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Do I Really Need A Website?

May 17, 2010 By Laura Leave a Comment

People always want to follow the latest thing, be it in fashion, sports, that kind of thing. Websites have become a necessity to almost everyone. Companies, businesses, individuals, even young adults have created personal websites with their respective purposes, be it for profit, or for entertainment.

What one must consider, however, before creating a website, are such things as  setup costs, maintenance, use, web host and so forth.

Cost – We must always try to find an affordable host, not spending too much, nor too little. A cheap host does not exactly symbolize a credible reliability rating, but we must always look for value for money deals. Also, regarding the efficiency and server/web host reliability, there are many cases of web hosts not providing the service they had assured other people, some had even shut down and were nowhere to be seen. Keep this note in mind, as if you would like a long-lasting website, this would be the first thing to look for. (My personal recommendation would be Hostgator.  I have tried several hosts but Hostgator beats them hands down with reliability and ease of use!)

Is hiring a professional designer affordable? Is it the best option? For simple websites, we could always pick up the coding, or even use programs, as it is relatively simple. However, when it comes to more complex coding, and when you want it to do a tad more than just providing information, hiring help in doing so would be the best way. Not only in terms of design, but security is also a key factor in assuring a quality website. If the website also acts as a portal for businesses, security would definitely be the issue here.  Note: If this is your very first website and you’re not 100% sure of the direction of your business, I strongly suggest you do your first website yourself or hire someone to setup a basic site (like me!  lol) until you get totally clear in your direction and then spend the big bucks on a personal site designer.

So, having considered the things to do before building a website, do we actually NEED one? Absolutely!  Here are just a smattering of the reasons for having a website even if you are not a business owner:

  • Online business card
  • Landing page for social networking sites
  • Virtual storefront to extend brick & mortar business
  • Blogging on matters that are important to you so you can connect with like-minded individuals
  • Resumes
  • Networking
  • Staying in touch with family & friends & showcasing important events in your life
  • And of course, for conducting business or providing a virtual service

Here is a quick video on how too plan out your website!

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Hosted Or Self-Hosted WordPress Blog Website?

March 23, 2010 By Laura 15 Comments

By Linda Lassova

WordPress is a free, the most professional and the most customizable blog publishing application. It allows you to easily create a blog or website for free. Blogging is becoming more and more popular on the internet these days. WordPress is also now used to create Websites and for that reason you want your blog/website to be different to the other blogs. So when choosing the WordPress type of hosting, consider both the advantage and disadvantage that comes with each.

You can either use hosted or self-hosted WordPress. Self-hosted WordPress blogging platform needs you to manually install and host the WordPress software whereas the Hosted WordPress – WordPress.com blogging platform is managed by WordPress developer professionals. There are advantages and disadvantages for both hosted and self-hosted WordPress.

Hosted WordPress – WordPress.com

It is really easy to set up and you are ready to go online within minutes. It is also automatically updated when the new release comes out. It is less flexible than the WordPress you download and install yourself. Hosted WordPress is also limited in choosing your domain.

Advantages:

  • Free – you don’t have to pay for hosting and domain registration. All you need is an e-mail address.
  • Automatic Updates – Each time the new version becomes available, your blog will be automatically updated.
  • Easy to Use and Set-up – All you need to do is to create a WordPress account, choose your subdomain, theme and you are ready to go

Disadvantages:

  • No income – with hosted WordPress you cannot monetize your blog. All the advertisements are controlled and you are not allowed to display advertisements
  • Domain limitation – your domain will be like yourblogname.wordpress.com
  • Limited storage space – if you run out of space you will need
  • Limited Design – you will get to choose from over 75 themes

When you need a professional blog/website you don’t want to be limited with your design, domain name, (you only get a subdomain, like yourdomain.wordpress.com. Other limitations are also with earning revenue, as you can’t display advertisements to show your AdSense, Yahoo,… ads. All you can do is add affiliate links in your post.

Self-Hosted WordPress

With self-hosted WordPress you will need to download, install and host the free WordPress platform yourself. You will use your own domain name, which will make your blog/website more professional.

You will also need to get hosting and also will have to do upgrades when new WordPress is available. You can easily customize it, make all the changes you wish to make according to your niche.

But the main thing is that you can earn income from your blog/website. You can display all advertisements like AdSense, Yahoo etc. This can give you a big revenue. The cost varies on how much help you need, who you use to register your domain and hosting with.

A WordPress Blog that is hosted through your own domain ensures that your site is not only completely optimized for search engine ranking, but also provides the highest level of customization and options to earn revenue.

With self hosted blog you gain more power and control of your own blog.

Advantages:

  • Earn revenue – start selling your own products or promoting someone else’s products. You are allowed to add a shopping cart and any number of plug-ins for tracking, click-throughs, and other widgets that generate revenue.
  • Design – No limitation on themes. There are many free themes available and also customized or premium themes to make it more professional.
  • Complete control – you can customize your blog/website as you wish. No limitation on the design. This will help you to differentiate your blog from others. You will have many more options as your online business evolves and grows.
  • Search Engine Optimization – WordPress is Search Engine friendly and allows every single page to be indexed.
  • Own Domain Name – choose the right name for your blog/website, get recognized, brand yourself. Do your keywords research first.

Disadvantages:

  • Not as easy to set up – you will need to download and install WordPress. This also depend on the type of Hosting you use.
  • Not automatically updated – WordPress is becoming more and more popular and it is updated regularly and so you will need to manually update the self-hosted blog with the new release
  • Cost – you will have to pay for hosting and domain renewal. With the professional blog, or if you wish to use it as a Website, you will need a professional to design you a unique theme.

f you wish to have the WordPress Installation all done for you, get the Hosting with WordPress Installation and personalized header and pay only for the Hosting with RK Internet Solutions, just visit http://www.rkinternetsolutions.com/WordpressInstallation/

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Linda_Lassova
http://EzineArticles.com/?Hosted-Or-Self-Hosted-WordPress-Blog-Website?&id=3779911

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Why WordPress Stands Out As a Content Management System

March 19, 2010 By Laura Leave a Comment

By Cecilia Santos

Though WordPress is known as a blogging software, it is no surprise that it is also being used for other things aside from blogging due its versatility. As an open source software with the strong support from a friendly community of developers, it became possible to use WordPress as a CMS or Content Management System. Even if there are other CMS options, there are a lot of advantages why WordPress is a wise choice for personal or business use, thus one of the reasons for its popularity.

One of the best features WordPress has is perhaps the fact that it is mostly free. With the right know-how, anyone can create an effective website at a minimal cost. Installation itself is free and some addons are usually quite easy on the pocket. This makes it an ideal option for small businesses that do not have the capability of funding a large budget for website development. In connection, most of the time it is also cheap to tweak the site later on.

As they use WordPress, both beginners and advance users would discover that because of a massive library of plugins available, they can be able to create a functional site with all the features they need without extensive coding as was done a few years back. Writing itself is a breeze because this software has a built-in WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editor. Those that plan to create a site would see that aside from being convenient, it is also less time consuming to make and it is quite user-friendly too.

Putting up a website is not just enough nowadays. It is also important to establish web presence, something that WordPress is good at. With the application of a few features, your website is more optimized and easier to index in search engines. The site would be able to sufficiently promote itself without the need to invest a lot of time in marketing. And since nothing is constant when it comes to page ranks, users are happy to note that in a snap they can easily modify some things to suit the current trends.

Indeed, WordPress used as CMS has changed not just businesses but the facade of the Internet itself. Because of it, a lot of people are more capable of producing well-made sites without pouring too much resources on the project. With the realization that it is less frustrating to produce a site that would fully answer their needs, cyberspace became friendlier for everyone.

Cecilia Santos is a Web Developer and SEO expert. She has published several related articles which you can read on her website http://w3c-compliant.com.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Cecilia_Santos
http://EzineArticles.com/?Reasons-Why-WordPress-Stands-Out-As-a-Content-Management-System&id=3282078

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Why WordPress is the Best Platform For Your Blog

March 17, 2010 By Laura 3 Comments

By Stephen Dutson

A lot of work goes into creating a blog. It is important to make the right decisions at the start of process – one of the most critical choices is which blogging platform to use. For me there is only one answer – WordPress – and here are some of the reasons why.

The WordPress Community

There are a lot of people involved with making WordPress better. From the creators of the core program, to plugin and theme developers right down to the people using WordPress on a daily basis. There are WordPress users answering questions in forums and writing about WordPress on their blogs – the community is massive, knowledgeable and willing to share – and it’s the backbone of everything great about WordPress.

WordPress Plugins

A plugin is a tool that adds extra functionality to a blog. They are usually free and you can get a plugin to do just about any task you think of relating to the management of a blog.

There are plugins that back up your database and email it to you on a daily basis, there are plugins that help get your blog listed highly in search engines, plugins to tell you how many people have visited your blog and plugins to help locate broken links.

There are just so many plugins around it would be impossible to create a definitive list as it would be out of date as soon as it was published.

WordPress Themes

A WordPress theme is the skin you wrap your blog in. It is more than the overall design as the way the theme has been built defines how your blog works. For example, the category list may appear on your blog in one theme, but not another, this is because one theme is built that way, while the other is not.

Most WordPress themes are available for free and can be installed and activated through the admin area of your blog. You can change the way your blog looks with just a few clicks of the mouse.

WordPress is easy to update and customize

The WordPress dashboard is very easy to understand and creating new posts and uploading images is simple. It can be used as an out of the box solution, or, if you want to get your hands dirty, you can delve into the WordPress code and develop it to your heart’s content.

A WordPress blog can be updated through a browser from anywhere in the world by any registered member. Member accounts can be created manually or automatically (through a registration process) and each member can be given a different membership level – subscriber, contributor, author, editor or administrator.

WordPress is free!

The core WordPress files are free! Most of the plugins are free! And there are tons of WordPress themes available for free!

The only thing you have to pay for (if hosting WordPress on your own domain) is the hosting and the domain name. If you already have a site and want to attach a blog to it, those costs are already covered, so you would be getting a whole next extension to your site for diddly squat.

Stephen Dutson has been writing about WordPress and other blogging tools for several years. His main interests are WordPress and developing blogs using WordPress. At the current time he is contributing to The Blogging Academy

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Stephen_Dutson
http://EzineArticles.com/?Why-WordPress-is-the-Best-Platform-For-Your-Blog&id=3916314

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