Our Mommyhood

By Ashley, Contributor, Just Another Mom of Two (@AnotherMomof2)

My post about choosing a blogging platform convinced you to move to WordPress. Except, there are all these terms that sound like a foreign language when you try to google doing just that. Let’s start with the basics, shall we? There are a few points that people seem to most often get confused about when looking at using WordPress.

Remember, it’s wordpress.org, NOT wordpress.com. As I discussed previously in choosing a platform, Blogger is the way to go as far as customizable options if you are wanting a free platform. Second, yes, WordPress is free, however, domain names and hosting costs are not. What does that mean? I’m glad you asked.

Domain Name

A domain name is like the title of a book. There are many chapters, maybe images, various content, but it has a single title. For example, this blog’s domain name is ourmommyhood.com. You can pick various extensions; .net, .info, .biz, etc. The most common is a .com, mostly because it is what people tend to type in when they are looking for a site. (But you will do such a good job branding your site that it really does not matter which extension you choose, right?)

Hosting

Hosting is can be considered the storage unit of sorts for your files. A place for your domain to pull all of the information from when people are visiting your site. There are various options for hosting plans and most will cost you from $5-$10 per month. Some of the more popular hosts include Blue Host, DreamHost and Host Gator. There are plenty more and you can choose what host you use based on your needs. One thing to consider when choosing a host is how much bandwidth you will need for your site; often, a standard hosting plan is more than sufficient for a blogger just starting out, but as sites grow more space may be needed.

WordPress

Many hosting companies offer easy WordPress installations (a great consideration when choosing a hosting company; find out if they offer this). If not, WordPress has their Famous 5-Minute Installation right on their site. The step-by-step instructions require a little bit of work but are relatively painless. Once you install WordPress itself you are almost there!

Theme

One of the most common questions people have is what theme they should use for WordPress; do they need a paid one, which is better, etc. etc. The answer is that you can really do what you want to do; it depends on how much effort and time you want to put into it. Paid themes like Thesis and Headway stand out because they have excellent SEO (search engine optimization) built right into their platforms. However, plugins like All-in-One SEO Pack can help with free themes. One of my absolute favorite free themes is Atahualpa- it is extremely customizable with an easy-to-understand user interface. Headway is fast becoming my new favorite paid theme, because it not only has excellent SEO options and amazing customization capabilities, but it also has a drag-and-drop interface that even the least tech-savvy can use to make their own customizations. These are important things to know about a theme before making the investment – while you can always hire someone to take care of the back-end for you, there will be things along the way that you will want to change and customize too.

At this point, you have the basic tools to start a WordPress Blog. Next time, we’ll discuss customizing a theme and some of my favorite plugins (Sneak peak: If you don’t have Akismet for spam, get it now!)

Have you made the switch to WordPress yet? Any tips to offer those who are still considering? Tell us about it in the forum!

Ashley is a stay at home mom (and social media consultant) who is not always sure what state she is in. She has moved her family to what will soon be 5 states in 6 years- whew! She can be found blogging over at Just Another Mom of 2 and also offers affordable transfers to WordPress. Email her at Ashley @ justanothermomof2.com for details!

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