeky and technical, just understand that this is a very good thing! Plugins rock!
Starting a Blog with Wordpress
If you are a beginner, your first Wordpress blog will take you longer. But not much. With the advances in technology, and how powerful Wordpress software is, you will be completely amazed at how quickly you can have your Wordpress blog installed, live, and creating and publishing posts.
After installing Wordpress on your own domain name and webhost, your blog can be up on the internet live withing just a few minutes. If you want screen shots that show you how to do this step by step, go download Blogger's Paycheck now.
And you can start blogging without a fancy theme. Just use the default "2010" theme. It is very customizable and easy to learn. And it's free! Widget friendly, you can start publishing your posts to your new Wordpress blog within a few minutes.
Don't like your theme or the look and feel? Just change your theme later, and all of your blog posts and pages are still there.
Yes, it does take longer to get started with Wordpress as opposed to using a "free" blog service like Blogspot. But not much. And you have control.
You are building a real business, right? So what if building something on a strong foundation takes more time?
Support
If you are looking for hand holding, you won't get it. If you want someone to hold your hand step by step, then go get a Blogspot.com blog.
What kind of support can you expect if you use Wordpress?
You can expect an incredable amount of support and help from the Wordpress community. There are many forums and user groups from which you can elict support and help, including questions about using advanced features and customizing the blog.
The support offered by Wordpress community includes support from other members through online forums. The forums are active 24 hours a day and bloggers can find support from peers at any time.
My Recommendations
1. Go with Wordpress. It is the industry standard platform for blogging.
2. Don't waste your time. Get started right by following step by step directions in Blogger's Paycheck.
>> Continue to How to Setup a Wordpress Blog
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