# Wordpress website/blog?



## Juliana (Sep 16, 2014)

Does anyone here use Wordpress? I've heard a lot about them and was thinking of setting up a website with them. I'd probably go for their paid option, which seems a little more professional, but was wondering if any Chrons members have personal experience with them.


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## chopper (Sep 16, 2014)

Yes, but not the paid option thus far. It's pretty straight-forward, depending on the theme you choose and how many little widgets you populate the main page with.


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## ratsy (Sep 16, 2014)

Juliana, Gary set mine up for me under the Tickety Boo umbrella so I know he has a good handle on it. I have played with it a bit to edit but haven't spent a lot of time playing with it.


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## HareBrain (Sep 16, 2014)

You can get Wordpress software installed on your own site. That's the option I've seen recommended. The point being that there's no contractual obligation on Wordpress to keep your blog (on their site) going -- they could pull it for any reason. (How big a danger this is, realistically, I'm not sure.)


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## Brian G Turner (Sep 16, 2014)

Really, if you're looking to set up a website for any business purposes, then you really should consider using your own domain, your own web hosting account, and set up the site on that.

Using third party domains to host a business website can look so amateur - yet the cost and technical expertise to set one up is surprisingly low, and anyone looking to do so can get loads of advice here.


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## Juliana (Sep 16, 2014)

Hmm, I might just register the domain for now and have a think about it, since I'm not in a hurry. More considering options for now. 

My husband has a sports website but I'm not too keen on the hosting company he uses (endless issues lately), so I thought I'd explore other avenues...


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## HareBrain (Sep 16, 2014)

Brian Turner said:


> Using third party domains to host a business website can look so amateur



Wordpress does at least allow you (for a relatively small payment) to change the domain name so it looks like your own site (even though it's still theirs).


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## Rafellin (Sep 16, 2014)

I have two blogs on Wordpress, and despite my site holder offering a Wordpress integration, I use the free Wordpress blog option and have no problems at all. I have their text access confirmation enabled as well, which is a fine feature.

For my sites I use 1&1; been with them for over a decade. They also handle my email provision.


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## Hex (Sep 17, 2014)

I use the Wordpress software on my separately hosted site (no collusion with HB, honest!) and I've found it nice and straightforward to do what I want (not that I've wanted to do anything fancy yet -- I like clean-looking sites with no fancy backgrounds etc).

I haven't done much web stuff since my degree, so I've really been starting from scratch but there's no writing HTML or anything -- everything can happen through the Wordpress interface. 

I host with Hostpapa and they've been fine so far.


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## Juliana (Sep 17, 2014)

Thank you all for the feedback. Lots to think about!


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## Ray McCarthy (Sep 17, 2014)

HareBrain said:


> Wordpress does at least allow you (for a relatively small payment) to change the domain name so it looks like your own site (even though it's still theirs).


Pointless as hosting is so cheap.
I have "unlimited" hosting and traffic (except it isn't really, but effectively is for me). I have many subdomains as they are free. Actual .com .org .net .biz and .info are the cheapest but cost about £7 a year each. Some of my Wordpress are on subdomains.
Drupal can sometimes be a better choice,
Here is Drupal I maintain for my daughter http://www.thecaitgallery.org/
and Wordpress for my sister  http://www.cayc.co.uk/
One of my own Wordpress is on my profile. If you are a detective you can easily find the others. Some have my real name 
I also have secret Wiki I give people password for (uses same SW as Wikipedia). The actual site is inaccessible without a password even to view at all (possible trivially on your own hosting) and additionally the Wiki users must be created in advance to be able to edit at all.
I have an eCommerce shop package (free on my hosting) and other stuff too.
I use 1and1 for hosting.
Security:
you do need to learn a little about how .htaccess and file permissions like 644 and 775 are used. NEVER 777!

Use as few plug-ins as possible as each one means more to maintain update and more risk.

Even if at home you NEVER used Linux, use Linux not Windows hosting packages.


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## Lilmizflashythang (Sep 19, 2014)

I have a wordpress blog. It's working like a dream. Had to get it after my Blog.com blog was suspended. Turns out Blog.com doesn't like three posts going up in two hours, whoops. But you can build a platform pretty fast.


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## Ray McCarthy (Sep 19, 2014)

Considering as I write and save everything* OFF LINE and only copy & paste to my "blogs" and might expect sometimes to upload several posts a minute, that "Blog.com" sounds rubbish.

(*except for random comments on forums, but even that if it was important I'd have my own copy, sites vanish)


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## Lilmizflashythang (Sep 19, 2014)

Same here. Good thing too, I was able to completely back up my blog in two months.


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## Juliana (Sep 20, 2014)

So in the end I decided to leave the website for now (I don't really have anything to put on one yet) but I went ahead and registered a domain (not at wordpress, at a registry co.). I'm happy with that first step, and will take my time to think about what I want. In the meantime, going over lots of writer's sites to get ideas about what I like, in terms of layout.

Thanks again for all the wisdom!


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## Ray McCarthy (Sep 20, 2014)

I should have said that most decent hosting packages include one domain free ... 
OneAndOne does.

Also you can change your layout pretty easily (often separately from appearance of the skin or theme)  without having to re-do content. What a theme allows in Layout may not be obvious till its installed as the preview is usually a default layout.


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