Website or blog...questions about pros and cons (wordpress??)

[Holly IN]

Hello,

 

Several friends of mine have begged me to start a blog or website talking about my experiences with homeschooling, working and raising a daughter with HFA. They said they would love to refer them to my blog. I started one yesterday through Wordpress.com (free version). I am looking at the premium version and can't figure out the domain stuff. I did buy one from namecheap.com. Nothing is attached to it right now. I am sitting on it until I know what to do.

 

1) Wordpress.com users: If you are a premium user, tell me how the whole domain works. I can't figure that out. Do you get a free domain with the premium bundle? On the free version, can I add Amazon.com stuff if I want to be an associate where they buy stuff through the link? or do I have to be a premium user in order to do that?

 

2) What is the benefit of a blog (free) over a website?

 

3) What is the best Free blog? Best paid blog?

 

4) If doing a website, how would I go about that? I got my domain name from namecheap but what about hosting? I am trying to piece everything together and still not understanding how it all works. Help!!

 

Thanks!

 

Holly

[Hen]

if you are using wordpress.com, you do not need hosting. You will need to direct your wordpress.com to your new domain name. You can probably link your amazon assoc. links in your main posts, but from what I understand, wordpress.com does not allow 3rd party widgets on the sidebar, so you will not be able to put an amazon ad on the side with your assoc. link.

 

if you want free hosting and to be able to have ads/ 3rd party widgets (like a bookshelf from amazon) then blogger.com is a good alternative, or you can go hosted with wordpress.org - the wordpress part is free, but you will need to pay for hosting through a company like bluehost.

 

I started out on blogger and then moved my blog over to wordpress.org and paid for hosting. I'm sorry, but I can't address the wordpress.com questions, hopefully someone else will chime in

 

welcome to blogging! :)

[Holly IN]

Does blogger.com allow you to use your domain? Do you have to have a hosting site in order to do that?

[ajfries]

Does blogger.com allow you to use your domain? Do you have to have a hosting site in order to do that?

 

Yep, you can use your own domain name on blogger. And you don't have to have a hosting site (other than blogger). I find blogger to be more user friendly but I think Wordpress is more customiazable.

[Holly IN]

Wordpress.com is confusing esp with their premium upgrade. I bought it and couldn't figure it out so I canceled before the deadline to get full refund. Right now I have a free wordpress but the blog address i wanted is not available however it is in my domain I paid for through namecheap.com. So not sure how to go about that.

[Holly IN]

Plus if I am going to pay for wordpress.com premium benefits and can't posts amazon bookshelf or ads in order for me to fund the blog if I am paying for it.....then what is the benefit of wordpress.com??

[Hen]

I don't know anything really about wordpress.com- just that you can't have ads on it. I think you would be happier on blogger, and yes, you can have a domain name there, blogger has easy directions on how to do it. I purchased my domains through blogger and they did the direction changes for me, which was really nice. I have my main blog on wordpress hosted and then two smaller blogs on blogger.

[Holly IN]

What do you mean "on wordpress hosted..."

[Holly IN]

Ok I did some more research. I am confused now. There are wordpress.com and wordpress.org....Also found out if you are wanting ads and yet use wordpress, you have to use wordpress.org or find a webhost and domain then upload wordpress software. Is this right?

[Lanny]

@OP I suggest you use WordPress, with your own Domain Name that you got from NameCheap (remember to Renew it every year!), and that you use a Shared web hosting account. Probably something that costs about USD$5 or $6 per month. And, never buy your domain name and web hosting from the same company. That has led many people to total disaster...

 

You can use just about any web hosting company out there. I strongly suggest one that uses the cPanel Control Panel, on Linux servers. One huge company that seems to have a great reputation (amazing, considering their size), is HostGatorcom A much smaller company that I have read many good things about in the Forum on WebHostingTalk.com is HawkHost.com which is based in Canada, but has servers located in the USA. I have been using a company called OLM.NET which is in CT, USA, since December 2001. They own and operate their own data centers, which, to me, is "a plus". HostGator has amazing Help and sometimes I use their Help and FAQs, to figure out how to do something...

 

My experience is with Static HTML web sites, created with MS FrontPage. I have been doing that since about 1999. That's the old way to do it, but it seems "normal" to me.

 

Now, a huge percentage of web sites/blogs are hosted on WordPress.

 

WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, and many others, are what are called a CMS (Content Management System). They are PHP code which runs on the web server, when someone wants to view a web/blog page. So, that causes a higher load on the web server. It is best to check for Updates to WordPress, the "Theme" you are using, and any "PlugIns", every 30 days or so. With WordPress, Updating everything is a Snap. For Security and Stability reasons, keeping everything up to date, and limiting the number of PlugIns, is essential. And, the Theme and any PlugIns that you install, should be well maintained and you should read the comments, before installing anything...

 

I now have a "Reseller" plan with an OLM affiliated company, GlobalSpace, and with that, each of my web sites (7) has it's own individual cPanel Control Panel and login. 6 of the sites are Static HTML (the largest about 92 pages) and one is a WordPress Blog I am preparing for my wife and/or DD to take over.

 

Coming from the Static HTML world, WordPress is very strange, but, I strongly suggest you go with WordPress, because there is simply a huge amount of stuff available for it and a huge knowledge base.

 

If you get Shared Web Hosting that has cPanel in it, you can Install WordPress on your disk space, in a few minutes.

 

The advantage to doing it this way is that you have control of everything. With Free Hosting, what you see today can be taken away from you, without notice. With your own installation, you can install whatever Theme/PlugIns you want and you can do anything legal with your Blog, as long as the site is not server intensive and does not bring the server to it's knees.

 

When you get a Shared Hosting account (HostGator, HawkHost, OLM, etc., etc.) they will provide you with at least two (2) Name Servers. It will be something like this:

 

(1) MyHostDNS1.net

(2) MyHostDNS2.net

 

when you are ready to begin with your web site or blog (BTW, you can create a Static web site or static web pages with WordPress, although it is primarily used for blogging), you go to your account at NameCheap.com and you log in and go to that domain and you DELETE whatever Name Servers they have there, and ADD the Name Servers that your web hosting company gave you, in their "Welcome" email. That will direct the traffic to your web site/blog on the shared web server you are using.

 

It can take 24-72 hours, for all of the DNS (Domain Name Servers) used by ISPs in the world to update their caches, but many will update almost immediately. We use the Free OpenDNS.com DNS service for our home network, and if I change Name servers for one/all of my web sites, the changes seem to be almost instantaneous (My Domain Registrar is Name.com but I assume NameCheap.com is also fast).

 

There is a huge amount of help available to do almost anything you want to do with WordPress, on WordPress.org in their CODEX. Here's the URL:

http://codex.wordpress.org/Main_Page

 

You do not need to host with a web hosting provider that is listed on WordPress.org or any other web site. They receive "Affiliate" commissions if you sign up with one of those providers.

 

You can search, using Google, limiting your search to WordPress.org, using this format:

"site:wordpress.org xyz search terms" (without the quote marks)

 

There is a lot of help available, there, and in many other places on the web, and on WebHostingTalk.com

 

Take it slow. It will seem strange at first, which is normal, since it is completely new to you.

 

On WordPress.com with them doing the hosting, as others have pointed out, I believe they prohibit you trying to monetize your web site on their free hosting.

 

On your own WordPress web site or blog, you can do what you want.

 

Always, always, always, remember the 3 most important things you need to do: (1) Backup (2) Backup and (3) Backup NEVER depend on anyone else to have a backup of your stuff and certainly not one that works properly.

 

GL and HTH

 

P.S.

If you decide to go with HostGator or HawkHost or some other company, discounts are available. HawkHost offers a recurring 25% discount as I recall, if you get a code on WebHostingTalk.com

[Holly IN]

I am trying to understand here. Wordpress is highly recommended. I get that. What about their premium upgrade? Is it worth the money? Now the hosting, I have to use hosting site such as hostgator or hawkhost in order to be in control, right? So I am missing a puzzle piece between the hosting such as hostgator...Ok so for example:

 

I use my domain name from namecheap(which is A) then use hosting from hostgator.com (which is B)then go to wordpress (which is C) and set it up. What I am not udnerstanding between B and C? How do I connect the two ? IN other words if I want wordpress to be the hosted but I have full control over placing amazon affiliates....does this mean premium upgrades?

 

sorry I am terrible at this even with associate computer degree of 20 years ago. sigh!!!

Holly

[Hen]

Holly,

 

I'm sorry, but I'm not familiar with wordpress premium upgrade? Is it still a wordpress.com site or will it then be changed to wordpress.org? I have a wordpress for dummies book and a visual worpress book that are really helpful...I just skipped the parts on wordpress.com though. I didn't set my wordpress.org blog up, but had someone design it for me and move it from blogger to wordpress, so I don't really understand setting it up, sorry! Hopefully someone will chime in. Both those books are really helpful.

[Lanny]

I am trying to understand here. Wordpress is highly recommended. I get that. What about their premium upgrade? Is it worth the money? Now the hosting, I have to use hosting site such as hostgator or hawkhost in order to be in control, right? So I am missing a puzzle piece between the hosting such as hostgator...Ok so for example:

 

I use my domain name from namecheap(which is A) then use hosting from hostgator.com (which is B)then go to wordpress (which is C) and set it up. What I am not udnerstanding between B and C? How do I connect the two ? IN other words if I want wordpress to be the hosted but I have full control over placing amazon affiliates....does this mean premium upgrades?

 

sorry I am terrible at this even with associate computer degree of 20 years ago. sigh!!!

Holly

 

 

@Holly I would not personally use the WordPress hosting on WordPress.com Free or Premium. I would suggest that you get a hosting account with HostGator, HawkHost, OLM or any of hundreds or thousands of reputable web hosting providers.

 

The actual WordPress software is free. You do not pay for that. It is "open source" code.

 

What I suggest you do is get an inexpensive Shared web hosting account, with a company that uses the cPanel Control Panel, which is the most common Control Panel used. Before you sign up, just be sure that they have "Fantastico" or "Softaculous" installed in cPanel. Those are libraries of PHP Scripts (WordPress, Joomla and many many more) that you can install, with a few clicks. You do not need to Download WordPress from WordPress.org and install it manually!

 

If you have a regular Shared Hosting account, you can, if you want, do many many more things with it, than if you would pay WordPress.com for a Premium account. And, if you are on cPanel, if you eventually decide to switch providers, you can do that, easily, because cPanel is the most common Control Panel in use in the web hosting industry.

 

You have the domain name. That is the first step. The second step would be for you to get a shared hosting account. Remember the recurring discounts are great, if you can get them. HostGator offers discounts on the first invoice only. HawkHost offers recurring discounts and my account with OLM has a recurring discount. So, recurring is better than a one time discount.

 

After you have the "Welcome email" from the Shared hosting provider, then, in the Control Panel of NameCheap you change the Name Servers, to those shown in the "Welcome email".

 

Then, you can log into the cPanel Control Panel for your web hosting account, install WordPress, and begin, very slowly, to create your new blog.

 

Following is very long and I fear that you will be overwhelmed by the length of it, but if you read everything slowly, hopefully it is understandable.

 

Follow on to what I wrote last night:

 

RE: Backup of a WordPress web site or blog. I forgot that you need to backup two (2) things, with the cPanel Backup Wizard. The “Home Directory†and also the “MySQL Databaseâ€. When using a CMS (WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, etc.) all of your posts, the information on your web pages or blog pages, are stored in a MySQL database. So, you must backup those 2 files (download to your hard drive on your local computer).

 

I have just finished Updating the new WordPress blog I am setting up for my wife/DD to use. There was an Update for the actual WordPress software and there were also Updates available for 3 of the Plugins I have installed. The Theme was up to date. To update, you simply select what you want to update, click and presto…

 

Note: I backup the Home Directory and the MySQL Database, before doing the Update(s). After updating, I test, to be sure the blog is still working OK and after verifying that, I Backup the Home Directory and the MySQL Database, again.

 

This is the URL of the WordPress blog I am setting up for my wife and DD:

http://calidama.com/

 

Now, please open another browser tab, and look at the original Twenty Eleven theme:

http://wordpress.org...es/twentyeleven

 

You can see how huge the graphic is there, and, also, the huge space above the graphic. I got rid of most of that.

 

I know almost nothing about WordPress. The reason I am posting the URL to our new WordPress blog here is that I want you to see the changes I have made, Appearance wise. This is based on the Twenty Eleven Theme. NEVER change the original (“Parentâ€) theme. Changes are made, with a “Child†theme. So, I am using the “Twenty Eleven Child Theme, with 2 Widgetsâ€.

 

Notice the test logo I made, at the top of the page. I made that with the “GIMP†program, which is an extremely powerful, free, Application, like Adobe Photoshop. The height and probably the width of the logo are different from what is in the original Twenty Eleven theme. I learned how to do that, by watching a YouTube Video, done by a man in Kentucky, and possibly also reading on the WordPress CODEX and other places.

 

The ad on the right side is in a “Widget†as I recall.

 

Disclaimer: If someone clicks on one of those ads and buys, if all goes well, 3 or 4 months later, I will receive a commission from the advertiser. Those are “Affiliate†ads.

 

This all seems very complicated, and for me, coming from the world of Static HTML web sites, it is, but there is a huge amount of documentation available on the web, lots of YouTube videos, Tutorials, etc.

 

If you take it one step at a time, as I suggest, you will eventually get to where you want to be. Always backup, before you make changes, so if something goes awry, you can get back to where you were before you made the changes, by Restoring from your Backup.

 

URGENT NOTE: When you install WordPress, there are some dialogue boxes, for WordPress and for the MySQL Database you set up. URGENT that you change the user names in those, to something that is not obvious, and that you have STRONG PASSWORDS, for Security reasons. Write the user names and passwords, etc., down and store the information in a safe place. The same for your web hosting account and for your account on NameCheap.

 

HTH and GL! Lanny

[Holly IN]

Thanks Lanny!! This is a huge help and overwhelming. lol! I will print this and read it very slowly and do it slow with a highlighter to keep myself straight.

Holly

[Lanny]

Thanks Lanny!! This is a huge help and overwhelming. lol! I will print this and read it very slowly and do it slow with a highlighter to keep myself straight.

Holly

 

You're welcome and I'm glad I could help you a little. Here's the page on WordPress.org for Beginners. Suggest you start there and hopefully they can explain the steps, in a less overwhelming manner: http://codex.wordpre..._with_WordPress

 

For me, the really tricky part, and this is not something you will do when you begin to use/configure WordPress, was to change the Appearance of the Theme. Very strange stuff, IMHO... My next step is to add an additional page, with a "Privacy Policy", as we have on our Static HTML web sites. That should be very easy, compared to changing the Appearance...

 

People who use WordPress consider all of this to be "normal" and soon you will consider it to be "normal" too.

[Lanny]

Holly: I've been with OLM and now GlobalSpace, for 11 1/2 years. Their Support is slow, because they do things on a priority basis, which is the way it should be. If I had to move to another web hosting provider, based on what I have read in many threads on WebHostingTalk.com I would move to HawkHost.com or to HostGator.com HostGator is more expensive, but has outstanding Help and FAQs on their web site and my imrpression is that their Tech Support is very good and fast, normally. Their Help and FAQs have helped me do something, several times...

 

I took a very quick look at the thread for Shared Hosting Offers on WebHostingTalk.com but didn't see one for HawkHost. My guess is they post there every week or two. Here's a link to the Specials page on HawkHost.com http://www.hawkhost....sting-specials/

 

I had contacted HawkHost, before I discovered I could get a "Reseller Plan" at OLM/GlobalSpace and they were extremely responsive to my questions.

 

It is always suggested that one pay month to month, especially at the beginning. i always pay month to month...

 

Companies like HawkHost, OLM, HostGator offer a money back guarantee, during the first 30 to 45 days, if one is not satisfied. Once you are on cPanel, if you need to change providers, that makes it easier to move your web site or blog to another provider using cPanel. cPanel is incredibly common.

 

GL, Lanny