Blogging is the need of the hour; you will find millions of blogs over the internet that gives you insight on several topics that are in the world. The blogs not only give you the information about the things you look out for, but they also give you a keen insight into the details, reviews, information, and about everything the blog is related to. The biggest advantage of a blog is, you can access it anywhere from the internet and various new people can be added to the blog to share their knowledge and views over the blog.

To run a blog, you need a platform. A platform that provides you to set up your own blog where you can share your views. There are many blogging platforms that are available on the internet for new and old bloggers and many of them are free and they encourage the writers and the people who want to convey to the masses about anything a solid ground to stand on. The most popular blogging platform over the internet is no doubt WordPress. WordPress is the first choice of bloggers around the globe and it accounts for nearly 20% of the total internet. WordPress is not only just easy to use and share things too but the very easy working and free hosting allow users to do many things over WordPress.

With the gaining popularity of WordPress comes a little confusion. Many people find themselves asking a question when they are about to set up their blog on WordPress, the question is – Self-hosted WordPress or WordPress.com? What does this actually mean? Well, let’s have a look!

WordPress

WordPress is blogging software that works and is developed on PHP. One can download WordPress for free from its website, and then after installing it on your server; you can configure it and start blogging on it within minutes. The entire process of WordPress, right from downloading to installing is very easy and anyone with a little knowledge about the internet can do it in a few minutes. WordPress is free and it comes with a host of features that make it very user-friendly. You don’t need to have any special training in blogging whatsoever for WordPress. It’s very easy right from the start and requires no form of technical knowledge other than the general know-how about using the internet, which every bloke on earth today knows. If you intend to become a blogger, you must have spent quite a time on the internet before reaching this stage, and that’s the perfect amount of time you need to start your blog on WordPress.

Blogging today is a very serious platform and is something that almost everyone around the net does or is a part of. WordPress has everything taken care of that you’ll ever need to start your own blog. You might come across several blogs that are on the other blogging platform, but none gives the accessibility and ease of use as WordPress gives. With WordPress, you not only have the text box that allows you to write and post your posts, but you can also categorize them according to your own liking, add images, and make your blog really attractive.

Blogging is just the part of the blogging site you put up. You have to complete your blog along with the static pages, the pages that give out the details about the blog and the author of the blog. As you need to publish things that fit the structure of the blog, this comes in handy.

Understanding The Pages Of The WordPress

The pages that are in WordPress are the pages of the posts you put up. The posts get collective over the posting time and then they form a page in the blog. Supposedly, you post 5 posts a day ranging in images and texts, so each page of the WordPress can accommodate a certain number of images and texts, the moment it gets filled, the matter gets transferred to the next page. The posts don’t follow the chronology, but there are features that are accommodated in the pages in the form of parenting that allows you to categorize them accordingly.

A page can have a download section for the users where you have put something for your users that can be downloaded by them, so you can create a page for each of the downloads and then can make them all have a parent page named ‘Download’. This makes the whole thing managed in a very appropriate way.

Each of the pages in WordPress can have different templates. This makes each page look different from the other depending upon the user how he likes to make it look. You can make a page change according to the topic and nature of the post you are posting and this adds up to the functionality you can have while posting something over your blog. Every time you need a page to look different, or if you have something in mind that is different from the posting you do on the regular basis, you simply have to create a page template that does that; simple!

Moreover, if you find it hard to create a template then WordPress has a solution for this too. You can have thousands of themes that can be downloaded for free, each one having a unique style of presentation. They sync with the existing posts of yours and make your blog turn right away according to the design of the theme. Now, how cool is that!

Understanding The Themes Of WordPress

A theme is nothing but the layout of your blog. A theme represents the design structure of your blog, as in, how the blog looks to the user when he visits it. The in general WordPress deals with the functionality of the blog such as, adding comments, managing the user, etc. while the theme makes sure how the added information is looking at the blog.

Changing the theme in WordPress is as easy as changing your clothes, here all it takes is a click and your whole blog is transformed according to the style theme. You just have to simply download and install the theme and all this is taken care of in a few clicks. WordPress has a huge collection of themes to suit every mood and taste and you can never run out of themes ever. Even if you find yourself not liking any theme that is on offer, which is almost impossible, then, too, you can get a theme made according to your liking by any freelance web designer over the internet that makes themes for WordPress.

Every theme has a unique style to present your post, text, images, and pages. Almost all of them come with the page template and the basic page layout. If you find anything that is missing according to your liking, you can anytime go to the vast ocean of themes available and choose the one that fits your bill.

Understanding WordPress Plug-Ins

WordPress has a very powerful plug-in system that allows you to add any function you want to your blog. Plug-ins are pluggable and in WordPress, you can make changes accordingly, and using them to maintain and make changes to your blog is quite easy and effective.

WordPress.com

All is right and perfect with the WordPress and the blogging that you were doing and that we were discussing above, but if you are the kind of person who is not much into tech orientation and who is not into the server and all the upgrades that need to be done overtime and want something solid, something professional for a blogging solution.

Then, my friend, WordPress.com is for you!

WordPress.com is the site that is been made and maintained by the people who have made the WordPress software. It is like the blogging software that comes with more powerful engine that makes you have the most professional look and experience. The cherry on the cake is, its subscription is free! You can anytime subscribe to WordPress.com to receive the live updates and feeds, and you can do this all by just becoming the user; you don’t need to have a blog or you don’t need to do any blogging for it. Once you become the member the WordPress keeps track of your visits and auto-fills your data.

As WordPress is an online community you can have live updates and you don’t need to have the tech knowledge to know a thing or two about WordPress.com. Everything is quite easy and understandable here and you can have your user name upgraded to admin where you can co-admin a blog. For example, you and your group of friends are running a blog on various topics that don’t fall on the single blog. So you have to setup different blogs for the different subjects and you will end up having several blogs. WordPress.com allows you to go through every blog for guest posting and commenting, making it all way neater. Moreover, at WordPress.com the accounts are free so you save the hosting fee too.

WordPress.Com Domains

If you are seriously into your site that you have made over WordPress.com then you will definitely want a domain for it. The domains at WordPress.com start from as low as 10 dollars a year and you should have one for your site and blog. WordPress.com lets you have your own personal domain but you have to pay yearly fees to WordPress.com for the service of the domain you take from them. The price you pay here is almost the same as the registration itself, and it is still way much cheaper than the self-hosting in most of the available cases.

A domain makes you keep your identity and you can anytime move away from the services of the WordPress.com at any given period of time.

Layouts And Plug-In In WordPress.Com

The themes and plug-ins at WordPress.com are quite powerful. There is a catch here though, you can’t install your own plug-in and themes at WordPress.com. Although they have a very huge collection of themes and plug-ins that can be selected by the user and can be used on the site but if you don’t like any theme and want to make one of your own, then on WordPress.com, you cannot do that.

What you can do here is you can change the visual aspect of the theme. This can be done by uploading the CSS file on the theme you have chosen. This won’t come free and you have to pay for uploading the CSS file. But if you are going to calculate, this will be cheaper than self-hosting. One thing that the WordPress.com has on offer here is you can have a preview of the layout for free. You can see how a layout is looking on the page before buying it, and then after looking and selecting the best one that goes on well with the site you can pay for it and install it.

WordPress.Com or Self-Hosted WordPress Blog – Which One Is For You?

Well all boils down to the usage of the person. There is no straight answer for this debate. If you can be okay with the elimination of plug-ins and custom themes and can live with it -  then WordPress.Com will fit your bill right. As it comes with the option of having your own domain, this takes the game to the professional level as you can always move to self-hosted transparently later.

And if you are the one that has just started with the blogging and want the things to be simple with a host of various features for download for free, right from the plug-in to the various free themes on offer, then WordPress blog is for you.