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 ^[1]. 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 ^[2], 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 ^[3]

For those people who are comfortable with programming/html, and have their own server, you can download the software at http://wordpress.org/ ^[4]. 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 ^[5]

For those who know little or no html, you can set up an account at http://wordpress.com/ ^[6] 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 ^[7], also make the anti-spam software it uses, Akismet ^[8], 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 ^[9]

WordPress.com FAQ’s ^[10]

WordPress Guru Lorelle VanFossen ^[11]

WordPress Lessons at WordPress.org ^[12]