Chapter 5: Discovering Different Versions of WordPress

In This Chapter

Getting hosted with WordPress.com

Self-hosting with WordPress.org

Running a network of blogs with the multisite feature

Exploring enterprise options and VIP services

Bloggers have a wealth of software platforms to choose from. You want to be sure that the platform you choose has all the options you’re looking for. WordPress is unique in that it offers two versions of its software. Each version is designed to meet the various needs of bloggers.

One version is a hosted platform available at WordPress.com that meets your needs if you do not want to worry about installing or dealing with software; the other is the self-hosted version of the WordPress software available at http://wordpress.org, which offers you a bit more freedom and flexibility, as described throughout this chapter.

This chapter introduces you to both versions of the WordPress platform so you can choose which version suits your particular needs the best.

Comparing the Two Versions of WordPress

The two versions of WordPress are

The hosted version at WordPress.com

The self-installed and self-hosted version available at WordPress.org

Certain features are available to you in every WordPress blog setup, whether you’re using the self-hosted software from WordPress.org or the hosted version at WordPress.com. These features include (but aren’t limited to)

Quick-and-easy installation and setup

Full-featured blogging capability, letting you publish content to the web through an easy-to-use web-based interface

Topical archiving of your posts, using categories

Monthly archiving of your posts, with the ability to provide a listing of those archives for easy navigation through your site

Comment and trackback tools

Automatic spam protection through Akismet

Built-in gallery integration for photos and images

Media Manager for video and audio files

Great community support

Unlimited number of static pages, letting you step out of the blog box and into the sphere of running a fully functional website

RSS capability with RSS 2.0, RSS 1.0, and Atom support

Tools for importing content from different blogging systems (such as Blogger, Movable Type, and LiveJournal)

Table 5-1 compares the two WordPress versions.

Table 5-1 Exploring the Differences between the Two Versions of WordPress

Feature	WordPress.org	WordPress.com
Cost	Free	Free
Software download	Yes	No
Software installation	Yes	No
Web hosting required	Yes	No
Custom CSS control	Yes	$30/year
Template access	Yes	No
Sidebar widgets	Yes	Yes
RSS syndication	Yes	Yes
Access to core code	Yes	No
Ability to install plugins	Yes	No
WP themes installation	Yes	No
Multi-author support	Yes	Yes
Unlimited number of blog setups with one account (multisite)	Yes*	Yes
Community-based support forums	Yes	Yes

* With the multisite feature enabled only

Choosing the hosted version from WordPress.com

WordPress.com (see Figure 5-1) is a free service. If downloading, installing, and using software on a web server sound like Greek to you and are chores you’d rather avoid, the WordPress folks provide a solution for you at WordPress.com.

WordPress.com is a hosted solution, which means it has no software requirement, no downloads, and no installation or server configurations. Everything’s done for you on the back end, behind the scenes. You don’t even have to worry about how the process happens; it happens quickly, and before you know it, you’re making your first blog post.

Figure 5-1: The WordPress.com website.

WordPress.com offers several upgrades (see Figure 5-2) to help make your blogging life easier. Here’s a list of upgrades you can purchase to enhance your WordPress.com account, with prices reflecting the annual cost:

Add a Domain: This upgrade allows you to add your own domain name to your WordPress.com account; see Book II, Chapter 1. This service costs $5.00 for the domain registration and $13.00 for the domain mapping.

VideoPress: This upgrade equips you with the ability to upload, store, and share your videos from your WordPress.com account. This service covers the storage space that your video files take up on the WordPress.com servers. The service costs $60.00 per year.

Custom Design: This upgrade lets you customize the fonts used on your site, change the color scheme, and customize the Cascading Style Sheet (CSS) for the theme you’re using in the WordPress.com system. It’s recommended for users who understand CSS. The cost is $30.00 per year.

Figure 5-2: Several paid upgrades available on the WordPress.com free service.

Space Upgrades: With the free WordPress.com blog, you have 5GB of hard drive space in your upload directory. The various space upgrades add more, letting you upload more files (images, videos, audio files, and so on). You can add 10GB for $20.00 per year, 25GB for $50.00 per year, 50GB for $90.00 per year, 100GB for $160.00 per year, and 200GB for $290.00 per year.

No Ads: For $30.00 per year, you can ensure that your WordPress.com blog is ad free. Occasionally, WordPress.com does serve ads on your blog pages to defray the costs of running a popular service. If you’d rather not have those ads appearing on your blog, pay for the No Ads upgrade and you’ll be ad free!

Site Redirect: Allows you to forward your WordPress.com URL to an offsite domain; this is helpful if you choose to move away from WordPress.com to your own domain with the WordPress.org software — you can forward the traffic that you have built for $13 per year.

Premium Theme: Use a special handcrafted theme built exclusively for WordPress by community theme authors for $50.00 per theme.

Guided Transfer: Have the folks at WordPress.com complete a transfer of your WordPress.com hosted website to a WordPress.org self-hosted installation on one of their hosting partner's services (http://get.wp.com/hosting).

WordPress.com has some limitations; you cannot install plugins or custom themes, for example, and you cannot customize the base code files, nor are you able to sell advertising or monetize your blog on WordPress.com. But even with its limitations, WordPress.com is an excellent starting point if you’re brand new to blogging and a little intimidated by the configuration requirements of the self-installed WordPress.org software.

The good news is that if you outgrow your WordPress.com-hosted blog and want to move to the self-hosted WordPress.org software, you can. You can even take all the content from your WordPress.com-hosted blog with you and easily import it into your new setup with the WordPress.org software.

Therefore, in the grand scheme of things, your options aren’t really that limited.

Self-hosting with WordPress.org

The self-installed version from WordPress.org is the primary focus of WordPress All-in-One For Dummies. Using WordPress.org requires you to download the software from the WordPress website at http://wordpress.org (shown in Figure 5-3), and then you need to install it on a server from which your blog or website operates.

Figure 5-3: The WordPress.org website.

The WordPress.org website is an excellent repository of tools and resources for you throughout the lifespan of your WordPress-powered blog, so be sure to bookmark it for future reference! Here’s a list of helpful things that you can find on the website:

Plugins (http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins): The Plugin page of the WordPress.org website houses a full directory of plugins available for WordPress. You can search for and find the plugins you need for SEO enhancement, comment management, and social media integration, among many others.

Themes (http://wordpress.org/extend/themes): The Free Themes Directory page, shown in Figure 5-4, is a repository of WordPress themes free for the taking. In this section of the WordPress.org website, you can browse more than 1,500 themes to use on your site to dress up your content.

Docs (http://codex.wordpress.org): Almost every piece of software released comes with documentation and user manuals. The Docs section of the WordPress.org website contains the WordPress Codex, which tries to help you answer questions about the use of WordPress and its various features and functions.

Figure 5-4: The Free Themes Directory on WordPress.org.

Forums (http://wordpress.org/support): The support forums at WordPress.org consist of WordPress users from all over with one goal — learning how to use WordPress to suit their particular needs. The support forums are very much a community of users (from beginners to advanced) helping other users, and you can generally obtain a solution to your WordPress needs here from other users of the software.

Roadmap (http://wordpress.org/about/roadmap): This section of the WordPress.org website doesn't contain support information or tools that you can download; it offers an at-a-glance peek at what's new and upcoming for WordPress. The Roadmap page gives you a pretty accurate idea of when WordPress will release the next version of its software; see Chapter 3 of this minibook for information about versions and release cycles. (Hint: Click the version number to visit the WordPress Trac and see what features developers are working on and adding.)

WordPress.org is the self-installed, self-hosted software version of WordPress you install on a web server that you have set up on a domain you have registered. Unless you own your own web server, you need to lease one. Leasing space on a web server is web hosting, and unless you know someone who knows someone, hosting generally isn’t free.

That said, web hosting doesn’t cost a whole lot, either. You can usually obtain a good, basic web hosting service for anywhere from $10 to $15 per month. (Book II, Chapters 1 and 2 give you some great information on web hosting accounts and tools.) However, you need to make sure that any web host you choose to work with has the required software installed on the web server. The recommended minimum software requirements for WordPress include

PHP version 5.2.4 or greater

MySQL version 5.0 or greater

After you have WordPress installed on your web server (see the installation instructions in Book II, Chapter 4), you can start using it to blog to your heart’s content. With the WordPress software, you can install several plugins that extend the functionality of the blogging system, which I describe in Book VII. You also have full control of the core files and code that WordPress is built on. If you have a knack for PHP and knowledge of MySQL, you can work within the code to make changes that you think would be good for you and your blog.

You don’t need design or coding ability to make your blog look great. Members of the WordPress community have created more than 1,600 WordPress themes (designs), and you can download them free and install them on your WordPress blog (Book VI, Chapter 2). Additionally, if you’re creatively inclined, like to create designs on your own, and know Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), you have full access to the template system within WordPress and can create your own custom themes. (See Book VI, Chapters 3 through 7.)

Hosting Multiple Sites with OneWordPress Installation

The self-hosted WordPress.org software also lets you run an unlimited number of blogs on one installation of its software platform, on one domain. When you configure the options within WordPress to enable a multisite interface, you become administrator of a network of blogs. All the options remain the same, but with the multisite options configured, you can add more blogs and domains and allow registered users of your website to host their own blog within your network. More information about the multisite feature in WordPress is found in Book VIII.

The following types of sites use the Network options within WordPress:

Blog networks, which can have more than 150 blogs. The popular electronics retail store, Best Buy, uses WordPress to power 1,050 local store blogs (example: http://stores.bestbuy.com/577).

Newspapers and magazines, such as The New York Times, and universities, such as Harvard Law School, use WordPress to manage the blog sections of their websites.

Niche-specific blog networks, such as Edublogs.org, use WordPress to manage their full networks of free blogs for teachers, educators, lecturers, librarians, and other education professionals.

Extensive information on running a network of sites by using the multisite feature in WordPress is found in Book VIII. The chapters there take you through everything: setting it up, maintaining it, and using it to run a network of sites with one WordPress installation.

Anyone using a WordPress platform prior to version 3.0 may recognize WordPress MU, the separate piece of software you needed in order to run multiple sites with WordPress. The multisite feature that replaced WordPress MU was introduced into WordPress version 3.0. All you old dogs out there need to forget WordPress MU and embrace the multisite feature in version 3.0+ because WordPress MU no longer exists.

With the multisite features enabled, users of your network can run their own sites within your installation of WordPress. They also have access to their own Dashboard with the same options and features you read about in Book III. Heck, it would probably be a great idea to buy a copy of this book for every member within your network so everyone can become familiar with the WordPress Dashboard and features, too. At least have a copy on hand so people can borrow yours!

If you plan to run just a few of your own sites with the WordPress multisite feature, your current hosting situation is probably well suited. (See Book II, Chapter 1 for information on web hosting services.) However, if you plan to host a large network with hundreds of blogs and multiple users, you should consider contacting your host and increasing your bandwidth and the disk space limitations on your account.

The best example of a large blog network with hundreds of blogs and users (actually, more like millions) would be the hosted service at WordPress.com (which I discuss earlier in this chapter). At WordPress.com, people are invited to sign up for an account and start a blog by using the multisite feature within the WordPress platform on the WordPress server. When you enable this feature on your own domain and enable the user registration feature (covered later in this chapter), you invite users to:

Create an account

Create a blog on your WordPress installation (on your domain)

Create content by publishing blog posts

Upload media files, such as photos, audio, and video

Invite their friends to view their blog or sign up for their own account

In addition to the necessary security measures, time, and administrative tasks that go into running a community of blogs, you have a few things to worry about. Creating a community increases the resource use, bandwidth, and disk space on your web server. In many cases, if you go over the allotted limits given to you by your web host, you will incur great cost. Make sure that you anticipate your bandwidth and disk space needs before running a large network on your website! (Don’t say you weren’t warned.)

Many WordPress network communities start with grand dreams of being a large and active community — be realistic on how your community will operate in order to make the right hosting choice for yourself and your community.

Small blogging communities are handled easily with a shared-server solution; larger, more active communities should really consider a dedicated server solution for operation. The difference between the two lies in their names:

Shared-server solution: You have one account on one server that has several other accounts on it. Think of this as apartment living. One building has several apartments under one roof.

Dedicated server: You have one account on one server. The server is dedicated to your account, and your account is dedicated to the server. Think of this as owning a home where you don’t share your living space with anyone else.

A dedicated-server solution is a more expensive investment for your blog community; a shared-server solution is the most economical. Base your decision regarding which solution to go with for your WordPress network on how big and how active you estimate your community will be. You can move from a shared-server solution to a dedicated-server solution if your community becomes larger than you expect; however, starting with the right solution for your community from day one is best. More information on hosting WordPress is found in Book II, Chapter 1.

Discovering WordPress VIP Services

The company behind the Automattic WordPress.com service is owned and operated by the WordPress cofounder, Matt Mullenweg. Although Automattic doesn’t own the WordPress.org software (as an open source platform, WordPress.org is owned by the community and hundreds of developers that contribute to the core code), Automattic is a driving force behind all things WordPress.

Have a look at the Automattic website at http://automattic.com (shown in Figure 5-5). The folks behind WordPress own and operate a number of different properties and services that can extend the features of your WordPress site, including

WordPress.com (http://wordpress.com): A hosted WordPress blogging service, discussed previously in this chapter.

Jetpack (http://jetpack.me): A suite of plugins that can be installed on a WordPress.org self-hosted site.

VaultPress (http://vaultpress.com): Premium backup and restore service for your blog.

Akismet (http://akismet.com): Spam protection for your blog. This service comes with every WordPress.org install, but there are different levels of service, as discussed in Book III, Chapter 4.

Polldaddy (http://polldaddy.com): A polling and survey software that easily plugs into the WordPress platform.

VideoPress (http://videopress.com): Video hosting and sharing application for WordPress.

Gravatar (http://gravatar.com): Photos or graphical icons for comment authors (discussed in Book III, Chapter 2).

IntenseDebate (http://intensedebate.com): An integrated commenting system for your WordPress blog.

After the Deadline (http://afterthedeadline.com): A fancy and useful spelling and grammar checker for WordPress with such features as contextual spell checking, advanced style checking, and intelligent grammar checking.

Plinky (http://plinky.com): Even great authors get writer's block from time to time; Plinky provides a daily source of inspiration.

Code Poet (http://codepoet.com): A WordPress community resource website.

WordPress.com VIP (http://vip.wordpress.com): Enterprise level web hosting and WordPress support starting at $15,000 per year (usually reserved for heavy hitters, such as CNN, BBC, and Time, for example).

P2 (http://p2theme.com): A unique, free WordPress theme with such features as in-line comments, real-time updates, and a posting form right on the home page so users don't ever touch the Dashboard.

Figure 5-5: The Automattic website.