WordPress vs Website

[Monna Ellithorpe]

I am sure this has been asked before but I cannot seem to find the answer.

Say you purchase hosting through Hostgator and you want to use WordPress, is there also a charge for WordPress too?

[anitahampl]

Monna, The good news is, NO!!! WordPress is a free thing (I don't know the hows and whys, but it is). You need to figure out FTP to get the data from your computer into the internet, and you can try a free FTP service or buy one.

More experienced folks than I can provide details, but your easy answer is FREE WordPress.

[wade_watson]

For most website uses, WordPress will do fine and you can install it directly from the HostGator Control Panel. The drawback can be that WordPress uses a database and is written in PHP code, which can cause some hair pulling if you want to tweak it. The advantage of WP is that it makes it easy to control the entire site, using the WP Dashboard interface. You don't have that with a simple HTML site and every time you want to change, say your footer, you'll need to hand modify every page on your site.

You don't need an FTP client to install WP from HostGator and with WP 2.8+, you can now upload themes and plugins directly into your site from the WP Dash. Still, you may need to access your site from FTP sometime, so it's a good idea to install an FTP program. The free ones work just fine for such use. There was a good thread on the here earlier:
What do you use for FTP?

--Wade Watson

[torontocarol]

Hi Monna, Hostgator has a Fantastico button on their control panel. Hit that and you can set up wordpress faster than you can make a salad.

Carol

[anitahampl]

Thanks, Wade, I did not know that!

"You don't need an FTP client to install WP from HostGator "

[Monna Ellithorpe]

Thanks everyone for the information. I use Filezilla now for my FTP.

I knew I could count on everyone here for an answer.

[nar321]

If you have any problems,feel free to post them. Do post your URL when you get the site installed .

[Monna Ellithorpe]

Thank you, I will.

I am still working on it and trying to decide exactly how I want to proceed.

This is the site I have up now, thanks to the help of Loretta and Val in helping me get it set up (they are in no way responsible for the mess I have created with it).

http://www.beginnerinternetmarketingcenter.com

I am just not happy with the look of it. It looks boring, cluttered and just overall unappealing to me and I was thinking if I switch it to WordPress, I could do a lot more to improve the looks of it and the layout.

I also know I am in a competitive market but it's something I've wanted to do for a long time, so if it takes me a while to get somewhere with it, that's okay, I have other things I am working on too (but not too many).

[nar321]

Hi Anita
It's free both because Matt Mullenberg(owner of and the orginator of WordPress, though it may now be owned by Automattic) choose not to charge fir it and also because it has been GPL'D which is a open source license that in effect makes it free(as in free beer)

but anyone can re-do the source code and it is then possible to charge for there changes. This is why there are both free and customized WordPress themes which cost money.You can get free themes as well as WordPress itself at www.wordpress.org which has the self-hosted version. There is also a hosted version available at www.wordpress.com But you can't use there's for marketing.

Hope you found this informative.

Monna, The good news is, NO!!! WordPress is a free thing (I don't know the hows and whys, but it is). You need to figure out FTP to get the data from your computer into the internet, and you can try a free FTP service or buy one.

More experienced folks than I can provide details, but your easy answer is FREE WordPress.

[AlexNewell]

Wordpress is a community project and is developed by thousands of kind coders all over the world and given to us superb software free out of sheer community spirit.

Hosting is cheap - you can buy it through lynn's link very cheaply.

And you install a blog by logging in to your hosting account and finding the cpanel. Then look for a small smiley face with the word Fantastico or fantastico de luxe and click it. You will be guided through a simple install process - if you get stuck phone hostgator first and pop a post here second. If they can't help you we will

good luck and don't worry about FTP - you don't need it nowadays

All the best

Alex