DealerInternet101.com

The reason my site looks different is that I have recently changed how it is being hosted. Yesterday I changed from Wordpress.com to Wordpress.org. What’s the difference??

Wordpress.com is a free service that is a hosted solution, which means that there is no software requirement. No downloads. No installation or server configurations. It’s all done for you on the back end, behind the scenes. To set it up you go to Wordpress.com, sign up, and away to go. The limitations of this option is that you can’t do much in the way of customization or use the thousands of plug-ins available for Wordpress on the Internet. The option works great though and if you can use email, you can use Wordpress.com.

Wordpress.org requires a software download and some server space. I signed up for a web server account at BlueHost.com, which was $6.95/month. Then I fumbled around trying to get the software installed on my server. Wordpress.org claims a ‘5-minute install’ on their software, but that must be for people that are more computer literate than me because I spent an hour trying to get it working with no luck. The nicest thing I discovered was the Wordpress Instal4Free Team. After going to the site, you give them your contact information and then they email you a list of questions about your account, your server space, and so on. Then they go to your server and install the software for you….at no charge! It was crazy! I spent an hour trying to get the software working, contacted a free install service, and within 20 minutes, my Wordpress.org blog was up and running. VERY COOL STUFF!!!

I’ve bought and read Wordpress for Dummies and it has helped me walk through most of fumbling I’ve experienced. I’d recommend this book to anyone interested in setting up and creating a blog as it is a really good introduction and resource. In addition to the book, the Google Search bar on my Firefox browser has been a great ‘help’ menu.

I decided to go the Wordpress.org route in order to learn as much as possible about this blogging platform. In the upcoming days, weeks, months, and years, I will be experimenting with different plugins and themes to get DealerInternet101.com to look and feel the way I want it to. My initial plan was to have a rating system for each vendor on the site that could be used to truly identify the best of the best with user generated content. That is still my goal, but it is going to involve more fumbling to get the thing to work.

In the meantime, I hope you enjoy the content and that you participate loudly and often!

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