What is WordPress?

by Lid

WordPress is free software that allows anyone to be an online publisher. It comes with tons of options, all made to ensure your experience as a publisher on the Web is easy, fun, free of cost, and compliant to Web standards. You can choose to make it public or private.

Although most people use it to blog, WordPress has a distinct feature that is not available on every blogging platform - you can build an entire Web site using WordPress alone.

WordPress is open source, meaning the source code (the program instructions) is freely available to anyone interested in using it.

How to use WordPress?

For the tech inclined: WordPress.org

For those people who are comfortable with programming/html, and have their own server, you can download the software at http://wordpress.org/. You get to play with it, add to it, and modify it so it best suits what you need it to do, then host it yourself.

For the non techie: WordPress.com

For those who know little or no html, you can set up an account at http://wordpress.com/ and just start building a Web site or blog, without worrying about all the back end stuff; WordPress does it for you. It is easy to use, looks great, and gives you many options to customize it to your taste.

Why is WordPress better?

WordPress comes in two flavors: basic (.com) and advanced (.org)
WordPress software lets you build an entire Web site instead of a blog
WordPress places no advertising on your pages
The people that make WordPress, Automattic, also make the anti-spam software it uses, Akismet, so you have access to the most current and most researched product

NOTE: Do not confuse wordpress.org and wordpress.com - reading wordpress.org information when you are using wordpress.com for your site will just confuse you.

If you want more information; take a look at these:

New Here? Page at WordPress.com

WordPress.com FAQ’s

WordPress Guru Lorelle VanFossen

WordPress Lessons at WordPress.org

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