An occasional writer's journal

Easy blogging for technophobes

I launched this blog in October of 2008 as a means of keeping in touch with old friends, sharing a few thoughts and observations with the people I can’t be with from day to day, and also to keep up with the rapid expansion of social networking in a practical manner.

Download WordPress (Version 2.9.1)

It had been years since I’d managed a website, and I have to say that WordPress’s simple interface now makes it possible for me to achieve in an hour what I would have spent weeks trying to improvise in the old days of html web authoring. It amazes me that there are still bloggers and website managers who have never heard of WordPress or, if they have, are too preoccupied or precious about their existing sites to try out a blogging platform that promises to transform the way they use and interpret the internet.

Although WordPress has the potential to change the way the web works, not a lot of detailed explanation is required when it comes to its implementation. It is basically a free content management system that makes it simple to launch and maintain a blog or website using open-source software that leaves you with more time to spend on the actual content of your site.

WordPress was devised six years ago by young Texan musician and designer Matt Mullenweg to enable internet users without much expertise in web development to take control of the internet and exploit the full potential of social networking from a single website. It began as a single bit of code to enhance the typography of everyday writing, and has grown to be the largest self-hosted blogging tool in the world, used on hundreds of thousands of sites and seen by tens of millions of people every day.

WordPress bloggers typically begin with a simple weblog hosted free of charge at www.wordpress.com where a one-click installation is all that is required to give access to basic site templates and a surprising range of basic site functions.

Before long you will wish to expand your installation by exporting its files to the servers of an independent web host, under your own domain name. Now you can explore the possibilities of “monetizing” your blog or website, perhaps by hosting content-related advertising from Google Adsense, Amazon or Chitika, by placing text-link ads, or simply by taking control of and expanding a non-commercial interest. Most important is the unlimited range of shared plugin or add-on software now available from developers in the open-source community to help develop your site in ways you could not have imagined. You will wish to be fully in control of your blog which, although now residing on the servers of a cheap and reliable web hosting company like Go Daddy or DreamHost, or Bargain Host in the United Kingdom, can be controlled and maintained through a personal dashboard linked to the www.wordpress.com platform.

This is where you will have access to essentials like site visitor statistics. Software and advice are available through WordPress developers’ pages and forums linked to the community hub at www.wordpress.org

The best thing about blogging with WordPress is that you’re in control of your blog. . . and nobody will criticise you or remind you of how little you actually know about web development. You’ll learn all about blogging at your own pace by trying out new ideas which you can even do in privacy on your own desktop by setting up previews of various templates, or draft pages and blog posts, before publishing to the web. Incidentally, the design of this blog is based around a customised Mimbo theme and advertising is generally through Google Adsense in a bid to cover the cost of self-hosting.

The only way forward is to get started, by visiting www.wordpress.org, downloading the latest version of the WordPress site management software and carrying out its “famous five-minute” installation. The latest stable release of WordPress (Version 2.9.1) is available in two formats. If you’re upgrading your existing installation, guidance is available at every stage through the WordPress community’s support forums.