Start a Wordpress blog

A Wordpress blog is available in two versions, both of them free, though there is a paid-for, ad-free upgrade option for the first.

The first version is browser based, which means there is no software to download, you just login to a web page to administrate your account.

The second version is a software download at wordpress.org and requires a hosting service.

It is still completely free, and the downloaded version is much more powerful.

The basics of a Wordpress blog

The software launched in 2005 and boasts a large number of features:

# There are many free and paid blog templates available, meaning that it is completely customizable

# It offers tags and categories, meaning that posts are easy to organize and sort

# It provides ‘rich media’ options ie audio, video and images which can easily be added to your pages

# It has WYSIWYG editing and spell checking

# It has a great spam fighting add-on

# There is a huge Open Source support network, meaning that there is a ‘widget’ or plugin for virtually any function that you want to add to your blog

# You can import content from a large range of other blogging tools, which means that you can switch to a Wordpress blog if you've had enough of your existing software

In my opinion, this is the best and most versatile blogging tool, capable of taking you through from the first early steps of your internet home business blog to the very depths of professional blogging.

Although the browser based version at wordpress.com is excellent and extremely good for beginners, in the long term - if you're serious about blogging - I'd recommend that you opt for the installed version as it will give you the complete control and versatility that you'll want as you get more experienced.

You don't have to install it yourself, use a company like Siteground.com which not only has lots of free blog templates available, they'll install the software for you as part of their basic hosting package.

They also provide lots of really useful, free guides.

Four things you need to know before you start

There are four things that I didn't do when I started working with a Wordpress blog that I should have done, and I recommend that you do them too:

1) Use the built in Akismet program to stop spam.

Akismet isn't very descriptive of what it does, but it's an excellent and very effective blocker for the many spam comments that your blog will attract.

2) Use Google XML Sitemaps

Google XML Sitemaps is a free plugin for your Wordpress blog and it’s extremely straightforward to use.

It automatically submits your sitemap to Google, Ask.com, Bing and Yahoo and you can create a new map instantly by clicking on one link.

It takes 5 minutes to set up and is an essential tool for something as organic as a blog which is constantly changing.

3) Back up your blog

It quickly became apparent to me that I was writing a lot of stuff and it would be a disaster if it got lost - to me at least!

So, how do you backup your blog?

Initially I used the built-in ‘Export’ function, but I was craving something more substantial.

I looked around and found BackUpWordPress which I’m very happy with.

I get a visual display on my main dashboard showing me when I made my last backup, and I can also reisntall previous backups very easily.

4) Use descriptive URLs

When you set up your blog, you have to decide how you want your URLs to display in search engines.

There are a variety of options, and without even thinking, I didn't change the default setting so my blog links looked something like this:

http://www.my-blog.com/?p=123

This is not very search engine friendly, nor does it tell your potential reader anything about your blog when they come across you via the search engines.

You need to go for the 'month and name' or 'day and name' option, which makes your URLs look like this:

http://www.my-blog.com/2009/06/07the-title-of-your-latest-blog-post

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