Why Use Wordpress

Wordpress is the world’s most popular and reliable software platform for self-hosted blogs.*

Think of Wordpress as the behind-the-scenes engine that makes it all possible to use a seemingly infinite choice of themes for sites and useful interactive tools, such as the ability to easily post new and timely information from any computer that’s online … to insert photos and video, enable reader comments and on and on. Wordpress is free, but it requires skill — as with any online software — to get a site online successfully.

This site is running on the same Wordpress software as The New York Times, CNN, People and many other organizations. In fact, many corporations as well as individuals are switching the Wordpress rather than the older HTML mode of Web site because of its easy of use.

What’s the difference between a blog and a standard HTML site? The big difference is where the site’s software resides.

• An HTML site requires a special program, such as Dreamweaver, on a computer to manage updates to a site. The updates are made, and the new files are uploaded to the site. There are a couple of inherent problems with this system — it takes time, programming skills, and what if you need to update your site while traveling but don’t have the proper software with the computer at hand? You are out of luck.
• Blog software resides online with your account at a Web hosting company’s server. Consequently, you need only to sign-on from any computer that has Internet access anywhere in the world and update your site. No special software programming experience is needed. The real appeal of a blog site is that you are in charge and in control.

* “Self-hosted” means that your blog resides with a hosting service of your choosing, such as InMotionHosting or Lunarpages, as opposed to a free blog with a service such as Blogspot or Wordpress.