Why use WordPress?
“Why WordPress Why!?” http://bentdaniel.com/influent-stuff/2008/02/19/why-wordpress-why.html
“Why WordPress?” http://www.zeldman.com/wordpress/
WordPress.com:
Themes—many themes allow you to choose two, three, of four columns. You can also add several sidebars if you choose to use sidebars. (Sidebars are generally where the widgets go into: they may also go into the bottom as in Fadtastic (the theme I use for Coral Cay Blogs).
Several themes allow for customizable header, custom colors, fixed and/or flexible width columns, page navigation, widgets at the bottom, or tabbed navigation. Also some have theme options:
(http://faq.wordpress.com/?s=theme+options), page navigation (http://faq.wordpress.com/?s=page+navigation), and tab navigation (http://faq.wordpress.com/?s=tabs). Tab navigation is built into the Light theme.
One theme is for a photo blogging site only (monotone), one is a group blog (called microblog) to update group members—like Twitter (prologue), some themes are designed for professional journalists (The Journalist v1.3 and The Journalist v1.9, some themes are holiday themes (Vermilion Christmas and Iceburgg).
You may want to edit the CSS (CSS is how the page looks—you can study CSS at W3Schools, A List Apart, Think Vitamin, and CSS Forum.) Be sure to know what was on your page before you begin to edit it. Some themes lend themselves more to using semantic CSS selectors and the ability to add new skins (covers) (Sandbox and Sandbox-10).
Pages—can be used for a static home page (under settings).
Posts—select categories—generally 10-15—add many tags (keywords for each post—these are the words that readers will use on Google, delicious to find your information—add many, many tags.
(About settings—use blog title and tagline here. Also link to your email address—reading (sets the style for your front page), privacy (public chosen), media settings (generally use medium), and OpenID (allows you to add and log into trusted sites).
Calendar–automatically highlights the days that you post.
Archives
Links–by subject
Search—your site
Text—some HTML
Tag cloud
RSS
Meebo—web-based instant message service that accepts users of the major IM services—get some HTML code and paste it to the meebo widget.
Vodpod—sharing your favorite videos from hundreds of sites—go to vodpod—start a pod or several of your favorites pick your favorite pods you want to display—you can choose how you want your widget to look (view different styles)—if you want a different color—you can choose from the hex color code (only works for boxy and floating styles. If you use Firefox, add extension for quickly adding videos.
Box.net file sharing—secure online storage and sharing—share your files—get HTML code from box.net
Akismet—always add—blocks spam
Category cloud
Flickr—leave blank
Platial mapkit—allows you to make maps with your readers—get yourself a map—get account at platial.com—add places
Authors
To use after you have traffic–
Blog stats
Top clicks
Top posts
Recent comments
