For some, WordPress can be a dream of being in control of your own blog rather than having to “take what they give you” as when you have a blog hosted at Blogger or WordPress.com for example. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with those at all but there comes a time for some folks to move on to something they can call their own, something that they can tailor to their own liking. And the necessary learning of the technical side is certainly welcomed by those that don’t mind learning such things.
But for others with the same desire, it can be a nightmare of confusion that prevents a would be "do it yourself-er" from making that all important first step towards their own custom WordPress blog or for the ones who already made the jump but found out later that every little upgrade became a dreaded event and the occasional problems that sooner or later pop up caused nothing but endless frustration and aggravation. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with not having a head for the technical of course but like the folks above that do, that need for more freedom of choice that’s available with “doing-it-yourself” is just as important. Just because you can’t wrap your head around the technical part of it doesn’t mean you’re any less of a blogger or that you shouldn’t be able to have your own custom WordPress install.
I happen to be one who loves all things technical, always have been and WordPress came naturally to me. Not everything mind you. To be perfectly honest about it, I’ve never been able to wrap my head around writing up my own code although I can easily track down a problem without any trouble and fix it. I understand the layout and what the code does but I could never write from scratch no more than I could design my own OS or PC motherboard. But that doesn’t mean that I don’t know my PC’s operating system like the back of my own hand or be able to easily replace a component on my motherboard (I can you know). And so it is with WordPress.
So for anyone who just desires to write up and publish posts (what else is a blog for anyway?) and leave the “heavy lifting” to someone else when new features are needed, the occasional problem arises or if you’re duly concerned about keeping your WordPress blog secure with all the current updates to your install and plugins but dread attempting it yourself (or just don’t care to), I’ll be more than happy to help you out. Just contact me via my contact form and let me know what’s going on and we’ll go from there. And for the more general info, comments are always welcome.
Tags: Wordpress 2.3, Wordpress 2.3.1
Comments 10
I’m to big a chicken. bakk bakk! I do like the tab feature on your header.
Posted 27 Nov 2007 at 8:37 pm ¶Hi Janeywan,
I can’t take credit for the tabs, they’re part of the theme itself. I add a page and it’s automatically displayed at the bottom of the header image. I have to actually go into the code if I want to keep any particular page from showing up.
If you ever get the hankerin’ to do it yourself, I’ll tell you a few horror…I mean…interesting stories (sorry, couldn’t help myself).
Posted 27 Nov 2007 at 9:08 pm ¶I don’t see why so many people are saying people should move away or sort of imply that the only ‘real’ bloggers are selfhosted.
It’s not just you [although you do keep going on about it to me!], but so many others as well.
I for one am very happy at wp.com. I don’t have to worry about servers, upgrades, backups, databases, plugins. I have my own domain [Thanks for changing that in your blogroll!] and with the CSS upgrade I can do what I want.
I’ve had a selfhosted blog on my webspace fro a while and messed about with it, but it’s just not for me and I don’t think I will change in the forseeable future.
And I call my blog my own.
[And I'm back to disappear playing my game. See you in a few days.]
Posted 28 Nov 2007 at 1:09 am ¶Hi Cat,
I can always depend on you to bring up the other view. What would I do without you?
Of course I didn’t mean that not being self hosted implies that one is not a real blogger nor did I state there was anything wrong with the free blog hosts and their offerings. Perhaps using the term “some” instead of “many” would have been more appropriate and maybe I’ll change that in the post now that you bring it up. Either way, I’m the last one to consider anyone less of a blogger if they weren’t self hosted.
Look at me for instance. I spend 75% of my time dinkin’ around the backend of things and only 25% writing up posts. That means I pay my host $170.00 every two years for the privilege of being able to spend most of my time playing around with my own WordPress install. That makes me less of a blogger than most everyone else.
What are you playing BTW? Are you winning?
Posted 28 Nov 2007 at 10:53 am ¶I’ve had both and I admit hosting my own has been fun, challenging, and at times downright frustrating! I am one of those who went to Kirk for help and very glad I did. Some of the stuff I don’t like messin’ with he can do in a few minutes.
(which reminds me…might want to pop in and check my plugins, please please please).
I’m more than happy to give you a recommendation my friend.
Posted 28 Nov 2007 at 4:35 pm ¶Alright, you talked me into it (you won’t even know I’m there…except when things start disappearing that is).
Thanks for the fine reference Elaine.
Posted 28 Nov 2007 at 4:54 pm ¶Hey Elaine…
Finished. I’ll shoot you an email to let you know about all the horrible things I did to your blog.
Posted 28 Nov 2007 at 5:11 pm ¶See, I play around with my blog as well. Change settings, read up on CSS to prettify my theme and comment on other blogs. That already takes enough of my time away. Plus I’m fairly active on the wordpress support forum.
It’s just that I’m not selfhosted…
I’m playing Mass Effect, a game I’ve been waiting for for two years.
[Shameless advertising:]
Posted 28 Nov 2007 at 8:06 pm ¶http://carocat.co.uk/2007/11/17/mass-effect-six-days-to-go/
http://carocat.co.uk/2007/11/24/mass-effect-first-impressions/
[/shameless advertisement]
Ah, I read your posts already when I stopped by earlier today (you shameless advertising person you). Almost makes me want to start gaming (at my age?). Well maybe when I get $1000.00 or so I can blow.
I’ll be sure to follow your adventures in Mass Effect when you finally get you hands on the real thing.
Posted 28 Nov 2007 at 8:30 pm ¶Well, I’ve been playing it a lot since last Thursday, completed it late Monday evening and I’ve already gone back. But I’m in the process of writing a a post about it which will describe just how much I loved it.
It’s never too late to start gaming!
Posted 28 Nov 2007 at 8:54 pm ¶Post a Comment