What’s the difference between a Wordpress Page and a Wordpress Post:

Pages:

Wordpress Pages are the static pages of your website. They are the pages you want to display from your top level menu and will remain static within your blog/website.

By default when you first install wordpress one page is automatically created for you the “About” page. You can either edit this to give a quick biography to your visitors and start to build that all important rapport. Or, after you have created another page you can delete the default “About” page.

To Create a Page, login to your WP-ADMIN site and click on the menu options or “Write” and then “Write Page”…. give you page a title (keep this short as it will appear on the blog menu bar) and then enter the page detail in the standard wordpress WYSIWYG text editor.

Note: a couple of options on the right site of the page editor screen:

• Discussion: If you want to remove the comment option from the Page (these are often more relevant to posts) then remove the tick from this option.
• Page Parent: Use this option if you are creating “Nested Pages”. For example you may want a page for “Products” and then sub-pages for “Product A”, “Product B” etc.

Note: Categories do not apply to Pages … only to Posts!

Also, Pages are not Archived.

Posts:

WordPress Posts are the “articles” that you write for your blog. These are typically the daily/weekly (or what ever frequency) post that you will place to keep your blog fresh and updated with new content.

Each post you write can be assigned to one or many “Categories”. These give you an additional “Menu” in the Blog Sidebar to allow visitors to find relevant articles.

Wordpress will automatically Archive your posts so that over time you will have the latest articles available directly under each Category, and a seperate “Archive” menu for older posts. The options for how frequent (if at all!) articles should be archive is under your control from the “options” section of the WP-ADMIN pages.

To write a new post, login to you WP-ADMIN page and click on “Write” and “Write Post”.

OK, so you’ve decided about (or you are considering) installing Wordpress for a self-hosted blog and are looking for a Wordpress host.

What are the steps needed to install Wordpress?

With Wordpress itself, or any of it’s components (themes, plugins) then the process is always the same. Download the component from an internet location (usually wordpress.org), unzip the files, upload to your host.

With the initial Wordpress install it will also be necessary to install the MySql database component and set the php configuration file to enable access to the database.

If the previous two sentences have brought you out in a cold sweat and you’re thinking “No Way. If that’s what installing Wordpress is all about… then forget it, I’ll stick with the online version”…. fear not!  Select a Wordpress host that has easy Wordpress install options available.

One Wordpress Host Provider that we use and can definitely recommend is BlueHost.

The following steps will apply to any Wordpress host that uses cPanel and Fantastico.

Installing Wordpress: A Simple 5 Step Process

Step 1:  Register for a Wordpress Host

If you do not have a suitable Wordpress host, then Click Here to set-up an account with BlueHost.

Note: During the registration process you will select the domain name for your host account.
Think about this domain name before rusing ahead. This will be the main domain that you can then use for many purposes eg.
Your Blog
Several other Blogs
Standard Website Hosting
Subdomains
etc.

You can easily add additional domains to your host account at just $10 per domain (annual fee).

Step 2.

Login to your Wordpress host control panel (cPanel) and page down to the “Software/Services” section, click on the “Fantastico De Luxe” option.

Step 3.

From the Fantastico Home page, select the “Wordpress” option from the left side Menu and then click on “New Installation”.

Step 4.

Complete the Wordpress Installation panel as follows:

Install on Domain:  Select the domain to use from the dropdown menu.  If you have created “Addon-Domains” these will be available for selection here.
Install in directory: Use this option if you are using a sub folder to install the blog. for example you may have… www.yourdomain.com for a standard webpage and www.yourdomain.com/blog for the Wordpress Installation.  Note:  to use this option the folder must NOT exist, the install process will create the folder (and it will error if the folder already exists)

Administrator User Name:  The Login ID for the Blog Administrator (additional users can be added later)
Password: Password for the Administrator.

Admin Nickname: Usually the same as the User Name above.
Admin email address: Email address for the administrator (automatic email will be sent to this address, eg. Comment Moderation emails)
Sitename: The name of the Blog that will appear on the Blog Header Section
Description: The Tag Line for the Blog Header.

(Note: the above items (Admin email, Sitename, Descrition) can be change from the Options Section of the Installed Wordpress Blog.)

Email Configuration:  just enter “test” in all 4 fields, these are not required unless you want to use the Blog Update by emal functionality.  This can be added at a later date.

Click On “Install Wordpress”

Accept on the next Screen and enter an email address for the administrator id and password to be sent to (for a reminder !!!).

Wordpress Install is now complete!

Step 5.

To View your Blog just enter your domain (and /subfolder if set) into you web browser.

To edit your blog, enter the blog address in your browser but end it with /wp-admin, you will be prompted for the administrator id and password that you entered in step 4 above.

As you can see Installing Wordpress for a self-hosted blog is not that difficult if you select the right wordpress host.

What is the difference between wordpress.org and wordpress.com?

• You’ve had a look around the internet and decided that writing a blog is the way forward.
• You’ve looked at the available blogging solutions and have decided that Wordpress is the best blogging software for you.

But..

• You’ve heard about Wordpress.com and Wordpress.org… What’s this difference?

WordPress.com

Wordpress.com is an online service just like the google owned product blogger.com
With Wordpress.com you just register for an account, select a desired template and start creating pages and posts (articles).

Wordpress.org

Wordpress.org is the place to go to download the Wordpress software so that you can host the website yourself. Why would you want to go through the hassle of doing this when you can get a free site from wordpress.com?

Here’s a benefits for hosting your own blog:

1. You own the content, no-one can remove the content at their discretion. This has happened to a coupe of affiliate marketers I know who were marketing products in the online gaming arena. The terms and conditions of the online blog restricted this content, so after they had spent weeks building a content rich website and started to build traffic to their site… it was deleted overnight without their knowledge.
2. You can include adverts on your website to “moneytorize” you site.
3. You can add any number of “plugins” to your website to enhance its functionality.

What is a Blog and Why Should You Produce One?

The word “Blog” is word that grew from the combination of two words “Web Log”. Early Blogs were just that … a log of entries on a webpage that formed an Online Diary.

Blogs have now evolved into fully functional Content Management Systems (CMS). i.e. Websites that are owned and managed by individuals, where it is easy to create new pages (post articles) and use existing themes/templates to create great looking websites.

The basic structure of a Blog allows you to create pages that people can then comment on (although you can switch that function off, or limit the commentors to registered users), thereby making your website more interactive to visitors and they are more likely to return.

Why Do You Need a Blog?

You may want to create a Blog just for your personal about me/us pages to keep family and friends updated on things you’re doing. Create Photo albums to share, or just keep an online diary for yourself.

If you have a business to promote, a blog is a great way to keep customers and prospective customers/clients up-to-date on your products and services.

Here’s a recent quote from BusinessWeek Magazine:-

“Go ahead and bellyache about blogs. But you cannot afford to close your eyes to them, because they’re simply the most explosive outbreak in the information world since the Internet itself. And they’re going to shake up just about every business-including yours. It doesn’t matter whether you’re shipping paper clips, pork bellies, or videos of Britney in a bikini, blogs are a phenomenon that you cannot ignore, postpone, or delegate. Given the changes barreling down upon us, blogs are not a business elective. They’re a prerequisite. (And yes, that goes for us, too.)”

You will find the full article at BusinessWeek.