Many internet users stay connected with their friends by regularly updating their status through Facebook and Twitter. However, there are a handful of limitations in using these social media channels. In order to have better control over your posts, the traditional way of blogging is still the best choice.
WordPress.com vs WordPress.org
Among the various blogging platforms, WordPress is definitely one of the most popular blogging programs. There are two types of WordPress platforms: WordPress.com and WordPress.org. For the former, your site is hosted by WordPress and you will be assigned a subdomain website (e.g. yourname.wordpress.com). The benefit for hosting your website under WordPress.com is that it costs you nothing. However, you won't have full access to certain features (e.g. WordPress.com does not support plugins, which are one of the most important features of WordPress). In addition, WordPress.com is "ad-supported". This means that ads may be randomly displayed on your blog.
For WordPress.org, you need to find your own web hosting firm and install the program yourself. Hence, you also need to register your own domain name. However, since it's a program, it is customizable (you can modify and edit the CSS, themes, and html codes). Simply, you have full control over modifying your blogs to better suit your needs.
Both WordPress.com and WordPress.org have their pros and cons. But since WordPress.com cannot offer full access to the features of WordPress, it is better to use WordPress.org. On average, the cost of web hosting and domain name registration is around US$100 a year. But, you can place ads on your website to support the hosting costs (e.g. Google AdWords).
WordPress Requirements
In order to use WordPress.org, you need to find a web hosting package that is compatible with WordPress. To use WordPress, your hosting plan needs to have MySQL and PHP support. Therefore, when you search for a hosting package, you must check with the hosting firm to see if their package meets the WordPress requirements.
