Starting my blog

So I've decided to blog (as mentioned in other parts of my blog coincidentally) and this is all about the beginnig and setting up my Wordpress blog. So why did I choose wordpress? Basically, little research was done on my part, I know another blogger (Business Blog Angel) whom I consider an expert in this field and even though she uses Typepad (one of the other leading Blog tools) she recommended that wordpress was really on the way up and possibly better than typepad (I hope that's right Claire, if not apologies). But a quick visit to the Typepad website and it turns out you have to pay for the Typepad blog (starting at $5 a month - not much admittedly $60 a year or £45 a year going on the current exchange rate - but that is the basic package) and as I own a web development company I am able to host my blog using the WordPress software for free - so two reasons to use WordPress, I think going on what my hosting company charges for php hosting the basic Typepad package is comparable to hosting WordPress so no real advantage.

But if your reading this blog and thinking about starting your own blog visit my site (IT Pie) and let us know you read this blog and we'll be able to sort one out for you for £20 a year including domain registration - pretty good indeed! (by the way you may need to remind us of this post but we'll honour it)

So little research was done, but a choice was made between the two leading blog packages (that I know of) and ultimately I went with a recommendation and a price influenced decision. Setting the package up Now WordPress boasts of its 5 minute installation and I'm sure having read the instructions that it is easy and takes 5 minutes, but my hosting company installed it for me (because I have a windows hosting package) and I think on their Linux hosting package there is a button to click and it installs so pretty straight forward. So setting up the package was very easy! Design Now for my own blog I was happy to use one of the many templates available on the WordPress site and chose the 'Desk Mess' theme, partly because it seemed apt as I am a messy person but secondly because it has the Apple iPhone on the desk and I am currently obsessed with getting an iPhone. I have also set-up a blog for one of my clients and had hoped to style it myself to match his website, unfortunately when I looked into all the files and the work required, I recognised that though it is certainly possible to do it, a lot of work was involved and with so many templates to choose from it felt like re-inventing the wheel. One day I think I will seriously look at developing my own design, but for now, I'd recommend choosing one of the 1000s of templates available on the site. Basic Feature WordPress comes with some basic features and then there are the many plug-ins available, I'm planning on getting to grip with the basic features (which I will blog about later) and then going wild with all the plugins available and blogging about them. But all in all, first impressions and as a web developer, I am impressed with WordPress and I'm sure my appreciation will only grow.