WordPress, first appeared in 2003, is a free and open source blog publishing application. WordPress is the official successor of b2cafelog which was developed by Michel Valdrighi. The latest release of WordPress is version 2.8, released on 11 June 2009. When you think of WordPress you probably think of blogging. That’s how most people use it. They sign up for a free blog and start posting about a variety of things. Some blogs are very specific and targeted while others are just general every day kind of blogs. You might not be aware of it, but some excellent looking websites are also using WordPress without using it as a blog at all.
Those 6 heavy reasons that insist you to use WordPress as your first website or first blog are:
Its Free & Open Source
WordPress is an Open Source software which allows it to be used free of cost. You can use it on any kind of personal or commercial website without have to pay a single dime for it. It is built on PHP/MySQL (which is again Open Source) and licensed under GPL.
Ease of Use
WordPress is designed for the masses. That means there’s really no specialized knowledge necessary to sign up for a blog and get started. If you want to go beyond the free blog and take advantage of their premium features, they’re thrilled. So they lead you through it step-by-step to make it easy.
It assumes that you have Zero knowledge of web designing. Deciding to go from a free blog to hosting a domain with your blog as your site is fast, inexpensive and easy. At that point, your .com address contains the blog, which you can arrange pretty much any way you want.
Built-in Tools
Using the blogging and content tools provided by WordPress, it’s easier for many to create a great looking website than it is to use a more complicated piece of software. To create a WordPress site you don’t need an HTML editor or some “what you see is what you get” (WYSIWYG) software to help you build the site. You can still use these, for the most part, but you can also do the same things right through the WordPress interface, including using CSS.
You also won’t need a tool for uploading like an FTP client, and you won’t need to learn a complicated file manager or control panel. If you’ve chosen a theme and made a few blog posts, you already understand how making changes in WordPress works. There’s really no learning curve in going from free blog to website.
Search Engine Friendliness
WordPress blogs, if they’re using keywords and contain relevant content, can rank high in searches on those keywords. Google tends to favor some sites over others, while completely ignoring some domains. Content on WordPress tends to be favored. So your website, as long as you actually do concentrate on keywords and content a bit, will probably have a better chance at showing up in search engines than if it were hosted somewhere else.
Popularity and Community
If you’re not paying WordPress and website experts to do your website for you, then the idea of setting up a website anywhere, let alone on WordPress, is probably daunting. But because WordPress is so popular and used by so many people, it’s easy to get help with a problem.
If you have your website set up with Host X and you’re having problems with the PHP, you can wait to hear back from them or do an online search and try to find the exact problem in the exact server configuration in detail. But the WordPress community has active forums where you can ask questions. And chances are your blogging question has already been asked and answered, so your problem could be solved with a quick search.
Support & Forums
If you got stuck somewhere, then its a NO problem. This is because there are so many people using WordPress, so many websites on support which are always there to take you out from the trouble easily. Also, many Intellient Minds are working in WordPress support forums, where you will be listened & answered.
See what is new in WordPress 2.8
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