Scratching Your Head Yet?

I've had some questions about my Getting Started post. So hopefully I can clear that up a little.

Blogger.com and Wordpress.COM are both free Weblog publishing tools.

When you write a document, let's say in MS Word, you save it on your computer. When you make a blog you have to save it somewhere so that everyone on the web can see it. To do that you need to save it to a server (ie. *host* it somewhere).

Blogger and Wordpress offer free hosting (which means you can save your blog that you create with their programs on their servers. A server is just basically a huge high speed computer)

Wordpress also offers tons of free blog templates through wordpress.ORG. You have a lot more flexibility with these templates, and you can add Google Adsense through them. The only thing is that they do not offer free hosting on their servers. So you need to find your own host to save your blog on.

I use Hostgator
for my hosting. They have shared plans that start at $6.95 a month. I use the Baby Plan for $9.95 a month because you can have unlimited websites on the plan.
Use any of these codes for a discount on your first month
1. “iceishot” - $9.94 OFF
2. “jury” - $9.94 OFF
3. “webhostingunleashed” - $9.94 OFF

About Getting Your Own Domain Name
Now, the reason most people change their domain name is because www.purpledogs.com is easier to remember than www.purpledogs.blogspot.com or www.purpledogs.wordpress.com. You can change your domain WITHOUT having to pay for hosting, you can still continue to use Blogger or Wordpress for your free hosting. BUT, a lot of people change their hosting because Wordpress.ORG (.com is the free Wordpress site) offers SO many more blog templates and TONS more flexibility in how you can change the site.

Note: If any of you tech geeks read this and see that I've made a mistake in my explanantion of servers please let me know. I'll have my hubby look this over later to doublecheck my work :)