Use Wordpress to Blog for Free
Create a Free, Dynamic, Changing Website Without Programming Skills
Mar 25, 2009
Free blogging software can be used to build and maintain a dynamic changing website without any programming skills: Wordpress is one of the most popular blogging applications freely available.
Two ways to use Wordpress: Hosting and Wordpress.com
Wordpress can be used in two ways.
- The easiest, which allows a blog to be created in minutes, is to use Wordpress.com which means Wordpress will host the blog (for free). No software installation is needed as it’s already there on the Wordpress website. Anyone can register and start blogging.
- The other is to install the Wordpress software on a server – hosting a Wordpress blog. This requires taking a free download of the Wordpress software from Wordpress.org and installing it – a straightforward process for anyone with some technical knowledge.
Available Support for WordPress
There are Wordpress forums (on the Wordpress.org site and elsewhere) with lots of help available, both for users of the software (bloggers) and for the technical side (installation, support and upgrades of the software). Some website hosting companies also offer a free Wordpress blog as part of the hosting package.
Wordpress is expanding all the time. The number of users is growing as well as the features and functionality because Wordpress is a free open-source application that can be completely customised by anybody with the programming skills. Additional, extra functionality is usually expected with open-source software and Wordpress is no exception. A number of plug-ins are available offering, for example, searche engine optimization, calendars, search, different themes or styles, etc.
Wordpress Strengths
Wordpress is a blogging platform and it works.
One of the major strengths of Wordpress is that users can create pages as well as blog posts – so that a whole website with static (pages) and changing (blogs) content can be built and maintained by someone with no programming skills.
Wordpress has a focus on web standards and usability, which are key components of great web software.
Wordpress Disadvantages
It’s difficult to find many disadvantages for Wordpress.
One disadvantage is that many of the themes do look similar (it is possible to spot a Wordpress blog) and whilst a bespoke theme can be developed, this can be costly and the changes will probably need to be reapplied whenever a new version of Wordpress is installed.
Some of the plug-ins can be difficult to understand, but these are optional and selected by the blogger.
Choosing free open-source blogging software from Wordpress, allows bloggers to set up a blog with both pages and posts on Wordpress.com within minutes, without any technical or programming skills.
