December 14th, 2010 by Mike

As I stated way back, WordPress is an Open Source application and its FREE. Now that sound great, but I think a little more information needs to be dispelled so that you have the full picture.
Although it is a Free application, it isn’t one that you can install on your home computer. You can, but it won’t do much for you from the world wide web side of things. As your home computer is far from web server which is what is needed to have your site available to the www. So, to start things off, you need a Host. The web Host is the entity that houses web servers in which your WordPress site will go. I am sure that each and everyone knows who Godaddy is? They are web hosts, but they are not the only ones. There are thousands out there. Some local, some national, some global. They each have different pricing and options. Bottom line, you will need a Host.
With that, and truly a MUST, is that you have a domain name. If you already have such, then you will most likely find that the entity in which you purchased your domain name, can also (and by default) can be you host. The entity that you purchased your domain name from, is the Registrar. And you being the owner of the domain, you are the Registrant. The registrant, that is you, own the domain. The registrar is simply the holding company. You can move your domain to another registrar or host. So, don’t feel like you have to host your site where you purchased it. Just a note, you can have a separate host and registrar. However, that means you are paying two entities instead of one, and it adds to making things not work as well. So, best thing to do, is keep them together.
With the hosting package, you usually get a few email accounts to use. Now that you have a host and a domain name, now you can install the WordPress App, build your site and have your online presence.
Many of the hosts provide assistance and tools to help you out. But, for many, this is not in their comfort zone and in that case, rely on others for assistance.
The good thing is that once all this behind the scenes stuff is taken care of, the rest is easy sailing.

December 5th, 2010 by Mike

When we say things go hand in hand we mean are talking about things that work together. The reason that WordPress is what it is today is, one, it works. It has been around for some time and has been developed and has grown with the times. Secondly, it is simple in form and structure in that anyone can learn to use it. Even if you have no computer skills, you can learn to use WordPress. Now, you may never be able to change the font of your menu, but you will be able to take a picture from your camera and place it on a post and add your content and be happy with your work.
And here goes the hand in hand part. Because of the above features, it is probably the most widely use Blog CMS software out there. And with that, it continues to get better, and have more features.
Many years back I devoted hours and hours to developing websites. And over those many years I developed an ungodly number of sites. Great! Well not really. As time went on, supporting all the sites became more of a headache then what is was worth. And one might think that all support made me money. Yes, it did, but it wasn’t worth it. The answer was in Content Management. Where as the developer, I built the framework. Customized the site to fit my clients needs. Then taught how to manage their site on their own. They no longer had to call me to add a name, change and address, or add a page. They, could do it themselves. Not only did that save time, but is saved them money. And we all like to save money.
With that I did my investigation, testing and what not and decided that WordPress was the way to go. I barely need to load up my web development tools anymore and I like it. My clients like so once again have another hand in hand process.