Wizard's Place

Free Blogs There are a number of online blogging sites — TypePad, Blogger, WordPress, LiveJournal — which are not only easy to use but they are FREE. That seems to make them a great choice for blogging and all the good things a blog can do for your online presence. This may be true for the beginner but, as soon as you move even slightly beyond the level of novice, you will find many things lacking, not the least of which is being able to do everything you want with your blog.

If you want to do a little more with your site than just blog, perhaps offer items for sale, host banners or pay per click advertising, or any of a number of typical revenue generating activities, then you will quickly discover that you have pushed beyond the limits of either the functions or the rules of your host site, or perhaps both. If you are already blogging you’ll want to move up to a self-hosted or commercial blog. If you haven’t started yet you really should consider where you will ultimately like to take your blog and, therefore, where you really should begin.

Managed Blog Sites Both the single stand-alone and the multi-user installations of WordPress allow you to create powerful multi-page websites with integrated blogging support. The new WordPress extends well beyond blogging, offering the site owner all the features of custom e-commerce websites and then some.

Whether you install and manage a WordPress installation yourself, or hire someone like me to do it for you, having your own website with integrated blog allows you to control what you do, for both personal and commercial use.

A multi-user installation (WPMU) allows you to manage multiple independent blogs from the same control panel or sub-let blogs to others, passing along independent control of each blog to it’s respective user while still maintaining over all master control.

WordPress Themes Often called skins on other packages, WordPress themes allow for an easy way to change the look of your website. Free themes abound and can be great choices, though there is a very good chance you will run into many others using the same one you choose. Commercial themes will have a more limited distribution though some are sold many times. Custom themes are also available providing a unique image and identity for your site.

Be sure you check out your theme choice carefully as not all themes are suitable for all purposes. Some are designed just for single-page blogging sites. Some have limited support for multiple pages or other add-on features that you may want now or in the future. Some will no longer be functional on current WordPress releases.

I can assist you in choosing the right theme (free or commercial) for your WordPress site, I can modify a theme that doesn’t otherwise support the feature(s) you need, or I can create a custom theme specifically suited to your needs and plans for the future. I can also edit or redesign an existing theme to suit your business.

Contact me to discuss your needs. My rates are very affordable. Discussing your needs, and the solutions I can offer, is always free.